"If you have no talent, are ugly and want movie star status, come to Madagascar" -Kinsey

Since the initial phone call, we have talked to Kinsey twice and received an email and one ‘snail mail’ letter from her. Here is what she told us:

The host family:
Kinsey lives in a three level house with her host family which consists of the mother, father, grandmother, 19 year old son and 17, 16 & 15 year old daughters. She said the family is very nice but can be overwhelming at times. Her host family also has a dog and several cats, but she does not pet them because they do not have vaccinations (unlike her). The family is amazed at how Kinsey can shuffle a deck of cards and now loves to play the card game ‘war’ that she taught them.

The house:
Their house, or trano, has electricity, a refrigerator, television and computer although they do not have running water. The kitchen and storage area are located on the third level of the house and Kinsey stays in what would be considered the ‘master bedroom’ on the second level. Her host parents gave up their bedroom for her and sleep in the dining room behind a sheet they hung for privacy.

Training:
Training is from 8am-5pm Monday through Friday with a lunch break from 12-2pm. The training center is a ten minute walk from her host family’s house and during the lunch break she walks home to eat with them. On Saturdays the volunteers have a half day of training.

Last week the volunteers started teaching the Malagasy students who volunteer to come into school on their winter break. So far Kinsey has taught two of the seven lessons she needs to teach. During some lessons the volunteers ‘team teach’ while other times she teaches the hour and a half lesson by herself. Because she does not know much Malagasy and the students don’t know English, she uses skits and pictures to help the students understand.

Market:
According to Kinsey, the market stinks terribly and is quite dirty. Farmers will kill a cow, quarter it and carry it on their heads to the market. At the market, the farmer will set the meat on the table and when customers present money, the farmer will cut off a chunk of the meat and hand it over to the paying customer.

Teaching Placement:
Once the three month training period is over (around the end of August), Kinsey will be teaching in A------ (Kinsey just infomred me that I cannot put the name of the town on this blog. If you want to know her exact location, email me at mallery.wethers@gmail.com and I will send it to you) which is a smaller town south of Moramonga. The town is southeast of Antananarivo, Madagascar’s capital city, and is a farming community that produces rice, bananas and yucca plants.

There is already another Peace Corps volunteer in Anosibe an’Ala, which is uncommon that two volunteers would be placed in the same city. The other volunteer is an environmental volunteer and has been in the city since the beginning of 2008.

Until we hear more,

Mallery Wethers
Kinsey’s favorite sister

P.S.- Write a ‘snail mail’ letter to Kinsey, she would love to hear from you! Right now she does not have access to the internet, so she won’t be able to respond to emails right away.