Update on Daily Life and Field Trip to Domain de la Cascade
We've now been here for two months. We're kind of entering the hard phase of an extended stay abroad. The novelty has worn off, but total competency in terms of navigating life is not yet something we have.
For me, the biggest frustration is how slowly my language acquisition is coming. Malagasy is very different from any other language. I do ok with the younger kids at school. I can say things like big, small, colors and numbers. I'm learning simple ways to praise and correct. I'm finding everything else difficult, including any specific praise. I'd prefer to say, “I can see you put a lot of thought into that work,” rather than “Good job,” for example, but even though I wrote it down and practiced, I don't seem to be able to say it intelligibly. The kids love to help me. One little girl led me by the hand to the Montessori geometric solids and placed the square based pyramid on top of the rectangular prism. She very carefully pronounced, “kabana” until I repeated it back to her satisfaction. Later, I asked someone what it meant. It's, “toilet.” She thought I needed to know. I do think seeing me try to speak Malagasy helps the kids feel pride in their language, which is important, since French is considered to be a mark of education.
Shopping is fine, but people tend to speak to me in French, which confuses me, particularly numbers. Because the currency is small, prices are always in the thousands, which I actually understand in Malagasy better than French, but French is what I often get. Again, I've been told how to say, “I'm learning Malagasy,” but it seems to escape me when I want to say it. The other shopping challenge is that no one store carries everything we need, so I have to go to several stores, and some have unpredictable hours, so I waste time. School ends at 12:00 on Friday, so that's my big shopping day, but some of the Muslim owned stores are closed, so I usually do some more Saturday morning. S has always been a picky eater, so it's hard to find food he will eat. I'm vegetarian, no trouble with rice and beans, but Collin only likes one of my rice and bean creations and I don't often bother cooking for myself if no one else will eat it, so we tend to repeat the same few things. Everyone likes pasta, but it gets old after a while.
We had a week off school for October break, and I got some more errands done. I got the boys a cheap local phone so they can be independent and stay in touch. I also got them a keyboard to practice piano on. They weren't delighted with it, it doesn't play like an actual piano, but they got used to it, and they do enjoy music lessons. I organized two overnight trips for over Christmas break when J and his sister are coming to visit. So we definitely have things to look forward to. We have had a couple fun beach trips with friends since the weather is warmer.
Other life challenges, the rainy season is beginning, critters are coming into the apartment, the humidity causes mildew, and it's difficult to keep things clean. I'm truly thankful for having a small space to maintain because I couldn't handle a bigger one.
And on top of everything is the constant knowledge that, as difficult and time consuming as I find daily life to be, we have so many conveniences that make it easier, such as indoor plumbing and constant electricity. The government supplied water and electricity is not consistent, but the compound we live in has a generator and a well so we are fortunate.
The political situation seems to have stabilized. We experienced no disruption here, and people seem optimistic about the new military government.
School is really great. The younger group is running relatively smoothly and kids are progressing in math and language. They are all learning to read in their mother tongues (Malagasy, English or French) and are learning to speak the other two languages. One little girl is already a competent reader in Malagasy and is working on reading French as well. The next step is to beef up the science and geography curricula. The staff is amazing. Hard working, mission driven, and wanting so much to learn.
The principal and I are currently tag teaming the older kids, and had some good productive planning sessions over break. That group is more enigmatic for me, I have some experience with those ages, but not as much as with the younger kids. 3 out of 4 are coming from traditional, restrictive educational systems and aren't used to setting their own goals. S has had plenty of freedom in the past and used to be a pretty good goal setter, but hasn't previously had the opportunity to be social during school, so naturally sees that as a priority. Getting them to do tangible academic work is not always easy! On the other hand, they do seem to be growing in confidence in different ways.
Thursday, we took the older group on a field trip to Domaine de la Cascade which is a beautiful waterfall. They have a group project of creating an endemic garden. They've been researching plant species native to Madagascar and Domaine de la Cascade has a reforestation project and a native plant nursery. We hiked to the top of the waterfall, saw the reforestation area, and purchased plants. We had ample time to enjoy the stream. I have spent many hours watching kids explore streams and it remains one of my favorite things. Enjoying this beautiful place with them outshines the difficulties.
