Antsika Jiaby

Saturday was the first Madagascar Tous Ensemble concert in Tana, so I got to watch 12 of Madagascar's finest musicians try to squeeze their 3 song sets into the daylight hours. Unfortunately this was not possible, because despite being May 1st (which is maybe the biggest concert day of the year because it marks the start of the DRY season) it poured rain for maybe 2 hours right in the middle of the concert, and we all had to take shelter under this one tiny tent in the "backstage" area while a mob of spectators hovered angrily around the gate being slightly menaced by two police officers but really being more menacing themselves, which was terribly inconvenient for poor Mika who really had to pee but was scared to pass through the mob, even though Mika & Davis had already finished their set so technically the crowd should have not have had any beef with them. But try explaining that to an angry mob. After the rain finally stopped it was still ages before they could start the concert again because all the equipment was wet and all the artists had stories of being minorly shocked/totally electrocuted by wet microphones etc., but all the spectators were demanding that the music start or they get their money back (prix d'entrée: 1000 ariary, or about 50 cents) so finally one of the artists procured a pair of gloves and agreed to go on with the show. By this time it was already late afternoon so the remaining artists did just two songs a piece, but then it was night and the organizers hadn't ordered lights (because how could TWELVE bands possibly not finish by 5pm??) so the last two groups played one song a piece, illuminated by the light of the remaining spectators' cell phones. Good times. And I got to speak English all day because my friend from Peace Corps was in town.Tomino (Hazolahy) and his awesome homemade giant wooden guitar. Video coming soon when I learn how to compress video files so they'll load from the internet cafe.

Chillin' with Bagzana.

Ok next article of business is spiders. There are some really big spiders in Madagascar and I have developed a serious fear of them since arriving two years ago. In Mahatsara Sud they would sometimes appear on my walls or worse on my chair and one time I smashed one behind a poster and I almost threw up, but I think the fear really started when I scared one off my chair and it jumped to the ground and made a THUD. As in the noise of an object that has significant mass. Here in Itaosy the spiders make huge webs between the trees which I frequently almost walk into when I'm hanging up my laundry to dry. Here are some pictures. I'll leave you to freak out.

In closing, a picture I took just this morning of my knuckles, bloody from ... washing too many clothes by hand yesterday. I wasn't actually bleeding into my laundry -- my knuckles were just kindof sore yesterday and then this morning all these little blood blisters appeared. Four months back in the US and I'm delicate as a new-born. What would my village think?