Rock Bowl Middle School Rain Days

The rains have been coming down hard for a while now and it’s been great for the greenery. It has also led to some wonderful mudslides on my walks around town!

 This is what it means to be in the rainy season on a tropical island. The rains roll in daily and chase out the beauty of the sun to bring the life giving liquid. This was taken from the roof of a Diego hotel looking over the market before a soaking.

Because of all the rain my house is now in the middle of a mud pit. To be able to get around I bought myself some new boots that have already been a great help. I’m now able to get to school and work on other projects without covering myself in mud.

 When you can get out you find some amazing new things, like this sign at my school. It says CEG (middle school in French) then a bowl (sadjo in Malagasy) and finally vato or rock. All told that is Middle School Sadjoavato, where I teach!

 I’ve also been able to work on the new volunteer house because I’m no longer trapped in my own. Here we took some raffia palm fronds and drilled through them to make panels for the walls of the house. It’s been really great to learn how to build a house in the traditional Malagasy way.

 Of course I’ve also been building some things myself, like this new cutting board. My old one has started to smell like a rotting animal because of the type of wood, so I made sure to get some nice palisander for the new one. I glued it up on some little feet to keep it off the table.

 Here it is after the glue dried. I still have some sanding and oiling to do, but I’m already excited to have the old one out of my house.

 I’ve been working on a sign for my house as well. Here are the initial drawings. I’ve got a lot of the materials together and have already made some great progress, so expect to see more pictures next month.

 I’ve also been creative in the kitchen again making a peanut ginger stir-fry. The idea came from a friend, but the cooking was by my hand. It was tasty going down and now I have another great recipe to bring back home.

 Sometimes just getting the food can be an issue, but every once in a while life throws you a couple pounds of bananas… literally. I had a friend who wanted to help me search for bananas one day, and at the end of our successful trip he told me “I have bananas, you should take some of mine.” “Ok,” I replied, “but I already have bananas.” Needless to say, this conversation continued with very similar statements on both sides, and eventually ended with me receiving another four or so pounds of banana. It was very tasty, and I was very grateful, but that was so much banana!

 Other food I’ve gotten this month was some green beans. From my garden! I was super excited to see that they were ready for picking. I still haven't decided what to make with them yet, but I know I'll get at least a few more batches of beans to try out some new recipes with.

 I know that they'll keep producing for a while because they're still huge. Look at those vines! I even had to drag a chair out to pluck the beans out of the tops. What a great plant with such minimal maintenance and a good yield.

The cilantro I've been looking for has finally started sprouting too. I have tried so many times to get cilantro to grow only to have it eaten by bugs, so I'm really excited for this to be going as well as it is. When the plants get large enough I plan to transplant them to a garden bed and then I'll be able to make some fresh salsa to amaze the locals with!

Of course I could also throw some corn in that salsa if my corn's ready in time too. I do have quite the garden going now if I do say so myself. I enjoy it, but definitely understand how this could become an all consuming project if you tried to raise it to a level that would sustain yourself or your family.

Thankfully, I don't yet have a family to support from my gardens, but that doesn't mean they're only supporting me...

 Here we see a snail hanging around my green beans. These guys love the leaves, and there's probably about 25-30 at any given time hanging around on my fence. If the green beans weren't already doing so well, I'd be a little more concerned with the amount of leaves that they eat, but I figure they aren't hurting anybody, so might as well let them go.

I also had a new arrival in my house. I caught this little feller running across the top of my water bottles one afternoon and tried to get a close up. He was a little camera shy, but that's to be expected. After harassing him with a few pictures I let him return to his very important lizard business of, I assume, eating bugs. A chore for which I am very grateful.

Alas, the month ends. With a pretty pink and purple sunset from a walk at the end of the road in my town, at that. I'm ready to keep working on my gardens and my projects, and I hope I'll even get a trip or two in before the next month rolls around, but I guess that'll have to wait and be seen. I've been in this country for quite a while now, and it definitely starts to feel like home at times, so I'm looking for something to help keep it fresh and exciting. Views like this definitely help.

