*[This is the title of a Malagasy-created movie that came out this summer, meaning (as one might assume) "business man"]
In addition to the the Education, Health, and Environment sectors, Peace Corps Madagscar recently created a "Small Enterprise Development" (SED) sector. Their job, from what I gather, is to assist with both personal finance and developing/expanding small businesses. They teach them how to keep better records, balance checkbooks, and so on. Their first group had 5 members, training with the Environment group, but 1 has since left. The remaining four are spending about half their time, though, doing what is called "site development" wherein the sector searches for potential sites for incoming groups.
As it happens, two of these potential sites are near my town, and I was invited (OK, I invited myself) to go with the PCVs and their Program Director to check them out. One of them, but of course, is everyone's favorite Ku Klux Klan parallel universe, Soatanana. This is the town where about half of the population wears all white, including white hats, though for religious reasons. They sing a lot, too. The other, Anjoma-Itsara (meaning Good Friday) is down the road, and home to a number of my students. This was our first stop of the day, where the hypothetical PCV would be working work a bunch of different artisan groups and farmers collectives, trying to find new markets, expand production, and other economic phrases as well. There's also a coffee plantation in the town that requested some assistance. Meetings with the town leaders and representatives of the groups went very well, and the proposed house was nice, so I think their prospects are good.
After a failed attempt at lunch back in my town, we shot over to Soatanana, where the Mpiandry were in the middle of their annual celebration of... themselves. This means they turned the capital-w Weird up to 11, leading a procession of well over 1000 of them through the streets, in an seemingly endless stream of white robes. I wanted to tell them they weren't helping their cause of getting a volunteer, as the Program Director (a Malagasy woman) thought the town was too bizarre for an American to live in for two years. She may be on to something. The meeting, too, was sketchy and disorganized, and didn't go very well. I have my reservations about their chances of getting a volunteer.
The impotant question, obviously, is "What does this mean for me?" Well, if either one of them, or both, gets a PCV then I have friends! Yay! It'll actually be more helpful for my replacement next year, because a SED volunteer wouldn't actually be installed until May. The real benefit to me was to get out of town for a day and hang out with some other PCVs, all of whom said repeatedly how beautiful my area was. I couldn't take credit for creating the mountains, but instead I just smiled and nodded. Still, it'd be nicer with a few friends around.
