mairi's safari: November 16th 2011

STAY CALM WORLD I AM STILL ALIVE!! Although I will not lie, there were many times and ways in which I could have met an untimely death in the last 10 days. I was in the field doing research with my awesome translator Bako about an hour outside of Ambositra in this incredibly isolated village called Anjoman’Ankona. Here are the various worst-case scenarios I managed to strategically escape:

1. Being slowly eaten alive by an ARMY of flesh eating bedbugs 10 nights in a row

2. Mysteriously disappearing somewhere in the 150 hectare endemic Tapia forest with my highly knowledgeable, sole French-speaking, and perpetually wasted local guide Jean-Claude

3. Exploding from being force-fed SO much food. Literally every person I encountered showered me with fried something or other or a plate of corn or a plate of manioc or a bowl of sugar and it is REALLY rude not to eat food your given so naturally I always obliged.

4. Getting attacked by the dola dola, the town crazy lady who was really, really into me (Sidenote: she was literally the most interesting person I have met in Madagascar and used to be a university student before going crazy with what appeared to be schizophrenia. She was clearly way more intelligent than everyone else tho and I really just wanted to do my ISP on her life.)

5. Being carried off by Anjoman’ Akona’s Least Eligible Bachelors

6. Death by boredom. Nothing but Hortencia the mayor’s 5 year old daughter and a My Little Pony coloring book to entertain me for the three days my translator left me.

7. Drowning in a rice paddy.

It was supposed to be a brief sojourn, return to town, and then another brief sojourn the next week but I was quite literally taken hostage, largely due to the fact that by the time the first period came to an end I had essentially (and completely unintentionally) risen to celebrity status. I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that I was living with the mayor, who is already a highly mysterious figure. His father was mayor before him and is now a member of Parliament in the capitol Antananarivo. His family is extremely wealthy because of the monopoly they have on oranges and citrus fruits in the Hautes Plateux, which after tasting several specimens I totally understand. He also comes across as really cold and uninviting but that’s really just because he’s uber shy, his sister explained to me. His house is one palacial pad, lavish to say the least. It’s three stories high and newly constructed with crown moldings and light fixtures and really upscale latrines. When it gets electricity it will be the only building in the commune to have it. I stayed on the third story right off of the balcony, which was visible by everyone who walked by. Basically I felt like repunsal the whole week, except when I wasn’t in my tower and I felt like the Princess Diana or the Dhali Lama. I shook hands with more people than I can tell you, upwards of 1,000 and kissed more babies than is probably considered healthy. It’s a miracle I didn’t get sick again, haha. I think I really clinched my celebrity status when I went to Catholic church on Sunday, not sure why but it seemed like that was when my star peaked. I also contribute my celebrity status to the fact that Eddy the Albino Peace Corps Volunteer wasn’t there this week so the title of Anjoman’ Akona’s Next Top Vazha was mine for the taking. And I did. However, for the first few days a lot of people thought my name was also Eddy and yelled “BONJOUR EDDY!!” everytime they saw me.

The mayor’s wife is a chubby lady named Marguerite who runs a local grain co-op in the bottom floor of the house. She was super sweet and fed me lots of snacks and spoke to me slowly in Malgache and was just generally cool. Then there were the two “bonnes,” or girls who do all the domestic work around the house and in return receive a place to sleep and food to eat. Their names were Farisoa, who is 21, and Hainko, who is 25. They were incredible. So happy and always laughing. I wish we had a common language so we could have chatted for real. They found out that I like coffee and brought me coffee every day. SO SWEET. They also took me on walks and helped me menasha lamba (wash clothes) once they realized I had no idea what I was doing. Uh, I miss them already. Then there was Mamy, who is 27 and is the brother of Hainko. He was clearly really cool but our conversations really only consisted of “Marie!!” and then “Mamy!!” (pronounced like “Mommy!!”). Uh so great.

Yay, I got to speak with so many amazing people this week. I interviewed a total of 20 people and got to talk with so many others. One of my favorites was Madame Jacqueline who is the president of one of the two weaving associations in town. She showed me all the steps of silk making so now I am an expert. And also she is clearly magic, you can tell just by looking at her. I also got to visit the village of the descendants of the king, which is another incredibly isolated village within Faliarivo. We had to ask them for permission to visit days in advance and then brought lots of local vanilla rum as an offering. They told me the story of the King of Faliarivo, Ramonjamanana of which they have the original manuscript from the 1800’s (and of which they spilled rum on…). He was super powerful and gracious and had a palace with one hundred rooms (now just the foundation) and was the first person to learn how to read and write. He also has a GIANT tomb with lots of secret doors. O man it was the most beautiful little hamlet I have ever seen and I can only imagine was it looked like during his reign.

Now I am back in Ambositra living with Bako (so nice of her to take me in!!) and am compiling all of my research and writing my final paper for the semester. So close to being done with the semester I can almost taste it!! The 40 pages ahead of me are just a minor detail that I’m choosing not to give too much thought.

In other news, last night at dinner Bako asked me if pousses exist in America, referring to rickshaws. However, I though she was talking about bed bugs, which are also called pousse and was like, “YES. They are a MAJOR problem, especially in New York City. They’re impossible to get rid of and you have to use a ton of insecticide to kill them. They’re in all the hotels and movie theaters. It’s a HUGE epidemic. They’re spreading all over the place. My sister had them in her apartment. DISGUSTING!!” and Bako was like “…oh…does it cost money?” and I was like, “what, to kill them?” and she was like “god, no…to ride them” and then things clicked in my head hahaha.

Bako, My Translator

Tomorrow is market day in Ambositra and I’m gonna try to encourage Bako and teenage kids Lalandy and Ikajshdbaijsdb to visit the clairvoyant teenager here who died for two hours and came back to life and now can tell who is in heaven and who is in hell. Apparently both Michael Jackson AND Bob Marley are in hell. Huh.