09 November, 2017

August to Now

These past few months have gone in a flash of an eye. While on summer break I have been busy with clubs, planning for a Camp YEWA (Young Empowered Women's Alliance) and taking a few vacations between it all. With school starting back up I’ve been readjusting to having a school schedule, continuing to plan for Camp YEWA, and enjoy some hidden treasures Comoros has to offer. 


While nothing to crazy has happened, in the sense of strange stories I continue to integrate into my community and say yes to any and all opportunities I am handed. That includes a brief experience of trying to grate coconuts and ultimately being laughed at and told to just watch, getting a crash course in French because of Comorians visiting from France, and me introducing smoothies to people in my village. Besides these few interactions nothing too crazy has occurred in village. 


Besides enjoying summer break in my village I have also been given a chance to take two different trips, one to another island called Moheli. Well known for its natural resources such as whales, turtles, and waterfalls. And the other to Madagascar. Both have been incredible and different experiences. 


In Moheli, I spent a few days with some of my friends from my village and other PCVs and visited around the island. The first day we arrived it turned out to be National Turtle day so we hoped into a car and headed off to Itasmia, known as Turtle beach, but I'll explain that later. It was quite an experience, and we even saw a speech from the President of Comoros, while seeing some turtles return to sea. The next morning I woke up early to head to Mirangoni, which is located on the far west side of the island. There we visited my friends family and the waterfall of the village. The next stop was winding through the mountains until we reached Niomachouia, a beach village. It was so a beautiful place, it share similarities to beaches in the Caribbean. The following day was an adventure to Itsamia, and after a 5am bus ride, waiting for a taxi we finally arrived 4 hours later to Turtle Beach. This beautiful beach is a safe haven for sea turtles to come and lay their eggs. Around 9pm at night we went crawling with our guide through the sand to locate a turtle who just begin laying her eggs. Being given a chance to watch them lay their eggs was quite an experience that I will always remember. The next morning we packed our backs and departed for the capital. The last day in Moheli was spent just relaxing and visiting the capital. That following morning I head early to the airport where I wait for a few hours before finally flying back to ngazidja. Once I arrived I met with some friends and we took a mini tour of the island. In the afternoon I returned home for the night. 


The following week was quite laid back, and I just hung around in village as the week following I was departing for a vacation to Madagascar. My trip to Madagascar was incredible. While I was unable to visit all the places I was hoping to, I still greatly enjoyed visiting around this massive island. On my first full day I spent 12 hours traveling by bus to the far west side of the island. The intent was to visit Tsingy, a stone forest. While that did not end up happening, I did get to visit the famous Baobabs, cook and eat some local crab, and watch the sunset over the beach. All in all the two days spent in Morondava were quite successful, and I was able to really embrace the Malagasy life experience. After two days in Morondava I hopped back on the bus to head to Antananarivo. In the capital I was able to enjoy some food, catch up with some old acquaintances, make new friends, and just relax for a few days. While nothing too crazy special happened in Tana, it was quite a nice trip. I was able to just relax and see some key spots around the city. It was also a very difference experience, as while there are some similarities to Comoros, some things are quite different. These differences made the trip just that much more of an adventure. 


Upon returning to Comoros I spent some time in village, before heading off to our Mid-Service on Anjouan. For the first few days I visited around parts of Anjouan I had yet to see. I was able to see some friends, visit a waterfall, and enjoy some beach time before a week of Mid-Service Training. 


The training was a great time, as we were able to work on literacy based projects, and even learned how to make books from rice sacks (new final project idea). It was also a time to just catch up as a group and enjoy some time in the hotel. 


Upon returning back to Grande Comore I spent as much time preparing for school, showing people around my village, and visiting some new spots on the island. 


Finally as October rolled around some big activities started to take shape. Firstly was a library workshop my counterpart and I partook in. This week long conference helped for us to establish some goals for our library, and even ideas of some things to do in said library. On top of this I spent some time working on completing my grant application, and I’m happy to say after some weeks of worry,

It has been approved and is currently in the funding stage. In village I’ve been enjoying being back home, visiting around, and looking forward to fruit season finally beginning. 


Otherwise things have been just chugging along. School is going well, my clubs are still exciting (especially the kids club), things are starting to come together for Camp YEWA, and my last year in the Comoros is looking quite busy but full of many experiences. 

07 August, 2017

Library Project

After months of planning, working hard to establish the space, to painting, to putting the books up, finally I can say the Library of Hambou is now open for business. And of course non of this would've been possible without the help of my amazing community members, friends, and students. 

With all that being said, please enjoy pictures of our adventure in creating the Library of Hambou. 

Before Library Space

Before Reading Space

Measuring Windows

Fixing the structure

After tearing down beams 

Cementing time

Leveling the Floor

Finished Leveled Floor

Preparing for painting

Newly installed Windows

Painting

Adding some color to the space

Finished Painting

World Map Grid

Cleaning Up

Library Space Clean-Up

Mid-way Library Room

Mid-way Reading Room

Installing Bookshelves

Bookshelves Up

Bonus: Blackboard for the Reading Room

Getting help on the World Map Grid

Sketching Countries

Putting Books Up

Finished World Map

Books all in Place

Reading Room View 

Finished Library Space 


Reading Room View 2 

Opening ceremony 

After about 4 months of hard work the library has now become open to the 5 surrounding villages, and schools.

