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.
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