22nd day, Mangily - Long live public transport!

I felt inspired to compare public transport in the last 2 countries I have lived in –

Swiss trains versus Malagasy taxi brousses (bush taxi):

Approximate distance travelled for 5 €:

5 km versus 100 km

Passenger entertainment:

Smart phone/Ipad/Laptop versus cheerful pop music at top volume

Punctuality:

+- 30 seconds of indicated time versus + ½ hours to 4 hours of indicated time

Likelihood of breakdowns:

0.048 % versus 48 %

Time needed to travel 20 km:

10 minutes versus 2-5 hours (depending on breakdowns)

Additional charges:

100 CHF if caught without ticket versus ca. double the regular price because of vazaha (foreigner) abuse

Non-human passengers:

Dogs, of course with leash and muzzle versus chickens, possibly goats

Views of scenery:

Magnificent versus stunning

I’d say it’s a clear tie!

19th day, Ankilimalinike/Belalanda - I sit and wait...

Who am I to complain about Malagasy inefficiency, barely having spent 3 weeks in this country? Still, it hurts me inside to see when time, money and human resources are wasted, especially regarding the urgency and importance of our mission, that is, conserving the little that is left of Madagascar’s incomparable nature, with countless species that exist nowhere else on Earth.

Me, and a group of other volunteers, have the honourable task of being the main attraction – since we are “vazaha”, foreigners – of an exhibition about the project on aerial surveillance, which we are showing in several villages this week. Fair enough, but our motivation and ambitions go a little further than just having the locals stare at us, while we can’t do anything but sitting on a chair – considering that very few people speak French, and our Malagasy doesn’t go beyond a few phrases yet, so we have to leave all explanations and answering questions to the Malagasy WWF staff present. I can’t help but wonder if we couldn’t be doing something much more useful in the meantime. While I am at it, I also wonder why the WWF car keeps going back and forth between different places throughout the whole day, while we sit and wait for it to be over. Isn’t there a way to go about this in a more organized manner?

While I use the hours of inaction to make a mental list of suggestions for improvement, I know that there are good reasons for things being the way they are, and that I should take a lot of time to understand them, before coming to a rashy, arrogant-collonial judgment.

17th day, Mangily - Lucky for this time!

We get to Mangily way too easily. I was half looking forward, half dreading my first “taxi-brousse” experience. The word is a euphemism: “taxi-brousse” rides have very little to do with a pleasant taxi ride in town. Instead, overland transport in Madagascar happens in tightly packed trucks or buses, goats and chicken among the passengers included, and half of the human travellers having only a standing place. Considering that most roads in the country are in a dreadful condition, and that the taxi-brousses routinely break down on the way, a distance of 20 km can easily take a few hours and end with a serious back pain.

However, my luck got us a convenient ride in a car with a friend of my neighbour. Next time alright.