I want to thank everyone who supported the library in every way, and all those in my community who helped make this become a reality.

Lest's see what possibilities will come from the Library of Hambou.

29 May, 2017

Catch-Up

Wow, has the time flown by. Since I have been lacking for a few months, I want to break this blog into two sections. What has been going on in Comoros, and about my vacation, and a post dedicated to my library project.
To begin where the last post left off, once the trimester ended I spent vacation going to a National Futbol match against Mauritius, and taking a trip to Uganda and Rwanda. The match was quite an experience, it was exciting to see everyone come together to watch their team play, and being the only Mzungu (Foreigner) in the section it made it that much more special. Following an exciting match, and our team winning, I packed for a trip to the continent. I spent a week traveling around Rwanda and Uganda. During the trip I met fellow Peace Corps Volunteers, Climbed an inactive Volcano, visited the 2nd deepest lake in Africa, Learned how to make Banana Beer, and just basked in the different foods. It was such  an amazing trip, and one I would love to go back to and visit especially the area around the border between Rwanda, Uganda, and DRC, where they have several volcanoes and the famous mountain gorillas. Once my trip had ended I headed back to Comoros, where I lounged around a few more days, prior to school starting back up. Though school was quite a short lived activity, currently since about 2 weeks into starting school, we have been on a strike. While I still am not sure on all the details, from what I understand it has to do with agreements that were not met. But while school has not been happening, I have managed to keep quite busy with many different projects. The biggest one currently is the library/world map project that will be completed soon. Pictures to come in the next post. Besides this project, I have been busy planning for my girls club, which discusses Life Skills and teaches English to young girls from the village. I have also, with the help of an association, been planning for a Week long camp for girls, that will take place in December, but more on that as time gets closer.
Besides those two recently started projects, I have been keeping busy with walking around and visiting people in the village, djoshos (picnics), and planning for other upcoming projects/activities, teaching my English club, visiting around Comoros, and starting Arabic lessons. All in all things are going quite well here and I am managing to do different activities, even with school not in session. Below are pictures from my “spring break vacation”, and some of the activities that I have been partaking in these past few months. In the next post I will post on my library project, from its beginning to its end.

Enjoy!  












23 March, 2017

Island Time

Hey All,

Sorry for the long absent, I am still here in Comoros, Time has managed to slip away, so now let me catch you all up with what has happened these past 2 months.

When I last wrote, I was just beginning the 2nd trimester and mainly working on just teaching with my kids, well here we are about a week out from the trimester ending, and quite a bit has occurred since the last post.

So, January brought little teaching, and an unplanned trip to South Africa. Although, the school year started at the beginning of January, due to strikes from both the teachers and students I ended up getting in about 1 day of teaching for each class. Near the end of the month I had to leave for South Africa for two weeks, due to dental problems. Even though being there I was limited to many things, even what I could eat for a few days, I still managed to enjoy some time visiting around Pretoria, as well as meeting fellow volunteers from different posts all over Africa (Tanzania, Rwanda, South Africa, and Malawi). While none of us were there for anything exciting and fun, it was a good to share stories, and experiences we all have had during our time in service. After two weeks, it was time to return to Comoros, and begin teaching again.

 It was good to be able to come back home start teaching again, and this time I expanded my teaching to adding a class with the Governors’ office of Grande Comore on top of teaching at the Middle school in my village. Not only have I started working on that, but have started planning with my school to build a library, and hopefully soon our plans will go into action and the building will commence. Once it does I will be sending everyone updates on how the project is going. Another project I am keeping busy is working with a local Association for Women’s Development on planning both a club for girls, both from my village and theirs, and a camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World). My experience with them has been great, even if sometimes things get lost in translation. My final project that recently began in my village was an English Club, where I work with some other members of the village to teach the community English. 

While these projects have keep me quite busy, I have managed to do some exploring around the island, and visit with both local friends and fellow PCVs. Within the past week some of my fellow PCVs and I organized a trip to Karthala Volcano (one of the largest active volcanoes in the world). It was quite an experience, though a challenge for sure. But after 6 hours we arrived to the top and enjoyed the view. Besides that, trip things have been mellow. On my days in village I do work, and take walks around visiting people and practicing my Shingazidja. Things have started to settle down and become routinized.

However, I do have some exciting things coming up within the next few weeks. Firstly, starting with our school break, where I will be going to Uganda/Rwanda for a mini vacation. After returning from that vacation hopefully I will be busy with the library and finalizing the lesson plans for the Girls of Hambou Club. But for now, things are going well, and I am enjoying my time here. I am looking forward to see what the last trimester of school holds.

Hiking Mouandazaza Crater

Oldeset Mosque in Comoros

Top of Karthala Volcano

Hetsa vs. Mvouni Soccer Match

Hiking up to Karthala

6 hours later made it to the top

Hanging out in my village with these troublemakers

Visiting Nelson Mandela Statue in Pretoria

Some of the PCVs I met during my time in South Africa

She wanted to show me how to make Coconut Rice

1st day back for the Trimester

Meeting with the Women's Development Assocation of Singani

Visiting Karthala Titi

Beach Day 
Bachile Beach



Hiking to get a view of Moroni


Until Next Time.