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jeepgirl_311's LiveJournal:
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| Saturday, June 2nd, 2007 | | 10:13 pm |
What Merrill wants us to bring her....
She has requested both French-English dictionaries as well as children's books (in English)....of a low level, not chapter books. More like Berenstein Bears books, if you remember those. I have actually had several people send me dictionaries already, although more are always appreciated! However, if you kids or neighbors or whoever have grown up and you have a bunch of kids books laying around gathering dust and would like to donate them to a good cause, feel free to mail them to me and I will take them to her. My mailing address is: Alix Nadi 1228 Grant Street Atlanta, GA 30315 phone: 404-627-7620 We leave for Madagascar on Friday, June 29th so you have a little less then a month to get them to me if you want. I know she would greatly appreciate anything you can send! Thanks, Alix | | 10:07 pm |
Merrill's Official Guide to Madagascar
Our group of 16 is headed to visit Merrill in less then a month. Being the thoughtful and clever girl that she is, Merrill created a guide to Madagacar for us and in typical Merrill fashion - it is hillarious! Read on.... ( Read more... ) | | Monday, April 30th, 2007 | | 10:25 pm |
| | Saturday, December 2nd, 2006 | | 10:31 pm |
x-mas news
Hi! I miss you. I wish you were here to be a part of this crazy life of mine with me, so that my stories made some sense... I just flat out miss you. But ok, here goes the email: ( Read more... ) | | Wednesday, October 25th, 2006 | | 10:32 pm |
| | Monday, August 7th, 2006 | | 10:37 pm |
| | 9:00 am |
The latest email, recieved August 7th, 2006
How long has it been? Forgive me for being such a slacker, it is easy to let emailing get away from me....So this will be really long, adn I appologize for that too. I hope this finds ya'll doing well, I for one am great. I just got back to the capitol after the Great Southern Road Trip, an adventure long in the planning though relatively short in the execution. It was great. The southern part of M'car is much less developed than the region I live in, as well as INCREDIBLY different in language, culture, and environment. There is a group of us that have been excited about seeing this exotic part of this already exotic country for a while, but our friends who live down there said we should put it off til winter. Well, we did, and it was a good idea because as it turns out, african desert in the summertime = hating life. The trip started with a 36hour bus ride on roads that start out ok, but the further south you get, become broken, then just packed dirt, then just rocky paths. It was alot of fun, despite the cramped quarters and heat and inability to sleep much...we then we got to Ambovombe, the regional capital, hung out for a few days. Even 10 year olds whistled at us and called us cherie and begged for kisses (normal reactions to get from dudes here, but usually not so young!) so we started trying to convince the locals that all three of us girls on the trip were the wives of the one boy, so were not available for marriage. 3-to-1 is a pretty normal ration for wives-to-husbands, so long as you are rich (which we are because we are foreign) so people totally believed us. At one point Nick even started negotiating a cow-for-wife swap. Quote: C'mon, you've got 2 other ones, and my cow is very healthy!! Then we moved on to Fort Dauphin (on an 8 hour bus ride that should have been 4 hours, during which 15 live chickens got tied upside down to the sides of the bus, I almost killed a 40year old man for trying to hit on a 12 year old, and the "No Singing Out-Loud" ban that Sondra, one of the road-trippers, had implemented for the course of the trip was lifted when UB40's Red Red Wine came on the radio). Ft.D is a port town, so on the beach, and gorgeous-- high mountains rising right out of the water, actual lush green trees, and a breeze to keep the heat off. The whole trip was lot of fun, even if I had to come back early-- I am back in the capital now cuz the only flights back from Ft. D were the 6th or the 13th, and DAD AND JAN ARE COMING ON THE 9TH!!! I am VERY excited, I haven't seen family in a really long time, and I can't wait to show them off, and to show off my home and my life here. I have made many lists of all the things I think we need to do while they are here (which is perhaps half as long as the list of places I want us to eat while they are here...) Plus they have a camera that works so there will acually be a few pictures of my life here soon:) Before the GSRT I was working in an orphanage here in the capital, which was a good experience for me. The language here is a different dialect than what I speak at my site, so that was challenging, but it was balanced by the fact that I was surrrounded by teenagers so now I have learned some slang as well as how to cus. Besides that, I didn't really do much, but I learned alot. The place has about 150 kids, mostly girls, an elementary school, courses for girls who aren't in school but want to learn useful things to get a job, its own gardens, and since working in a 3rd world orphanage is pretty much my dream job, I was happy to learn about how they worked and just see it in action. They are state sponsered but a protestant organization, and they take in girls who get into trouble with the law but are just children so shouldn't be sent to jail (malagasy prison pretty much equals death). I worked in the office helping with sponsorship files, so I learned alot of their stories...things like, a man bullid an 8 year old into giving him the neighbors key, stole their stuff but she got blamed. Or someone told a girl they left their radio in the neighbors house, could she please go get it? But the really sad stories are like, the 9 year old whose family couldn't afford to feed her was sent her to work as a maid and nanny in another family's home. One day the baby she was watching got really sick and died, probably as a reasult of something he ate. His formula was mixed by his mother, but the girl fed him so she was blamed, and if Akany Avoko (the orphanage) didn't exist, she would be in jail for murder now. It is a really importnat nich that these people fill...in fact if anyone is interested in learning more or in sponsoring any of the girls, please respond