Around Comoros

Secret Cove Beach 

Host Brother, Irshad

Bringing in the Muslim New Year with a Parade

View from my house

Fetching Water

Abdou and Taufik (my students) cutting up Jackfruit

Day in Foumbouni

Fruit Season

Division between what was affected by the volcano eruption and what was  not

Time for a Djosho (Picnic)

Movie Night in the Village

Yulangalang distrillary 

Pre-Thanksgiving Dinner with Fellow Volunteers

Pineapples for Days

Visiting around the Region of Hambou

Colonial Bridge

5 Months Later

Wow time has flown, by the end of next week I will have been in country for a total of 5 months, at site for 3, and teaching for almost 2 months. Things have started to settle down, with the teaching and slowly and surely class is getting better. Of course, there are the tough days where I just want to scream at the kids for lack of listening and other days we have a fun time, such as this past Tuesday when I had them come and say “Trick or Treat” in exchange for a lollipop. Otherwise the village life is moving along, I have my routinely activities I do daily, such as fetch water, cook, and visit the village and some friends in the village. I even have become to start planning a project for library as one of my two (hopefully) secondary projects I am going to do during my time here. On the days, I am not teaching I normally hang out in the village, do some work at home, or go and visit another volunteer either at their site or we take a beach day. Without a doubt there have been struggles, especially last week when I was sick at home and for some reason everyone decided to come and visit me that day, but in the end it all worked out and they understood that I was not in the mood to talk with people. But even with the struggles things still are going and for every struggle something good happens and brings the mood right back up. 

2 Months at Site

Time as flied by recently, but I promise I am still alive and doing well. School is finally in full swing and even with the challenges of teaching a class with no previous experience to English (and teaching only in English), things continue to go well. I have begun to create a daily routine, consisting of waking up, working out, having a little breakfast, and off to school. I pass the next 3 hours teaching both the 6^th and 5^th year students (contrary to American system they count down starting at 6^th grade, so 5^th grade is equivalent to our 7^th grade). Upon completion of my classes I begin my walk home. Before arriving to my house I make some stops to visit some friends in my village. The afternoon is normally spent completing some basic work at home or planning for the next day of school. Sometimes if time permits I take a walk within my village and the surrounding village. When evening comes I take a walk to visit a friend and return to spend the evening with my “host family”. Some evenings, when electricity is available, we will watch a film. Then off to bed to start the next day. On days when I am not in school I find myself keeping busy by visiting different friends within my village, visiting other volunteers, seeking out a new beach near me (or exploring a different village in the area), or taking a break in the capital. As of now things are going quite well, and I have managed to keep busy with many different activities. Every day I am embraced by a new experience and challenge at which I continue to face and overcome. Soon I will be partaking in a conference in the capital, where I connect with the other volunteers and we discuss our experience at site.

Until Then  

Hetsa Living

Here is my village through images.

Futbol Stadium

Going Away party with friends

Overview from neighboring village  

Mini Kathala 

Karthala 

House Warming get together

New Year Parade

Walk to the sea and stadium

View returing from the stadium

Around the Village

Village Streets

Sea of my village

Evening views

My College

Matches bring everyone from around the village

My students

Ending Wedding Season right

These are just some photos I have taken around my village during my first two months. 

Until Then

This is Comoros

Imagine all around you stands hundreds of thousands of trees, such as palm trees, mango trees, and many other wide assortments of tropical fruit trees. As you turn around you are greeted by the clear, blue ocean that seems almost too clear and too blue to even exist. One might think at first they have landed on a tropical island in the Caribbean. But look closer and you see villages filled with houses made of cement, and some of tin. A singular road that leads to a capital, whose size can’t compare to that of even some of the resorts that exist on major tropical islands. The language surrounding you is not that of Spanish, nor English, but instead French and on some occasions their own native language. Instead of seeing hundreds of old cathedrals and monasteries, one will hear the call to prayer and mosques galore (sometimes even in places you would never presume to be a mosque). Move the idea of a tropical island in the Caribbean to East Africa between Madagascar and Tanzania, and you have landed yourself on Comoros. A set of 3 to 4 islands (depending on whom you ask) located in the Indian ocean. Unlike other islands similar in size and structure, Comoros is one that is visited only by a handful of people each year. In fact, it is one of the 10 least visited countries in the world. Even with the lack there of tourism, Comoros is quite a beautifully preserved country filled with sites that are seen by few people, even beaches here (outside of the two or three main ones, where the few tourists flock to) are inhabited by very few people and maintain their charms. Here, a place where some can’t even point out on a map (myself included, prior to this experience), I will be serving for 2 years as an English teacher in a village in the south of the largest island (Grand Comore).

