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 Honey I want some really
fresh duck for dinner by belgianchocolate
What would you do?
You had a hard day at the office , worked longer then you wanted...had hunderds of long calls - all day long. AND then on top of all that your wife calls. She orders fresh duck for dinner and she insists that it will be very fresh. Very very fresh.
This was the freshest duck you could get your hands on!
I'm sure of that. We giggled a bit when we saw this...ok first we wondered how the duck was doing. But they seem to take it in a relaxed way. Strange. This picture is taken in Hell-Ville , the capital of Nosy Be on the main street. It is quit normal to have a chicken or a duck with you this way.
In Belgium one would get attacked by animal rights activists. Leave a Comment
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A local custom that is closely related to food tips. For it to be rarely seen in urban areas, I present it here as local custom, that it accurately is.
Every Malagasy diner is likely to include rice as staple food. In countryside, families cultivate their ricefields & store their harvests in their basement. Then, periodically, they bring some kilos of rice to the mill of the village. They leave the rice there to be ground. Then fetch the products afterwards: rice for diner & the bran for the poultry.
However, when the rice grains still contain the rice envelopes (even after the mill), women in countryside use to manually ground it in a mortar. That is shown on the picture. Then afterwards, rice is sifted, to get rid of remaining rice envelopes... then only they wash it and cook it. See? Mrs chicken is hanging around, waiting for the bran and some rice seeds escaping from the grinding...
You won't see this scene in urban areas (a mortar in an apartment?), you will have to visit the countryside villages round 11 am an 5pm to see that.
You'll find in the following pictures some stages in rice cultivation. First, the seeds are sown in a plot. When the seeds have grown into young plants, the latter are transplanted into another plot. Then, you have the ricefields with rice plants growing in lines (or rows). It is not a low maintenance culture, one has to get rid of parasits (wild herbs) that may hinder the growing. Then, wait for the plants to grow till the grains get ripe. Finally, one has to harvest. This is the most joyful moment in rice cultivation. People tend to gather each harvest and do the work: cut the plant, gather them then tie them to ease transportation. More and more, people bring a barrel in the field and start beating the bunches of ricestraws to collect the ripe grains. Then, all they do is transporting the crops whilst in the past, one tended to transport the straws to one's yard then beat the straws there. It got simpler.
Just read the captions to see which step the pictures represent. Leave a Comment
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 just outside Tana by JustinJansen
Cleary due these bricks the houses look better then in the largest prt of magagascar where wood is the only tool to making houses! Leave a Comment
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On the first day of Alahamady, the Malagasy New Year, adults and children have a portion of chicken - the vodiakoho (rump) for the adults and elders, and fenakoho (chicken's leg) for the children. This testifies the mutual respect paid by each family member on the one hand,and the strenthening of family ties on the other.
A Malagasy family gathers. Each brings flowers and fruits and you can exclaim "Manimanitra izy izany!" (What a nice smell !) with the family. Sweet smell denotes good luck and this time of the new year is called Asaramanitra (the time of sweet smells).
At sunset, your children can participate in a torchlight tattoo (harendrina). The ceremony has the power of wielding off evil spirits. The harendrina ceremony is practised on the eve of National Day at home as a sign of unity. Ho9wever, a wife who is separated from her husband spends the bad night (alin-dratsy) discreetly at the unimportant south corner of the house and leaves stealthily in the morning. Leave a Comment Other Contact: Your friend in Madagascar
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The zebu is a unique cow species of Madagascar because it has a hump like a camel. One of the zebu species in Madagascar is omby volavita, a zebu with a red coat, white spots on the legs and on the forehead. You must see zebu on the feast to claim that you have been to Madagascar.
On the third day of Alahamady is the zebu feast known as the saotra or gratitude. It takes place in the royal palace. The king wears his ceremonial dress and presides over the sacrificial ceremony of omby volavita. The zebu's hump is offered to the king who licks it a bit and he wishes long life to everyone. The rest of the zebu is distributed to the Malagasy people and tourists.
Each Malagasy family and village practise the zebu feast again at home. As they visit one another, they share teh zebu meat or "jaka". It is regarded as important to have even a tiny piece of it in order to mark attachment to the family. This meat is called nofon-kena mitam-pihavanana (the piece of meat which keeps family ties). Leave a Comment Other Contact: Your friend in Madagascar
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 Famadihana, corpses of
ancestors by Norali
Textually, "Famadihana" means "Returning sthg" (the mortal remains, in this case). This custom is a rite of the two tribes of central highlands: the Merina (from Tana province) and Betsileo (from Fianarantsoa) people.
