This morning my mom told me that at noon, Vermont Public Radio was running a story about the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps, and talking about the fact that Vermont has the highest number of returned Peace Corps volunteers per capita than every other state. As I was listening I thought, how funny would it be if my placement officer called right now? And just like that, I saw a 202 phone number appear on my cell phone! It was indeed her, calling with a couple follow-up questions (to confirm I'd be ok serving in a Muslim country, that I'd be ok not being open about being Jewish, and that I am willing to learn a local language in addition to French.) I said yes to everything*, and then she said that she is inviting me to serve as a small business development volunteer in Francophone Africa, departing in February 2012! I did a little dance and an internal squeal, and thanked her profusely. I won't know the actual country until I get the physical invitation in the mail next week, but I am incredibly happy because it's exactly what I wanted to do-- just 5 months later than I was hoping for.
At this point, knowing about my posting is a relief more than anything else. The past 4 months have been excruciating as I waited for placement to contact me, but the past 3 weeks have been absolutely horrific. I kept having dreams that I'd be delayed for a year or that I wouldn't get an invite, and every day that passed after that call without hearing from my placement officer made me continually question my self-worth and suitability as a volunteer. So to know when and (sort of) where I will be going will go a long way to putting my mind at ease. I will have a country update next week!
So now the question really becomes about what to do with my time between now and February? Unfortunately my job is ending at the end of the month, and although I have some work lined up, one is a seasonal cooking job that ends in mid-October, and the other is freelance work for my old company (Food Network) which I am not sure how long it will last. One thing I've been thinking about doing is applying to be a WWOOF volunteer on a farm in France, maybe for a month, where I could work on my French before leaving. Apparently I will need to learn an indigenous language even though I'll be in a French-speaking country, so I want my French to be as good as possible before I leave for Peace Corps. But I do still need to make more money before I leave, even though I have now (finally!) paid off all my credit card debt and saved a decent chunk of change for traveling within Africa during my vacations. What job would hire me for 3 months? Maybe I could find a temp thing... let me know if anyone has ideas! I am open to pretty much any location, but if it's an expensive city to live in (like NYC), I would need to be making a good amount of money...
So now the question really becomes about what to do with my time between now and February? Unfortunately my job is ending at the end of the month, and although I have some work lined up, one is a seasonal cooking job that ends in mid-October, and the other is freelance work for my old company (Food Network) which I am not sure how long it will last. One thing I've been thinking about doing is applying to be a WWOOF volunteer on a farm in France, maybe for a month, where I could work on my French before leaving. Apparently I will need to learn an indigenous language even though I'll be in a French-speaking country, so I want my French to be as good as possible before I leave for Peace Corps. But I do still need to make more money before I leave, even though I have now (finally!) paid off all my credit card debt and saved a decent chunk of change for traveling within Africa during my vacations. What job would hire me for 3 months? Maybe I could find a temp thing... let me know if anyone has ideas! I am open to pretty much any location, but if it's an expensive city to live in (like NYC), I would need to be making a good amount of money...
*The part about not talking about being Jewish is somewhat difficult for me, because it's not that am ashamed of my faith and identity. It's that I recognize that in order to become a Peace Corps volunteer (which is a manifestation of my commitment to chesed and tikkun olam), I will need to not talk openly about being Jewish. In essence, in order to practice my faith, I will need to pretend that I am not. Ideally this would not be an issue, but according to my placement officer, it is pretty necessary to serve as a volunteer in Africa.
In my two mount sejour in Senegal, in the 'arriere-pays,' very few people spoke more than a few words of French. I wouldn't be surprised if that were the case across West Africa outside of the major cities! Hopefully they tell you soon what the country is, and the area, so that you can get the right language tools!!
ReplyDeleteThere are probably a lot of handbag sellers or taxi drivers who speak whatever indigenous language you need to learn!!
So happy for you,
Wells
Yes they're telling me to expect learn an indigenous language. But they give you all that training during your 3 month pre-service training. So, I want to use the next 6 months to really brush up on my French so I'll be solid with that when I get there.
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteArahabaina! (Congrats)
I lived in Mada several years ago as a PCV. As a SED volunteer you may use slightly more French than other volunteers, but Malagasy (or a dialect of Malagasy, depending on your site) will be your primary language of communication. Only very well educated people speak fluent French. Luckily the language trainers are awesome!
As for concern of not being able to identify as Jewish for fear of discrimination (I am not Jewish, so don't have direct personal experience, although I knew Jewish PCVs in Mada who would back me up based on their experiences), I don't foresee much of an issue. The issue is more likely to be that people don't really understand what Jewish beliefs are and/or have never met someone who is Jewish. They may have lots of questions. I don't know how observant you are or if you keep kosher or anything, but a lot, food or otherwise, can be explained by using the highly popular concept of taboo (fady) and tradition (fomba). Malagasy people use that as a reason or excuse for a lot of things, and PCVs follow that example to explain reasons for food preferences and for doing/not doing certain things like fady to eat meat (for vegetarians), fomba for you to not have visitors early in the morning (so many small children shouldn't come to your house to play during your yoga time), or fady for you to get married until you are thirty (to ward off inevitable and persistant marriage proposals--this actually won't reduce the number of proposals, but at least it gives you something to respond with that has some sort of finality).
You may still get questions, especially in your local community, but they are rarely hostile inquiries, really just curiosity. People do ask a lot of questions though that may seem overly personal (why don't you have children yet?), but for many that is simply an appropriate question to ask any woman, Malagasy or not.
Most of the country is actually nominally Christian (Catholic or Protestant, with some local ancestral beliefs intermingled). There are Muslim communities in larger cities and in the North and West, but those groups are still by no means dominant even in those regions.
If you search something like "Madagascar Peace Corps" on Facebook, you will find a lot of groups with current volunteers and even staff who can and will be happy to address all sorts of questions from packing to language and more with way more expertise than anyone at PCWashington. They are only marginally useful for paperwork, medical, and travel logistics, now that you have an actual invitation. Real information specific to Mada that will be most useful will come from those current volunteers, especially if you promise to bring them the latest season of their fave tv show on a thumb drive to share.
Bonne Chance!
QJ-- thanks for the input, it's great to hear from a former Madagascar volunteer! What you're saying about talking about being Jewish is basically what my placement officer was saying-- that most people probably won't have any idea what that means. I don't keep kosher and I will probably have to skip observing Passover, so I don't really plan on bringing it up. But your suggestions for using fady/fomba as a way to answer questions or explain preferences in brilliant!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the other tips as well- I've been reading tons of blogs as well as poring over the July 2011 Madagascar FB group's postings.