Ampihoarana: Day 5

Fly Flicker! The game that everyone can play!
So I’ve started playing this little game by myself while I try to flick flies that are resting on things. I get one point if I make contact with the fly and three if I hit it hard enough that it hits the ground. It’s been a good way to channel my frustration towards the abundance of flies in the house. Now, fortunately, or unfortunately, the children have spotted my doing this and have started to play as well which is really amusing. Too bad I can’t actually explain the rules since I don’t speak very good Malagasy and they don’t speak any French. But why would they? It’s not like the official language of the country of anything… Oops! There’s a little bit of the bitter negativity that’s been bouncing around in my head the past couple of days. I’ve been taking it out by cursing at the chickens since I like to pretend that they speak English, but that only gets me so far.
Speaking of, I watched two chickens get decapitated yesterday which I have to admit, was a little anti-climactic. They make a little bit of a fuss when you untie their legs, but after that, they just wait. The guy cuts their necks, they bleed a little and that’s it. They do keep moving after they’ve lost their heads which was pretty wacky.
But other than that, you don’t really do anything in the village. You prepare meals. You have two snacks of corn and hot zebu milk everyday. And you sit. God forbid it rains (which it does everyday at 4:00 PM) because you literally stop everything you’re doing and watch the rain.
46 hours left in the village.
I think I’m going a little bit insane.
Things I don’t feel like elaborating on:
- I keep having dreams in French which is annoying because they have to be simple due to my language comprehension.
- I’ve been avidly watching two chickens chase each other around a yard for 35 minutes. US chickens are SO lame.
- My host parents listen to the radio every night while sleeping. The radio plays five commercials on a loop. No music. Just the five same commercials. I’m going to kill someone.
- My tolerance level for being watched is virtually non-existent. So now I either stare at the people back until they go away or stop whatever I’m doing and freeze completely until they stop watching. I realize this isn’t the best way to deal with this, but it’s what I’m doing.
- Last night I had to guard my dinner plate with a spoon because my host mom was trying to dump spoonfuls of rice while yelling “Mihinana vary betsaka!” This has really stopped being funny
- Every night at dinner, they talk about me in Malagasy. I know this because I hear “vasha” or “Michelle (weirdly pronounced)” and then they stare at me and laugh. No one EVER translates. Awesome.
- The three most common words used here are: Attendre, Reposer, and Manger. (Wait, Rest, Eat) AH!