"Ny Mandeha..."
I feel like I've mentioned travelling a lot, but a great deal of time was spent walking, waiting for cars, travelling by taxi-brousse. When we were living in Anosimparihy, there were many days that we trekked the 6 km round-trip to get to Bac Namorona, on the road, to buy supplies, eat breakfast, or sometimes just to mitsangatsangana, explore a bit. I also dug up my Malagasy handbook from my study abroad program in 2010, which had a number of Malagasy songs that we were supposed to learn (although mostly didn't). One of the songs I did learn this time around, more-or-less a children's song, is called "Ny Mandeha" (roughly translated as "traveling" or "going"). The song goes like this:
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| Mandeha tongotra... |
ny mandeha travelling
ny mandeha travelling
ny mandeha travelling
dia mahafinaritra it is enjoyable
ny mandeha tongotra, travelling by foot
tongotra, by foot
tongotra, by foot
ny mandeha tongotra, travelling by foot
dia mahafinaritra! it is enjoyable
(Repeat)- tongotra is interchanged with other forms of transportation, car, bicycle, plane, boat...
In addition to helping me some with my Malagasy, we ended up frequently singing this while walking, waiting for taxi-brousses to pass by, or otherwise to pass the time, although occasionally changed versions to reflect the situation- "tsy mandeha" (not going, while waiting for a car to pass by), or a change of adjectives, when walking wasn't so "mahafinaritra"(enjoyable) and rather tiring.
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| Mitsangatsangana... |
Toaka
Pretty sure I've mentioned drinking rum, toaka gasy, and the like a fair few times as well. There's something about the way alcohol, especially rum is consumed, that seems a world apart from any sort of wine-tasting or bar-hopping you would do in the US. It seems like I have numerous memories of times, sitting around a table, dark except for flickering candlelight. There is a small plastic bottle on the table (or 2 or 3), small glasses. Honor is given frequently to the eldest present, to open the first bottle and splash out a small offering for the ancestors, before pouring into the flower-printed glasses distributed around the table. Time passes, the bottle(s) gradually empty, sometimes a salty snack (zebu kabobs, samosas, fried fish) is sought. There is little present besides the alcohol and the conversation, through most of which I spend trying to identify words in Malagasy that I know, although sometimes end up escaping into my own thoughts as the conversation whizzes by. Sometimes on occasions of less ceremony or while less stationary, only a small bottle is present. We pass it around, taking turns sipping from the bottle itself. Sometimes, if this has gone on long enough, singing, strange behavior, or questions directed towards me in incomprehensible French result. I start getting sleepy, a sure sign the alcohol is taking its toll. We say our goodbyes and slip off, while others remain, cracking open a fresh bottle and continuing late into the night. |
| Celebration in Anosimparihy |
Te hihinana... Compose, mofo gasy, bonbon coco, akoho...!
For those you you who don't know already, I'm a big food person. I love trying new things, and love eating in general. Trying roadside food from vendors is a lot of fun, and I have found numerous things that I craved and sought out once we were properly introduced to one another.
-Compose: describing it seems odd when I try and explain it properly, while in Madagascar, the word compose is so self-explanatory no description is necessary. An order of compose comes with pre-cooked pasta, mixed with oil, vegetables, sometimes meat- in one or two varieties. Then there are mashed potatoes, frequently mixed with vegetables, colored with beets, and/or mixed with house-made mayonnaise. Added to these are "echards" a vinaigrette of shredded carrots or cucumbers. Each of these are spooned onto a corner of the plate to produce "compose", for about 25-50 cents, comprising a number of breakfasts and snacks for us while in various cities throughout Madagascar.
-Jus: One of the huge advantages of being in a "tropical" country, is the fruit, tropical fruit galore. With these fruits, fruit juices are often easy to find. While in Tana, a short distance away from the house there was a small roadside foodstand that made juice on the spot. Order a glass of lime juice for 200 Ariary (10 cents), a lime was sliced and peeled, several spoonful of sugar were added, and into the blender with cold water. We went back on multiple occasions for this refreshing pick-me-up, and while more exotic juices can be found, the fresh simplicity of "jus citron" was a delicious one.
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| Coconuts in Manakara |
-Bonbon coco: This candy was a discovery waiting for me in Manakara, on the Southeast coast, a city lined with palm and coconut trees. Going to the beach, you can find a touristy attraction of fresh coconuts. First the top is sliced off and you are given a plastic bendy straw to drink out the fruity coconut juice. Then once you've managed to suck all of the liquid that you can from what seems like an immensely over-sized cup, hand your coconut back to the vendor, she will chop it in half with a machete, and chip of a hard piece of the outer rind so that you can scoop out the coconut meat within, to your heart's content. While that was the coconut itself, there is also bonbon coco (coconut candy) to be found on the streets, sold by old ladies and young girls. The candy is a small flat pancake of shredded coconut, golden in color, that snaps and then melts in your mouth when you bite into it. Eating the whole candy leaves your mouth on sugar overload, craving a sip of water, while simultaneously wanting to keep the flavor on your tongue.
-Akoho: Akoho is chicken. This was an especially good road snack, while travelling in taxi brousses, driving through villages we'd sometimes slow down or stop and be swarmed by vendors holding up trays of various foods to the windows, where we'd negotiate our purchases. In addition to fruits, triangles of bread steamed in banana leaves, and hard-boiled eggs, choice pieces selected from plates of cooked chicken were a frequent choice. Sometimes in the city late at night, restaurants were closed, but roadside vendors were set up and going strong next to the bar and nightclub, we'd seek out "akoho" as a last resort dinner, licking the bones and our fingers clean of the salty oil afterwards.
-Mofo gasy: There are a wide variety of Malgasy breads, including mofo gasy a sweet rice flour bun itself, but also banana beignets, round sweet balls fried in oil, loops of bread containing a square of yesterday's baguette inside, and my personal favorite, ramenonaka(no guarantee on the spelling there), a savory oily rice-flour bread. I could never keep track of the names correctly, and eagerly tried the spectrum from various vendors. Interestingly there did seem to be regional differences in types of breads, and availability, size and form, but made the exploring all the more interesting
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| Hotely & Mofo in Mangily |
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