Trip Delayed

Since my last post, there has been political upheaval in the main city, Antananarivo, in Madagascar. Peace corps has since notified me and the other prospective volunteers that all Peace Corps volunteers in the country are safe and accounted for, but they are postponing our trip until the dust settles.

Some articles include last week's NYtimes

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/03/world/africa/03madagascar.html?_r=1&hp

and the latest from CNN

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/02/07/madagascar.protest.deaths/

As of now, my new departure date is March 9th. Here's hoping things are smoother by then, I will try my best to keep everyone posted!

Getting ready to leave for Madagascar!

I'm now starting to feel a little more pressure as I get ready to leave in something like two weeks! I've been strictly instructed by Peace Corps to make my goodbyes meaningful and make sure to load up on all my favorite foods before I leave... So I've been doing just that. Even though I feel totally underprepared to speak Malagasy and expand Malagash small businesses, atleast I've fattened up over the holidays. (Just kidding uncle john, i've been doing some reading on Madagascar too and I won't embarass our family)

I'll be leaving February 11th for Philadelphia to go to Pre-service training, called "staging". This is where we'll fill out paperwork, get shots, meet the other PCVs et c. Then we fly out of JFK on the 13th to Johannesburg (17 hours!) then to Madagascar the following day. I have mostly all my essential packing items together and am pretty confident that I won't regret packing light. ALTHOUGH, care packages will be greatly appreciated and can be sent to:

Jessica Alice Duncan, PCT Peace Corps
Corps de la Paix
B.P. 12091
Poste Zoom Ankorondrano
101 Antananarivo
Madagascar

This adress is for the first three months of training, after that I'll be relocated to my permanent site. For training, we'll be about an hour outside of the main town, Antananarivo. I'll have access to a phone while training but will rarely be able to use it, but I'm planning on getting a cell phone once I get to my site. I've heard the people in my program are located in larger towns with service, and some texting is free or cheap.

For email, I'll still use my jessicaaliceduncan@gmail.com account, but I have a new peace corps account that I may be checking more while I'm over there, it's pcvjessicadmg@yahoo.com. I think facebook is going to be an outlet for me to keep in touch. And Skype!

Well, for now, I'm in Colorado spending some time with my dad, then back to the keys Feb 2nd until I fly out on the 11th. Hopefully I'll be posting again before we leave the country.

Invitation to Madagascar, February 2009!

Hello everyone! Welcome to my blog! 

Wow, when I heard my dad tell me over the phone that my new country assignment for the peace corps was Madagascar, I was beside myself. How totally cool.  My previous assignment was in Togo, West Africa and that was great and all, but who knows where Togo is? I would be spending the rest of my life drawing that map of Africa in the air and pointing out Togo, then saying, "It's between Benin and Ghana and near the Ivory Coast" and still, some people would not know what I was talking about.  So, you can imagine my relief when I hear Madagascar! ok, but seriously, so exotic and beautiful and AWESOME!  

My official program is Small Enterprise Development and I'll be a Small Business Advisor.  This is a brand new program that started in July 2008.  Most peace corps volunteers work in health services and agriculture so my secondary programs will be working with them and NGOs.

I'll be living in either a small town or a larger city and I'll be learning a mix of French and the local language, Malagasy (which I've already downloaded the language learning tapes so I can get started'...)  Salama! (hello)

We're given a health pack during orientation that has all our medical supplies and pills and shots, bandaids, mosquito nets, et c. 

"Your community will either build you a house or identify one for you to rent which could be a local material structure with a thatched roof or a cemetn dwelling with a tin roof" ...ok... 

FOOD: boiled rice, corn, cassava and a simple sauce.  Send veggie supplements!

In the meantime, I'm spending some time out in Colorado with my dad, probably taking a trip to California to see friends and then back to the keys for the holidays.  I started this blog so I won't have to send mass emails, everyone can just keep checking here when I get to Madagascar to see photos and what's happening with my life in the peace corps!