peacemaker gypsy

The sharp knife

What was I thinking ... a week of really blunt knives that wouldn't cut through butter and then this:

Two cuts in as many days ... blood in the lettuce and blood in the strawberries (which is quite icky really as you are not sure what is blood and what is strawberry juice).

And I cannot remember the last time I cut myself at home (and there I have very sharp knives).  I can only hope it was the quickly acquired habit of having to hack with the really blunt knives.

Hardship posts

I have been in some hardship posts ... tents, mudbrick huts, bullet riddled hotel rooms, cement stores and monastries (it really was a hardship place ... not least because I was the only woman there and so confined pretty much to my cell).

Here is a photo of the pool in the gym where I have signed up for a month so that MMM will not be too disappointed in me when I get back:

 

Tough eh?  Sometimes you are winners sometimes you are losers ... we never can win against so many poozlers (Dr. Seuss:  Solla Solew - source of so many good quotes)

Perhaps I should have clarified

The small pale yellow renault taxi thinks it is a violently purple tripledecker magical bus.

The Madagascan Knight Bus

Twice I have driven into the city in a small pale yellow Renault taxi.  Twice I have the distinct feeling that I am in the Knight bus and that it squeezes in to get between two lanes of traffic.  On very narrow roads there are three lanes of traffic ... the middle lane consisting of my knight bus and other drivers who also think they are driving one. 

Next time floo powder.

Drink more Coke

Even though I refer to it as satan's urine; it is obviously not all bad.  Mada is the world's leading producer of vanilla (a woman tried to sell me some in the street last evening).  Apparently when Coca Cola introduced zero coke (I think) there was less vanilla and the economy of Mada took a distinct hit.  It revived only after the reintroduction of Classic Coke.

Scary or what?

Ashes to ashes

Is the whole country in mourning?  Australia lost the Ashes???  How incredibly careless of them.  (I managed to see the somewhat restrained crowing of the BBC).

Smoke and mirrors

Well knives and mirrors actually.  And there is nothing magical about it.  I have written about the dearth of mirrors in places I go to before.  But here it is slightly different.  I said that Malagasy people are generally small.  Small people hang mirrors so that they can see their face in them ... me?  I can see my torso.  Every mirror rendezvous takes place sitting down which is terribly civilised but not very efficient.  (Just as an aside have you ever noticed how incredibly time-consuming it is to be civilised?  From sitting at the mirror - or indeed the dining table,to tablecloths and napkins that have to be washed and ironed, indeed anything that needs to be ironed, to sit down afternoon teas: all the things I think of as being the hallmarks of civilised living are terribly time consuming.)

Oh yes, the knives.  After two forays into parts of Africa last year and being reminded in both countries about the complete non-existence of anything resembling a sharp knife; when I went to Sierra Leone I took my own.  And left it there.  And forgot about the lack of sharp knives.  Yesterday I had to go buy a knife because I bought flowers at the weekend and had to hack at their stems with the lousy knives provided and have callouses on my fingers as a result. 

Another aside: I bought roses (because I was invited to a party and thought I should take something) - now in Kenya (big rose-growing country) the sellers at the street stalls use their machetes with great skill and dexterity and chop off all the thorns for you which makes flower arranging very easy.  On Saturday with no sharp knife for thorn lopping; just putting the flowers into a bunch with some flower similar to gypsofilia was a massive trauma (puncture wounds to go with the callouses).

Fascinating

Madagascar is completely unique - any of the tourist blurbs and websites will tell you that.  Cut off from the mainland it has been a haven for plants and animals that don't exist anywhere else.  Like these for example:

 

I am aware that it is easier to see the cage than the lemurs ... but that is how they are kept.  Lemurs the size of mice through to possum size and to very large ones.  Some are nocturnal and (luckily for me) some are not.  And they don't exist anywhere else in the world (well one little island near here).  The trouble is they are failing to exist here as well.  Degradation of habitat, hunting and pollution are taking their toll - 16 species (well I guess sub-species really) are extinct (according to the signs in the zoo yesterday).

Yes ...  a day at the zoo and arboretum (well an afternoon actually). 

