I went to Madagascar looking for the lemurs, but I found the
people of this island most interesting. Its real name is Betania and is separated
from the city of Morondava by a river of the same name. The river empties into the
Mozambique Channel that separates Madagascar from Africa.
Boarded an outrigger to explore the mangroves but other than
a few crabs, there was not much in the way of wildlife to see, so headed for
Fisherman’s Island. The people
subsistence here is mostly fishing and some shipbuilding. There were a few pigs but plenty of chickens
in the island. Fisherman’s Island is
just like any other tropical island with the coconut groves and the fine yellow
sand. Being inhabited, the sign of such
occupation is notable with the usual debris lying around, the homes made of
wood and whatever other material is found.
But the people appeared happy and were friendly.
One curios practice that I noticed while walking on the
beach is all of a sudden I found myself stepping into large circles of death small
fish laying the sand, so I back tracked.
I was told that the small fish are laid on the sand for drying by the
sun as a mean of preservation. Again…where are the birds? In other parts of the world they would be
eating the fish.
After the men return from fishing early in the morning, the
community goes to the beach to sort the fish and repair the fishing next to be
ready for the next day. The women
participate in the processing of the fish to have it ready to marked and then
take it to the market in Morondova. To get there, they have to cross the river,
part of the river is waded and the point it gets deeper, they board boats to
get across. The process is the same in the return trip and there are always
customers waiting for the water taxis to make the crossing.
People were not too excited about being photographed but I
saw a group of young women looking at me and their faces said “photograph
me”!!! I approached them and they were thrilled. They paint their faces yellow but for a
practical purpose: To protect their
faces against the sun. They made their
own cream by taking the bark of the tamarind fruits and grinding it to a fine
powder than then is applied to the skin.
I must thank Air Madagascar for this opportunity to visit
the island due to a flight cancellation.
Flights are frequently cancelled (I suffered 3) and they may arrive
early as well as late. And if they
arrive early, they will leave early, and not follow the scheduled departure
time. Air Madagascar is the biggest
problem for the development of the tourist industry in this unusual and
beautiful country. In the plus side,
they flight brand new planes and usually half empty. After returning to Morondava, cell phone call was made to find the status of the Air Madagascar departing flight…I did leave
this time.
