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.
Monday, September 12, 2011
Chickens on the Taxi-Be
Got a short story that I forgot to post from last week. I was taking the taxi-be (taxi-be literally means big taxi, and is the name of the ‘buses’ here) home with a couple of my friends. One of them, Maddie, is terrified of birds, absolutely terrified. This guy gets on the bus with a live chicken in his hands and I tell Maddie that I hope he sits next to her (I didn’t really hope that though!) and she laughs because she doesn’t see the chicken and thinks I am talking about him cause he is kinda old and sleazy looking. A few minutes later she hears the chicken cluck and turns to me kinda freaking out. After Ivana and I kind of calm her down, we are talking and she then realizes that the man sitting next to me is also holding a live chicken! I hadn’t even noticed but I had been sitting next to a live chicken for about 10 minutes or so. I was shocked but found it pretty funny meanwhile Maddie is in a row with a chicken a few feet in front of her and one a few feet behind – blocking both exits.
There is a happy ending though because both men get off at the same stop a few before ours. And Maddie is free to exit the taxi-be without encountering any birds. It has since been explained that they were probably on their way to a cockfight and those were roosters, but we don’t know.
There is a happy ending though because both men get off at the same stop a few before ours. And Maddie is free to exit the taxi-be without encountering any birds. It has since been explained that they were probably on their way to a cockfight and those were roosters, but we don’t know.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Probably shouldn't share this
a little embarrassing, but if i cant laugh at myself then who can i laugh at?? Yesterday I had a weak stomach and so I mentioned it to my family here. Then for dinner, while everyone ate the normal food, I was given BABY FOOD. They gave me some powder that I mixed with hot water and ate mush for dinner..
Well, I thought it was kinda funny...
Well, I thought it was kinda funny...
Monday, September 5, 2011
BenjaCohn's photostream
BenjaCohn's photostream on Flickr.
here are a few pics that i managed to get up
First weekend
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
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
The Razakarisoas!
9/1: After months of anticipation, I finally got to meet my family for the next few weeks. They are very nice and have hosted quite a few students before so they’ll have some patience (I hope!). Sosoa (the mother), Ivan (the father), Nino (14 year old brother) and Marie (13 year old daughter) all speak French so I should get pretty good (again, cross my fingers!). An uncle also lives with us as does a girl that is around my age but I am not sure exactly her relation. We also have to boys who live with us and take care of house hold chores and small errands.
The dad has a shop that is an extension of the house that sells basic corner store/convenient store items. The mother is an agent for one of the three telecommunication companies here and although it is becoming more prevalent, a two income house is not too common in Madagascar. Ivan also gave me a haircut!! I had been looking for one since I arrived and finally found it. Pretty sure it has a couple spots where he cut it too short and it isn’t the same length all the way around but it was a cool bonding experience I suppose. It will grow back anyway. ;)
The house is much bigger than I expected and, based on my discussions with classmates, is bigger than most of theirs. I have a room to myself that can be entered only through Nino’s room. There are 1.5 bathrooms and we do have a water heater. No bucket showers yet although I am 99% sure I will be quite good at them before I return to the USA. I’m actually living in complete luxury as we have a washing machine as well!
There are a couple pet tortoises here, they filled their fireplace with sand and let them roam around haha, très mignon (very cute). They told me they have two dogs that live out back. By far my least favorite pet is the rooster that may not belong to my family but does live within ear distance. It woke me up at 5:00 am my first morning here and made sure I only took 10-15 minute max naps until 6:30 when I had to get ready… Hopefully that does not become a common occurrence.
I’ve only known these people for about 24 hours at this point and spent much less time with them than that considering sleep and school so I will have more updates later.
Thanks for reading!
