1/3 over, and hardly any pictures have been posted!

Sorry for so many delays, and no pictures! maybe when i get back to the states for christmas/hannukah vacation.

Life has been pretty busy on the island, if you can believe it! I actually just got done with a bicycle tour around Lac Alaotra in the central highlands (where basically all of the rice in this country is produced; and in case you didn't know, people here eat rice 3X a day; they eat more rice per capita than any other country in the world; so long story short, lots of rice paddies). 20 volunteers and I road between 45min-5 hours everyday to different villages surrounding the lake and held "fety's" or little festivals and booths about HIV prevention and transmission. It was exhausting but a lot of good work! Here in Madagascar there are about 20,000 confirmed cases, but testing is super low. STIs are a major problem (syphilis especially), and people do not exactly respect the "sanctity of marriage," so Madagascar is a perfect breeding ground for an epidemic if they aren't careful.

Notes on 1/3 peace corps time, what i do to survive here: be innovative; be willing to make mistakes all the time and apologize and move on; smiling, smiling, smiling, even when you cry; and trying hard to see the good/best/kindness in everyone, even when they stare at you like an alien and have dollar signs for pupils. And PATIENCE. That's my problem, I have zero patience, but nothing ever happens here in a timely matter and there are many distractions along the way.

One other update: I have a thesis topic for my Master's program. I will be looking at different surveillance data for malaria incidence in Maevatanana district (where I live) to ascertain the trend in cases. It seems that malaria cases are increasing here instead of going down like in the rest of the country, though the same interventions (bednets, indoor spraying, prophylaxis for pregnant women, rapid testing, rapid treatment, and IEC) have been done all over the country. So I'm trying to figure out what's different about my home town and how these interventions can be improved here. I'm so excited because it has a lot to do with data and program improvement, which I feel much more comfortable with than going out and doing my own survey/quantitative/or qualitative research. It's too hard to set up a good study in 2 years when you are still learning the language!

I'm also hoping to start a SIDA (AIDS) girls club at the local high/middle schools. It will be pretty informal, but but i'm going to try and have them write letters to my World Wise school in Georgia that I am now in contact with. so exciting.

anyways, i'm good, life is good, i'm going to make it another 2/3..

more later.