Settling in Tana

I heard someone on the street whistling Pachbell Cannon. It is hot during the day here. Attempting to learn Malagasy, I started to teach English.

Taken from the Spoken English Course establishment.

This is the view from the top of the staircase next to my hotel. Can you make out the opposite staircase in the distance?

There are people singing next door when I go to sleep Moonlight Hotel at half past ten on the evening of the fourteenth of May. When I awake at half past three, they are still singing. 

The night before I switch hotels after 10 days in Moonlight, an overturned charcoal tub for streetside cooking sets a nearby secondhand book stand on fire at the bottom of the hill on which my new hotel, La Karthala rests.

Some of the rubble is still there when I got my camera out a few days after the fire.

 

On the walk from one hotel to the other.

There seems to be a big difference between the bush and the city in Madagascar. I can't really compare it to the United States because I have experienced neither a downtown area nor the countryside in America. Also, I haven't spent enough time in the city or the bush Madagascar to extrapolate. 

I was confronted with this situation: I gave someone a gift. The person to whom I gifted something offered a return that I did not want. Was I right to reject the offer? I think not for the following reason, it is best to exchange. If the person to whom I gave freely seeks another gift from someone else, then discomfort will follow when someone asks for something in return. If so, I should give to those from those who will return a gift and receive gifts only when I will offer on in return. 

I have trouble getting people I knew at different times to know each other.

The students tell me English is an international business language. When people of two countries do business, even if neither country is an English speaking country, and instead of learning the language of the other, each group will learn English in order to communicate. Some said this because of the size of the US economy. Is that right?

Would you like some English?

I get a whistle; a honk, or a "monsieur, taxi?" pretty often. I was frustrated, but now I can use the extra qttention to attract business for SEC.

 Where Anna will work, if she comes here!

Ugh. I cracked the screen on my Nexus 7. I was not using any external protective case when I was walking around with it, amongst other things, in my hands. I dropped it. In trying to catch the falling tablet, I pushed it against a window with force. I broke the fall with my foot. Half of the screen still works...

I am cooking dinner for myself in the new hotel. I got lessons from some boys. Beans need to be soaked for 24 hours BEFORE being cooked! It is great that I now have the option to avoid going to a restaurant.

These picture are taken from the terrace at La Karthala.

I worked a stand for the Spoken English Course at a fair for the last four days. People were not encouraged to learn English when they found out that I do not speak Malagasy. Lalaina, who practices Jeet Kune Do, taught some polite greetings. A Comorran man, Nanasy, helped me develop a sales pitch that I could repeat.  Rene, the SEC director has a good pitch. Le Gastronomie Pizzaria has the best pizza I have eaten in Madagascar.

Right now I am focused on a more economical living situation, a long term visa and how to teach the advanced course next month. Enjoy life;°)