The Police

The plan was that I was going to visit Maria and Sigrunn in Fandriana today.. But something I have learned the past months is that; everything doesn't always go the way you intended. I have become sick, so I can't go anywhere else than back and forth to the bathroom. So I use my time drawing and just relaxing (plus watching the first four seasons of Big Bang Theory again). It is actually quite weird to be alone after almost 4 months living very close with another person. But I kind of enjoy it as well.

Well, since I have a lot of time on my hands, I can tell you a bit about the police here in Madagascar, because it is really different from Norway. Corruption is a really big issue here, and I have noticed it several times..

First meeting with a police-officer here was when we were in the south, and our friend got stopped on the road, he was told to show his papers and get out of the car. He did as he was told, and the police-officer told him to go inside the car again, and drive to the side of the road. He again did what he was told, but then the police-officer said that he didn't blink to the side, and didn't put his seatbelt on before he drove to the side, so he had to pay the officer 5000Ar (15kr) in a fine. It seems like they always want to get you on something, so that they can earn money from it. There has also been a police-officer that pretended there was something wrong with our visa, so that he could earn money from it, but we luckily had a driver that could talk to him for us.

And who do you call if a police-officer do something that is illegal or you don't like? I have a problem understanding that. Because when I was alone this friday-evening i rode in a Kinga (Open taxi), the police stopped us, and asked to see my passport. I gave him my passport, he watched it and was pleased with how it looked. He gave it back to me, then he started feeling up my thigh and speak to me in French, that was really uncomfortable. The Kinga-driver said something to the officer in an angry tone and drove away. But that got me asking myself; What if the police does something that is illegal, who do you call?

At least I have found out that I will never walk alone here when it's dark, and always have my phone with me, because that experience scared me a lot. I know it didn't go that far, but you never know what would have happened if the driver wasn't there.

Anyway; This weekend my mother is coming to visit me, and I really hope to get well before she comes. :-)

I have posted this picture before, but here you can see what a Kinga looks like:

And this is one of the best tv-series ever made! 

- Mary Ann

Homesickness and thoughts about next year

Lately it has been really quiet and not so much to do, so of course my mind wanders off to what is happening at home. And also I am starting to think of what I want to do for next year. I thought I would have a clue when I had been living in Madagascar for around 4 months, but I have no clue at all. There are so many choices and I am not sure what my interests are. So my mind have been a lot in Norway after infield, a lot of Skyping and chatting on the internet; my mind have been more in Norway than in Madagascar.

But in a week from now Julie will go on vacation with her family, and then I am going to visit my friends in Fandriana and my friends in Antananarivo.To travel long-distance by bus alone here in Madagascar can be an experience. They fill the buses up until it's almost not possible to touch the floors with your feet, and the first trip is lasting 4 hours. And after that I will have a visit from my family, so I have a lot to look forward to!

Since it hasn't been so much happening these last days I am posting some pictures of our garden here at Tombontsoa, I must say that we have a really fruitful garden!

A couple of days ago we found out that we actually have pineappleplants in our garden. Fits me perfectly, because I have never eaten so much pineapples in my life; as I have done here.

We also have grapes, they are absolutely not finished yet

Aloe Vera:

Unfinished mango:

Some kind of fruit that we don't know what is..

Banana tree:

A nice red flower that I don't know the name of:

- Mary Ann

Kenya - giraffe-kiss, elephants and the slum

So much have happened since last entry! Where to start?
I can start with a little irritating thing that has happened..We got home from the coast and after two days in Antsirabe we realized that we had forgot that we put five of our dresses in the closet at the hotel.. So the picture of me at Christmas-eve is the last picture you will ever see of me in that dress!

We went to Kenya for infield last week, and it has been the week of my life! First of all, we got to see alot of Hald-people again, something that was really nice! And a lot of you know that I love animals.. Well, I got to see some in Kenya as well..

The first day we visited an Elephant-orphanage, and got to see when they fed them with bottles of milk. We got to touch them as well, and their skin felt like touching a rock.

After being in the Elephant-orphanage we went to see a Giraffe-park. It was really cool, because I have never been so close to a giraffe before!

Yeah, this is as comfortable as it looks like.. (They assured us that the giraffes didn't have rabies.)

One of the days at Infield we went on safari.. I have to admit that it was a bit more boring than actually getting to touch the big animals, but it was good to see them in the wild as well.. And the coolest animals that we saw at the safari were baboons. They were outside the nationalpark and they were stealing things from the cars that had left the windows open.

Here you can see a baboon inside the car.

This baboon is eating a mango he stole from one of the cars.

This picture speaks a bit for itself..

Besides from the baboons I have to say that the coolest animals we saw were the zebras, I don't know why, but they are facinating..

Here you have Julie and me and an overview of the park.

Even though it was fun to see the animals, the best experience I have from the trip to Kenya is the visit to the Mathare-slum.. The way people live in Mathare is so different from my life, and it really put things in perspective. There are over 600.000 people living in Mathare, and when I walked through the slum I couldn't help but notice that I could not se a face that wasn't smiling..

In Norway you see so many commercials to help the people in the slum, and they show a crying baby with flies all over. That is not the impression I have of the slum at all. Yes, people are struggling with money, HIV/aids and crime and it is an unhealthy invironment to live in. But we have so much to learn from the people that are living in a community like Mathare. I have never felt so welcomed by strangers anywhere else in the world.. As many of you might know, I don't like kids that I don't know so much.. But this is the first time I have ever experienced a totally unknown kid running right to me, and giving me a hug. Actually a lot of kids ran up to us to hold our hands and talk to us.

We visited something called "The Lepta Community" and I have never met so inspiring people in my life. Here you can see what it says on Lepta's homepage: http://sites.google.com/site/leptacommunity/mathare-valley I highly reccomend to read it, it's not long, and then you can see a bit more of what I have seen.

Here you see an overview picture of the slum, here it lives over 600.000 people.

Here you can see the river that runs through the slum, and a man looking for bottles that he wants to sell.

 This is a random street in Mathare, this is the houses that people live in.

This is our friend, a member of "The Lepta Community" and he showed us his appartment in Mathare. You can also see me, holding his neighbour's baby. She was so cute!

Here you can see one of the kids that ran up to me on the street.

- Mary Ann