Madagascan habitation.

NB: with this post about the place I visited before the lockdown I want to bring you some positivism, beauty and the reassurance that we will all get a chance to see great different places again. Meanwhile I encourage you not to violate the stay-at-home regime. Instead I hope you’re using this time for catching up on what you never seemed to find the time to do… ‘before’ :).

Madagascar. You probably don’t know all that much about the place, right? (Well, apart from what you’ve learned here in my recent series of posts on the country, that is.) But what’s life like for Madagascans? How do they live? Do they have it good, or bad? How much do they earn? All that. Well, to give you an idea – herewith, a short photo-excursion around a few Madagascan urbanisms. First up – in the city of Andasibe.

Railroad station + train driver:

Onward we stroll…

Retail Madagascar:

Somewhat shanty-looking. The locals are smiling though ).

Church:

We head back…

Cyber-store + Wi-Fi zone:

‘Vazaha‘ come the squeals from the beaming children ->

Soccer pitch + geese!

But it was time for us to head to the airport. This was the last day of our African adventure. We pile into jeeps and of we pop, snapping as we go…

Yes, rather poor, and not the cleanest of streets. Indeed, Madagascar is way down the GDP table. A little below Estonia, a little above Cyprus. But if we look at GDP per capita things are even grimmer – in the last dozen countries. Eight times poorer than Namibia, where we began our African trip.

Another cyber-shop:

The roads around the city are decent and well maintained:

But all the bridges are still single-track:

Outside the cities – tropics, jungles, rice fields. Picturesque.

Suddenly – more bad roads. Broken down trucks a common sight:

We got caught up in a traffic jam in the capital, Antananarivo, for two and a half hours! But we still made the airport in time for our flight. Phew. And that was that. Africa – over and out. We were somewhat exhausted, but content with our new collection of impressions from the continent – by far mostly positive. It’s several months already since our trip, and I’m only just finishing this here write-up. Yes – things have been hectic of late, but that’s a whole other story…

All the pics from Madagascar are here.