On Saturday I moved into my little flat (which I think is slightly larger than my flat at home).  It has two bedrooms and two bathrooms and I have been strongly encouraged to invite my family to come for a visit.  It has the tiniest kitchen ever and a huge bathroom with an unbelievably ornate ceramic washbasin (curlicue legs).  The kitchen has a small fridge full of mould, a microwave that cannot be plugged in, a double gas burner of ferocious intensity and almost no bench space.

I have a lounge room filled with fifteen pink satin ruched cushions  (now put away in a cupboard) and a range of ornaments (all listed on an inventory) including three 'jardin plastique'.  There are gorgeous fresh flower stalls everywhere so of course I bought up big ... no vases: not one.  So I chopped the tops off a couple of water bottles ... hardly elegant but they hold the flowers.

No dining are but there is a table on the front porch (which is great in the day but really cold in the evening) and in the garden I have two Malagasy tortoises.  There were some at the zoo as well but me ... ho hum I have some of these at home.  Apparently they are under threat as a species precisely for this reason (oh and food) - people take them as pets.  You have to admit though ... they are quiet, don't demand attention, eat your food scraps and are generally trouble free as pets go.  Something akin to a pet rock (but messier).

The people are fascinating as well.  There are three distinct groupings: Austronesian (like polynesians but from a broader base), Somalis (Somalis get everywhere don't they?) and Bantu people from Africa.  So there are people who look almost pure islander although most have the inimitable good looks that come with the 'melting pot'.  They are however uniformly fairly small (in comparison to myself - I tower over most people) - and they were suggesting that I go shopping for some warmer clothes ... but where I ask myself.

As you can tell the work hasn't really started in ernest.

Mad

I packed in a hurry and without a lot of thought ... all summer clothes and it is freezing here!

I brought four books with me (to last a minimum of ten weeks): I have finished two and I only arrived yesterday.  The current hotel has TV ... French TV.

I left behind my precious kettle bell (really could not fit it in either space or weight) and the biggest weights they have at the gym in the hotel are dear little 1kg ones (they have four and they are primarily decoration).  I am told by the people in the office that there are other gyms in town.

Zone eating is going to be incredibly difficult ... the breakfast is typically French ... 20 different kinds of bread and that is it really - oh and bad coffee.

I am back in  'helpless' mode reduced to acting and grappling for words that are half-remembered.  I should have paid more attention all those years ago in French classes (or even a couple of years ago while living in Paris).

And the locals do not shorten Madagascar to Mad - they use Mada ... but I could not resist 

It never rains but...

A couple of weekends ago (knowing that Josh's whole Sydney experience was coming to an end) we went to Katoomba.  Going to the mountains in winter is not always a wise thing to do but in this case it was fine ... cold... but fine.

Alittle girl walking the valley with her family just behind us pointed out this view and called it "the shiny view".  I was so taken with her description that I had to take a photo.  We were in deep shade in the valley but the cliffs were completely gold (the combination of winter sun and sandstone).  Just gorgeous.

Then...

Joshua did his Spanish exam the other week and now his results are back (but only for the Spanish dancing ... the other we are still waiting for).  Two grade levels: two distinctions ... and full marks for a whole lot of 'things' that translate roughly from the glamourous Spanish to the very ordinary "arms, feet, clapping, castanets and deportment".

He was wearing a vest (waistcoat) for the exam but loaned it to some other kids whose exam was the next day.  So this is not quite how he looked.

Then ...

I had to babysit the angel ... had to ...(although this photo was taken the winter solstice weekend)

Then ...
Last weekend we watched Stu try to kill himself by accomplishing feats of strength and stamina (he is the one in the loud shorts and shirt) - the other people competing were about 22 apparently.

And now I have been told that my flight to Madagascar is this Saturday ... it is worth noting that I am the person who is normally packed two weeks ahead of time ... now I have to go down to the 'cage' and retrieve a suitcase and start!

It is been a very full term with Josh dancing full time and me taking every advantage to see and be with the various grandchildren (other than Josh).  But it is well overdue that I do some work other than that of grandmother and guardian ... so now I am off to do it.