Antananarivo I

A look at Upper Tana en route to the Rova.

The first two days in Antananarivo have been spent getting our feet on the ground and accustomed to this new environment. Kristen has spent most of her time meeting supervisors and colleagues and finding out what they want her to do during her fellowship. She is getting a crash-course in USAID-ese, which at this early stage is confusing, but will ultimately be very valuable should she stay in the Development field.

As a TS (trailing spouse, or trophy spouse), I've had more opportunity to venture out into the city. The city is hilly and divided into upper and lower portions. Our hotel is in the upper portion, along with the Presidential Palace. Speaking of which, yesterday, trying to avoid traffic, I made the mistake of using driveway to the Palace to get back to the hotel. Soldiers with machine guns quickly pointed out my mistake and put me back on the right track.

During another walk, I headed up towards the old Queen's Palace and looked up into the telephone wires. There, in between two strands of lines, I saw spider webs, and in the middle of each were the biggest spiders I'd ever seen. It looked like they might be able to handle small birds. Those, aside from stray dogs, have been the only wildlife seen so far.

Then, for lunch yesterday, I walked down to Avenue de l'Independance looking for a restaurant recommended in the Brandt guide. This street is very busy with both vehicular and pedestrian traffic. The entrance to the main market is off this street and looked inviting, however I wasn't feeling bold enough to run the gauntlet yet. I did eventually find the restaurant, El Pili Pili, and ordered the Pili Pili Sandwich, which advertised chicken with fries, and a beer. I guess the description was more literal than I imagined because the sandwich arrived with both the chicken and fries inside the sandwich. It reminded me of when I was in grade school and would put potato chips in my PB&J. Sadly, but perhaps predictably, the Madagascar version did not meet my childhood expectations. The beer, however, was pretty good.

Some of our first impressions of Tana and its residents is how clean both the city and the people seem. Absent are the wandering flocks of goats, sheep, cows, donkeys and camels that we have come to associate with Niger. Also absent, thankfully, are the stench of human sewage and the sight of it in the streets and alleys. The people in the city dress more demurely than in West Africa, with most people wearing Western styles of dress. Kristen was told that in Fianar, the people are more colorfully dressed than in Tana. Beggars and hawkers still pester Westerners, but seem to be less persistent than ones in Niger. Appearance wise, the Malagasy seem much more Asian than African. This is what we read before arriving, but somehow is still surprising. And, stature wise, I'm up in the 90th percentile, which is a first for me.

This morning I met Kristen's supervisor, Philippe, and walked with him and Kristen to the office. The office is on the top floor of a newly constructed building. Originally, the space had been designed as a penthouse suite, but apparently that concept is not quite ripe enough for Tana, so it was converted into its current configuration of offices. But, overall the space is quite nice and the view is nice, as are the amenities like kitchen and fireplace. Philippe did mention that he has Nissan pickup that he will be selling at the end of April, when his container from the U.S. arrives. We'll probably look at it; he says it's in good shape and the price is in our range.

That's about all the news. We'll keep you posted as things develop here.