Hey, everyone. So, as I write this I am looking at the home stretch of my two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Madagascar, and it is both a sad and an exhiliarating thought at the same time.
Why sad? Because I only have six months left here to hang out with friends in my village, Ankily, and to store up even more memories of this place before I have to say goodbye to it. But, on the other hand, six months from now I will going home, and beginning something exciting back home in the States. I am so excited to move into an apartment, get a "vazaha" dog (one that is rabies-free and does not smell like trash), see you all, and start what will probably be a more or less fruitless search for employment.
Ankily is going to be hard to leave. No more playing soccer with my team and drawing crowds of spectators to see the white American guy on the pitch. No more sipping coffee with "dada be" (which means "grandfather") in the early mornings, talking politics and world history. No more joking around with the staff at my health clinic, Donne and Sylvianne, on those long vaccination days when we are so tired and worn out that we laugh at everything. No more hanging out at my favorite Malagasy hotely, the Hotel Nirina, drinking a cold Three Horses Beer, passing the better part of an afternoon with my friend John, the owner.
But, these are all things that I will hopefully take with me when I leave here. And I have until June 10th (yes, that is my "official close of service" date) to really be here and live the life.
APRIL 19, 2005
Just one more month left now and I can't believe it. I'm sitting here in Tana, pricing airplane tickets home (via South Africa and India where I'll be travelling for a few weeks) and preparing to take the U.S. Foreign Service Exam at the American embassy, and for the first time in two years I am having to consider "life after the Peace Corps."
I am ready for the next thing, though. You can't be a Peace Corps volunteer forever, even though a few people try and do multiple tours of duty; and at some point home calls to you. It will be hard to say goodbye to the people who mean the most to me here -- my neighbors Freddy and Elise, my soccer teammates Maro and Tahina and Tahina's son Marcello who I have watched grow and grow, "Dada be," my friend Patricke who is one of the best friends I have ever had, Donne and the rest of the health clinic staff -- but they understand it's something I have to do, they get it that Madagascar is not my home. That America is.
But, they are still afraid I will go in June and never return. They want me to take a Malagasy bride so I have to come back and visit the in-laws (and everyone else). It's been a running joke for two years now that I will marry a local woman and settle down here, but now that the day of my departure is nearing, they are getting more serious about the whole marriage thing, trying to set me up with people. It's amusing...not a day passes without someone mentioning a new candidate for my life partner, explaining why she is an "ampela soa" (or a "good girl").
Wife or no wife, though, I know that I will come back here one day and return to what is like a second home for me in Ankily.
Chad Bonner
c/o Mission Norvegienne
SOFABA-FLM
B.P. 65
Ihosy 313
Madagascar
EAST AFRICA