Dreaming of Madagascar

Tana, my old hometown, has been on my mind a lot lately. It's raw, wild, alive and difficult to get out of one's system. Almost a year on, but it feels like yesterday since I was last there... Here are a few random photos from just before I left in June last year.

(This post in a slightly different form was originally on my other blog The Great Escape: Life from behind a lens but as it's about Madagascar I thought I'd duplicate it here.)

Day trip to Ankorondrano

This is across at my other blog, but thought it appropriate to post here too...

Tana - unchanging, beautiful, full of life. Yesterday I took a short trip downtown - but a trip that one thinks very carefully about before embarking on. One has but a small window of opportunity for such a considerable journey - the roads are congested from early morning until about 9.30am, then from 12 - 2pm (when the majority of businesses close for lunch), and again from around 4pm as people start heading home. But how good it is to experience the vibrancy of the city for one last time. I knew that I was home when a wooden cupboard overtook us on a side road (sure, it was on a cart, being pushed by three skinny Malagasies, but where else in the world would that happen?) Enjoy some of the photos - mostly taken from the car while zipping along at walking speed.

Waiting, waiting, waiting for the bus ...

One of the typical carts on Tana's roads - absolutely back-breaking work ...

Fruit, fruit, plenty of fruit (stalls)...

A typical Tana vista close to the Digue market

Avocado? Oh, advocate (and family laundry, it seems)

A family outing? From the back we could see only four people on the scooter. But no, that just wouldn't be Tana ...

Boring, boring, boring...

I'm sorry to say that life here in South Africa just isn't as exciting or as crazy as back in Madagascar. I know one has to make one's own adventure and excitement, but I just cannot seem to stop sleeping because of my not-entirely-functioning lungs and the meds I'm on. And the routine of normal life goes on for most of my friends, so I can't really hang out with them all of the time either.

Yesterday I did visit some friends who go way back to a time when they didn't have children and I was still young and stupid. We ate well, had a few laughs, and I took some pics of their non-photogenic teenage daughter (that's what she called herself) and their dog.

Pray that my world becomes a bit more interesting, for your own sakes, or this blog might become as boring as many of the others out there!

Playing coy

Well, that's kind of a smile...

The dog. I never did get its name, and it didn't complain about me taking photos.

Weird rides

I have often mentioned the varied and bizarre modes of transport one finds in Madagascar - from the antique Citroën 2CVs and Renault 4s, to the ox carts, to the bicycles with more passengers than what they were designed for, and to the modern luxury vehicles. Here are just a couple of pics I snapped while out on the road - either on my motorbike, my bicycle or while driving a car (therefore not great pics). And I've seen many more bizarre things that I haven't had the time to photograph. All of these photos, bar the one of the two ladies in the rice paddies, were taken on the main road to the airport here in Tana. Yes, the main road. This incongruous mix of wheels invariably causes unamusing snarl-ups. The Malagasies have a saying, "slowly, slowly." You can see why..

A half-Century flashback to France - two Citroën 2CVs ...

Need wheels? No problem. (The photo would have been perfect if the car had someone behind the wheel too...)

Zebu cart with its old, experienced driver.

It's the end of the month and time to move house. This cart would cost one between $1 and $2.50 to hire with the "driver".

A similar cart, with similar prices, except that it doesn't take as much (no matter how hard one tries.)

Three siblings on their way home from school (and yes, this one too is on the main road to the airport.)

Motorbike breaks down? Just strap it to a taxi's roof. Who cares about the taxi's brakes, shocks and suspension?!?

Transporting geese. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals would not approve.

No transport? Our heads will do just fine.

Some of the neighbours

Yesterday I wrote about a little walk I took in the neighbourhood where I'm housesitting. I showed a few shots of some of the "things" in the area - homes, churches, landscape etc. Here are some of the people I met (there are quite a few pics, not all of which are brilliant pieces of photography, but I couldn't decide which ones to leave out!) I'm sure I don't need to tell you that if you click on the pics you'll get bigger, better versions...

Two boys on their way home from school for lunch.
They'll return to school for around two hours' lessons later in the afternoon.

