the tip of madagascar

It is windy season apparently so all day and night you can hear the wind. It is loud and strong enough to sound like waves. At first I thought it was neat. Now, after three days, I think it is foreboding. It makes me a little bit nervous in a way I can't quite describe. From my balcony I can see the bay. It is the second largest bay in the world. My dorm room is very nice.....I have a freezer, a shower and a flushing toilet. I also have five dogs out back to want my left overs (when I give it to them, though, I am just a bit nervous that they will eat ME once they get their little appetite going)...and they have so many injuries I want to give them the medicine from my Peace Corps med kit. Sometimes it is easier to have empathy for dogs than people. That probably sounds ridiculous--but in truth I have always been this way not just in Madagascar. And that's easier, not more important.

Diego is a very nice city. The houses are colorful as they are made out of pieces of tin whose colors span the rainbow. People wear large pieces of cloth as coverings (think sarong). There are just enough foreigners, or tourists, that so far people don't stare at me like I have an ear coming out of my forehead. So I dig that.

The university is not what I was expecting. I guess it looks like an university. A lot of the buildings are abandoned and all are in some form of disrepair. I don't want to give a rude description of it all--but just know that universities and community colleges in the US are 1,000 times nicer than this. So be grateful I guess. Or just enjoy the cafeteria. Up to you. I guess I figured the universities here would be nicer--since they are the top of the educational system. So it is yet another wake up call for me.

I have a feeling I will be even more annoying for the rest of my life in the sense of recognizing how nice things are in the US. I have told my niece before I even joined Peace Corps that most kids, especially girls, don't get the education she is getting. She of course did not roll her eyes at me and as usual either agreed with me or humored me. It's a bit like, "eat your food, children are starving" but I can't help it. When you know how lucky you are it's hard not to hold that in your awareness. When I worked at a high school in New Mexico for a year I was amazed at how irritated students were with school. How annoying, they say, I have to learn about biology. How stupid, they say, I have to watch a documentary. But secretly they enjoyed it because how good does it feel to know you are intelligent and to enjoy your mind. It is one of the best feelings in the world. I want everyone to feel it.

Today was my first day of classes and due to a scheduling mix up no one came. Okay. I will be teaching upper division Inter-cultural Communication as well as upper division Integrated Skills (Business English for Eco-tourism). Both of these courses are taught in English and are part of the degree in "Anglo American Studies." Unlike the system in the US, it is OK for me to just jump in mid semester as a guest teacher. I will also be advising graduate students on their thesis projects. I don't think there are graduate students at this university but that is what they are called. Maybe here a graduate student is a student who is about to graduate. Who knows. Teaching inter-cultural communication to a room full of young Malagasy people will be much different than teaching the same course in the US. It will take me a bit to figure out what it is that I want to teach them or share with them. I don't know what they need or want. When you are born and raised on an island with a history of colonization and tourism...oh, the familiar feeling of having no idea what to do.