and I'll get you the info on it. It's easy, inexpensive, and I can vouch that the place is doing good work and needs the help. After the Orphanage I went back to St. M for a week and we finally put on our Girl's Camp. It was originally supposed to be a very long time ago but it got postponed when I had to spend a million years in South Africa. It was a huge succes and I am really, really excited about it. There were 40 campers and 10 counselers, half peace corps and half malagasy. The Gasy ladies were Awesome. Seriously, we were worried that it would turn into one of those events that we, the PC volunteers, carry completely adn therefore will never happen again, but that is NOT how it went. The ladies ran the seession, and we mostly watched and nudged...they ran the discipline, they organized the food, they got the role models, they dealt with issues as they popped up...and the girls had a GREAT time, some were even crying when they left! At the final reception I was so proud of the women and of the girls, and even that we managed to help make something like that happen. I hope the girls learned alot, all the info sessions were things like setting goals, planning the future, meeting role models, plus health stuff like how puberty works, how you get pregnant, how NOT to get pregnant, what AIDS is, etc. Ooo, and we also did tie-dye, that was a hit. So that's about all for me, I appologize again that this is so long but I figure most of you can read it in stages. Next time I won't wait so long to write and then it'll be more of a bite-sized piece to read. Please take care of yourselves, enjoy the warm weather, stay healthy and safe and have fun on your own adventures. Peace out! --Merrill | | Wednesday, January 11th, 2006 | | 11:52 am |
Calling Merrill
If you would like to call Merrill, she does have a cell phone. We have found a good calling card to use. It is from www.nobelcom.com and a $50 calling card will get you almost 2.5 hours of talking time with her. Her phone number is: 011-26-132-405-1174 She can also recieve text messages at that number. I know she would love to hear from you all! | | Monday, January 9th, 2006 | | 9:05 am |
| | Monday, December 19th, 2005 | | 10:33 am |
Jacko, the red-nosed lemur.....
Well, my christmas season was just made by learning the exciting truth that I am not alone in my obsession with Manheim steamroller christmas albums. It's been the traditional album of holiday spirit in my familiy for as long as I can remember, and I'm happy to learn other people in this world have excellent taste:) I am in the capital, finishing up a week of training and errand running, and tomorrow night we head out for christmas/new years. The origional plan, the Great Southern Road Trip, has been canceled by the members of our motely crew that actually live in the south and say it is a hell pit, worse even than alabama. They have pretty much refused to go south with us, so...it appears we are going on the sorta-great WESTERN road trip now...Luckily the sun was out today so I got a jump on my tanning. Phew. Tomorrow I run around town doing things like researching camp projects at the Peace Corps office and at UNICEF, cuz we're trying to throw a camp on my pirate island over the Easter break-- we get two weeks off of school, and I am going to throw passover, so I want my PC friends to have a work excuse to come to town. I HATE the capital, so running around town all day won't be the most fun, but at least when it's all over we get spend the night riding on the bus to Majunga, out new destination town...but hey, whatever, it's vacation, and this time tomorrow I'll be in a hotel in a fun new city with about a billion other Education volunteers. We MIGHT but probably aren't going to Nosey Be, the other tourist hot spot in Madagascar, and to a nature park of some kind (lemurs!). I can't belive it's christmas, it doesn't feel christmasy at all. It's hot, there's no tree, there's no manheim steamroller...but there are worse ways to spend the holiday season than parked on a tropical beach. No complaints here. I hope everyone is well, know that I'm thinking of you! I saw the neato blog that I am sure this email will end up on, I even wrote a note! I can't belive I"m on live journal:) My sister ROCKS. Love ya'll, Merry Christmas PEACE OUT! | | Wednesday, November 30th, 2005 | | 10:25 am |
Some good info...
I spoke with my sister on Thanksgiving....she sounds like she is doing great! She has heartily requested Peanut M&Ms and chewy sweettarts to be sent to her. We have sent several packages, and we have found that the ones in big, soft-sided envelopes (rather than boxes) get there a lot faster, although everything has eventually gotten there to date (but I would not send anything valuable, particularly electronics). She also requested perfume and school supplies. If anyone is interested in mailing her something, her address is: B.P. 47 Sainte-Marie 515 Madagascar | | 10:24 am |
Thanksgiving email
HI!! it's been far too long since I spoke to you all. I hope this T-day finds you happy and full, and please know that you are on the list of things I am thankful for. ( Read more... ) | | Friday, November 4th, 2005 | | 9:31 am |
| | 9:25 am |
| | Monday, October 3rd, 2005 | | 4:17 pm |
| | 4:15 pm |
| | 4:15 pm |
Email #1 from Madagascar
Happy 4th everyone! I am in Tana, the capitol, for the weekend with all the other PC trainees. We went to a party hosted by the embasy at the American School earlier today, which was both inundated by mormons and completely disappointing. THose might be related statement. I guess I just expected an independence day party hosted by ex-pats to have firewoerks and beer. Instead we had the option to pay for our own ice cream, and carry-the-egg-on-the-spoon races, except instead of eggs they used golf balls. The peace corps made a good showing, representing the ghetto in the 3rd world, but the mormons totally kicked our ass at the tug of war. We got beat by God. What does that MEAN, even!?!? I guess the letter hasn't gotton there yet so I'll go ahead and tell you all, I have been posted at Ile QSaint ?arie; Look it up; Oh my GOD. I'm outta time so I'll sign off, but I love ya'll and I am having a fantastic time. Learning a brand nez language is tough, but its beautiful here and I LOVE the folks; Peace out from Africa! Love ya'll! | | 4:13 pm |
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