Les Hautes Plateuax (The Highlands)

Busteed and I got back to Tana on Wednesday night I went out to Ivato to spend the night at Sr. Fanja’s house.  I spent some time exploring her lawn/garden.  She actually has a lot of fruit trees and a nice big yard.

Her lemon tree was full of lemons!

 

While wandering around she spotted a tanalahy (small chameleon) laying eggs in the ground.  I had actually just seen a Discovery channel show about Madagascar a couple weeks before which had a section about chameleons laying their eggs.  Apparently they dig a big hole, lay their eggs, and then crawl away and die – sad times!

Then we went and visited Sr. Elianne who was one of my favorite investigators ever.  She’s from the countryside around Fianarantsoa so she speaks Betsileo which is one of my favorite Malagasy dialects.  She seemed pretty ok, especially considering that apparently her husband is a super skank which was really sad.  He had seemed like such a nice cool guy when we were there, and then you find out he’s not. Boo.  Her kids weren’t home (Tsiky “Smile” and Ana) but we happened to run into them on the side of the road.

After that we visited Sr. Fanja.  Not to be confused with Sr. Fanja I was staying at.   This Sr. Fanja I taught as a missionary, and then taught her kids too.  They invited us to eat lunch with them which was actually some very tasty small fishes with green beans (on rice of course).  From left to right:

Neighbor kid, Donnie (I taught her – Fanja’s oldest daughter), Sr. Fanja, Nantenaina (Sr. Fanja’s youngest son – she has 4 kids), Sr. Fanja’s aunt, Barthelemie (Fanja’s oldest son - taught him too), Sr. Fanja (whose house I stayed at), Sr Fanja’s other daughter who’s name I can’t remember (her name is Isiah I found out), Sr. Fanja’s uncle, me.

Black and White Chameleon

Back at the house I found the chameleon again and put her on a branch.  She showed her annoyance by turning all sorts of pretty colors.

Then we found another chameleon who was black and white.

That night, Christianna and her husband Johnny treated me to Cary Poulet which is a Reunionaise dish that is super delish – it’s just stewed chicken with some spices on rice.  They invited me to go dancing with them, but I had to catch a bus early the next morning and I still had to get to where Busteed was staying in order to be closer to the bus station so I politely declined.

The next morning afforded some cool pictures from our hotel room on the top of a building in Ampefiloha (kinda close to the more ghetto section of Tana).  And I got a cool picture of the Rova (Castle built by the first Queen of Madagascar back in the 1830s or so) at sunrise. 

At the bus station I took some more pictures.  This sign says “Lots of Money! à”

 Around 8am we take off on our 10 hour journey to Fianarantsoa, the provincial capital of the south eastern part of Madagascar, and the other major town on the central plateau of the country. 

On the way we passed lemon stands.

These are called Tsangambato (standing rocks) which, from what I’ve gathered, are adopted from France.  They tell the number of kilometers to the next towns, which RouteNational you’re on, and how many miles you are from the origin of the road.   These people on the side of the road are cooking corn and chickens and absolutely bombard any car the passes by in the hopes of selling them something.

I’ve always loved the scenery of the Hautes Plateaus.

Forget Good, Better, Best.  This chocolate is just “Decent” lol.  The writing underneath reads “The series food is best for you”

I also love Merina/Betsileo architecture.  Their houses are so cool!

Roughly halfway between Tana and Fianarantsoa is Ambositra where they do a lot of woodwork. 

One of my biggest beefs with Madagascar is the kind of anticlimaticism of the scenery.  Especially the central highlands are just a never ending sea of rolling hills.  You always feel like around the bend will be an actual mountain range or some extraordinary view or a huge valley.  But 99 times out of 100, its just more deforested rolling hills.  The last 40km before Fianarantsoa is the exception.  We arrived just a little before sunset and it was quite nice: 

By the time we got town it was almost dark, and I was tired, hungry and had to use the bathroom.  So I told the taxi to take me to one of the hotels I’d found in Lonely Planet.  LP said they had rooms starting at 14,000Ar.  Now the cheapest room was 50,000.  But it had a hot water shower and seemed nice and cozy and I had to pee.  So I took it.

The room actually was really nice and their restaurant was probably the best value I’ve eaten at in Mada.  The atmosphere was super nice, except/in spite/because of all French tourists there.  I felt like I was in some little place in France.  I almost ordered some mozzarella and tomatoes (mozzarella is practically unheard of in Mada), but then I noticed something else with the words tomato and mozzarella in so I asked what it was.  Soup – Tomato Basil soup with mozzarella in it.  So I got it.  Yum!

I got magret de canard grille avec sauce vanille with pommes sautés. (grilled duck breast with vanilla sauce and sautéed potatoes).  The dinner wasn’t quite as good was the soup (which was probably the best tomato basil soup I’ve had) but it was still good.

Another plus of the hotel was free internet access in the lobby which I took advantage of. 

Went to sleep in the cozy bed to wait for Busteed who was taking a bus through the night. 

