Sunday On The Beach

So Sunday I woke up in my cheap, but relatively nice (as I would later learn) hotel room.  Luckily the room had a ceiling fan and a stand-alone fan as well as it was quite hot and humid.

This was the view from my room – not bad, eh?

 I walked down to the restaurant which was deserted (the guy had told me the night before that no one would be there on Sundays) and found this little waitress lady and asked if I could get some breakfast.  It’s always fun to deal with Malagasies who a) aren’t expecting you and b) definitely not expecting you to speak Malagasy.  So she kind of frightenedly scurried around to get me some breakfast which was relatively good.

[“Breakfast” in Madagascar, like so many other “Western” things was adopted from the French.  For all the raving about great French cuisine, they sure don’t care about breakfast. Breakfast at any hotel (which is the only place you could actually get a “breakfast” type meal, is always coffee or tea (or hot chocolate if you’re lucky), bread and jam and butter and honey (which they always list out like that as if jam and butter were separate menu items or some fancy treat) and then usually there’s some fruit juice (like 6 oz worth). Suffice it to say, this breakfast was perfectly typical, so I added an “omelet” for $2.50, which is invariably 2 eggs, scrambled and left to fry in ¼ of oil.  What usually separates above average breakfasts is how good the bread is – I vaguely remember this bread being more than the 300Ariary (15cents) street bread.]

So I ate as fast as I could (which as most of you know is not very fast) and went back to my room to get ready for church. Took a cold shower (which was nice considering how hot it was), put on my wrinkly white shirt and headed off to the church.  Found a taxi that took me there for 3,000Ar ($1.50) and found the church relatively easily.  Wow, the church was full to the brim.  I was about 15 or 20 minutes late and I had to take a seat on the back row.  I talked to some kambanalahys (twin brothers) who had been baptized a year ago or so ago and were stoked to go on a mission.  Halfway through the meeting, E. Oyouko (he’s from the DR Congo) came over to me and asked if I would bare my testimony (is it bear or bare?) at the end, so I said yes of course.  So I did, which was fun and a little nerve wracking.  I felt like I could still speak pretty well, but when I tried to read a scripture I was struggling with pronouncing some of the words.  I went to JAS (Young Single Adults) Sunday School which was funny to be back in Mada at a YAS thing instead of a missionary.  The kids were really nice and cool.

After church I chatted with some of the JAS (Tahiana said “I got to go get me some grub and hit the sack” and he said to tell Hansen Hi and that he’s still kamo be lol) and the Branch Pres and his wife and Oyouko and Kurtis (his companion).  Oyouko and I spoke mainly in French which was fun – we talked about Congo and the church and political situation there.  Kurtis had originally served in Reunion so we talked about that and how much better P-days were in Mada ;  - ).  After that the missionaries walked me out to the bus station so I could go to the taxi-brousse station to get a ticket to Diego. 

Once I got my ticket (be here at 5pm, you’ll get to Diego by noon tomorrow at the latest, costs 52,000Ar [$25]) I just started walking around town.  Mahajanga was DESERTED.  Seriously no one anywhere.  I think because there are lots of Muslims they all take the day on Sunday and don’t go to church and don’t run their shops.  But I strolled around and took some cool pictures:

Ate lunch at the Kohinoor which is a good Indian restaurant.

Story time.

So I took a poussepousse there (rickshaw).  The poussepousse drivers in Mahajanga are all Atandroy (a tribe from the far south with crazy accents) so when he took me to the restaurant I didn’t have change to pay him and he didn’t have change to give me.  So was like “oh, hold on a sec I’ll get some from the restaurant”.  So I walk inside and it is equally deserted.  No one.  Then this vazaha (white dude) gets up from the corner and approaches me.  The following conversation ensued:

Him: Bonjour

Me: Bonjour…. Euh, est-cequevouzparlezMalagache?

Euh, non.  Qu’est-cequetuveux?

Euhhhhhhh. Je doit changer le vola pour la poussepousse ?

Quoi?

Je mila..dangit. Je doit… Ilfautque je euuhhhh.  Je veux manger ici, mais aloha je doit payer le poussepousse

Tuveux manger ici?

Oui, je peux manger ici, n’est pas?

Euhhhc’estferme.

Ah bon. Je ne peux pas manger ici?

Maintenant?

Oui. Pour le dejeuner.

