New friends in Antsirabe

The pousse-pousse man

I asked the pousse-pousse driver if I could drag him this time - and surprisingly enough, he said yes! :) Every person on the street turned and stared, laughed and pointed at the white GIRL who dragged the black man in what had to be his pousse-pousse! Great fun and good exercise!:)

The sunset

Every evening Marita says: "Wow, look at the beautiful sky!" And every evening we enjoy a new, beautiful piece of art there in the horizon.

Our housekeeper Tinn

The maker of delicious Malagasy food who even washes and irons our clothes, sweeps the floor and helps us with our Malagasy homework. Today was the last day we could enjoy her presence though, sadly enough...

Mr. Tortoise

This creature walks around in his little compound all day long. If he's not walking or sleeping he's spending time with his wife, making sure the family name will be passed on...

The couple enjoying themselves on the bench

Mr. Tortoise isn't the only one. Black beetles caught in the act.

Spiderman

As you can see, I encounter new creatures everyday. Some more interesting than others, but all of them making the hot days exciting and different, giving breath-taking moments to a young vazaha-girl from Europe...

Monday's Challenges: Learning Malagasy. Feeling a bit sad...

Learning Malagasy is one interesting event. As my 5th language to learn, I must say that this seems like the one with the least variety of words. I mean, when almost every word starts with m, you’ve got to get confused. Mamy, mamo, mipetraka, manao, manasa, mianatra, mihinana, mahay, malala… Get one letter wrong, and you’ve got a totally different word. Today I really laid an egg. That’s at least what I told the housekeeper. “I’m pregnant, that’s why I didn’t eat all the potatoes.” Great. What I really meant was that I was full. Be voky and voky be are the same words just in the different order. Structure and place of the stress means everything in this idiom. The creativity of the people who formed this language can’t really be the best.
Take the word because as an example. In Malagasy you can say it in 4 different ways, and have a look at the possibilities: fa, nefa, anefa, kanefa… I don’t think I have to tell you that we sometimes get confused and roar with laughter from time to time.

And laughing is really something we need to do when we’re here. It can be the best medicine! Monday afternoon I didn’t laugh much, sadly enough. I was tired, hungry, stressed with all the Malagasy classes, homesick and on top of it all I felt really qouizy. (I blame some of it on the Malaria tablets I’m taking; I really hope they’ll do their job, when they have all these horrific side-effects…)
I sent a text message to my good friend Maria, and she answered back with a verse from the Bible. Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” Was this letter written to me? It was certainly what I needed to hear. Reading more around this verse made me even more certain. I am in Madagascar because it’s God’s plan. He placed me here with these people for a reason, and these 6 months are going to make me ready for the rest of my life and form me as a person. Yeay! :-)
Hehe, I can’t help but laugh when I think about it now, as everything seems just right again. Just wanted to share with you readers in this world my great experience; that it really helps to read the Bible - whatever situation we’re in. I felt bad and might have felt even worse if I hadn’t read those comforting words. Jesus really is the best psychologist and the BEST medicine. And He is one I don’t have to miss while I’m down here. I am so glad I’m a Christian, it makes life magnificent! :-)

The Adventure of the Mid-Week-Day

This is one example of an early ”out-of-bed”
My eyelids had slid open, many thoughts were in my head
I have to tell the story of the yesterday event
When Eline and her partner (me) to Tombontsoa went
We were so sick of white bread, so we wanted whole-grain flour
We took a bus and then a pousse-pousse, it took about an hour.
The pousse-pousse driver got so tired by pulling us up the hill
So we got out and walked beside him, time was standing still.
We gave him more than he deserved, we felt sorry for him
He thanked us very nicely, but I felt I’d done a sin.

“Where is the whole-grain flour?” we asked all the folks we met
We didn’t know how to rephrase it, that was fun – you bet!
They gave us the direction, we were ready to go far
We had to pass through cribs with cows, but we didn’t see a star (!)
Then suddenly we saw the house, it was so big and white
We asked a man if they had flour, though grammar wasn’t right
But finally he understood, he showed us what we meant
We were so happy and we laughed – this was a great event!
We paid him and we tried to say that we’d come back for more
He nodded, then we went away, so happy with our score.

