Mom has access to Dorothy's blog

I (Mom/Kati)did some internet research about phoning Madagascar yesterday. If you're calling with a cell phone, go to your carrier's website to look for rates for overseas (uber expensive...but worth it.) There's a free download called skype at www.skype.com This program allows you to use your computer to call Dorothy for a tiny fraction of your cell phone rates (at least it was that way for mine.) Check it out. I'm going to radioshack today to buy a little headset thingy since my computer isn't equipped with the telephone stuff.

Madagascar is 7 hours later than here...Our 10 a.m. is her 5 p.m.

Meanwhile...keep sending her letters nonstop. It's easy. You write and/or draw. Put it in an envelope and attach 94 cents worth of postage. The post office has 94 cent stamps. Go buy ten of them. Write "Par Avion" and "Air Mail" on the envelopes for "express delivery" Also remember on the return address to write "U.S.A." Maybe the rest of the world knows as much about Ohio as we did about Madagascar...except Ohio hasn't had a Disney movie...so I doubt it.

i love tana

they released us from the grips of alarobia for the weekend and unleashed us upon the capital to wreck havoc... also known as go to internet cafes, buy cell phones, eat overpriced american food, and drink beer. it was much needed... i can't believe i've only been gone a few weeks... it feels a lot more like months... there's a lot to say, and im watching the counter go down on my internet time. This is not a proper post, and you can expect future posts to be more interesting and less rushed, but now i was more interested in assuring people i am alive and in madagascar.

training is pretty boring if youve ever taken one class on teaching, but it's a valuable cultural experience... living with a host family can be exhausting, but they are all so nice and understanding. Malagasy is an interesting language... i might get a hang of it one of these days...

i have a cell phone... the number is country code 261 - 0325859863... you may or may not need to dail the first 0... i don't know... sorry in advance for any confusion!

i feel ilke i have too many stories to tell and things to mention that i don't know where to start...

I am very happy with my site. i have an awesome house with a kitchen, bathroom with a toilet and shower. my house is in the school so its very safe... there are lemurs close by! i will only be a few hours from the capital, which in my opinion, is a huge bonus.

the training village is so beautiful, and so is all of madagascar that i've seen so far.

i will have pictutres up soon i hope... i won't be on the internet again until late july when i go on my site visit, and i hope to have time to post pictures of my site and the training village...

you know how i am with countdowns, so you know im excited that there are just 47 more days of training! yay!

send me mail!

group photo attempt

that's us... pretty white, i know... we're all in our "meet ministry officials" clothes, so this might not be exactly what you're expecting a group of peace corps volunteers to look like.

joburg air port! last blog for a while!

I'm writing now from the air port in South Africa (that's right, south africa!)... Our 17 hour flight wasn't bad at all. There were on demand movies. I watched Juno and some cartoons. I was able to sleep much better than i thought i would (but i'm sure that utter and complete exhaustion helped with that.) When we arrived in SA there was some confusion as to what hotel we were staying in and how to get there (and some shady people wanting to “help” for tips.) (Even though I don't have a lot of travel experience, I do have common sense, so it was easy it tell what is legit and what isn't.)

Everyone in my group is really great. There are 26 of us from all over the country. I'm one of the least traveled, and I think I am one of two who haven't studied abroad. I can certainly see the difference in our economic levels... I can easily tell that I am of more humble means than others (that's an observation and not a complaint, by the way), but, hey, we're going to a 3^rd world country and I'm already used to living without luxuries they've probably enjoyed all their lives (i.e air conditioning, fancy toiletry products, general fancy things that i don't even know about.) In terms of preparation for Peace Corps life style, I think I'm ahead, even if I don't have as much fancy equipment to help me along the way. We're supposed to be immersed in the Malagasy lifestyle, so I know I will be able to do that on a very genuine level. Who knew being from the East side of Dayton would leave me better prepared for Peace Corps service... I think I brought the least amount of 'stuff'... I don't know if other people have started to form 'cliques' yet... I know I'm not in one (for better or worse, right?)... I've had dinner with different people every night so far. I think I'm just going to go with the flow socially... well, that's what i always do (ha, for better or worse, right?)

We will arrive in Madagascar on Thursday and stay in the capitol for shots and information. i will be with my host family on Friday night (yay and yikes at the same time!). I wont have access to phone or internet until late August. I might find a chance to update this between then and now, but if i find myself able to use the internet, I will probably use my limited time to send a few emails instead!

(actually, i will be likely to use myspace messages over email because a lot of emails accounts dump emails from Africa into the spam box... I have a rich uncle who left me all his money, all i need is 3,000 american dollars and your bank informations...) I will find out about my site for the next 2 years, including where ill be living and electricity, etc) in about a month. I will most likely be sharing that information via snail mail, tough.

