Danny, the med student next door, was leaving on the train to go all the way to Manakara in the morning, so we walked down together and got 2nd class tickets. It took about 3 hours to get to Tolongoina, where I was getting off to meet Bruno. He was at the train station to pick me up (which was a little strange, as I couldn’t remember what he looked like). Tolongoina was very small, but beautiful.
Tolongoina's lively and colorful market street.
countryside in Tolongoina
A few passing zebu as we walked to the PV
Bruno introduced me to various people who have in some way had some help from ERI, and we took pictures of all of them. This woman works for an organization called ‘Meva’, which is a women’s organization. They had a sewing machine donated to them by a former Peace Corps volunteer a few years ago, and they’ve since bought a second one with profits.
one of the sewing machines that allows this group to sell clothing
We also walked 2km over to another PV’s area to see rizipisciculture, and some more apiculture. Rizipisciculture is the growing of rice and fish in the same space at the same time. It is a little more labor intensive during harvest, but the fish fertilize the rice (but don’t eat it), and both products grow together – pretty cool. The fish are usually either royal carp or tilapia
Rizipisciculture
I almost stepped on a snake, and gasped like a little girl, but it was fine. After that, Bruno and I were going to head out to see some sites further out in the country, but first it was lunchtime. The woman who worked with Meva organization ran a hotely, and Bruno ordered food for us. What was delivered to our table?….rice and tongue, of course! Joy. Actually, it was really pretty good – very tender, and not quite as weirdly tonguey as when I accidentally ordered it. The coffee in this corridor region is good, so at least there was some of that.
We then took off en moto through the countryside. It was a beautiful day, and a beautiful ride.
The waterfall we passed
Also, this picture shows ‘tavy’ (slash and burn). There are many places where farmers burn before planting, but it’s only really considered ‘tavy’ if they’ve cut down rainforest trees, or really anything that was forested (with something besides eucalyptus) even if it’s not virgin. Bruno estimated that in the next few years the chunk of forest on the right will likely be gone too.
Tavy
We arrived in the very small village of Andemaka to see another ‘décortiquese’ and another farmer’s beehives. I really think that the beekeeping thing is great in this area – provides an alternative source of revenue without having to cut down trees. We spent a few hours waiting around for someone Bruno knew to stop through, so I just walked around, took some pictures, and talked to Bruno.
This little guy was pretty fascinated with my camera
This girl hung around for awhile talking to Bruno
Then, we headed to Manampatrana where I would stay the night, taking the train home around noon on Friday. The “hotel” Bruno took me to wound up being great. Manampatrana is really small, but Bruno assured me that I would feel at home at the hotel run by Claude, a friend of Mark’s who really likes to talk. Claude is a Malagasy guy who does a bit of everything. Coffee, vanilla, hotel, fish, honey, coqs, etc.
Bruno hung out for long enough for me to feel comfortable and meet Claude, and then he took off to get some more work done. There were 3 French people staying there too, so while dinner was being prepared they invited me to their little sitting room to have a pre-diner beer with them. Marc, Jean, and Cécile were in Manampatrana for a week researching a project of rural electrification. There’s not much electricity there (just generators), so they were looking into possibilities of using various hydro sources in the area. (the organization was electriciens-sans-frontieres – pretty cool if you ask me) They had met a lot of people in the village during their studies, and a women’s foundation invited them to a ball being held that night, so they and Claude invited me too. My response was, “on y va!” Claude was quite a character. At dinner (which was spaghetti and chicken! Not rice!) we had some great conversation, and then got ready to head to this community dance party not quite knowing what to expect.
When we arrived, the mayor got chairs for us so that we could sit at his table. The room was sort of a big warehouse with a stage at one end, and just like the ball at the Carlton in Tana, the first dance was led by the mayor to open up the evening. I’m hoping the the French people email me the picture they took, so that I can prove that the mayor of Manampatrana, Madagascar looks like Barack Obama.
In the morning, I walked around the town a little bit (which didn’t take long), and then bought my train ticket.
Looking at the village of Manampatrana
Train station in Manampatrana
This crazy tree was in Ialamarina, but I forgot to post it previously. Rodolphe wanted to dig it up and use it as a decoration somewhere. The roots apparently go down quite deep.
I decided to opt for first class, since I took second class to get to Tolongoina. However, I really think the FCE (Fianar-Côte-Est) railway deserves its own post, so I’ll leave it at that…