Recap of First Month at Site

Where to begin, this past month has seemed to fly by and now the school year is upon me. The past few weeks have been spent becoming accustomed to my village, home, and the culture it entails. Village life unlike that of PST life has been much more laid back, and has been filled with me having to create things to do. Now after a month I have started to create my daily routines and I am starting to feel at home. When I am not home cleaning, preparing for the school year, or playing with my 4-year-old host brother (those adventures deserve a blog all their own, but let’s say they consist of dancing around, teaching him yoga, and having him help me do the house chores), I am out in the village. Normally midday I take a walk into the village just to say hi. Some of the late afternoons have me attending the soccer games in the village, which is always a fun time. Sometimes I get adventurous and venture down to the sea with friends to watch the sunset. I have made some good friends, and continue to meet new people every day. During the day it is almost always expected to receive one visitor, at which point I spend time with them just relaxing and talking about a various of topics. Once a week I make a trip to the capital to catch up with the other volunteers and restock on food (since most food here is retrieved from the farm). I have also had opportunities to visit other volunteers’ sites and having an adventure at their place. Even one weekend they came to mine to have a djosho (picnic) and celebrate my birthday/the beginning of school. Within this past week I have begun my teaching experience. Though due to a shortage of teachers and students the lessons were more fun introduction activities rather than serious lessons. Next week should start the actual school year, though only time will tell. We also get the experience of celebrating the Islamic New Year (a lunar based calendar) this upcoming week. As the days go on things get easier to do (I consider how it seems easy to get water from my cistern, when before I struggled not to drop water all over the floor). With electricity being something semi regular in this current time I will write a post with my weekly experiences up until now.

Until Then.  

Village Life

5 am, the call to prayer rings through the streets of town. Thus begins a new day in Hetsa, Comoros. For the late sleepers the roosters crow at 6am to make sure you do not let the day pass you by. Upon completing prayer and preparing for the day everyone begins the work at hand. For some that means going to the hondze, or farm, to pick fruits and vegetables, that later will be used for food or sold in the market. For others they grab the first taxi possible into the capital, where they will go to work for the day. While others stay more local and go to work in their village or surrounding villages doing varies jobs, such as teachers or store owners. Some will stay at home and begin the cooking for the day or cleaning the house. The youth fill the streets as they head off to school, normally traveling two villages over. As the day goes on people will come and go. Normally around the time for lunch everyone will stop and return home to eat with their family. At 12 many are summoned to prayer for the midday prayer time. And after which many will spend time relaxing. When the late afternoon arrives those who work in the capital end their workday and begin their 40-minute drive back. While students will fill the streets playing different games, or members of the village will head to the soccer field to watch a match. When evening time arrives many will venture out to visit with friends or will receive friends and family into their house. The ones who remained home for the day roll out their meals they have been preparing. This normally entails some sort of rice and chicken combination. Once the meal has been finished and the table cleared the families will lounge around and discuss each other’s day. When all the discussing and family time is finished to bed everyone goes, ready to start a new day. 

Life as a New PCV

Where to begin…

The past few weeks have been quite busy and full of many different experience, including swearing in and moving to my site for the next two years.

The last few weeks of training and in Mvouni (the village we stayed in during training) have been full of many different events and activities. Especially spending time with my family and friends of Mvouni and preparing to move to my new home in Hetsa.

The past few weekends in Mvouni have involved cleaning up the Primary School, painting a world map, and teaching at the Club America in the village. During the weeks I was busy with training and Model School. Upon returning home I would just spend time with my family or some of the other volunteers. Instead of trying to explain all the different events we did leading up to the last few days in PST (Pre-Service Training) I feel pictures best describe each event.

The last few days in Mvouni contained many events, especially a goodbye ceremony and swearing in at Moroni. To celebrate all of us making it through training we held a Karaoke party with both Group 1 and Group 2. It was a good final hoorah with everyone before departing for our designated islands, and to celebrate finishing training. The following day some of volunteers and I attended a picnic, that some of our friends from Mvouni put on for us. Wednesday was a bit nerve racking as we had our language placement test, although I do not know the final score, I think I did pretty good. Wednesday was also a day of celebration in the village. Mvouni (the village we stayed in for 2 months) held a huge event to celebrate having us and to say goodbye. The event consisted of a soccer tournament, a basketball game, traditional Comorian dancing, Taekwondo exposition, and a speech from the mayor of the village. It was a sad event while also happy. It was for sure hard to say goodbye to the village that welcomed us all into their homes. When the ceremony ended one of the volunteer’s host mom held a little dinner for me and another volunteer to thank us and say goodbye. Upon completing dinner, we went to attend a dance party that the village was hosting for us. It ended up being a bit different than what we would consider a dance party. That meaning some of the different dance groups of the village created dances and performed them for us. Also us, Peace Corps Volunteers, made an appearance and did a little dancing too, we ended up doing the electric slide. After a very long night I crashed as we had to be up early for our swearing in.

Swearing in was simple but a nice event. We had a little ceremony and a reception. Both my host family from Mvouni and my new host family in Hetsa attended, which was good to let them both met each other. Upon being sworn in and taking a few pictures I said my goodbyes and headed to site.

So far site life has been treating me well. Of course there has been some difficulties when it comes to finding things to do, as I am use to always being busy and here it is a much more laid back life. Besides that, minor hiccup all has been good. I have been settling in, meeting people in my community, attending soccer matches, and I even attended a Comorian dance party. Within the next few weeks I will be beginning school, continue to get to know my community, and start to get into a routine. Soon I will post an update with more details of what I am doing at site and about the different events I am attending.

Until Then.