Two little children with an old truck tyre as a play-ring.

A young school girl we came across. She had the sweetest nature.

A side-of-the-road welder. He was welding a cart, a door and security bars for windows
- all just where people were walking. (Now that's walk-by clientele.)
I love the "welder's goggles" - a cheap pair of sunglasses.

A typical old Malagasy man - life etched in his face.

The lady running the local "canteen" - also at the side of the road
- just outside one of the local high schools.

Girl in the cosmos... I love these flowers.
And suddenly she popped up in their midst, beaming!

One of the slightly more "formal" canteens which serves
pretty much anyone who bothers to stop ... Samoosas,
Crepes, bread and the ever-present rice dishes.

And finally... the little girl sitting on the doorstep
to her house eating a delicious, succulent "mielie"

A walk to meet the neighbours

I had been sick in bed for about five days, was booked off school for the week and was just starting to feel human again on Friday, and so I took a little stroll around my temporary community at lunch time (admittedly not the perfect time for taking photos). Here are some of the photos of landscapes, buildings and other "things" I came across. Pics of people will follow tomorrow...

A church. On an opposite hill. I love the ruins to the left. They speak of decay and rebuilding.

A home. Detail in the bricks, the windows. Typical.

A tomb. Another sight seen throughout Tana - some well maintained, others overgrown.
But one thing that is common to most tombs is that they are on prime land -
the Malagasies to a large extent honour the dead much higher than the living. Tragic.

A front door. Yes, true, someone's front door, with their address scrawled across the top portion.

As much as I love the architecture of this land, I suspect I will enjoy posting the photos of the people tomorrow much more. I just love people-pictures - with the depth of life told in their faces, their eyes and (in the elderly) many years of deep-etched lines...

A scene to end the day

I was riding home at the end of the day on the beautiful old beast... I snapped a pic left and one right... Tana can be beautiful in the right light. But then so can anything - it's how you choose to look at it!

Away from the sunset, lone fisherman

Taxi Be crossing between the lakes

Linking to:
Read my feeds weekend

School by any other name

Our second term at Vision Valley School ended last Thursday, and the powers that be decided, in all their wisdom, to give us a two-day break to recover from the previous term and prepare for the new one. I, in all my wisdom, ended up spending the second of those two days at the Midgley home where the boys were busy with their homeschooling. Take a break from school to hang out at a different school ... Very clever!

But it was considerably less stressful than my typical school day. Evan and I drank tea and ate rusks, did some informal mathematics on the couch, and before we knew it the other boys had finished their schoolwork, and we could all get down to some serious play...

Andy learning about carrots. Hold on, that's the world made to look like orange veggies.

Justin - head down and learn as much as possible so I can get outta here!

All work and no play makes Jem a dull boy

Grade 1 is SO much fun! Reece get writing

And lets not forget Evan... He learns through osmosis, absorbing from his bright brothers...

Taste-test dummies

No, no, I'm not calling the grade threes "dummies", although I also am not known for my politically correct terms... I love this picture, taken by Anri Louise of her Grade 3 boys who were learning about taste. It must be wonderful to have a teacher who does such cool things with one!

Don't you just love their individual expressions?

"If you can't convince them, confuse them!"  Harry S Truman

Because Mondays aren't meant to be blue ...

... I've filled this post with bright, life-filled pics from my town, my life...
I hope they bring a bit of extra colour to your day.

The only way to start a day - the little cup that packs a punch: espresso Tana-style

One of my little neighbours in Talatamaty, Tana. Always ready with a smile

A house painted with the "La vache quit rit" cheese logo. Their lives are never blue!

Evan, living life large and in full colour!

Just two little feet on the road...

One of my favourite little Canadians, all of whom brought colour into my life ...

HEED!
"Look at the size of that boy's heed.
I'm not kidding, it's like an orange on a toothpick.
Well, that's a huge noggin. That's a virtual planetoid.
It's gargantuan!"
(From "So I married an axe murderer")

And then I realised that I hadn't posted this on a Monday, but rather on Tuesday because we had a long weekend, and I got my days all mxed up! Hold on. Where are we now?