Final work day in Madagascar

One thing I really am over is my Malagasy colleagues' total disregard for start times. Both yesterday and today the majority of them only pitched up at around 10am despite having agreed to the 9am start. I am told it is the Malagasy way but it sure is rude. Besides they have so much work to do and every minute that they are late contributes towards the possibility of not finishing the work. I do have three very conscientious workers though who have been on time every day and get on with their work. One of them told me it is because they are from the younger generation!

Last night I had a very welcome visitor at the hotel. Before I left home to come to Madagascar, I heard that one of the students from Durban was going to be here in Tana so I emailed him and arranged to meet up. He has been doing some diving over a two week period to investigate the extent of coral diseases on both the east and west coasts of Madagascar. This was his first ever trip out of South Africa and I think it was a bit eye opening for him. It was really good to spend an evening in easy conversation - no language problems at all. We had a couple of beers and then had dinner together. The time just disappeared.

Once back in my room I started watching a series called Last Chance To See with Stephen Fry. Of the 6 episodes, I watched 3 which took me into the wee hours of the morning! Crazy to do this on a school night but I enjoyed the programmes so much that I couldn't stop myself. It did mean that I couldn't get out of bed early to go to the gym so I had to make it up this afternoon.

Every day I have seen people in the park across the road from the hotel with big pots of hot broth and always a group of ragged people queuing to be served. I thought that it was a soup kitchen type of thing but on asking one of my colleagues about it discovered that is some entrepreneurial people who sell the broth really cheaply to the lower income people who are around this area. A small bowl of the broth costs around 500 Ariary (R1,86 or $0.24) which is affordable for most people. There are quite a few people in this neighbourhood who spend the night legitimately on the streets. Each shop, business and hotel employ guards to look after their premises. This is of course a very low paying job so the broth provides a welcome hot meal for an affordable amount of money.
A broth seller and her clients - I'm sure you can tell why I assumed it was a soup kitchen.

The past few days have been quite chilly. Not what I expect of Madagascar but then the city is about 1275m (4183ft) above sea level perched on top of a large hill. On Tuesday afternoon the clouds arrived and it has rained each night since. The evening temperature has been around 18°C and the day time temperature has only gone up to 22°C. I expected Tana to be hotter which is probably a misconception born from watching the animated movie Madagascar! I am glad the hotel is well insulated because otherwise I would be freezing. I do have a jacket but who wants to wear a jacket all day!
The storm clouds gather over Tana


By the end of the day all the work was complete thank goodness. There were times, especially yesterday, when I thought it was going to be impossible. Aside from their tardiness, they are a great bunch of people. I learnt a lot from them this week, about their fisheries and about Malagasy life in general.
The tuna specialists
The prawn specialists
The everything else specialists

So that takes me to five successful workshops done, just two more to go. At least the next two workshops will be in English so I will be able to relax a little.

Take care all!
Location: Antananarivo, Madagascar

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