Date: 6Dec02 9:29am
Happy Holiday's Everyone!
I appologize for the mass e-mail but with such limited funds on a Peace Corps
budget and one letter costing 1.25 US to mail, I have no alternative!
The Peace Corps continues to be an amazing experience and I am thrilled to be
here in Madagascar!
I am now teaching English in a ville 95km to the NorthEast of the capital city
of Antananarivo called Ankazobe. I teach three sections of 6eme (like 7th grade)
each with a minimum of 42 students, as well as a class of 2nde (10th grade)
which has 51 students. In addition, I am in charge of the English Club for the
1ere and Terminale students (11th and 12th grades). In my free time, what
little of it there is, I play on the women's volleyball team in town and pick up
soccer with the gens des armes in my village (like the police). I provide
endless amounts of entertainment for the villagers as women rarely play soccer
and being 5'10" in a country where the average height is around 5'5" for men and
5'0" for women I definitely stand out in a crowd. The villagers call me
'lavabe' which means 'tall one' in Malagasy. I miss ice hockey but rarely even
see ice cubes so it looks like I'll be sitting this season out.
Life goes by slowly and often times too quickly with the Peace Corps and I'm
loving every minute of it! It has been a great adventure thus far and I look
forward to what the next year or so brings. Since Tana is my banking town it
looks like I will be able to check e-mail once a month so feel free to drop me a
line and I'll do my best to get a reply back. Hope all is well with each one of
you,
All the best this Holiday Season from the other side of the world!
Lots of love!
Sarah / Carps / Big