9/4: First weekend update from family homestay. Yesterday we were invited to a Famidiahana by a professor from the University here. It was the first time the SIT program got to attend and it is a ceremony that, to my understanding, only happens in Maddagascar. It involves removing deceased from their tomb and changing the shroud that they are buried in and sometimes involves moving them to a new tomb. Yes, they took the corpses out of the tomb and paraded them around, changed the shroud and then carried them to a new tomb a few hundred meters away. Yes, I saw it.
It was a crazy experience that involved watching a lot of traditional dances and celebrations and a big meal as well. There were over 300 people or so there and I cant even imagine how much planning goes into a ceremony like that. From talking to the locals, I learned that it involved an oracle who helped them choose the date and time. I also learned that the night before, some men go whistle outside the old tomb to call the spirits back into the tomb so that they could be moved the next day. Ancestors and spirits play a large part in traditional Malagasy culture and so a ceremony like a Famidiahana is great cause for celebration as they are helping their ancestors. In this case, it was the professor’s parents who had passed away about 4 years prior. This blog post cannot truly express what it was like and unfortunately I forgot my camera and have no pictures as of now.
I got to sleep in today later than I have all trip: aside from the rooster at 5:00, I got to woke up around 8:00-8:15! Spent the morning lounging around and reading and then after a huge lunch my family took me to the zoo. It was pretty cool even though I am not a huge fan of zoos in general. It was interesting that people were allowed to pet any of the animals they could reach. I got a very cool introduction to the diversity of wildlife that exists here in Madagascar. Saw so many animals for the first time and many of them are only found here, like many of the lemurs and reptiles. My favorite animal I saw was the Golden Pheasant – go google it!
Amymanaraka!
-Ben
Wow, Ben, great Malagasy stories already. Hope you can find regular internet links so you can continue to take us along on your adventures. BTW -- did you bring the SF apparel seen in the photo of Sosoa, Nino and Marie? Sosoa w/SF T. Nino w/ 49er hat, but poor Marie -- nada. Of course if you need SF-related t's to pass along as gifts, you know who to notify (w/ address, etc.).
ReplyDeleteAnother BTW -- Tatau read your blog first and was going around telling everyone 'Ben's eating nothing but zebra ever since he arrived in Madagascar.' I did actually figure out it must be zebu before I read your entries (part intuition, but most just by knowing Tatau's mind). :)
-Ba