-Ben
The dad has a shop that is an extension of the house that sells basic corner store/convenient store items. The mother is an agent for one of the three telecommunication companies here and although it is becoming more prevalent, a two income house is not too common in Madagascar. Ivan also gave me a haircut!! I had been looking for one since I arrived and finally found it. Pretty sure it has a couple spots where he cut it too short and it isn’t the same length all the way around but it was a cool bonding experience I suppose. It will grow back anyway. ;)
The house is much bigger than I expected and, based on my discussions with classmates, is bigger than most of theirs. I have a room to myself that can be entered only through Nino’s room. There are 1.5 bathrooms and we do have a water heater. No bucket showers yet although I am 99% sure I will be quite good at them before I return to the USA. I’m actually living in complete luxury as we have a washing machine as well!
There are a couple pet tortoises here, they filled their fireplace with sand and let them roam around haha, très mignon (very cute). They told me they have two dogs that live out back. By far my least favorite pet is the rooster that may not belong to my family but does live within ear distance. It woke me up at 5:00 am my first morning here and made sure I only took 10-15 minute max naps until 6:30 when I had to get ready… Hopefully that does not become a common occurrence.
I’ve only known these people for about 24 hours at this point and spent much less time with them than that considering sleep and school so I will have more updates later.
Thanks for reading!
-Ben
Update 2
Manahoana! (hello)
Writing this post Thurs 9/1 from my new home for a few weeks. I am still terrified every second we are on the road, especially today when in a normal car and not our slightly larger buses. The family has a car but no one wants to drive it often. There are no street signs, none! No stop lights/signs, names of streets, nothing. No double lines, meaning that passing people on the wrong side of the road is always acceptable. When coming around a corner too fast, slowing down isn’t necessary, only need honk once as a warning.
Had a few experiences since my last post. We went to a palace on the outskirts of Tana that was used by the Monarchy before colonization. It was a pretty cool trip and we were lucky to be guided by a professor from the University here. When we visited it happened to be some sort of Memorial Day and so there were quite a few natives that had gone there to pray. It was pretty bizarre to just stand by and watch as people performed small prayer ceremonies and our professor just spoke over them, explaining to us what they were doing. I’m gonna trust him that it wasn’t too insensitive and just yet another cultural difference.
Afterwards we went to a few prayer sites near by which were also incredibly and unusually active. There were 3 of them at the same site: a small room for sacrifices, a dark room for some sort of meditative prayer and then an open area with a small wall that enclosed a bunch of singing and dancing. There were 3 shocking things that happened here, the first was that we saw an albino African who essentially just looked white with blonde hair. And if that wasn’t different enough, an adult kept lifting her up and showing her to us because she looked like a “vazaha” and then based on that fact, expected us to give her money/something. The 2nd may not be fun to read and involves the first prayer site so skip to next paragraph if needed. But when we got to the prayer site, I happened to see a duck get sacrificed. They slit its throat while it was stretched over another person so that the blood could trickle down his neck and back as well. This very well may have been the first animal I have seen killed in person.
Finally, one of the members of our group was “blessed” by one of the people there. I didn’t get to hear exactly what was going on but I looked over and this taller Malagasy man had his hand on my friend’s head (the most sacred part of the body to the Malagasy) and was saying something in their native language. I would say that all 3 events are pretty inexplicable from my standpoint but I thought all were worth sharing.
Tuesday we got a chance to go to an open-air market and walk around without one of our professors to guide us. We obviously got a lot of stares and a few people yelling “vazaha” which means “foreigner” in case you forgot. But overall I felt pretty welcomed there. Got to try some traditional Malagasy food called koba (pronounced koo-bah) which is made of pistachios, rice flour, wheat and a few other unknown ingredients. No matter how hard I try to describe it, I can guarantee that you are picturing it wrong, but it is served in a log form that the vendor cuts a slice from. It has a purplish center with a light grey ring around the outside and is then wrapped in banana leaves. It was pretty good… for a few bites. Possibly an acquired taste though.
Yesterday we visited our program center where we will be having class and I finally found internet and made that last post! The night was spent with our host family I am gonna make a post about my living situation here but I think I got pretty lucky.
