You Know You're A PCV in Madland When... (Part 2)

You Know You're A Peace Corps Volunteer in Madagascar When..

People don’t believe you when you say that English and American are the same language and yes, you can understand Brits when they speak.

Your neighbors still don’t think you speak Malagasy despite the fact that you hold conversations with them in Gasy every day.

You don’t hear about important global events until a week after they happen.

An 8 hour hike though mud and up a mountain streambed is considered no big deal, but both you and the Gasies avoid walking to the other side of town because it’s “too far”.

Your knowledge of body scanners, 3-D movies, preteens with smartphones, a continuing recession, and Justin Bieber is purely theoretical and you don’t really think they exist.

You point someone out as “the fat one with light skin and a scar” and no one gets offended.

Someone calls you white and you still get offended.

Dining by candlelight with insects singing outside your house gets old pretty quickly, so you pull out your lantern and iPod.

You really wish you could ride a moped (PC regulations say no.)

You base your meals on what will save you from having to wash the dishes (maybe that’s just me).

You have taken up at least one really weird hobby.

You have to clarify with taxi brousse drivers that it’s NOT OK to have people sitting on your lap to save space.

The car you’re riding in has to go to 3 empty gas stations before finally finding gas sold in old Coke bottles by a 7-year-old at a small corner store.

You avoid wearing a watch because everyone will ask what time it is just to have an excuse to stare at it.

People at home think it’s strange that of all the things they sent you in a care package, you’re most excited about the parmesean cheese. “The book is supposed to be really good…” “Yes, but you sent me CHEESE!”

You throw out your trash and a little kid immediately runs over to dig through it and find a “game”—usually a bottle.

A guy walks by in a medieval-style walking stockade and you don’t even notice.

You can tell the difference between Goose, Duck, Gasy Chicken, and Foreign Chicken eggs, and have strong opinions about them, but you don’t really care if they’ve been sitting in the sun at the vendor’s stall for 2 days.

You consider English to be your secret language with other PCVs.

You know the level of cell phone reception for all three national carriers along every bit of the 150k road you live on.

You know hell has frozen over because your mother has a computer that’s nicer than yours.

Your TV and movie tastes are dictated by what shows other volunteers get from home.

Due to lack of Facebook time, you have difficulty keeping track which of your friends got married, had a baby, etc.

You have to pay for a $400 plane ticket in cash because the airline office doesn’t accept cards. You have to pay in a stack of what you refer to as “Monopoly money”—the largest bill in local currency is the equivalent of $5.