Killing It at 30

Monday, July 29th 2013 – 5:57pm
Bedroom of Homestay – Mantasoa

Killed a chicken today. I did it myself this time, standing on the feet and wings to pin it down and slitting the throat. Overall a pretty smooth process, but I let go of the head too soon and it spasmed, spilling the bowl of blood all over the floor. It was a good learning experience.

Also, I turned 30 today.

This past weekend was really, really good. On Saturday, all of the volunteers had a party at the training center to celebrate the three birthdays that fall three days in a row this week, but also because we really needed it. We’ve been so wound up since we got here and it helped to unwind a little. We’ve been admonished to minimize drinking in this community, and personally I hadn’t had a drop since we got here. So most of us jumped at the prospect of sanctioned insobriety. There were birthday cards for each of the three birthday people, signed by all the other volunteers and staff. Everybody seemed to want us to have a spectacular time, which we did. It was quite touching.

The following morning I went to church with Charline and Jimmy. I sat next to Charline, who pointed out words from the Malagasy bible and translated them for me. The service seemed long—though I suppose three hours is probably pretty normal. After the sermon we walked up twice to give donations, and then there was an auction. That was new to me, but hey why not? It was sunny and warm when we left the church, so I pulled off my sweater for the walk home. The rest of the day was full of blissful relaxation. I hung around the house and stared at farm animals in the backyard, then strolled around town with Charline as we waited for her taxi-brousse back to Tana. But I was still beat by bedtime. Might have been the yoga.

Twice now I’ve done yoga with fellow volunteer Stephanie, at a soccer field where volunteers gather socially. And twice now we’ve had a surprise audience. The first time there was a pack of kids already hanging around, and they followed us as we walked into the field, forcing us to turn our session into a class. They followed along the whole time, giggling and falling all over the place. It was good. But yesterday we thought we had the place to ourselves. We put down our mats—just a towel in my case—and began to warm up. Then suddenly, two separate groups of kids emerged from opposite sides of the field and came running towards us. Before we knew it, they were jumping all around and yelling at us to do more yoga. They were wild, running around screaming and giving us no space. They followed along, but made it very hard to keep the session going. It was getting old. Next time we should probably find a new spot.

As for studying, last week I decided to go easier on myself. I was beginning to feel a little stir-crazy from banging my head against a Malagasy book for so many hours. I decided to relax a little more and began reading books in English at night. By the end of the second week I felt a little bit saner, but I began to feel my language slipping. So now I’m gearing up again and trying to spend as much time studying as possible—including while I’m falling asleep. We’re halfway through homestay—two weeks left—and this is really the best learning opportunity I’ll have. So I think I can afford to push myself extra hard, and sacrifice a little sanity. Because after two more weeks, we’re going on a road trip.