Euh, iln’y a pas des cuisiners.

Vousservez le dine a quelleheure?

A 5 heures.Tuvuex manger ici?

Oui.

Attend.

(So I waited)and then this Malagasy lady comes out – hallelujah!

Manahona blah blahblah

So she explained to him (in what I swear was Malagasy) that I wanted to each lunch here, but I needed change to pay the poussepousse first.  The guy was like Oh! So I he went and paid the poussepousse himself and I sat down and they told me to order the bhiryani, so I did.  And it was good.  Then I actually chatted with this guy and found out he was from Reunion but his wife was Indian and her brother owned the restaurant and they were just here on vacation.  So we actually ended up chatting about Reunion and New York City (of course, lol) and Madagascar.  Somehow our second conversation was fairly pleasant and understandable, while our first one was a disaster.  Ate my yummy bhiryani (sp?) and got a pousse back to the center of town.  I took some pictures at the Big Baobab:

Went back to the hotel, packed up my stuff, got a taxi to the bus station, and I was on my way.

Boats in the harbour

So not quite the ubiquitous sunset picture, but as close as I could get

Lighthouse near the harbour

A flowering baobab?

Poussepousses!

The ginormous famous Baobab tree

Twenty Pictures! You'd better be happy.

Bainina! He's so awesome.

from L-R. Sr Hasina (owns the store wit her husband Fr. Fidy) Sr. Fanja. Vaniala (the VA in VA-HA). And in front, Bainina (real name Hajaina = HA) who, as I said, is awesome.

Example of traffic in Antananarivo.

Playing Kanety Be (big marbles) or Petanque (French) - its a pretty big deal in Madagascar, something the French imported.

Two beggar girls who were actually kind of nice (not like the ones in my post)

Question #3 Can you buy an iPhone 4 in Madagascar?
Why yes you can.

Just leaving Tana.  The water was really clear and made for a beautiful picture!

A typical Merina town in the highlands on the way to Mahajanga.

Beautiful day.  And I love Merina architecture.

Outside of Anjazobe, on the way to Mahajanga (about 150 km from Tana). Notice the width of the road, and the approaching truck.  Madagascar is either made of magic, or a statisticians nightmare, because it doesn't make sense how all the cars don't just crash into each other.

Example of the "riding in an airplane" comment by Gino.  Amazing views! Oh and it wasn't even hot = double plus.

Haha I love Malagasy town names.  This one means "At the Straight Path".  The road here is actually relatively straight for a long time (and on top of this big long hill) so I guess its rather appropriate.  Its a tribute to Madagascar terribly curvy terrain and hills that this is probably the only place in Madagascar that could be reasonably called Andalamahitsy.

Question #4: What is the architectural inspiration the traditional Pizza Hut buildings?
Answer: Sakalava homes.  Each tribe in Madagascar builds their houses a different way.  You can tell when you've left the capital province and entered a different one by the when the houses change.

Whoever did this deserves a high five lol.

Question #5 Can you ever take a picture of someone in Madagascar without them asking for a copy of it?
Answer: Nope.  This lady asked me to take a picture of her and her son (she was on the bus with me). Her son, on the other hand, clearly was not interested in a picture hahaha. When we got off the bus in Mahajanga she gave me her number so I could call her and I give her a copy of the picture when I develop them... typical.

The Betsiboka River (this bridge is also the scene of the above picture)

Kind of fuzzy, but this is the scenery once we descended from the plateau that Tana sits on.  I love the palm trees - like the ones we had in Florida kind of.

Question #6 Are there any suspension bridges in Madagascar?
Apparently, yes.  I had no idea.  Cool!

Sunset on the road to Mahajanga

This friendly fellow greeted me in my hotel room that night.  There were a good handful of lizards in the room - luckily only one cockroach, which I killed and kicked outside.

The Descent to Mahajanga

So the post you've all been waiting for - the trip to Mahajanga.

On Saturday the 28th I woke up at 5 in the morning.

Sr. Fanja insisted that we leave by 6 to get to the bus station by 7:30 for a bus that left at 8.  I still needed to repack and take a shower so I woke up at 5.  After repacking and organizing my stuff, by about 5:30 with no work Sr. Fanja or sounds from downstairs, I realized that Malagasies do not shower every day and it probably did not even cross her mind that I might want to take a shower.  Oh well, at least I had a shower yesterday, right?
So I got downstairs and also realized there would be no breakfast.  Oh well - I can buy that on the street.

