18

All efforts to avoid congestive heart failure disappear when i discover that i can buy deep fried bananas off the street for 5 cents a pop. Help me jesus

17

 dunno if this will work but this is Surgi playing the lukanga!

16

Blog post 4

I sink back into my life here in Tana. It is not hard. Here, where my family is small and quiet. My dad is not shirtless and booming here, he is little and scared of oranges that are too sour, flash floods, and also the neighbors dogs. His moustache is turning white. Here, soap operas are religiously watched and murmured about quietly. Here, If you want to be silent at dinner, its okay. If you want to go to bed at 8:45, so does the rest of the family. 

Meanwhile, tomorrow I begin my non-school days. I am no longer sitting in class. For one month, the loud cluttered streets dirty gutters and falling apart buildings of Tana make up the walls of my classroom. Children are playing around in the watery trash soup next to me and I am sitting staring at a rare functioning fountain, waiting for my interview with a random gasy rapper, learning. I have coaxed my taxi driver into explaining to me why he likes to listen to hira vavaka (hymnals) on the job, learning FOANA. I am not a real human being, I am an investigatrice. I have transformed into a detective girl in plainclothes. I am on CSI Miami. i am a jungle explorateur. My prerogative is to attend every concert within earshot, talk to everyone who will talk to me and at the end write 50 ish pages. It is also on my wishlist to attend a famadihana (dance a lot, sing songs and dig up the bones of your andestors) and a tromba ceremony (drink a lot of rum, play the accordian and become possessed by your ancestors).

Needless to say IM A LITTLE EXCITED. 

( My dad also suggests I should attend a circumcision. We shall see. it would most likely mean i would have to see a grown man eat a foreskin on a banana. but Im not entirely opposed. )

and also spazzing out with the amount of free time i have (which is all day every day). 

Knowing me, this will soon become not enough time at all. Mamy be ny aina.Tsy andriko 

15

Yesterday i ate a fish eye ball on the beach. Dont worry it  was cooked. It pretty much tasted like a fish (surprise!?)

I also had the experience of going out for drinks in what was essentially a prostitution ring. Sex tourism is really big here on NOSY BE (island off the NW coast)  so we were the only young women in the place who weren't , a. Malagasy and b. Hanging off a creepy ancient french man reminiscent of of a Gringotts elf. Its legal here if youre over 18.

It was weird. However tried to remain open minded. Both parties are technically profiting , and it provides a level of financial independence for these females whose country's education/economic systems have failed them. But, still makes my stomach whirl whenever i see a white haired geezer  fingering the hemline of a 19 year old with hair extensions. On the bright side, the live music in the place tended towards the over-50 crowd, so we got to rock out to frankie vallie and stevie wonder.

Also, i bought an avacado off a woman's head for 50 cents and it was masiro be (= real yummy). Also went skinny dipping in the indian ocean. Dont worry there were no geezers  present.