Elections and cheese

The past two weeks I've been in Alarobia, a small-ish village about an hour out of Tana (the capitol), training the new health PCTs (Peace Corps Trainees). The village my group trained in was similar to my site -- houses and rice fields, no pesky distractions like electricity or running water -- while Alarobia is almost metropolitan in comparison. As trainers, Eliko and I were just fine with the luxuries. We got our own cubicle (guny sack 3/4-walls) on the top floor of the training center, two beds crammed in with a desk and a computer (!!! MUSIC !!!). We had all our meals cooked by the Peace Corps chef, a fabulous man named Gaby who makes killer mashed potatoes, and we ate dining hall-style with the language teachers and other Peace Corps staff. We also got to watch movies and ... TWO HOURS of BBC news on TVMadagascar every morning. We led sessions about malaria, safe motherhood, family planning and Peace Corps life, but whenever the trainees had language class (2-4 hours a day) Eliko and I were on our own. In other words, free to head to the cheese factory with some box-wine in a Nalgene (keepin classy, as always). The presence of three or four cheese factories in the Alarobia area was especially funny to us, since cheese cravings/favorite dishes involving cheese/various torments we would be willing to endure for cheese were frequent topics of conversation when we were in training. This new group doesn't know how good they've got it.

Heading to the cheese factory

The new trainees seem like a good bunch. I got to talk to most of them a fair bit, though the conversation relationship is a little weird right now because the most automatic topic is just questions about real life as a PCV in Madagascar, and although I love talking about my site, it makes for a rather one-sided conversation and you have to be really careful not to get too long-winded. Or full of yourself, since we're the experienced ones now. It's an ego-trip.

Another highlight of training was that I got to be at the ambassador's mansion watching CNN on a giant flat-screen TV as the election results came in, instead of huddled alone around my short-wave radio in my village. I found out Obama won at the same time as you did. It was incredible.
About 20 Peace Corps volunteers were in town, and we pretty much took over the back living room at the ambassador's, so we could yell and squeal and not offend any ex-pat Republicans (also out of respect for the ambassador and the various Malagasy dignitaries present, since as usual we looked like bums (even your nice clothes take on a sortof hobo charm after a year of washing them on a rock in a dirty river) To our credit, we did leave the box wine at home). We screamed. We cried. We experienced a long-awaited taste of (could it be...) American Pride. It was really hard to watch all the crowds going crazy in America and not be there, but it's also been cool to witness the amazement and joy of the rest of the world. Especially from a country where many people don't even believe me when I tell them there are black people in America.

The results were all in by about 7AM Madagascar time, and after Obama's speech a Peace Corps van picked up Eliko and me and a bunch of other PCVs who were giving presentations to the trainees (on zero sleep for most of them) and we headed back to Alarobia. I felt like we were a victorious sports team coming home after a world championship -- we were received with cheers and handshakes from all our Malagasy associates. And now I get to go back to my site tomorrow and explain my joy to all the people in my village that have been asking me about the election for the past many months. Good times ahead.