The hotel we're at is very fancy. It seems almost cruel to put us up here right before shipping us off to pit toilets and bucket showers. I will be sure to take a long shower in the morning. It's so fancy that I had an 'uh oh' moment when it came to which fork to use at dinner... ha ha...

I really don't know what to expect out of the next week, let alone next ten weeks of training, but I am eager and excited to figure it all out and share it with everyone!

My luggage has not been stolen or lost yet... yay... knock on some wood...

I will finish training and swear in as an official volunteer on August 22nd...

I can't think of any other relevant information I should pass along while I still have the chance.

I'm writing this in my hotel room on wednesday night, and will hopefully get to post it via wifi tomorrow at the airport while waiting to go to Mcar. (well, i suppose that if you're reading this, then i was successful.) I want to put up some group pictures, too, so you can see who i'm spending my time with... we'll see!

ha ha! got a connection in the air port!! let me try these pictures... if there's a picture, then it worked!

In South Africa

Greetings from South Africa!

We all made it here safely with all of our belongings... we are flying to Madagascar today at 3.

I just took my last hot awesome shower for the next ??? days/weeks/months... ha ha... and had my last glass of good wine...

If i have more time at the airport later I will upload the blog I wrote on my computer... but if not, check out the links to other blogs that's on the side... some of them are people from my group and some even have pictures...

I miss everyone, but I'm having a lot of fun.

As far as candy :)... I do enjoy most, so almost anything is a safe bet... but some ideas include: laffy taffy, sprees, skittles, starburst, reeses pieces, m&ms (peanut better is the best!)... but really anything will be great! Thanks!!

a certain peter paul and mary song comes to mind...

Ok... I had plans to write a thoughtful and careful departure post... but... hey, i ran out of time... there's a lot to do... cut me some slack.

Here's the important part: my address

Dorothy Mayne, PCV
Bureau du Corps de la Paix
B.P. 12091
Post Zoom Ankorondrano
Antananarivo 101
Madagascar

This is my address until August. I will have a new one in a few weeks, but anything you send to that address will be forwarded.
Send me stuff. Please. I like stuff. Especially candy.

Also, if you want to just send me a letter (I hear it costs about 90 cents) and are too lazy to go to the post office, you can send it to my mom and she will forward it to me.

Dorothy Mayne
2430 Periwinkle Dr
Bellbrook, OH 45305

Please send me mail.

Please.

I'm heading out tomorrow morning. I should be able to make another one of these posts before I leave since I'll likely have WiFi in the hotel where we are staying for Staging in Philadelphia until Tuesday.

A note on sending mail:
Padded envelopes are the best. I sent myself a one pound package in one (1lbs was a lot more stuff than I thought. I sent myself a shirt and some candy and some plastic toys... just like you should do). It cost 10 bucks. You'll have to fill out a customes form. If you can describe anything as used that will be good. You have to give an estimated value. Estimate down :)

Thanks to everyone for all their support and help.

thanks to andrew for the dvds and being my awesome friend
thanks to jacklyn for not keeping my prisioner in her fairborn basement to prevent my departure
thanks to jen for wanting to watch lots of lost and hopefully finding a way to get me dvds
(wow, two of my thanks so far have regarded dvds...)
thanks to Katie for cleaning up the house and moving without me
thanks to everyone who came to my party and had fun with me before I left
thanks to Craig for being super awesome
thanks to shannon for the luggage logistics and ordering me my entire amazon wish list
thanks to matt for being matt
thanks to mom for throwing me the awesome party and cooking really good food for me before i left (and all the time, but whatever) and not conspiring with Jacklyn to kidnap me and the knife and the raincoat etc etc and giving birth to me and all that kind of stuff. and teaching me how to pack really well.
For cereal, thanks! I can't wait to share all my stories! Posting will be slow at first, but stick around, there's good stuff coming.


Peace Out!

*edit*

I'm at staging in Philadelphia now... There are a lot of cool people (generic, i know) and it's nice to be surrounded by people who are feeling some version of how I'm feeling. The staging director guy is from Dayton and that's cool. yay dayton! We just had a big group conversation about how we're going to miss our family dogs. I like peace corps people.

Sorry to get political... but...

Dear Mr. President Bush,

First I'm inclined to thank you for your kind words in my Peace Corps invitation kit. I know you're really busy, so it means a lot. Especially since you planned so far ahead and wrote it while I was still a junior in high school...

I should also make a point to give my thanks for acknowledging the "difficult times" we're dealing with economically in your news conference today. And super-big thanks for signing that (too little too late) economic stimulus plan. (I'll be sure to invest it the Madagascan economy while it only produces misleading and very temporary results at home.)

