, Training, break, Training, lunch, Training, break, Training, dinner and free time

This is my daily schedule during the week. There is a lot of training! In the morning the focus is on language. The first few days was “survival Malagasy” to get through our nights with our homestay families. We have started to learn numbers, bargaining at the market, family, professions and expressing needs. The way PC teaches is really efficient and we’ll be able to communicate pretty well by the end of training. I guess the nice thing about Madagascar is that even though there are something like 10 different dialects all the sentence structure stuff is the same, so all Malagasy understand each other which I guess doesn’t happen in other African countries.
In the afternoons we have technical training. For all the Health trainees out main focus will be women’s and children’s health along with reproductive health in youth. We have been learning a lot about vaccines/immunizations and malnutrition which are big issues here in Madagascar. The sessions can get pretty depressing for me anyway because there issues occur often and can end in death but there are very simple solutions, preventative actions, they can take to avoid them but a lot of people just don’t know about them. Our role is to try closing the gap which hopefully will save many lives.
I have already found out where my site is going to be! I will be in the southeastern highlands. My village is Sahambavy which is just southeast of Fianarantsoa (Fianar for short). Here is what I know about it so far:
-Approximate population: 17,000
-Cold March through August…But I hear it is dry which I really hope it is!
-Spoken dialect: Betsileo. I have already started to learn it rather than standart Malagasy but the switch doesn’t seem to like it will be too difficult.
-I’ll have pretty reliable transportation to Fianar, Tana and Manakara. Taxi-Brousse and train.
-Sahambavy is known for it’s tea industry.
-People come to Sahambavy from Fianar to have picnics. I hear it is really pretty and I am lucky to be placed there!
-My house is one big room, built out of brick and concrete I think. I’ll have a kitchen, latrine, fence, a well (hopefully close) but no electricity which is totally fine.
Next week on Friday we leave to go to our individual site visits! I am actually not sure what that week will look like but I am pretty juiced about it!