Internet Finally

20+ million citizens and only 100,000 internet users… I am not sure I will be able to update this blog like I was hoping. I am writing this on Monday 8/29 and not sure when I will actually get to post it but hopefully it is soon.

So far we have just been going through our orientation at this hotel on the outskirts of Tana. This place is pretty nice and I assume it is very nice relative to its surroundings. Our orientation has been quite structured and unfortunately involved a lot of time sitting in a classroom and listening to instruction but I guess it is necessary. We did get to take a small trip into the city center, which was very interesting. The poverty is unlike anything I have seen even amongst the nicer buildings. There are all kinds of chickens and wild dogs roaming around without anyone paying much attention.

The roads are absolutely insane! I have heard that car accidents are one of the biggest killers in this country and that does not surprise me at all. Most 2 way roads I have seen only fit about 1.5 cars next to one another and in the city it is so packed that we are always nearly avoiding collisions. The standard driving move is to honk once and continue driving in whatever manner you want to, be it entering a crowded intersection, speeding around a blind turn or anything else.

We will be moving in with our first family on Wednesday but we still haven’t heard anything about these families. It will certainly be a tough experience but we have begun our Malagasy language classes and I have my dictionary (thanks dad!). Our Malagasy class is taught in French so it is a great opportunity to practice both foreign languages at once.

The food we have eaten has been pretty traditional cuisine. Standard rice, vegetable and meat although I think the proportions are much different than is standard. Here we are able to eat equal parts of all 3 if we want but I am guessing that when we move into a family’s house that rice will be the majority with some veggies and maybe some meat as well but I’ll see. Standard is zebu meat which has pretty good flavor but can be fatty as well. I’ve had a zebu steak, zebu meatballs, zebu sausage, grilled zebu strips, you name it, and I’ve only been here a week!

Overall, just basics to report for now. I’ll try and post some pictures eventually although I hear the cyber cafes are terribly slow, so I’m not sure how possible that is. I’ll try and get some good stories to tell as well.

Im one of the tallest people here hahah and everyone calls us “vazaha” meaning foreigner but it isnt a mean thing

Amymanaraka! (next time)
-Ben