A Different World
Wednesday, October 10th, 2007Well I basically just went from Middle East to East Africa to somewhere closer to Far East in a day! What a blur. Absolutely loved being in East Africa even if it was just the airport. I loved seeing the women in the Outragerously bright and colorful dresses and I was just a bit overwhelmed with being back to the place I love so much. The second best part of the day was just getting out of Cairo. I can breathe again! The best part of the day is being in Madagascar. Yep, the people here look Southeast Asian-ish with darker skin. Actually, that is a generalization because there are people that are not dark and there are people that really do look African. I guess that is what we always get when we mix it up a bit. Almost everyone is shorter than I am and you know I really like that. Odd since there are so many tall people in East Africa.
When I look out the window from my room I see a hill with a couple of churches (no minarets!!!) and older homes that reminds me exactly like an older town in Maine. Weird! Of course, look down at the park below and I see jacaranda trees in full purple blooms and people who don’t look like they live in Maine 🙂 More begging children than I care to see in the market area, but most of the people are quite gracious, friendly and decent. French is the barrier again, but I have also run into a few people with great English who of course claim their English is poor. Better than my French, I tell them and I get the same reaction that I always get – a big beaming smile. The city (Antananivaro) is a real mix with obviously wealthy (government) and VERY poor (living in shacks clumped together). The city is very clean and pretty well ordered. The air is clean!!! There is going to be some culture shock, but it should be good…
vagabondrick