The tip and the travelogue in my Faritanin' Antananarivo page rather deal with the Merina famadihana. I don't know whether it differs from the Betsileo rite or not. To be sure, I'd better stick to what I know. So far, this is released with my current knowledge of the rite, not documented. The text in the travelogue is mine, with the facts from the Famadihana preparations we had in our family in 1995 and pictures of a Famadihana in a peasant family (another family) in Merina region.
Click here to know more.
I hope the travelogue will grow with the time. This ceremony occurs in winter (dry season), from June to September. If you happen to travel there during this period, you may attend, sometimes, the ceremony. Leave a Comment
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 Smiling Malagasy man. by Norali
Even in embarrassing situation, we smile. Foreigners use to mistake about it. When a Malagasy pedestrian crosses the street out of zebra crossing area (: meaning he/she is faultive) and nearly triggers an accident, he/she smiles. In this case, Westerners use to think that the Malagasy person is making fun of him. In fact, not. He/ She smiles thinking how silly he/she is to cross the street the way he/she has done. This self-derision is quite important to know if you get in contact with Malagasy people. Of course, this smile is different from our smile when we greet people.
Also, even in a heated discussion (don't talk about Malagasy believes too much. You may ask the reasons of our believes but never criticize), you would see people to end a debate with a smile and "You're probaby right". Real meaning: "You may feel you're right in your conception but who are you to interfere in our belief system ? Let's end this discussion". At least, this happens this way in Tana, with smoothing Asian ascendants. Whilst in other parts, behaviours can differ. Heated debates can easily evolve into some fights... Never good. Leave a Comment
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Malagasy people are amongst real partyers. I don't even talk about official, planned parties.
Rather talk about the ability of getting it to party while few people are together. It happens so often that when you have a family meeting, one decides to play either live music either a Cd or even.. a cassette (!). Some begin dancing then one suggests to throw a party... After pushing up furniture in order to improvise a dancefloor, partying till dawn.
It's easy to heat up the ambience with just some guitar and harmonica as well. Audience claps hands and sing acapella, accompanying instruments. Traditional songs, ballads are then reviewed... Families use to have some amateur music players so it's always useful in those cases.
Off course, alcohol, cooked meat, meatballs, kebabs and sambos help... But one dish is really welcomed when partying till dawn: vary amin'anana. This is a dish made of soft rice cooked with diverse leaves and diced beef meat with onions and ginger. Eat it with kebabs or sausages. With this, the night is yours ... and those beers... and these rums (Vieux rhum is for rum lovers, white rum is mostly for who only seek for some binge drinking)... and this whisky (don't be surprised to see some whisky à table, it's how they have it here) !
This feature is imported in Europe as well. Malagasy communities are used to that simple gatherings ending up with parties. It takes one hour to buy food and drinks, find the room, push away furniture... if you have a chance to be invited to a Malagasy party, go!! It's such an ambiance... Leave a Comment
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Every journey has to have it's priceless moment , right?
This was one of ours. When we visited the national parc of Mantadia , we also went to see Andasibe. A little loggers village , where the train station is still a witness of it's former glorie. These kids came shy after us and asked Frederik if he wanted to take a picture of them. Of course he did that? Soon a bunch of other kids came running to him...now , what was the meaning of all this? They had seen a digital camera before and they wanted to see themselves. That was just such a funny moment. Their faces and the pleasure seeing themselves.
(pictures are by star-photographer Frederik , B-free) Leave a Comment
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 Ricefields in Tana city.. East
of the hill :-))) by Norali
Personnally, I have problems in quickly distinguishing left from right. Even worse, I cannot manage to work with a compass neither.
Funny enough, locals tend to locate themselves against landmarks. They can be monuments, buildings, crossroads, river... They just show you the way "Go North to the hospital", "My place is just across Mr. X 's house" (X belonging to a well-known family)...
Worth noticing, we barely mention street names (except for the most known such as Avenue de l'Independance).
One of most-known features of the city is this: this patchwork feature of a ricefield plains that used to run through Tana city (ricefields and marshes in the very center now accomodate houses). Still, we never refer to it to locate a house.. for the reason that it runs everywhere. Leave a Comment
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