Racontée en photos.....
La vie d'une Malgache qui a découvert l'utilité du plastique jetable et refuse de s'en séparer.
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It all started with containers sitting on the kitchen counter...
" Corinne this is nuts! "
" Why do we need so many plastic containers? " He said.
" You know they are disposable, don't you? "
Dixit Phillip : " On ne jette rien dans cette maison! "
" Oui, en Afrique on garde tout! "
" Oui, en Afrique on garde tout! "
I admit I am strongly attracted to disposable containers.
And there is a darn good reason for this.
Looking at the photo in the right margin of this blog you may have guessed I grew up in some exotic foreign lands.
Yes, and that may be a story...
I am proud to say that I am a "bush baby" : a child born in French colonial Africa,
raised in the Madagascar bush.
Mom, Dad and me.
En famille à Ankazobé.
My dad, on the left, playing with snakes....
Les charmeurs de serpents. Bas Sambirano, Janvier 53 .
In the early 1950's the French government sent my parents to the remote areas of the "Red Island", Madagascar.
I was born in the capital, making me a Zanatane, a name given to a French citizen born on the island.
Since my parents were born in France, they were dismissively called " Z'Oreilles " meaning "ears".
Many explanations are put forward to explain the term. The most commonly accepted ones are:
1 -because the tropical sun turned their ears red
2 - they tilted their ear forward trying to understand the creole language
3 - they were sent from France to spy on the local population.
~
1952
Départ pour " Mada " histoire d'aller cartographier l'intérieur,
les hauts plateaux et la brousse de l'Ile Rouge pour le cadastre.
Etymologie des Z'Oreilles
My " Z'Oreilles " parents in Tana
( short for Tananarive, the capital, now named Antananarivo )
Les Z'Oreilles à Tana...
Many explanations are put forward to explain the term. The most commonly accepted ones are:
1 -because the tropical sun turned their ears red
2 - they tilted their ear forward trying to understand the creole language
3 - they were sent from France to spy on the local population.
~
1952
Départ pour " Mada " histoire d'aller cartographier l'intérieur,
les hauts plateaux et la brousse de l'Ile Rouge pour le cadastre.
Etymologie des Z'Oreilles
( short for Tananarive, the capital, now named Antananarivo )
Les Z'Oreilles à Tana...
Our life was frugal and gipsy like.
Bémanéviky, 1952
The house and the village main street.
La case et l'entrée du village
La Mahajamba, Mai 53.
Constantly moving along as my father kept on mapping the remote areas of the high plateaus.
The life of a civil engineer.
Triangulations et points géodésiques. La vie d'un "topo" en brousse.
My mom kept us alive with her vegetable garden,
The house and the village main street.
La case et l'entrée du village
?????
Constantly moving along as my father kept on mapping the remote areas of the high plateaus.
Triangulations et points géodésiques. La vie d'un "topo" en brousse.
My mom kept us alive with her vegetable garden,
(she didn't know then it was organic)...
and a practical common sense .
We never threw ANYTHING away!
Most things had to be easy to pack, lightweight or foldable.
~
Une vie nomade.
Il faut avoir un sens pratique.
We never threw ANYTHING away!
Lunch on the beach.
Casse-croûte sur la plage.
Most things had to be easy to pack, lightweight or foldable.
~
Une vie nomade.
Il faut avoir un sens pratique.
Each village chief was required to accommodate the new visitors by providing a house.
La "case", creole for a house.
La case, en général trouvée par le chef de village.
Graciously assigning villagers to help the family....
Sifting rice to separate the grains from the husk.
Décorticage du riz.
And at times a prisoner--This woman beat up her husband-- to watch the baby.
La nénène qui était parfois un prisonnier...
I am proud to say it was three years before I first saw electricity.
Feeding ducklings.
When we finally returned to the capital, I promptly humiliated my parents at a fancy restaurant in Antananarivo by saying out loud: " Wow, look at all those Petromax! "--the local name brand of gas lanterns. This was a dead give away that despite your education, hard work and fancy clothes you had just stepped right off a plantation or out of the bush !
~
A trois ans. La perle.
" Et bien, y'en a des Petromax ici! "
La paysanne sort de sa brousse et humilie ses parents dans les restaurants chics de Tana.
On the veranda with my brother.
Sous la véranda avec Denis.
~
A trois ans. La perle.
" Et bien, y'en a des Petromax ici! "
La paysanne sort de sa brousse et humilie ses parents dans les restaurants chics de Tana.
On the left : my parents at the Corsican Ball in Antananarivo ....
A gauche: les broussards au bal Corse.
I know there comes a time when reason has to prevail.
But.
Now living in the land of plenty, this African gal still has a hard time parting with the finer things in life..
Veloma !
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AMAZING!!
RépondreSupprimerAngie
Thank you Angie.
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