Is That a Whisky Bottle, or Are Your Pancakes Just in Need of Some Sweetening?

The problem with a guarantee is that you can't be sure whose you can trust. Apparently, no longer mine. I was hoping to have pictures of at least an unsuccessful fishing trip to show you this month, and I guess, in a way, I do. Although, if you never actually go fishing I don't think you can classify it as a fishing trip...

That being said, here's a picture of the windmill in the fishing village I went to in an attempt to get some fishing in:

I was unable to locate anyone who could take me out in a boat, or for that matter, even take me to where the water was. I'd have walked myself, but I heard it was a fair distance off, and I didn't know the way. So, for two days I sat and watched the windmill turn and wondered what it would be like to fish for christmas.

So for actual Christmas I decided to head in to Diego and put failed fishing expeditions out of my mind. Of course it helped to have fun traditional Christmas activities to take part in at the time, like the lighting of the Star Wars LED balloons! Thanks to a most gracious care package, we had some lights to help celebrate our festival and everyone had fun inflating and throwing them at each other in the dark.

As one of the balloons met an early and inevitable end before the LED died, I came up with the inspired idea to use it as our Christmas tree topper, and so we had a great addition to our little festival with many lights!

After heading back from Christmas I decided to check in on the desk building and I was happy to see some finished desks waiting to got for the kids to use when they returned at the start of the new trimester in a few days. It's been quite a process getting them built, but they do keep appearing, and with any luck all of them will be built before I have to leave the country.

With a little time bit of time left to myself before classes started back up, I decided to check up on my corn farm! I planted some corn seeds sent to me from the US with the help of a neighbor. Here you can see we were in the midst of finishing the fence to keep the cows out. Unfortunately, I couldn't finish the fence, but I've left it in the capable hands of my neighbor who told me he would finish the work in my absence.

Here you can see some of the stalks beginning to come up.  I'm excited for some American sweet corn, which is almost entirely different in taste and texture from the corn available here in country. And, I will get to share this with the people around me too which is also very exciting.

My green thumb continues this month with the planting of my orange tree. Its root system looked to be big enough that I figured it could survive on its own, so in the ground it went. Since I planted it, its grown another 8 or 9 leaves! As long as the rains keep coming, I'll be sure to have a nice looking tree to pass on to the next person who moves in after I go!

Something a little more temporary is my green beans, and boy have they shot up! After I returned from Christmas vacation I was surprised to see them so big. They've taken over my fence, and I couldn't be happier about it. I'm very excited to harvest some beans in the next month, so look forward to more picture and maybe even a good recipe soon.

Of course, I couldn't leave out my wonderful rosemary bush either. The thing is a champ, and with the rains, its been getting pretty huge. I am going to have to start looking for opportunities to add rosemary to my cooking so I can harvest some of the leaves and make a great dish.

Speaking of cooking...

I made pancakes for the first time. In fact I made way too many pancakes for the first time, but no worries, I passed some on to neighbors to deal with the excess. I used a simple recipe for the batter, 1 cup flour, 1 egg (only duck eggs available, but it got the job done), 1 cup milk (coconut milk, no other kind available) and 1 spoon of cinnamon sugar. Of course, not knowing how many pancakes that would make I tripled the recipe for safety and found myself flooded in pancakes. To top them I drizzled some honey on top and enjoyed immensely!

Another new creation I came up with is this, Salt Fish with Cinnamon Sugar Grits. The Malagasy people salt fish to preserve it or long periods, so it is readily available and I usually avoid it because it is like eating a brick of salt most of the time, but I finally decided to see what I could do with it and boiled it to pull as much of the salt out as I could, and hopefully reconstitute the fish to some extent. Success! Add some grits with a little sweetness to counteract the remaining salt and it was a great meal.

