The end of training is in sight!

Only one night left at my host family's house, then packing at the training center and swearing in. I fly north on the 5th. (The roads are so bad that they've deemed the north a 'fly site', since three days on bone-jarring roads is cruel and unusual punishment and dangerous to boot.) The last week has been a bit stressful, with three 5-minute technical presentations in Malagasy (the last one delivered to some of our host families) and our final language test (trainees have to achieve intermediate high proficiency before going to site). But we're almost officially volunteers!

Language-wise, going north should be interesting; I've mentioned that I'm learning Sakalava while speaking Standard with my host family? Well, in my town, they apparently speak Tsimihety, Betsimisaraka, and Antaimoro dialects. All pretty closely related but it should be interesting to see what hybrid dialect I end up speaking.

I mentioned rice planting last time; this was made difficult by a local taboo ('fady') that forbids cultivating the rice fields in April in my training town. Apparently rocks will fall from the sky if you do; we ended up practicing in a mini-field in a nearby town (see previous post for pic). The fady are an interesting phenomenon that vary hugely between regions, towns, and even families. In addition to the rice planting, it's fady here to sleep with your feet pointing East (so you don't kick the sun as it rises). Up at my site, it's apparently fady to work the fields on Tuesdays or Thursdays. Should be interesting to see what else I come across.

I'll leave you with another quick recipe: Cucumber or carrot salad (super easy). Peel, halve lengthwise, and thinly slice cucumbers, then mix with white vinegar, salt, and oil to taste. Alternatively, you can do the same thing with grated carrots. For some reason, salad vegetables are rarely mixed.

Catch you all in about a week--R