Whoa. Today was such an incredible day I have to record it. I made my first contacts with the first site I’ll be working at for my ISP. The town is called Anjoman’Ankona and is about an hour taxi-brousse ride outside of Ambositra. I’ll be researching 2km north with the people in the Faliarivo tapia forest (not sure if there village has its own name but I’m assuming it does. Guess I’ll find out!). Stanila (a Ny Tanintsika employee), Touavinah (awesome translator for the day and friend) and I left Ambositra at 7 this morning and got to Anjoman’Ankona at 8. We were scheduled to meet with the mayor but, alas things move slowly in this mora mora culture. So we decided to investigate the atelier de la soie down the road and then somehow ended up in Mm Jacqueline’s home. She is a silk maker and a weaver and showed us basically the whole process. Yay!! So cool!! Then the mayor came and it was time for us to meet. He is actually the joint mayor, having just retired a week ago and getting ready to hand the torch over to the deputy mayor. The point of the meeting was really just to say hello and ensure them that my intentions are pure. It went really, really great. He was this awesome oldish guy, taller than most Malagasy men and definitely more rotund. He was wearing a fleecey sweatshirt with fiercesome looking grey wolves, adding to his regal and omnipotent presence.
Then the VOE of the Faliarivo village came and met us and I explained who I was and what I was doing all over again. They were all really awesome and seemed like good characters. They will be escorting us to the village from Anjoman’Ankona everyday, which I don’t know is totally necessary considering I’m (HOPEFULLY) bringing a guide but I’m just gonna go with it haha. I’m also gonna try to organize a focus session sometime this week with the VOE so hopefully they’ll be into it. One is named Jean-Claude and he’s a tiny tiny giggley giggley man who is possibly the funniest character I’ve met in Madagascar and also possibly an alcoholic. During our interactions with the VOE the mayor chimed in periodically in his booming mayor voice with a long-windedly beautiful sentiment about how we must treat the crazy American chick with respect and tell her everything we can because it is very important to the people and will bring good things, maybe one day someone will come and build schools and then Anjoman’Ankona will become a city that is revered and respected by all the people of the world. So yeah, there’s like totally no pressure or anything. Then they decided that it wasn’t safe for me to stay in the actual village soooo I’m gonna live with the mayor!!!! So incredibly nice!!! At least I think I am…I might also be living with the deputy mayor…I have no idea…but Jean-Claude it gonna meet us on Sunday when we arrive (me and my imaginary guide/translator, that is) and take us to our place of lodging.
After our meeting with the major we walked through the town and stopped about every five feet to shake hands with everyone. He is literally the coolest mayor ever and clearly makes good things happen in the town and therefore everyone wants to shake his hand. I feel genuinely honored that he is letting me stay with him (at least I think he is…). THEN he took us to a Peace Corps volunteer’s house! So basically everyone in town had been describing this fellow to us all morning and by that point we had his appearance down to a T. Like, I could have literally drawn this person with my eyes closed. A tall, African American man named Addi (Ahhh-dee) who is very, VERY fat. However, we got to the house and knocked on the door and were like “Salam – oh…” and had to stifle our giggle because Addi was actually a slender medium sized Jesus-look alike American with a shock of curly platinum hair and the palest skin I have seen in three months. Also his name is the significantly less exotic Eddy, short for Edward. Bahahaha hilarious. But he was so great!! And really freaked out to see a white person speaking English in his village. Apparently he’s doing a lot of work with the silk weavers there so help them sell their products and come up with business plans maybe? He’s also considering starting up an Alcoholics Anonymous for the town, which I though was pretty interesting. After we left we went and bought rice and duck eggs and cucumbers and invited ourselves back over for lunch hehe. I think we might have been the first guests he’s had haha. Oh yeah and on Sunday he’s hosting a showcasing kind of thing where all the weavers are gonna bring their things and then they’re gonna try to make a catalogue. So if I ever make it back to the town I’m gonna stop by yay!
Also, little side note. It turns out the other vizaha, Annabelle, who works in Soatanana (the weaving village where I want to go during week two) wants to start researching eco-tourism development in Faliarivo also. Yeah, so basically the biggest challenge of this project (apart from obtaining useful information) is gonna be NOT creating or stirring up new problems and not messing it up for anyone who comes in after me. It’s proving to be really challenging though because it’s such a short-term project. It’s hard not to be distruptive. I’m gonna meet with her tomorrow though I hope to figure out how we can work together and how I can avoid stepping on her toes. Hopefully I can help get her research rolling…hopefully.
Time to go find a translator!
Love marmar
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