The Best People
The best part of the Madagascar trip was meeting Pierre and Sandra who were our guides and owners of Masoala Forest Lodge and Kayak Masoala. Sandra is Swiss and Pierre is South African (English descent). Together with their Malagasy partner, Felix, they bought a beautiful piece of property on the Masoala Peninsula’s western seashore (bayside) and have built up a fantastic facility including luxury tents, open air dining and sitting area, their own home and facilities for food preparation, employee housing, etc. I met Sandra in Madagascar’s capital, Tana. aong with other members of our kayak trip and immediately was impressed with her. She is just one of those people that most of us immediately take a liking to because of her big smile, her jovial mood and her sureness in what she is doing. A few days later we finally met Pierre in Maronsetra (beginning of the peninsula) where we started our kayaking. He is a very friendly person as well although he is more direct than Sandra and someone you immediately respect as someone that is going to guide you safely on open water. His confidence is very contagious and I felt fortunate to paddle with Pierre for most of the days of the trip on one of the double kayaks. He kept me laughing with his great stories from South Africa, Malawi (his original business was kayaking on Lake Malawi – still one of my big to-dos for Africa – as Kayak Africa) and United States where he worked in Arkansas for a period building Walmarts. Both Pierre and Sandra made me feel great for the whole time I was in Madagascar.
Pierre and Sandra have built up quite a business and I really liked their story of how it all came together. It is a story where people were in the right place at the right time and through good fortune and their own hard work they made a lot happen. What I enjoyed most about them is that they have blended into the Malagasy world very well. I have been to too many places where foreigners set up businesses and the business is just like it would be in their home country. This isn’t neccessarily a bad thing, but it does pale in comparison to a place where people have successfully integrated into the existing culture adding their own culture only as needed to make for a successful business. They have learned the local Malagasy language, they include Malagasy food into their offerings and they have a Malagasy style about their property. More importantly, they have become Malagasy with their own style embracing mora-mora, the local customs and beliefs. It is quite obvious that the local people have embraced them, too. They have loyal employees and locals that supply their business with food and other stuffs. The best thing I witnessed during my three weeks in Madagascar was the locals lighting up when they saw Sandra. Huge smiles formed on their faces and they immediately greeted her as one of their own villagers. The women especially got quite animated when Sandra showed up and it is apparent that she is much respected by them.
So, we have a Swiss national, an Africooner (the name they called him in Arkansas!!!) and a Malagasy owning a business in Madagascar and doing so in quite a special way. I look forward to the next time I can get to Masoala Peninsula. Our timing was also very good because we were able to meet two very special friends of Sandra and Pierre, Lee a journalist from U.S.A. living in South Africa and Martin a world-class athlete from South Africa. Martin was an amazing asset on the trip for a number of reasons and he entertained us greatly with his kayaking skills and his good stories. He was so amazing on a kayak that I decided he needed to be called Marlin. I really enjoyed meeting Lee because she has traveled extensively and is able to write about great conservation stories and the like on the African continent. Overall, five great people with a host of good supporting people from Madagascar made for the best part of my trip to this great island country.
Tags: Africa, madagascar, Travel
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