Ekaaaa....

Diamonds and Coal, Part I

Diamond: Watching humpback whales breach offshore during lunch

Coal, but also kind of a diamond: My first parasite!! It was a parache, a sand flea that burrows into your feet, quite often under the toenail. I was sunning myself on a boulder after swimming in the most pristine natural pool known to man in Andoahela National Park, when I noticed my middle toe had swollen to twice its normal size. “Um, is this a parache?” I asked. “YESSSSSS!” said my teacher. Later Sylvie, a Malagasy student, extracted it from my toe with to giant spines (thankfully the ordeal took place in a transitional spiny forest), and good thing too for it had already gotten chubby and laid eggs. Yummmmm.

COAL (but definitely a diamond in hindsight): not realizing there is a 12 hour time delay on laxatives and taking THREE at 2 in the afternoon. Also, an important part of this story is that the bathroom is outside and my family locks the house with three dead bolts and a key at night.

Diamond: Skinny dipping in the Indian Ocean under a full moon.

Coal:  Saying bye to my village-stay family, knowing I’ll probably never see them again. My cousin cried off the suns drawn on her face in manioc :( I think it was the first time in our experience with them where no one was singing or dancing. It was also kind a weird because they used the beautiful lamba we gave our mom to tie up the sheep…

Diamond: Petites gateaux. And street food in general. Ma copine Amanda and I frequent this one petites gateaux stand pretty much everyday before our hour walk to school (no joke) and yesterday we finally got up the courage to ask the people who work there for their recipe!!! First we asked her mom what to say in Malgache and wrote a script and practiced it. It went like this:

-Good day. We would like to tell you that we love the deliciousness of your little cakes! We love to eat them everyday! Could you please tell us what is inside the little cakes that makes them so delicious??

Bahahahaha they thought we were insane, especially because pretty much every vendor in Madagascar sells the EXACT same thing. But they were super nice and gave us the recipe!! The secret ingredients are eggs, sugar, and flour...

Diamond: My homestay family. Doris, Didi, Dino, Derrick, and Dadabé are the BEST

Coal: The time when my chicken didn’t make it through the Tata ride home from the village stay and I didn’t have any vondalena (gifts from the road) to bring back to my homestay family. RIP Tsaky Tsaky Wow.

Diamond: the exchange rate. For $1 USD I can buy 10 petites gatueaxs, a taxi-ride, a lamba, or 12 large bagedas.

Coal: the exchange rate. This place is poor. Someone told me the World Bank just declared Madagascar as the worst economy in the world. Thankfully, richness comes in other forms here, like in zebu or kids or music or stories or art or dancing.

Diamond: Stargazing. I can find Scorpio now!!

Coal, and sometimes a diamond too: Perma rice-baby. Madagascar has the highest rice per capita consumption of anywhere in the world. Oddly, it has never crossed over into the dessert world, so naturally I decided last night that rice pudding would be a good conclusion to our meal. My family was super confused why we were eating rice for dessert and was like, “Oh, so she wants us to eat more rice after the legitimate MOUNTAIN of rice we just consumed for diner…” They were super cute about it though and were very complimentary of it (especially the raisins haha) and were all like, “MMMMMMMMM!!!!!!” really loud but then got mysteriously full. It was really cute. Apparently rice pudding is just TOO radical for the biggest rice eaters in the world.

Sidenote: Finally picked up on an inside joke involving me and rice eating today, don’t know how I missed it. Usually after I finish Rice Mountain #1 at dinner my family says, “Ampi vary!!!” (“More rice!!”) and so I say “Ekaaaaa…” and put some more on my plate. Usually this happens about 5-6 times a meal and I only JUST realized it they were kidding and it’s a secret game they play to see how many times I “Ampi vary” each meal bahahahha. Also, they want me to go home 5kg heavier so people know how great Madagascar is and what a great time I had. The other day my Dadabé told me I was “making progress.”

Diamond: The music. Look up the song Salakao on You-Tube and listen to it over and over and over

Coal: Intense stomach flus and projectile vomiting, especially that time on the side-walk on my way to school. Really just gastro-intestinal issues in general, especially when a taxi-brousse ride is involved and the only bathroom is an intensely sharp sisal field.

Diamond: LEMURS. LOTS OF LEMURS.

Love love love,

Mairi