While dried and salted fish was the only ocean animal I got to see in person this month, I did have a few other interesting encounters otherwise.

Here is a tenrec along with her four newborn babies. The local kids discovered her in this tire and called me over to see. She seemed a little nervous with all the kids around, but they put her back after a little while, and hopefully now there'll be a family of tenrecs running around by my house fighting off all the other undesirable rodents.

 Speaking of fighting rodents, here is a hawk. As I was walking along the road one morning a few of my students were sitting by a table under a small awning and called me over. Upon approach I saw said hawk, which they had tethered and are keeping as a pet. I don't know exactly what they plan to do with the hawk, but at the very least I got to see it up close and in person. A beautiful bird that will hopefully be put to a better use than just dinner.

 Not that hawks aren't cute, but I don't think I'd be able to make it without a puppy picture. This sweet girl was hanging out with me for my two days sitting on a bench and not fishing, so at least I wasn't alone the whole time. She was a little shy at first, but once she realized what ear scratching was, it became hard to keep her away.

She also had a friend in this baby sheep. The farmer who owned the sheep took good care of her as she has some sort of condition with her eyes. Every morning he took her out of her cage and comforted her as he applied eye drops in each eye, and then bottle fed her to make sure she had enough to eat. The sheep would then wonder around very cautiously as she couldn't see very well, and when she'd run into a person, they would turn her around and send her on her way. All told a very sweet girl and surprisingly fluffy.

Hopefully she makes it and gets through her eye condition, but as I've come to learn, most life on this island is tough, and I mean that in many senses of the word.

Like this tree. I saw it on a walk through the woods past an old abandoned colonial-era post office. As you can see the tree has rooted in the roof stones of the building! Truly a beautiful sight, and somewhat representative of some of the things that can happen here where the old is left to fade away and become something new and unexpected. Maybe its not the way it would be done in other countries, but it certainly leads to interesting discoveries right where you might least expect them.

For now it's back to my house, and back to school, and hopefully back to something new and fun. I'll be sure to let you know when it happens.

Fix-it-Felix Ain't Got Nothin' on Me

Another month has come and gone. As always there has been much to do, but I feel a slight change of order is necessary, so let's start with the animals first.

The puppies have had their last few weeks with mom. The last three pictured above have all been carted off to their forever homes and it's back to just me and momma hanging out around my house. It'll be quiet again until she has her next litter, but I'm ok with the slightly reduced company for a few months.

I saw this guy sitting on my window sill the other day and couldn't get my camera out in time to snap a shot while he was so close, but he did pose in a nearby bush for a few quick pictures. I really liked his bright yellow head. The birds here can be quite stunning, but they are very camera shy.

And of course the ever present lizards. This pair of antsatsaka (this specific type of gecko in Malagasy) was hanging out on my kabone one afternoon so I decided to get as close as I could and grab some pictures. They were cooperative for far longer than I imagined they would be.

As mentioned last month, I needed to evict the puppies for flea issues, and this was the result of that decision. Chicken netting on my fence. It also has the added advantage of keeping out chickens and cats too, which should also help my gardens keep their seedlings from getting mowed down.

Speaking of seedlings, I have green beans growing! I'm super excited for them and they sprouted very fast and tall. I'm away for a weekend as I write this, and my biggest fear is that they won't make it through my absence, but barring that, they should be ready for an early February harvest!

Other green things have been popping up around my place too, like this curtain that I bought. I made the curtain rod and put the cover up over this and one other window to allow me a little more privacy if I should so desire it while still allowing in the much needed cross breezes. It is the HOT season right now!

Also sprouting up is a new house a little walk down the road from mine. I've been eagerly following the progress of this house because its intended recipient is a new Peace Corps Volunteer! As long as the house is finished in time, I will be getting a new friend just a couple hundred meters down the road in a few months time, and I am super excited!

This was the latest picture of the house with about half the walls put in place. They are currently looking for the materials they need to make the roof, and once that's done it's just some minor touching up and then it'll be ready!