I have to say, however, that I found your suggestions on improving our economy laughable. The solution to our gas prices woes is drilling ANWR? Even if I thought it was a good idea (I don't), it's not going to happen. Fight as hard as you want; there's too much opposition. But to suggest it on the pretense that you care about how hard gas prices are hitting middle America and not because drilling ANWR is the long-time goal of the people who got you where you are today is an affront. (Not to mention that this proposed drilling wouldn't benefit American gas prices for years, all the while the oil companies would be, excuse my cliche, laughing all the way to the bank.) We need both a short term and a long term solution. Drilling ANWR is neither. (Besides, those poor polar bears have enough troubles as it is!)

I understand and sympathize with (in a way) your assertions that congress won't work with you. Oh that pesky democracy thing you're spreading can be annoying, can't it. Checks and Balances... what a stupid idea.

But my biggest complaint about your news conference today was your tone. You talk like you're burdened by trying to explain something to a child for the third time. (My boss suggested that you talk like that because that's how it had to be explained to you... and he voted for you... both times...) As if one of the grandest aspects of democracy isn't transparency and accountability of the leaders to its people. You have the audacity to actually say "If there was a magic want to wave, I'd be waving it of course." (Insert your own Harry Potter joke here. I'll go with: oh, well then why didn't you get Dumbledore as a running mate?) Magic wand references? Seriously?

I know this doesn't have much to do with Madagascar. But it does. If I weren't leaving the country for 27 months, I would have all different worries about managing to pay back loans, to pay for health care (yeah, I had to go there), on top of rising gas and food costs while seeking a post-college 'real' job. Now I can put those inevitable troubles off for a while.
Don't get me wrong; I understand that there are far worse problems in Madagascar. Their problems make paying $3.59/gallon a trivial annoyance. (In many cases, they don't have roads to drive on even if they did have cars, anways). America is one of the greatest countries in the world (but it's no Norway). It's very American of me to complain about the state of things, after all. I know I am lucky to have the right to do so, and I try to not take that for granted.
But, Mr. President, I will feel a whole lot better about it on January 20th, 2009.

Sincerely,
a little liberal PCV

Introduction?

I'm still recovering from the excitement of opening my invitation and reading "Madagascar."

So I've taken a break from doing my visa, passport, writing my aspiration statement, etc to start one of these fangled blogging things. I suppose it would be customary to describe my application process. I think I started it probably a year ago. The initial online application is a bit overwhelming, but if you can't handle it, you probably wouldn't make a good volunteer. I didn't actually submit my application for a while (I spent a few months not working on my essays, all the while having intentions to revise them to be THE GREATEST PEACE CORPS APPLICATION ESSAYS EVER). I finally decided to take the plunge and submit everything the way it was last October when I heard there would be a Peace Corps representative in my city, so I could easily do my interview. My interview was actually really fun. Shortly after (2 weeks??) my interview 'guy' (I forget his title) called me to let me know that he was nominating me to a Francophone African country for English Education leaving in June. (Pretty much a perfect fit; I 'speak' French, have a TESOL certificate, and wanted to leave in June. Good call.) Then began the legal/medical/dental clearance. I'll spare you a rant on the medical and instead do a list of all the fun things I got to do: 3 vaccinations, TB testing, girlie stuff, teeth cleaning, wisdom teeth removal, & lots of vials of blood drawn. I submitted everything in early January. After a brief (and boring) speed bump, I finally got my medical clearance (*med clearance dance*) at the end of February. Dental clearance was much faster. I still have a legal hold because of student loan excitement. I got the fateful update that my invitation on March 1st. After a week spent stalking the mail carrier and rushing home in between work and school, it arrived (along with the biggest snow storm of the year) on March 7th (but I had to let it thaw as it was frozen by the snow covering it on my front porch). (Getting snowed in the weekend you get your invite is a good excuse to spend 12 hours straight reading about your country!) I knew Madagascar was a Francophone country with an English program leaving in June, but I kept myself from getting my hopes up. I was so excited that I had to read the word Madagascar a few times before it sank in.
Overall the application process can seem pretty daunting, but it does serve as a good 'gate keeper.' It prevents people who aren't serious about becoming a Peace Corps volunteer from getting through.

A few things about my writing style (that you probably already realized):
I'm excessively long winded
I overuse parentheses
My spelling is artoshious

In three months I'll be arriving on the red island / eighth continent / Madagascar.

Until then I will be working as much as I can so that I might have funds with which to travel around and maybe have some sort of future upon my return.

(A now a legal message brought to you to cover the Peace Corps and consiquently the US government in case I say anything crazy: This Web site is maintained by Dorothy Mayne, a Peace Corps volunteer. Its content is the opinion of the volunteer and reflects the positions of neither the U.S. government nor the Peace Corps.)