Tamatave: Almost Paradise

In Tamatave, I went to church in the Toamasina and Ambolomadinika branches where I worked the last 5 ½ months of my mission.  Tamatave is the French name for the city of Toamasina (“Really Salty”) which is Madagascar’s largest port and the provincial capital of the east coast about 300km or 8 hours from Tana.  One month before I went home, the 3 branches in Tamatave were split into 5, and then in late 2010 they became Madagascar’s 1^st  new district (there are now 2 stakes and 2 districts – when I showed up in 2008, there was 1 stake and 2 outlying branches).

I loved the look on the member’s faces when I showed up totally unannounced :- ) It was a lot of fun seeing so many people I knew. 

This is Fr. Tina and his family.  He is one of the counselors in the Toamasina Branch Presidency.  He owns a real estate business and most of his kids names are things like Money, Inheritance, Diamond, and Wealth.

Fr. Emilien and Sr. Colombe who are really awesome and threw me a small party when I went home from my mission (well actually it was a ton of really delicious food, and they gave me a little souvenir!).  They’re planning on moving to Mahanoro which is about 5 hours south on the coast.  They want to farm stuff. 

This is a typical Malagasy sign.  It says (literally) “Not capable of being sold or sat upon here on the side of the store! Thank you my lord!”  What’s notable is that it’s actually being obeyed.  Usually whatever the signs says can’t be done is exactly is what’s going down. 

I always loved this street corner because it was so jungle-y for some reason.

Sr. Pierrette runs a frozen fish store and this very smiley guy was working there.  He’s very proud of the frozen chunk of Marlin he is displaying.

Sr. Pauline! I taught her!  She was just visiting apparently, but she put on the gloves for the picture.

And a view of the store.  Sr. Pierette is working the cash register at the very back. 

Me and Pauline.

Sr. Juliette is another lady I taught who is super awesome.  She’s from Diego.  The lady on the left is her aunt, which I finally found out this trip.  In Sakalava (the dialect in Diego) the word for aunt is the same as the Merina (official dialect) word for grandma.  So the whole time I was trying to figure out how some 50 year old lady could be a 30-something’s grandma.  Problem solved.

 

This is the Antandroy family I found with E. Sender (my trainee).  I never thought in a million years when we first talked to them that they’d all get baptized… but they did!  From right to left: Soavelo (the dad), Soa Arlene (the mom), me, Jean Jacques (who wants to go on a mission!), and then the 3 girls who I always get confused: Anjarasoa, Rhodeline, and Zo.  They were really fun and I’m glad they still remembered me even though they didn’t get baptized for almost 6 months after I had left. 

This is Santatra, Toamasina Branch President Eguene’s son.  This face pretty much sums up his life lol.  We would have a meeting with Pres Eugene / FHE / dinner with this family every week and he was always in trouble with his mom haha he’s such a punk. 

Left to Right: Miora, Sr. Hanta, Santatra, me, Pres. Eugene.

Later that night I stopped at Sr. Pierrettes to surprise Gino (her younger brother).  He never joined the church but he’s still a really cool kid.  He’s studying wildlife conservation and plans on getting a Masters and PhD and he’s way involved in community cleanup projects and such.  On the right is Sr. Pierette’s daughter Karina.

This is the “hotel” Busteed and I stayed in.  Behind the wall is a toilet.  The other half of the room looks the same (two beds total) except there’s a “shower” behind the wall.  It was 8,000Ar a night, or $4 – which is a steal, if I didn’t contract some terrible disease that will cost me a bunch in medical bills later lol.  Grossness Story: I was putting my contacts in one day, and I dropped one on the floor, but I didn’t have any others, so I had to wash it off with lots of cleaner and put it in my eye anyways… diseasatopia : - )

This is the city hall, which is currently under renovation by the President.  As far as I can tell, he’s throwing whatever money he’s got left into large, visible public works projects to salvage his dismal public approval.  The current president is 36 years old, and took power in essentially a military coup d’etat two years ago and has run a government that is not officially recognized by anyone in the world.    

The ticket office for a bus back to Tana.

Busteed's and my trip was moderately noteworthy.  While it was in no way a disaster-trip-of-doom (like my bus from Mahajanga to Diego), it was not as smooth as we had expected.

For missionaries, the Tana to Tamatave trip is among the most pleasant and indeed predictable.  There is a company that runs American charter bus-style buses between Tana and Tamatave several times a day with several different transport options (this is what I used to get there).  Well, Busteed and I thought it would be easy to get seats on a bus back the day beforehand.... not so.  The only bus they had spots on was either a dinky mazda van (like all those I'd been in thus far) or another night bus (but much more comfortable).  So we went around looking for someone who could give us the front seat, leaving the next morning as early as possible.
The next morning, we arrived only to discover the front seat was terribly uncomfortable, and the bus didn't leave for almost 2 hours after the "scheduled" time.  We switched to the front row (not the front seat, but directly behind it), but soon regretted it for the lack of leg room.  It wasn't too bad though and we commiserated and chatted the whole way back to Tana (9 hours).
On the way we saw:

An assortment of delicious fruit

An awesome valley (that my camera didn't do justice) right before the escarpment on the way to Tana

Some random military convoy on the side of the road