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| Getting "tresses" before the end of the village stay party |
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| One moment of many spent dancing |
First of all, I apologize it's been so long. I would say it's a safe bet to say that if I don't manage to post for extended periods of time it's because I've been having a lot of amazing experiences. I feel so behind, but I have to start somewhere. It's already been a week already (almost) since getting back from a week long stay in a small village in the Faux Cap (deep south) region of Madagascar. I was in a very small village, with only 5 houses and only 2 zebu, which is saying something as zebu are equated to status and wealth.
I was with 2 Malagasy students from Fort Dauphin, who served as translators, but for the most part my Malagasy communication was limited to "tsara" (good) and "elefa" (go on) but whatever other vocabulary I had learned was promptly gone. The village was definitely the sign of poverty, with children wearing dirty, holey clothes and no shoes. At the same time the village was joyful, and every day or more often we danced for a good chunk of time, including one day when we danced to another village and back. I'm short on time and internet connectivity in order to load more pictures and explain more. But tomorrow we leave Fort Dauphin tomorrow for Tulear on the west coast for Marine Studies and afterwards we travel through Madagascar towards the capital. I'm not actually sure if I'm ready to be leaving Fort Dauphin already, but luckily will be coming back for a period of time before leaving Madagascar. Hopefully I'll be able to figure out the photo uploading soon, but until next time!
Good to hear an update, it has been a while! I guess it's good to have other students to speak with since your Malagasy is so limited. Is the dancing somehow part of a religion? What's a zebu?
ReplyDeleteHope to seen some lemur photos in your next posting. Moving on to Tulear and beyond ought to bring more new adventure.
I like the photo of them braiding your hair.
ReplyDeleteIt goes from braiding your horses hair to your hair.... :)
haha, someone asked me if I knew how to do tresses, I told them I can do it on a horse, but not myself!
ReplyDeleteThe dancing is a part of the culture and tradition, it's kind of a social event. Since there's not a lot to do in a rural village people spend time dancing. And zebu is the type of cattle that exist here- there might be some pictures on an earlier post. They're pretty cool looking with their hump and horns.