Building a traditional wooden boat in Madagascar

Jean has finished building his latest boat named Miaraka (Malagasy for ‘to be together’ or ‘to go together’ . It’s a traditional wooden boat that can use sail or outboard motor (up to 40hp).  It was constructed using methods passed down from older fishermen in his district (follow links to see photos of [...]

Racial and ethnic groups in Northern Madagascar

As described in ‘Are Malagasys racist?’, race and ethnicity matter in Madagascar. Although it may look as if everybody is a crazy mix, these are the main groups that I have identified.
In Antsiranana, the racial groups are:

Coastal Gasys
Plateau Gasys
White people – Vazahas
Chinese – Sinoa
Indians - Karan
Arabs
Creoles

Coastal versus Plateau Malagasys
This subheading, Coastal versus Plateau Malagasys, [...]

Mouse eats knickers

A mouse has just run over my foot whilst I was getting underwear out of the cupboard. Thus I have now linked two minor events that happened in the last week where I spotted:
1. holes in my knickers
2. a mouse running into our bedroom during the night.
This will teach me for letting my knickers [...]

Should we be nice to children?

In Britain, children are worshiped and considered the most important members of the family. The parents exist to provide for and guide the children, their own needs being second place to fulfilling their children’s needs (or wants).
In Madagascar, children justify much less respect and sentimentality.
Here are some examples of how children are not on [...]