Madagascar. Part IMap
January When people hear about Madagascar, they vaguely picture a faraway country. ![]() Where there are exotic Martian landscapes. ![]() And places of indescribable beauty. ![]() Where termites of some sort build their neat anthills in the grass fields. ![]() Idyllic scenery stretches as far as the eye can see. ![]() Birds such as kingfishers fly through the air. ![]() You can encounter lemurs of every type. ![]() And other rare animals. ![]() Well, yes, you can find all that, but you’ll have to look very hard for it. The Madagascar of today is a gradually decaying, very poor country with rising crime rates. About forty years ago, before the French left, it was flourishing. Then the country gained its independence. ![]() And independence, in any African country, is when things are like this: ![]() When the amount of flies is the same as the amount of meat on which they’re sitting. ![]() When a tourist can get robbed in broad daylight at any moment. When a restaurant smells like a trash dump. When the best hotel room in a national park has a plank bed with a musty mattress and no air conditioning. When a restaurant consists of a bunch of pots on coals in the middle of road. ![]() When agricultural transportation is primarily buffalo-based. ![]() When water is retrieved from a public pump in plastic yellow canisters which previously contained American humanitarian aid cooking oil (like in Ethiopia, Sierra Leone or Tanzania). ![]() When the dishes are enamelware. ![]() When the barber shapes haircuts with a razor blade. ![]() Local women wear masks to protect their face from the sun. ![]() But not all of them. ![]() The main type of cargo vehicle is the kalesa, a sort of platform cart with a requisite steering wheel. ![]() There are also small kalesas where the steering is done with reins. ![]() Payphones come in the compact booth variety, in yellow and green. ![]() As well as in full-size phone booths. ![]() Everyone tops up their mobile phone balance at stands which are easy to spot thanks to signs on neon-pink or neon-green cloth. It works like this: in the morning, the owner of the stand runs to the mobile operator’s office and adds some money to his account. When a customer shows up and pays, the owner transfers money from his mobile account to the buyer’s. He makes a profit by adding a small surcharge. ![]() There are no post boxes in the country (only one old French one at the airport in the capital). Letters must be deposited into mail slots outside or inside a post office. ![]() Almost all the benches are concrete. ![]() Sidewalks are blocked off from cars with intermittent nubs—a detail left behind by the French. ![]() Wires are secured to utility poles on frames (like in Jordan or Egypt). ![]() Instead of working, the entire male population plays foosball. ![]() |
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Madagascar. Part I. Details
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Madagascar. Part III. Mahajanga, Ankazomborona, Antananarivo, Toliara |
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