Wait, I’m not ready to leave Tana…

I LOVE my host family here. I’m not ready to leave. Eek!

I just got the Taxi-Be system down. I feel less and less like thieves are going to knife my bag and steal all my belongings (even though my host mom showed me her bag that got knifed when she was at the market yesterday and I was mobbed by beggar children on the Rue de Independence who unzipped my bag and tried to kick me… but these things are tolerable). I’ve found some cool places among the dozens of shady ones. I like being by resources. I’ve even taken a trip or two to some medical facilities… which could be a blog post in itself, but there still are some things I’d rather not share with the internet world. Long story short, bring a dictionary, check your dignity at the door, don’t expect any sort of dressing gowns and use a lot of hand motions. You’ll get through it.

Anywho, I warmed up to Tana and am reluctant to leave. The next leg of our trip is supposed to be fantastic and a lot of people from previous trips have called it their favorite city. Majunga! It’s a super, super hot coastal town on the West side of Madagascar. Pictures are probably better than my description, so I’ll post an entry when I get there. Correction, if I get there. The trip’s going to take at least 12 hours in our van. Yay!

To close out my Tana adventure, I had a fantastic weekend wandering around and doing things with the family.

On Saturday, I went to Jumbo (the strange American supermarket) and found the ingredients to make Irish Sweet Potatoes, since Saint Patrick’s Day is coming up, but I’ll be spending it in the Vahsa Van (our name for the van that fits our entire group) probably still celebrating. So I told my family all about Saint Patty’s Day and the Irish Potato Famine. It was a great culture lesson that was awkwardly translated by me. My mom wanted to write down the recipe for Irish Sweet Potatoes (which include powdered sugar, butter, little bit of milk, grated coconut and vanilla, rolled in cinnamon) and so she asked me the name of them. My literal translation came out to be “Potatoes with sugar from Ireland” now in her recipe book it actually says “Les Pommes de terre avec sucre d’Ireland” it was freaking adorable.

And now I can also say, Malagasy people LOVE Irish Sweet Potatoes. I made a lot, with the intention of bringing them to school (I know it’s like third grade…) for the other students, but my family has gone and eaten almost all of them. It’s so funny. They’re making them next Sunday by themselves, which makes me sad because I won’t be there. It makes me happy though to think that the two ways I will be remembered is by Irish Sweet Potatoes and introducing peanut butter on bananas. I won’t be surprised if I come back to visit, and they’re all gained 10 pounds.

And the cutest thing in the world: For dinner that night, they bought real potatoes so that we could have both. All throughout dinner when someone would ask to pass the potatoes, the other person would say “les pommes de terre vrai ou pas vrai? Ahahaha” (The real potatoes or fake potatoes? Ahahaha) God I love them.

 

After Irish Potato making, we went to the zoo!

For starters, the zoo chargers foreigners about 10 times more than Malagasy, which would be absolutely ridiculous anywhere else in the world… but here, apparently it’s the norm. Racism takes on a really interesting form here.

The zoo was equal parts cool, and depressing. Pictures are probably better than my words…

Giant turtles! Cool.

Camels that were a gift from Gaddafi… Cool?

Statue of white guy that founded the park. Depressing.

 Saw a picture opportunity and dragged Mom over to the sign. Apparently, the sign was indicating the origin of different plants on either side… but I’m not too sure and decided to make it a picture opportunity. It took them a minute or two to figure it out, but then they thought it was funny. Strange.

 The saddest lemur on the planet. DEPRESSING.

 Being able to feed a lemur, even though the sign says INTERDIT! (not allowed) because I’m a vasha… Cool & Depressing.

 Lemurs that live on a teeny lemur island and can never escape because lemurs are afraid of water… Depressing.

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The crocodile that ate a man’s hand off a couple weeks ago. No, but seriously. It ate his entire hand, like the guy from Happy Gilmore, but real life. And he still works there… Apparently things like this happen somewhat often…come on Madagascar... I think we can find a better way to prevent these things. DEPRESSING.

The COOLEST bird I’ve ever seen. COOL!

So there you have it… the zoo in Tana is equal parts cool and depressing.

Fun things I learned! (Fun being a relative word…)

-          The zoo breeds guinea pigs solely for snake food. I found the cage and said Cool! Guinea Pigs! and a man who worked there said, “Non, c’est le déjeuner des serpents.” (No, that’s the snake’s lunch) “Oh… cool….” I said as I walked away with big eyes.

-          My family steals pieces of Aloe plants from the zoo. Apparently this is OK…

-          Turtles can live up to 500 years! Zut alors! Turtle sex is unpleasant to watch.

-          Small birds in snake cages are not happy to be in snake cages. It’s possibly the most depressing sight I saw at the zoo.

-          The “Nocturnal Lemur House” was the second most depressing thing I’ve ever seen. Think: dark room, small lemurs, filthy glass, several branches and a long tube to sleep it.

-          People will latch on to your group, tell you things about the animals and then demand money at the end of park. Awkward…

-          Snakes won’t eat food that’s already dead. Hence the guinea pig and small bird incidents.

-          Camels don’t really do much of anything…

-          The Ferris Wheel was powered by two men who push the chairs around. No motor, no electricity. Hilarious to watch.

-          Lemurs don’t like being in small cages…

-          Birds don’t like being in small cages…

-          Crocodiles don’t like being in small cages… (They also enjoy eating hands.)

D’accord. C’est tout pour maintenant.