That's not the only project that's been going on in town, I've also finally had some big progress on my grant project! Here we see a student from the elementary school helping move some of the wood to the work stations.

And here are a bunch of the community members who came out to help one fine afternoon. Each day is a different set of people showing up which is sometimes frustrating, but also encouraging because so many people are involved and learning. Also, we're making desks for the kids which is a great and rewarding goal.

Everyone who comes brings tools they have to help out, and every once in a while a gem like this joiner plane shows up. It's a beautiful tool and I was able to help the owner out by showing him how to sharpen his blade and keep it straight at the same time.

We've had quite a few women show up to help as well, and they love to jump right in and show up the men whenever they get the chance! These two sisters-in-law showed up a few times and were a great help with cutting out the pieces for assembly.

Here's our storage room at the school where we leave our supplies and stockpile the cut boards for assembly. On the left is a stack of left and right feet, while on the left and behind the table are piles of benches, tables, and support beams. I still haven't gotten a picture of a finished desk, because as soon as we finish them, they rush them off to the classrooms for use!

Of course all this work can be harsh on the tools. I've had two casualties since beginning. First was this clamp. A small foundry error was compounded over time and it just fell apart while I was tightening it down on a glue seam. Thankfully I had enough clamps to work around the failure, but it was a sad day for a tool lover.

The next hit was my saw, but this was more of a flesh wound. The handle fell apart! "I can fix that." I said. So I did. Here is the rough cut out of the handle. From here I sanded it, whittled down the edges to make it more comfortable, and cut out a slot for the blade.

Finally, the blade installed, and the saw is now back in operation, and better than ever. Good old American persistence and Malagasy perspiration combined to make a great and lasting tool!

This is my constant reminder of why I'm doing this. Just before delivering a desk, I popped into a classroom and took a picture of the kids studying. This is how they were, sitting on the floor and shoved 4 or 5 to a desk elsewhere. Not a good situation, but slowly improving with each desk we're able to deliver!

All this desk building can make a volunteer hungry, so I've been back in the kitchen experimenting and this time I've come up with two great new recipes. First is tomato coconut egg drop soup! Sounds involved, but is actually fairly simple and very delicious. First sauté onions and tomato with some salt added for flavor. When its starting to form a sauce, add in the coconut milk and bring to a boil. Next crack in as many eggs as you want and stir vigorously for a few minutes until they're fully cooked and that's it. Delicious and easy.

My other inspired meal, beans in a tomato pepper sauce with grits. For the sauce, sauté onion tomato and peppers for a few minutes until tender then add salt and cover. After a few minutes remove the lid and add cooked beans with a little of the bean liquid to the sauce and simmer uncovered until the sauce reaches the desired consistency. Make a small pot of grits on the side and your done!

Not every meal can be simple though. Sometimes its Thanksgiving Day and you need to go all out! Here was the spread this year from Thanksgiving Diego Suarez. From left to right we have collared greens, coconut chicken, cranberry sauce, two more roast chickens, mashed potatoes, bread, cheese grits, dirty rice, green bean casserole, two more roast chickens. Not pictured was the wine and gravy. A fine and most delicious spread indeed!

And to top it off was the desert course. Chocolate cake with buttercream frosting, vanilla ice cream and chocolate peanut butter oatmeal no bake cookies. Suffice it to say I was thankful for food comas afterward.

With all this food talk I couldn't help but finish up with a picture of some of the delicious exotic fruit I get to eat. Litchis! or lychee depending on your preference. These prickly red skinned guys are amazing and really don't have any equivalents in the US. Plus they look really cool too. Unfortunately their season lasts about a month. I could really get into a full 2-3 month litchi season like all other fruits, but alas it is not to be.

Another wonderful month, and I can't wait for the next with some guaranteed excitement, action, and adventure! Be sure to keep your dials tuned to the right blog so you can see all when I report back then!