Last Friday Night!

9/10: Last Friday night was quite eventful. It all began on a Taxi-Be 113 that I had never taken before but had been instructed by my little brother that it would take me where I was trying to go. It was going well, driving through neighborhoods I had never seen before and thoroughly confusing me, until we hit heavy-heavy traffic. After a few minutes, the drives just asked me to change to another taxi-be 110. Unable to communicate, I mentioned the name of the neighborhood “Analakely” I was going and they repeated it, so I just went with it.

The 110 gets through the traffic eventually and on our way. I may point out that it is getting dark and that in general you shouldn’t be out wandering the streets at night. My bus is relatively empty and I am somewhere in one of the middle rows. Approaching a busy corner with a lot of people waiting, the driver instructs me to move to the row directly behind his, using hand gestures and grunts. So I sit there, dressed up for the night and a vahaza, as people cram onto the bus from all angles. The first lady on the front sits “next” to (essentially on top of) me and the second one trips. Dunno what happened but the woman at least thought that the woman behind her pushed her and turns around and takes a swing. The 3rd woman who was just attacked is holding her baby in her left arm and lands a response with her right. Someone gets in between them and tries to break it up but it takes a while. The women face each other shouting, kicking and punching meanwhile a baby sits in one of their arms. I turn to the driver and tell him more specifically what I am looking for, the train station in Analakely, once or twice and he points me in a rounding motion to the left. I just get off the bus and begin walking for a block or so until I realize I am in Analakely and close to the station where I met some friends for a nice vahaza meal of croque madames, frites and a glass of wine.

After dinner, I take a cab to my next destination, Hotel Carlton, for a concert of Eric & Jenny Manana. Eric is a Malagasy man who now lives in France but plays guitar and sings around the world. The Hotel Carlton is the nicest place I have seen in Antananarivo and so the tickets were outrageously expensive for here in Tana. They cost 50,000 Ariary for a reserved seat. That comes out to about $25 US. I like it when I can afford absolutely ridiculously expensive concert tickets! I got there early, so I have course found a seat at the bar and had a few drinks while I awaited our director and a couple other students.

It was a pretty awesome concert Eric played guitar and singing, his German wife Jenny played violin, flute and also sang in Malagasy. The back up band consisted of a few drummers, a back up guitar and bass and finally an accordion. It was a great concert that was held in an interesting venue. Everyone was seated as if it would be purely spectating but Manana’s popularity was present as many audience members sang words to most of his songs. It started at 9:00 and by 12:30, we decided to leave early because the show showed no signs of stopping. Manana was channeling his inner Springsteen, or maybe Bruce Springsteen channels his inner Manana during his epic 4+ hour concerts. Either way, leaving the house before 7:00am and returning after 1:00am made for a long day.