Today we had to get to school from our homestays but luckily we had some help. Most people had a parent or something walk with them or show them the bus route and I got my little 14 year old brother to help me out. It was pretty hilarious when he dropped me off at school and said (translated) “alright, I’ll be back here at 4:30. See you then.” After school all of us stood around waiting for our parents like it was the first day of 2nd grade. “What time are your parents picking you up?” is not something I have heard in many years. The buses are incredibly crowded with about 4-5 people for every 3 seats. Even if there wasn’t a seat, a board of wood was available to branch the space in between seats. Most crowded bus I have been on had 24 people plus a baby and only 4 rows of 4 seats. Given the size of the average Malagasy person, I’ll just say that the buses were not designed with me in mind haha.
-Ben
Writing this post Thurs 9/1 from my new home for a few weeks. I am still terrified every second we are on the road, especially today when in a normal car and not our slightly larger buses. The family has a car but no one wants to drive it often. There are no street signs, none! No stop lights/signs, names of streets, nothing. No double lines, meaning that passing people on the wrong side of the road is always acceptable. When coming around a corner too fast, slowing down isn’t necessary, only need honk once as a warning.
Had a few experiences since my last post. We went to a palace on the outskirts of Tana that was used by the Monarchy before colonization. It was a pretty cool trip and we were lucky to be guided by a professor from the University here. When we visited it happened to be some sort of Memorial Day and so there were quite a few natives that had gone there to pray. It was pretty bizarre to just stand by and watch as people performed small prayer ceremonies and our professor just spoke over them, explaining to us what they were doing. I’m gonna trust him that it wasn’t too insensitive and just yet another cultural difference.
Afterwards we went to a few prayer sites near by which were also incredibly and unusually active. There were 3 of them at the same site: a small room for sacrifices, a dark room for some sort of meditative prayer and then an open area with a small wall that enclosed a bunch of singing and dancing. There were 3 shocking things that happened here, the first was that we saw an albino African who essentially just looked white with blonde hair. And if that wasn’t different enough, an adult kept lifting her up and showing her to us because she looked like a “vazaha” and then based on that fact, expected us to give her money/something. The 2nd may not be fun to read and involves the first prayer site so skip to next paragraph if needed. But when we got to the prayer site, I happened to see a duck get sacrificed. They slit its throat while it was stretched over another person so that the blood could trickle down his neck and back as well. This very well may have been the first animal I have seen killed in person.
Finally, one of the members of our group was “blessed” by one of the people there. I didn’t get to hear exactly what was going on but I looked over and this taller Malagasy man had his hand on my friend’s head (the most sacred part of the body to the Malagasy) and was saying something in their native language. I would say that all 3 events are pretty inexplicable from my standpoint but I thought all were worth sharing.
Tuesday we got a chance to go to an open-air market and walk around without one of our professors to guide us. We obviously got a lot of stares and a few people yelling “vazaha” which means “foreigner” in case you forgot. But overall I felt pretty welcomed there. Got to try some traditional Malagasy food called koba (pronounced koo-bah) which is made of pistachios, rice flour, wheat and a few other unknown ingredients. No matter how hard I try to describe it, I can guarantee that you are picturing it wrong, but it is served in a log form that the vendor cuts a slice from. It has a purplish center with a light grey ring around the outside and is then wrapped in banana leaves. It was pretty good… for a few bites. Possibly an acquired taste though.
Yesterday we visited our program center where we will be having class and I finally found internet and made that last post! The night was spent with our host family I am gonna make a post about my living situation here but I think I got pretty lucky.
Today we had to get to school from our homestays but luckily we had some help. Most people had a parent or something walk with them or show them the bus route and I got my little 14 year old brother to help me out. It was pretty hilarious when he dropped me off at school and said (translated) “alright, I’ll be back here at 4:30. See you then.” After school all of us stood around waiting for our parents like it was the first day of 2nd grade. “What time are your parents picking you up?” is not something I have heard in many years. The buses are incredibly crowded with about 4-5 people for every 3 seats. Even if there wasn’t a seat, a board of wood was available to branch the space in between seats. Most crowded bus I have been on had 24 people plus a baby and only 4 rows of 4 seats. Given the size of the average Malagasy person, I’ll just say that the buses were not designed with me in mind haha.
-Ben
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