Around 6:15 we left to catch a taxibe (if I haven't already explained this, taxibe is a "big taxi" - an 8 passenger mazda van that they cram 24 people into to get around town.  Price: 300 Ariary or 15 cents per ride).  Other than the typical Tana traffic (a fairly smart church member once told me that they have not added road surface in Tana for a hundred years - aka they've paved cobblestone and dirt roads, but they haven't added any new ones - in the meantime, car use has exploded... = traffic nightmare and urban planning disaster).

Side note: I'm sitting in the lobby of my hotel looking over the bay in Diego, and I just realized they're playing country music on the radio.  This has actually happened several times now this trip country music in taxibes, hotels, on the radio.  What the heck lol.

Ok so we get to the taxibe station (where I catch my bus to Mahajanga) at about 7:15.  Oh, and there was the expected mob of people trying to sell me tickets / corral us into their taxibes.  We make it to our taxibe's little shack station thing (seriously its a little 5 by 10 foot shack where they sell tickets and then park the bus next to it.  After waiting around for 10 minutes I went and bought credit for my phone.  When I got back, I was informed that our bus would actually be somewhere down the road, so a dude picked up my duffel back and I took my backpack and Sr. Fanja took my pillow and we set off down the road (road here should read "narrow strip of asphalt crowded with literally dozens of mazda vans, scores of passengers, and hundreds of people hauking (sp?) aka selling everything from cookies to combo screwdriver-flashlights").
We got to the bus, now its about oh, idk we'll say 7:40.  They throw my duffel bag up on top with the other luggage.  I went and bought some cookies and bread then said goodbye to Sr. Fanja, and got into my front seat with my backpack and pillow.
And then I sat. And sat. And sat. And sat. Finally around 8:30 (30 minutes past when we were supposed to leave) I realized that no one was in the van except me.  So I poked my head outside and asked whoever was standing there if we were leaving soon. They didn't answer.  So I sat some more.  Oh and all the while these two kids where outside my window literally tapping on the window for 15 minutes straight and if I so much as twitched in their direction they would stop tapping beg for money and then keep tapping.  Maybe I'm heartless.  But they were super annoying I mean like probably the most annoying mpangatakas I've encountered.  As a missionary, its actually part of the rules that you don't give to beggars - pretty much b/c if you do, then you (and all other missionaries and anyone who wears a white shirt and tie) instantly become targets for all beggars b/c they know they give out money.  And then you can't get anything done without being mobbed with people asking for things all the time.  So I'm already pre-disposed to not give to beggars in Madagascar and then my personal feelings about it, especially after seeing Slum Dog Millionaire (which is not a documentary, but draws on some true situations) are that one of the main inhibitors to Madagascar's success is a mentality that many people here have (which is basically thanks to France and their atrocious colonization of this country) white people = money and should therefore give money to Malagasies.  Its annoying and wrong, but more importantly a country (or any individual person) cannot progress if they operate under the that somebody owes them something, especially just because they are white and/or the perception of being rich.  The sooner the idea that Madagascar (obviously over-generalizing here) cane break with the idea that white=money the sooner they can start progressing faster.  A better mindset would be white=business oppurtunity or white=tourist coming to see my country (which means they're creating jobs) or maybe even white=why would someone come all the way from America/France to here?.  Maybe this is too harsh of a view of the whole situation, but thats how I feel for now.

So finally around 9 o'clock we get on the road (apparently the policy is wait for all passengers, no matter how late).

The trip to Mahajanga itself was actually really nice.  I remember Gino (a member from Ivato who is now a missionary in Madagascar and one of my best Malagasy friends) told me that he really like the ride to Mahajanga especially compared to Tamatave.  He said "Tena milay be l'izy. Mitaingina tendrombohitra foana rehefa mankany dia mahita tanety oay tena tsara be. Ohatra ao anatin'ny avion. Ka ny mankany Tamatave kosa dia ao anaty ala foana sady mivezivezy be the lalana dia mampa te handoa"
"Oh its great! You ride on top of  mountains the whole time - its like you're in an airplane.  Oh but going to Tamatave, blegh - you drive through a forest and the road is really windy.  It makes you car sick."

Alright well, I have 20 pictures uploaded on a different post and I need to get to my bus soon so I'm going to finish this one up later.