Someone was asking me about my trip to Madagascar (how long was the flight? How many planes? etc.). When I told them that I was in an airplane for something like 16 hours they asked me if we ate on the plane. Yes, I said, they give you food on the plane.
Did they have rice?
Well, no.
You would be amazed at the response to this. The people were so shocked. A meal without rice? Did it make you full? Someone even said they would bring their own plate of cooked rice with them on the plane.
Within my first month at site I witnessed 2 funerals, including one for someone who was apparently well-known and important in the community. A Malagasy funeral is quite the event and lasts a long time. After the person dies, they clean the body and dress it in white and lay it on a bed with a white veil over it. Then, the family and community sit and wait with the body, anywhere from 1-3 days. For one funeral they waited 3 days; the first 2 days they were waiting for the body to arrive from Diego and then the family/friends to arrive from far-away villages. The people literally sit together all night and day. The family sits inside the house with the body and they build a covered structure outside for everyone else to sit under. They even string up lightbulbs and run those off a generator at night. The night before the last day of waiting, they have a sort of funeral service. People sing and pray and there are also speeches (speeches seem to be a given in all Malagasy customs). The young girls prepare coffee and serve it to the people who are waiting.
The next day the family of the deceased prepares a huge meal and everyone eats lunch together. The young women cook the rice in the biggest pots that you have ever seen. The young men prepare the side dish that goes with the rice (“ro”). Once the meal is ready, everyone eats together. Also on this day, they build the coffin. After everyone eats together, they have a small service then take the body to the tomb to finish up the ceremony.
People also bring gifts of rice and money, which is all recorded in the “boky mena” (red book). There are rules for how much each person should give and who must give and who can give if they want to. They write down everyone’s donations and I am told that they will actually consult these books when someone dies. If you didn’t give when there was a death, the people will not come and give to your family when you die. The various organizations in the community, like the women’s groups or sports clubs, also donate to the family.
Vingt-six (26 in French) is Malagasy Independence Day. It is June 26 and quite possibly the most important Malagasy holiday. I am told this and New Year are the big ones. And it’s not just a one day celebration but it generally gets extended over several days. This year vingt-six was on Sunday. The celebration in my village started around midnight-2 AM Saturday morning when I was awoken by the sounds of pigs being slaughtered and dogs barking. The big thing here is to eat pork on holidays, there have been signs out since I got to site over a month ago announcing that people will be selling “Henan-dambo matavy” (literally: fat pig meat) on June 25. Saturday morning I left to go running around 5:45AM and already a lot of people were out picking up their pork to begin cooking and celebrating.
There was also a soccer tournament which ran from about Thursday through Monday. The big finals were on vingt-six, with tons of fans, speakers blasting Malagasy music, and lots of vendors selling snacks. People here all buy new clothes to wear on vingt-six, so everyone was dressed in their best new clothes. Especially with kids, they tend to buy outfits that go together and twins wear the same thing.
On vingt-six, there is a small parade with all the students from the school and the fikambana vehivavy (women’s groups) in town. My town has 8 fikambanana vehivavy. After the parade, they raise the Malagasy flag and play the anthem, then the women’s groups each perform a “soma,” which means they sing and dance. They dug 2 holes in the ground and placed planks over them to accommodate the dancers who do a lot of stomping. It’s actually pretty ingenious, it allowed everyone to be able to hear the stomping loud and clear. One of the women’s groups adopted me and taught me their soma, dressed me up and had me perform with them front and center. I have definitely had a lesson in getting over any self-conciousness here because everyone is always watching what I do. But the soma was a lot of fun and the people in my village really enjoyed that I participated. Plus it’s my job to learn the culture. On Monday I played soccer with the women. They had a game of the women who haven’t yet had kids versus the women with kids; my team (no kids) won. We got a prize of 10,000 ariary and all went out for sodas after the game. I have definitely missed playing team sports so it was a lot of fun to play.
The other tradition that about half the people participate in is drinking “betsa”—alcohol from sugar cane. Apparently part of the reason the holiday lasts so long is that they make huge vats of betsa and drink it all. There is also music and dancing in the night and sometimes films. I can’t really elaborate much on these events as I don’t go out at night and so can’t participate.
A funny part of this holiday has been explaining that American independence day is on July 4. People are actually surprised that we don’t celebrate vingt-six and our independence day is not the same as theirs, which I have to admit I find a bit amusing each time they ask.
Alright, I’m taking a shot at writing this post before I get to the internet café with its crazy French keyboards. I want to thank all of you have have taken the time to send letters, packages, emails, etc. With me moving to site and changing addresses everything has gotten delayed, but I will get back to all of you! Thank so much!
Okay, I’m going to do this post as a list of fun facts about life in Madagascar.
1. You can eat anything with rice. Seriously. For instance: peanut butter, eggs, ramen noodles.
2. A lot of things are also eaten with sugar. The Malagasy love sweet foods. They also think its hilarious and weird when I tell them that we usually eat the same foods with salt, not sugar. For instance: avocado, potatoes, corn.
3. Many Malagasy people do not believe that Michael Jackson is dead. Apparently famous Malagasy people announce that they are dead when they no longer want to be stalked by paparazzi. So they think Michael Jackson did this too.
4. If you are white, you must be French. Having people try to speak French to me can be a lot more confusing than when they speak Malagasy to me.
5. All the Malagasy people in my village want to learn English. And tell me so every day.
6. The typical Malagasy person wakes up around 5 AM and goes to bed by 7 or 8 PM.
7. I am a giant here. For those of you who don’t know me, I am 5’4”, but I am usually taller than all the Malagasy people. In the U.S. I’m generally pretty average to short, but when I stand up in a room full of Malagasy people I can actually see over most heads. It’s a new and interesting experience.
8. There are lots of creative ways to communicate with people when you don’t have cell phones. Locally, you can send a small child to tell someone something or bring someone to your house (this is often how people in my village get me). You can send a note with a passing taxi-brousse. You can announce stuff over the radio.
9. We Americans waste a lot of space in our vehicles. You can probably cram about twice as many people as you would think into your car, and they do it every day here. Riding in a taxi-brousse you will not move when you go around a curve because you are packed in so close to the next person.
10. Meetings here are not usually scheduled in advance. You show up, tell people you are having a meeting (often times a kid goes around the village blowing a whistle), then wait a while until people show up.
11. Conversation typically consists of a statement of what you are currently doing, what you are going to do, or what you are coming from doing. Walking down the street with my water bucket. Neighbor: “Mangala rano.” (Getting water) Leslie “Ia, mangala rano.” (Yes, I am getting water).
