There were lots of people everywhere. People knew we were outsiders for two reasons. First, because we're white. Secondly, because we were with the Pritchards. Everybody recognizes them because they walk on the streets several times a week to do their shopping, etc. Because of those two things we were bombarded literally by everyone to buy what they were selling! It was almost unbearable to have so many people constantly surrounding you and shoving their items for sale in your face and constantly saying "very cheap." They don't take no for an answer, either.
The woman in the hat is a Malagasy woman that followed us around trying to sell us her goods. We learned quickly to ignore them. That was very hard as that goes against how I was raised. You don't ignore anyone (except in Madagascar)!
Ja was buying candy for their learning center's graduation. Three Malagasy kids spotted him a mile away. "Surely the visaha will 'give' us some candy," is their thinking. They were relentless. Ja gave them each a piece of candy but that wasn't good enough. As I was putting the candy into a backpack they each put their hands out to me telling me to give them another piece. I told them no and we went on our way. However, I didn't know that they would follow us! And follow us they did! For at least an hour! Everywhere! If we went into a little side store they'd wait outside for us and continue following us. But they weren't quiet as far as speaking. They kept saying the same thing over and over and over again and had their hands out and ready to take anything we would give to them. They finally quit following us when we went into the grocery store.
I decided to take a picture of the three munchkins that followed us and they were happy to let me, too. Actually, in their culture I was supposed to give them some money for taking their picture but since I didn't ask if I could do it, I didn't give them anything.
On to the market. It's an open air market. Nothing is refrigerated as you will see in the pictures. Not much to say about it because I think the pictures speak for themselves.
On to the market. It's an open air market. Nothing is refrigerated as you will see in the pictures. Not much to say about it because I think the pictures speak for themselves.
I think the 2 fish on the tray were there for several days in a row unrefrigerated. It seemed that every time I passed by that particular little "shop" they only had 2 fish and we were there sometimes 3 times a day. Yes, dogs roam freely thru the market. Notice all the bugs on the cut squash. Bugs, bugs, bugs, everywhere! In the picture with the chickens hanging the woman is trying to keep the bugs off the meat! Very unsanitary!
The Pritchards have found a butcher within the market that sells only fresh meat daily. You see, the mindset of most Malagasy people is that if it doesn't sell the first day, it's still perfectly fine to sell it the second and third and so on until it's all gone! Eeeeewwwwwww, gross!
After we were done with all of our shopping and sightseeing we were quite tired. We decided to rent a pouse pouse (pronounced poos poos) or pouse for short. In almost every aspect of life there in Madagascar you must negotiate the price for everything. So Ja negotiated the price for each one of us (there were 4 of us) to ride in a pouse. Get this - a very expensive ride at $.40 each! Not!!!! For them, that's good money. Weird, I know. So we got in them and got our ride home.
Now, the Pritchards and the Pettis' are considered big people. We are taller than most of the Malagasy people. So naturally, our pouse drivers had somewhat of a hard time pulling the guys. In other words, they had to work really hard to earn that $.40! By the time we got back to the Pritchards home, the guy pulling Walter had huge beads of sweat dripping off his face. Walter felt bad and gave him a tip and his bottle of water.
As our trip went on, we would take a pouse almost every morning from our hotel to the Pritchards. Usually, we were just too lazy to walk and we figured we might as well help the Malagasy earn a living. All you have to do is to call one is raise your hand in the air and yell "Pouse" and they will come running to you. We never negotiated the price with them because ya know, um, we didn't speak the language. However, we all understood the language of money! And we were very generous with them. They always got a tip from us. Sometimes we would give them as much as $1 each which is a day's wage there.
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