2012 Highlights

2012 was a fantastic year. Here are a few highlights:

Celebrated the start of 2012 in Sicily with a ridiculously elaborate meal at an agriturismo with my family

Foxhunted, spent time and the barn, and rode horses with friends

Visited friends in NY, visited friends at Wesleyan, practiced yoga with Ann Marie, saw Eugenie’s play produced, ate Dominican food, cooked many dinners for my parents, generally enjoyed life at home and started to say goodbye

Peace Corps staging in DC- met the group of people I’d be traveling to Madagascar with

18 hour flight to Madagascar, followed by 2 months of training

Homestay: played lots of cards with my host siblings and cooked apple pie for my host family

Moved to my site, waited a few months for my house to be built

Weighed and helped vaccinate a lot of babies, helped deliver a few as well

Learned Malagasy enough to communicate my needs, work in my community, and start developing friendships in my village

Saw lemurs, chameleons, crocodiles, tenereks, snakes, bats, cockroaches, and lots of zebu

Traveled to the East coast- Moramanga, Andasibe, Tamatave, Foulpointe, Fenerive

Traveled in the North- Ambanja, Nosy be, Diego Suarez, Ramena (went to the most beautiful beach I’ve ever seen anywhere)

Conducted nutrition, gardening, composting and natural pesticide trainings

Planted an avocado tree

Biked over 1500km

Fell off my bike and injured my shoulder, then spent a month healing

Attended a Malagasy independence day celebration, a wedding, funeral, circumcision party, and various gatherings celebrating the ancestors or asking for good fortune

Spent 107 hours on various taxi-brousses

Got my computer stolen

Swam in a waterfall near my village

Build a clay cookstove to conserve charcoal

Ate more rice than every other year combined . Also insects, bats, lots of pounded cassava leaves

Harvested rice, cacao, coffee, pepper, papaya, bananas, etc

Baked mango pie for thanksgiving for a mix of American, Italian and Malagasy friends

Celebrated the start of 2013 in Portugal with my family, ate lots of pastries, walked 6-7 miles per day, and generally enjoyed being together after not seeing each other for 10 months

2012. No complaints. Ready for 2013!