Meeting the Villages

Today I was able to see most of the villages that Grant saw during his first visit. Because Tuesdays are market days in Betioky, most of the surrounding villages empty out and head to town to sell their goods. The benefit to this is that when we enter a village we are not swarmed by people, but on the bad side we are often at a loss to find people!

We stopped first at Ambatry, by far the largest village (more like a town) outside of Betioky. It seemed pretty open with hut after hut. We stopped by Lioka’s house, a local teacher and the president of the Lutheran church there. His wife was there, but he had already left for Btioky. She seemed shy, maybe nervous - so we headed south for the village of Befaha. The people at Befaha greeted us at the car and seemed comfortable with us. They were excited about the pictures, but complained that the paper we printed them on was weak (we printed them on computer paper) and they didn’t say thank you. They asked for clothes and rides, and had no problem with asking for things from us. They seem to want to get what they can out of the “vazaha.” The good thing was that Grant was invited to attend a funeral next Thursday. He will go to a village hidden in the forest. They told us that they are afraid of outsiders. The person they are burying has been dead for 1 year. Grant agreed to come and will be staying the night in Befaha. It should be a great (or at least interesting!) experience for him.

After Befaha, we continued south to Tanantsoa. This village is so small, but the people were friendly and welcoming. Grant didn’t see anyone he had seen before, and we didn’t stay long. They were enjoying seeing Eli - even though he was incredibly fussy by this time. They told us that there were 30 men in the village. Although you could miss the village if you blinked, I was glad Grant found it!

We spent the rest of the afternoon at the hotel. Eli couldn’t fall asleep and couldn’t function without it! So we spent the next three hours trying to get Eli to sleep through the bustling market day and farm animals outside. He finally fell asleep and Grant and Chris left for the Ambatry village again while I caught up on some reading.

The visit to Ambatry proved worthwhile, as Lioka had returned. They continued building their relationship and Grant found out that Lioka would also be attending the funeral next week. Lioka told them about all of the problems the Betioky area is having with murder and cow thieves. We were even told by the hotel owner to return early, because she said someone always gets murdered on market day!