Holy crap I'm really close to finishing my Peace Corps service! Yes, there are some days where it feels like my service would pass faster if I were spending it watching paint dry. However I am starting to feel like the time has really really been moving along and man, I've been here a while. I mean there was only one version of the iPad when I left America! The kids are suddenly much bigger than when I got here.
I realized just how long I've been here when talking to my friend the other day. She talked about the "hova tsy manjary." Basically this means "the person from the Highlands of Madagascar (near Tana) who doesn't work." That's work as in work like a machine would work, and not in the human way. Now to explain, our market is full of sellers who come from the Tana area and spend their weeks travelling from market to market along the road I live on. Tuesday afternoon the come to Ambohimanarina, hang out and sleep across the road from my house, and sell in the market on Wednesday morning. I pretty much know them all, and I had no question as to who the one that "doesn't work" was.
The next few months look like they'll be full. I'm on the way to France to see my dad and Christine, then I'll travel some within Madagascar before a close-of-service conference with Peace Corps. In early February I'll head back to Ambohimanarina to spend my last few months living there. And I should probably start giving a little thought to what I'll do after that...
I do not think "tsy manjary" means"doesn't work" in the context you described above. What your friend meant by "tsy manjary" can be roughly translated to "dishonest" or "deceitful".
ReplyDeleteHere we go again, the mistrust between the Malagasy coastal people and the highlanders since the mid-1800's which was emphasized by the French during the colonization.