Mr Miller!

I just got your letter. Thank you so much for writing. I admit I have been less good about writing(abominable in fact) and I hope to ammend that in the future. I'm sure it is surprising to receive my response via email, but I actually have had access to it (not to the internet, but to this email accuont only) regularly since February or so. At first I wasn't sure if I could us it often or not since I didn't want to bother the priests too much (they're the ones who own the computer), but other than that I have no excuse and I've learned that it's better to just admit when you're wrong than to try to explain it away, so I'm going to leave it at "I've been a poor excuse for a local-boy turned PC volunteer" and just try my best to fix the problem from here on out!

I've also been going through the Peace Corps Rehab program, which attempts to erase all the pre-conceived, media-fed, naïve/idealistic notions that people have about Peace Corps service and replace it with reality. Actually, some of those small, totally undeveloped villages do exist and there are volunteers there, but what I hadn't thought about is the fact that in every country there are places that have already begun the development process and they need volunteers too. So, I am in one of them! My village is over 10,000 people (plus 30,000 more living in the surrounding countryside that makes up my district) with a mayor's office, commune bureau, district offices (we're the district seat), post office, 3 or 4 churches, Police and Military Police bureaus, 4 elementary - 3 middle - and 2 High Schools (there are private/christian schools in addition to the public system), a market everyday of the week (while smaller towns only have it once a week), good roads (at least the one that connects directly to the next big city - Toamasina) and several small grocery shops (corner store-style) and road-side eateries.

So, as you can imagine, I had some adjusting to do. It was difficult at first to let go of the vision of myself in a small little community where I knew everyone and lived in a mud hut, eating with my neighbors from a communal bowl on a mat on the floor and helping them build latrines and schools and such. In fact, we have the district hospital right in my town and they have several latrines there (known here as Kabonés) as well as at the schools and churches and market plus a brand new water pump system throughout the town, etc. etc. So, I've had quite a time adjusting and trying to figure out just what in the hell my role is here and what my village needs. The first thing I've learned is that they all need education, which is part of what I've been doing so far. I give little health messages at the hospital 4 times a week (I've found that the shorter the talks are, the more people absorb them and are attentive), but they are starting to get a little old and are only a small part of our work here. It's just that when we first arrive we know next to nothing about the community, or country for that matter, so the Peace Corps encourages the talks as a way to become educated about your villages problems and way of life. For example, all those latrines that IRC helped come to fruition are wonderful, but there are several public latrines in my community (and many more communities around the world) and they sit there utterly unused. I'm sure you already knew this, but it was news to me. It never occured to me that latrines are a totally new concept to these villages and if they aren't used to them and aren't strongly urged and instructed on how to use them, then they will continue squatting in a nearby bush, or worse yet, next to the river where they get their water. So, group and one-on-one communication education is a big part of our work. PC Madagascar focuses on what they call Behavior Change Commnucation to improve living standards, in addition to building schools and putting on big Festivals and whatnot.

But, I feel like I'm much more settled and while I haven't totally figured out my role here, I have a lot more direction, and that's why I'm just now getting in tough with Ms. Files and the IRC crew. I just didn't have any project ideas at all before, or avenues with which to complete them. I'm currently trying to focus on mother and children health and would like to put on a small midwife training with a local branch of the international NGO ADRA. They have a program to train midwives and a whome list of women who would like to take part, but their organizations' budget is too tight right now to do it. So, I'm hoping to work with the local Red Cross to fill out a PCPP application and the doctors who are going to do the training have agreed to do it for free (in order to satisfy the local contribution clause on the PCPP app.) so we would just have to pay for meals and sleeping arrangements for the women since it is a 4-day program and they are coming from pretty far away, or at least some of them are. This makes it a pretty cheap project (less than 400 bucks total) and I think much more feasible to accomplish in the short term. I know it isn't as impressive as some other projects we've funded that include construction and whatnot, but it would directly serve 20 women from 15 different communities and all the women of birthing age who live there, plus future midwives as we hope that they will teach their protegées. As of now, there are no government regulations for midwives and a huge part of the country still gives birth at home, so I thought it would be a good and worthy project to start with and hopefully from there, other things will come my way; other groups will see me as an avenue to complete their project ideas (this has also a been challenge since I am only one person representing an organization that has never worked in their community, and I'm just a kid to boot) and I'll be able to call on the assistance of the Corcoran PCPP again. Speaking of which, the latest issues of the Peace Corps Times, which we receive as volunteers, has an article about all the 45th PC anniversary hooplah, and while you are not mentioned by name, "2 schools in Central New York that have raised over ____ dollars in the past 22 years" is mentioned. I forget the actual number of the total, around 40,000 maybe? Anywayyou are an example of an excellent organization that can and has worked faithfully with PC for so long to further our common goals (which is all the more reason you should be given the credit you deserve by "naming names").

K, gotta run, but I thank you so much for the letter and I'll keep you filled in on the status of the project and future work I get done. Good luck with the teaching and advising and such. The term for retirement in Malagasy is "misotro ronono," which means "to drink milk." It doesn't sound like you're doing much relaxing in your retirement, but I suppose if you're at least getting your fair share of daily lactose you're retired in the eyes of the Malagasy people! Take care.

Yours in Service,

Patrick

PCV Vavatenina, Madagascar

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