April First

In my country, Madagascar, we have a lot of traditions. People always try to respect most of them. Indeed some of theme disappear little by little due to the society change while some still exist. One of the traditions that still exist even it is not very popular is "April first."
The April first is one of the traditions that we call "feast of lying". I do not know the story of it, but I know that it exist. On April first, lying is permitted. People lie to one another. It is good to notice that it is kind of tricks. Children like it so much. On April first for example a child from a family goes to another family and tell the family's mother that his or her mother needs to talk to her as soon as possible. At that time she does not realize that it is April first. When she comes to the child's mother, she says " I come because you need to talk to me, right." The mother's child answer : " Who tell you that, I do not say that". The family's mother insists telling : " Your child came to me and told that you need to talk to me right now that is why I come." The child who is not too far but try to listen to the conversation, starts laughing, and saying : "Today is April first". Everybody laughs. Then they recongnize that today is "feast of lying." That is only one exapmle but there are many cases.
On April first, people should pay attention in what someone tells. I can not generalize but some people enjoy joking in Madagascar.

Monday of Easter

People know that Easter is a christian holiday. Catholic church calls tridium the tree days of celebration: holy thursday, good friday and holy saturaday, and then the sunday of Easter. In Madagascar, furthermore, people celebrate the monday of Easter as a very big holiday.
On monday of Easter, in Madagascar, every offices are closed such as bank, schools...It is a holiday for everybody, christian, no christian... People go out for picnic. Some organize picnic with friends, some with family, some with relatives, some with coworkers, some with groups...People enjoy this holiday. The most important thing is going out and eat there. For the people who do not like to go, just take a little walk around after noon in the same place that most of people go because some people organize sports or another activities after eating.
However, the weakness of this holiday is the gap diferent between people who have something to bring and the poor. For example, the middle classes drive, bring good food and drink while the poor walk and bring just the rice and meat. When they come to the place, always the same level gather together while the poor separete themeselves. The majority of the people are in the same level, I mean poor, so the separation is not a big deal.
Monday of Easter is one of the biggest holiday in Madagascar. It is a traditional christian holiday but become popular. Children and youth like it so much.

The More I Make Money....

Many people think that when you have a lot of money you will be happy. That is money makes people happy. That is why maybe people leave their countries to find jobs so that meney comes. However, when I listened to a music yesterday, I heard what the artist sings that the more he makes maney the more he is in trouble. Why and how? That is my question.
Hopefully, everybody has his own enswer on this question. Some maybe say that that is wrong, the others can think that that is true but with different responses.
The first response I can say is that that means happiness does not depend necessary on money. It is just an instrument that I can use to enjoy my life and to assure my life.
My second thought is the way I receive and keep it. When I got a little today, I want to get more tomorrow, and when I get more and more I do not live in peace. I always think about my money, how to make it in progress, how to kee it safely, and how and when I am going to use it.
Finally and the last one is I maybe worried about the thiefs, robbers or gangs. Wherever I go, I should take care on myself. All the time I should protect my life against enemies because money makes enemies.
That is my thought. That does not means that I do not need money. Just I interpret what the artist sings. You too, you can give you interpretation.

This is life

Last week I finished my Marx paper in sociology class. I was very happy with I have done, but it was not the last one, we have to prepare a new one this week, so I have to read a lot of books and do many research every day before write something.
This week I prepar my Durkheim paper for seven pages. I try to summarize all of the ideas that I got from my reading and my research. It takes time to do it, so I am focusing on it first before doing something else. My problem is when I stop doing it, it is take time to restart after some time becuse i have to memorize and consult what I have done. For this reason, I prefer to keep doing it until I almost finish what I should do.
The most important thing is I get many idea and learn many thing. Every day I improve my idea, my thought, my skill. This is life.

Finally...

One of my big problems here in this country is cold weather. It is not only cold butespecially freezy because of the wind and snow. In have never seen snow before coming here, so at the first time I was looking forward to see it. Just after two days, I hated it because the weather became too cold. I stayed whole day in my room. I refused to go out. That happened this last winter.
In the begining of the winter, the weather was not too bad, but little by little later it became worse especially in the end of the season. I remembered that the St. John's University was closed twice due to the big storm. Therefore, I stayed home, I did not like even walk around. It was too cold for me. Sometimes, when I felt too cold, I took hot shower. To be honest, I was not suffering but I felt uncomfortable.
Finally, yesterday, I breathed because the weather was cool and very clear. I took adventage on it to walk around a little bit even I would finish my homework. I was comfortable.

Face Of Terror

Usually I watch news every evening after dinner when I do not have class. I always spend a little time watching something else such as Tv show, movie, etc. Yesterday, I watched a movie just stared when I came in our Tv room. The tittle was "Face Of terror". The movie was about a man who was looking for his sister disappeared in europe.
The movie did not showed how this woman left from her country, USA, and came to europe, England, but as a flashback, I saw that she worked in a company as a prostitute. The boss of the company is member of the terrorist. Maybe her boss and his friends asked her to bring a bag having bomb inside to a big building where they wanted to bombard. When the bomb exploded the man and his friends thought that she dead, but she did not. She left already before the explosion. She was kidnaped by a man who was one of her boss's friends. This man took her and kept her in his house at a nice boat. He liked her because she was so beautiful. Nobody knew about that.
One day, his brother decided to look for her and went to europe. He came first to the company where she worked but he did not find her. He investigated many people such as her coworkers, colleagues, friends, and even the police. Finally he heard that her employer killed her. The man who kidnaped her has never said anything.
Through his investigation, he knew the men who mad her sister in danger and asked them the truth but he has never gotten response. However, he recognized that they were terrorists and killed them one by one. Finally he found his sister just when he followed the last of the terrorists. His sister brought again a bag having a bomb inside to this terrorist. He took the bag quickly and threw it in the ocean where the bomb exploded. Then he shot the terrorist, and took his sister. That was the end. It was a good ending.

Phone card

Phone card is one of the businesses in the USA. Foreign people use it a lot to communicate to their country, family, friends. It is much cheaper than the direct one, but it is often changing. As a foreing person, I use it to talk to my family, my friends in Madagascar, but I meet many problems using it.
First of all, when I use a phone card, I should know which one is much better to talk to. I mean I should know with wich phone card I can get much more minutes. Therefore I should ask someone from my country the better one to avoid an expense for nothing, because all phone cards are not necessary good for Madagascar.
Second problem is communicative problem. I have to make sure that the person to whom I want to talk to is turns on his phone and has time to talk, because when I do not reach him or her I loose my money. And when I reach him or her, I can not stop until the phone card is finished because if I stop talking and cut the communication, I loose at least 5mn.
Third problem is bad communication. Sometimes when I call to Madagascar, I can hear the person to whom I talk to but he or she do not hear me, so I have to stop even I loose money.
One month ago, I bought phone cards for $10 and kept them until I called, but after two days the company that made the phone card block the number, people could not use it at all. I thought that I lost my money again. I went to the seller to tell my problem using the phone card, he told that I could change them. I changed my phone cards just for saving money.
During this one month, I do not know which phone card may be good for calling to Madagascar. Today, one of my friends called me and said that there is a new one that is much better to call to Madagascar now. I went to the store but I did not find it yet. Hope that I can call soon.