Village Stay round 2

I'm back in Fort Dauphin after 12 days in a rural village near one of the tourist circuits for Andohahela National Park. I was there to do my research for my Independent Study Project, which was looking at how rural villagers view conservation and the park. The interviews were all fascinating and the response I got from villagers was very positive as very rarely do vazahas(foreigners) talk to the villagers, generally they come straight to the park to hike the circuit. After the interviews we did hike the circuit, but I have to say, being in the village was by far my favorite part of the experience. I'd like to think that my Malagasy improved some too, but I think that's partly because a lot of the conversation is based on agriculture, so I'm just better at picking up words for food- rice, sweet potatos, zebu, manioc...

During our time there (me and a student from the Ecological School in Fort Dauphin, who was my translator), there was a death in one of the neighboring villages, an old women who had been on her deathbed. Because of this we suspended our interviews for a couple of days, to pay our respects, we also attended some of the process of cutting the tree for the coffin, running of the zebu, and the burial itself, among copious quantities of toka gasy(local rum). Ceremonies for burials and deaths are big events, as beliefs regarding the ancestors are strong, people sacrifice zebu and fire gun shots into the air to represent the wealth of the individual who has died. The whole experience was fascinating and I feel very lucky I was able to attend such a huge cultural event.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Entrance into Park

Vazaha harvesting rice

Wild Pineapple

After finishing the interviews we did hike the tourist circuit. The forest in this area is considered "humid" although as the rain for the season hasn't started yet here, it wasn't heavily "rainforest-y". The circuit included some pretty views, we passed some snakes including a boa in the path, and a natural pool at the top.We also spent some time seeing the fields of the family who hosted us, including visiting thier manioc fields on a hillside and helping pick rice in one of the fields. Overall, being in the village was an incredibly rewarding experience and the welcome and well wishes we received makes me want to return some day. But now, it's down to compiling my research and writing up my paper. Hopefully I'll be able to find a computer where I'm not paying 50 ariary a minute to use  (granted 50 ariary is not much, but it adds up). So that's it for now, I'm living in an apartment with two other SIT students who are doing their research in Fort Dauphin, and living off of bagedas (sweet potatoes) and bananas. Wish me luck with my paper! Now it's less than a month left in Madagascar...