Then we went back to Antsirabe, and guess who we did meet
Yes, all the people who are there, whose home is on the street
We gave them smiles, we gave them chips, ‘cause that was what we had
And then we walked away, although still feeling really bad.
When we got home we had to do our homework in the sun
When that was done we made our lunch and even that was fun!
The Malagasy teaching for today was good, you see
Now I can say a lot of things, my language barrier’s free (well, not yet really, but it rhymed…!)

Team Madagascar learning Malagasy

Pictures from Madagascar

We have soon been here for two weeks. It's great! Antsirabe is the lucky town that has the pleasure of hosting us for the next two weeks, while we learn the language of this beautiful country.
The past days have been quite useful. We have learned some Malagasy phrases, seen exorcism in the church (wow-that was interesting!), been to the Rova (the old queen palace), drunk lots of water, taken a taxi brousse, baked buns and killed a chicken for dinner, waited for the sloooow internet connection... And we have visited the schools where we are going to teach English. I have had a speach in front of 800 pupils, got tons of comments on the streets (because I'm white), heard the children in the village shout "Karin" after me (following me for the next 200 metres), enjoyed the lovely green nature, listened to Eline's laughter (she laughs all the time!) and seen thousands of poor people begging... The last has been the worst. I get my heart broken every time I go out on the streets... But let's not focus on the negative things! Here are some photos - Enjoy!


Picture above: The monkeys are licking my honey-covered fingers! :)



Here's the whole "gang" in the National Park in Antananarivo. Take a good look at our Malagasy hats - they are highly appreciated in this heat!
Well, think you'll just have to wait patiently for more pictures... Patience is something you really have to learn when you're in Madagascar... So although you're not here - take it mora mora and enjoy life as it comes along! :)

Back in Madagascar

Salama! Finally I am here! In the capital of the 4th biggest island in the world. After 6 days in Madagascar these are some of the things I’ve learned:

1) We are very white. When walking in the streets, people stare at us. They smile at us, wave at us and shout “bonjour vazaha”, thinking that every white person is French. We are VIP’s in this country.
2) We are very rich. We can get a bus ride for 1 Norwegian Kr, and everything else is also cheap. No wonder people think we are wealthy. If the poor people see us, they come running. It is terrible to say that we don’t have money (when actually we do). I could write a whole post just about poverty in this country, but I think this will do for now…
3) It is hot. We wear t-shirts, shorts and sandals every day. Lovely!
4) God (Andriamanitra) means the King who smells good. The people who don’t believe in the loving God we Christians believe in, pray and give offerings to their ancestors.
5) The service in church lasts at least 3 hours. What takes most of the time, are the announcements. Why not just write it all down on a piece of paper for everyone? Well, they can’t afford the paper.
6) It is a sin to clap in church. Instead you have to raise your hand and wave!
7) Everything is mora mora (take it easy). In Madagascar we own the time, not the opposite.
8) Internet is very slow. Which is why you haven’t heard much from me yet. I don’t want to spend a lot of time in a small Cyber cafe when the sun is shining outside.
9) How to make a good Sunday dinner from scratch. In short: we killed a chicken, cooked potatoes (bought them in church (!) to support the church building) and we oHowHomade buns for dessert.
10) The traffic is terrible (no mora mora here!). People are selfish when driving. What matters is that they can get from A to B. If there are people in the road the drivers honk at them, after having “pretended” to drive over them. They want to get to their destination ASAP, even if it means driving in 100 km/h in a small, narrow street. On top of it all, people don’t use seatbelts…

A short update of my situation: I live in the Youth Centre in Antananarivo, together with the three other Norwegians. I am loving it! We are going to Antsirabe on Saturday to learn Malagasy for 2 weeks. Then Eline and I will go to Fandriana for 1 month, before we’ll go back to Antananarivo and live and work in the youth centre for the rest of our stay. We will also work with children here. Our main task will be to teach English.
Since I am becoming Malagasy Fotsy (a white Malagasy person), I have bought a Malagasy simcard. My phonenumber is: 032 5062 687. You can send me messages, but I am not sure if I’ll receive them. If you want to say something important, write it in an e-mail. I will check my Norwegian simcard once in a while too, in case you write messages to that number… But you can also call me! That would make me very happy. If you would like to send me letters, the address is:
Centre FKTLM Sabotsy Namehana, Antananarivo 101, Madagascar.
But you probably should expect that it might take a while. Mora mora, you know! ;)

Well, I think I will go out in the sunshine now. Can’t really say I miss the Norwegian autumn! :)Enjoy the rain for me!