Women's Day!

Hopefully this loads right. Internet access has been terrible here for the past couple weeks (thanks in part to a lovely cyclone that hit Madagascar last week, but more about that in another blog...) and the fact that I've been in and out of the field constantly...so sorry I haven't posted in awhile. Hopefully internet will start to improve in the upcoming week :D

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Monday, March 8, we celebrated “Women’s Day” here in Ambositra. Apparently, this is an international holiday…good thing I’m in Global Health and completely unaware of this day, you know, since we only deal a LITTLE BIT with WOMEN’S RIGHTS ISSUES in GLOBAL HEALTH. Duhhh. I really do impress myself with my ignorance sometimes. Actually, quite frequently. Anyhow, on Monday, all women got the day off to celebrate our awesomeness. Maybe this is the reason I don’t know much about this day, because we sure as heck don’t get it off in the States. Okay, I’m making excuses now and completely digressing.

The day started out on a fabulous note when I woke up with a massive headache. What a fitting ailment to start “Women’s Day,” haha! After downing an excessive amount of Advil, I was ready to join Gil and Elaine (Elaine is the wife of the Logistics Coordinator for the SALOHI program and they are from South Africa) for a morning in the town center watching the Women’s Day festivities. Gil and I started out our excellent adventure by jumping into the wrong car, being driven about a half a mile into town, stopping, sitting and waiting for something (we had no idea what and I question whether the driver even knew), having a few guys yap on their cell phones, then turn around and come right back to the project HQ, lol. When we realized we were in the wrong car, we got out and the driver we were supposed to go with the whole time got out of the car too, he was one of the passengers as well. Lol, what the heck? We then hopped in his car and were off. So bizarre.

The program was scheduled to start at 9 am and after our little side trip, we were late and were worried we might be missing the festivities. Luckily, this is Africa and nothing ever starts on time around here. So, when we got to the center we were able to just find a seat and patiently wait with the growing crowd for the party to start.




We had a fun time watching women and children from different communities in different traditional outfits, some with their faces painted, walk around with their signs and banners.

As we sat watching and waiting, a group of kids began to play near us and one of the little girls kept looking at me in absolute terror. It was as if I’d just stepped out of some Alfred Hitchcock horror movie and come to terrorize this kid: apparently I am what nightmares are made of…at least to this little girl. Well, and probably my husband too, let’s not kid ourselves here. Anyway, Gil and I couldn’t stop laughing at this little girl’s reaction (she even started crying when I smiled and waved at her when I noticed her staring at me, haha) and we were able to get a few telling snapshots of her expressions. Too funny!


Overall, the festival was quite interesting. After the various groups of women with their different banners did their homecoming-like parade/protest-like march around town...

...they returned to the town center where several village women performed some traditional Malagasy dances. The dances were not quite what I expected. I guess I expected a lot of jumping around and screaming with a few torch jugglers and fire breathers for added effect. I don’t know! When we watched traditional dances in Zambia a few years back they were very lively and exciting. The Malagasy dances were very slow and subdued…I guess they actually are a pretty good characterization of the Malagasy lifestyle which is very laid back. Still, I wanted acrobatics! The closest we came was when the dancers raised their hands over their heads and did cheerleader “spirit fingers” and the crowd erupted into cheers and applause. Below is a picture of one of the dances...


After the dances, approximately 500,000,000,000 political officials prepared for their speeches and we took that as our cue to skedattle because it wasn’t like we were going to understand the speeches (which would all be in Malagasy) anyway.

With the rest of the day off, we decided that to truly honor the traditions of Women’s Day it was necessary that we go shopping. Yeah, don’t worry Matt, I didn’t buy anything…primarily because I had no money on me, but the reason doesn’t really matter now does it… We walked through the town on our way back to the headquarters and saw some great stuff. Gil took me by a stand that sold calcium rocks. Apparently pregnant women in Madagascar eat them for nutrition but they smell absolutely horrific. I’ve never been pregnant, but I can’t imagine an extended and severe bout of morning sickness could be any worse than having to eat those putrid rocks, sweet Moses!


After I overcame my own nausea from the “rock” scent, I started walking back down the main street only to be stopped by a lady carrying a young boy. She pointed at me and said “vazaha,” a term I now answer to more frequently than my own name, and brought the boy over to me. I kind of just stood there in confusion as she took the little boy’s hand to touch my arm, I suppose to see if I was real or something. Fortunately, this boy was tough and didn’t cry when faced with such a horrific demand, lol. Below, Gil was able to snap a picture of the aftermath of our encounter where I had just burst out laughing and shaking my head, like “WTH just happened?!?”

I mean, I expected to stick out in Madagascar with my pale skin, freckles, and blonde hair…but I figured they’d at least be kind of used to seeing white Frenchies, but this has been much worse than I imagined, lol. I don’t really care, it’s pretty amusing, for me as well as the people, especially the kids, well at least the ones who aren’t terrified of me.

Anyway, after that crazy encounter, we walked the rest of the way home whereupon we made fun of the men who were hard at work in the office (okay, just kidding) and spent the remainder of the day working on homework and writing blogs for our family and friends to read :D