9/11: Putting up a few posts because my group is about to go on our first extended excursion outside the capitol city of Tana! I am not anticipating having any type of computer access so I wanted to post a few pics and give y’all some more news before we leave. On Tuesday we are leaving for Andisibe and Vatomandry and will be returning the following Saturday but you will hear about that stuff when I get back.
Yesterday, I just hung around our house and did some homework, read, etc. But at night, I went to Church with my family which was very interesting. It was mostly in French, so I could kind of follow although my French Catholic vocab is not quite up to par. There were actually quite a few French people there including the ones leading the ceremony. I didn’t participate at all but it was yet another insight into Malagasy culture. About half of the people here are some form of Christian and a little under half still practice traditional “religion” relating to ancestors and spirits – like the Famidiahana that I attended last week. From there about 1-2% are Islam and a fraction of a percent fall under the “Other” category.
Today my family left for vacation to Majungha (where we will go at the end of the semester) leaving the house to the uncle, cousin, myself and our helper boys. I spent the afternoon in Anelakely because there was a free jazz concert there! One of the cultural centers set up a stage at the foot of a huge stone staircase and hundreds of people came and sat on the stairs and got a free afternoon of entertainment. It rained a bit and wasn’t the usual Tana perfect weather but wasn’t bad enough to ruin an enjoyable event. Afterwards, my friends and I went to a café for a bit and I caught the taxi-be back to my house.
As I write this, the 49er game is on in about 4 hours… We better beat the ‘Hawks! Hopefully someone can give me some insight into how the game goes because Alex Smith is generally really good at making us lose by 10 instead of 21, thus making the score a lot closer than the game was…
Monday, September 12, 2011
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.
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.
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
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