2/15/15
How did I spend my Valentine’s Day? Three words: Mountainy.
Winding. Wet.
Four more: Sunburn. Shoulders on fire.
One more: Mud.
I want people to see this town. Really visualize it.
“Madagascar” is an abstract idea to most Americans, or a kid’s cartoon about
assorted jungle animals. I want people to really see the faces of who/what really exists here.
That is why yesterday, I set out with a team to make a video
about this town and this bridge project.
My team consists of:
- My sitemate, Julia, who teaches English at the
town’s Lutheran school. She has a lot of students that need this bridge to see
their families on the weekends (they rent houses by themselves next to her
school during the week).
- Visiting Peace Corps Volunteer Olivia
Markwalder, who has agreed to do all the film editing for this project.
- My counterpart, Madame Bako, a fellow English
teacher who is very passionate about making this bridge happen. And…
- Bernard, the architect who will lead a team to design
and physically build this bridge.
The five of us set out with bikes and sandwiches for a day
of what turned into rugged journeying.
Maneuvering our bikes over rocky, winding paths, we found
ourselves surrounded at first by sprawling green fields of rice and corn. Also,
the occasional cow-cart.
We first biked 7 kilometers to a small brick shop, where we interviewed one of Julia’s high school students who lives there. His family owns the shop and he talked about commuting back home every weekend to see them.
After leaving him, the journey got much rougher as we set
out to the actual bridge site. We
balanced our wheels on the thin spines of paths, pushing through large puddles
and badly dodging mud and loose rocks.
(Whew!)
We eventually came to a tiny village, with smoky brick houses and a very small group of people. We stopped at one house where there was a gaggle of children. They were young and do not attend school. When they saw us, they were frightened.
Bako interviewed the parents, who felt much more comfortable
with her than with us strange “foreigners.” The atmosphere was slightly tense.
The kids were unbearably shy. It was immensely different from how it feels by
my middle school, where I've lived and taught the past 20 months.
( At the middle school, some of my students, who can’t get
enough of the camera).
We then went to the brink of the river where the bridge will
be built. The water was mostly still, but deep enough to deter any kind of
crossing.
(Bernard, the architect, at the bridge site.)
We wanted to find some students who had agreed to be
interviewed. But the sky was letting out angry rumbles. Nature was slowly
forcing its hand over us, demanding we head back to the main commune. As if in
warning, the sky opened up and started to drizzle.
The route we took back was insane. We walked through paths
of water, and over a log to cross a small river. My legs could barely handle
the muddy/rocky terrain as we peddled through it.
(We had to ask some guys to help us get the bikes over. They
very naturally balanced the bikes above their heads as they crossed this.
Skills, man.)
(And you thought your socks would stay dry. Haha.)
We finally returned, exhausted and dripping wet, but with
tons of footage.
We talked to some students by the Lutheran school on the
main commune. A ton of students live in special housing next to the school.
They just live with their siblings, and many are very very young. They must
make the crossing we’d made that day to get back to their families on the
weekends.
The trek was an adventure for the day. But having to do that
both ways EVERY weekend… I think the adventure would get drowned out by the mud
and rocks suctioning against tired skin. These kids are TOUGH.
Can’t wait until all the editing is done. We think that by
the end of March, we’ll be able to unleash the video in its full glory.
