IT ALL STARTS WITH “M”

 

Malagasy language has only 4 vowels and 21 consonants.  It follows an English letter system and is phonetic. All the verbs start with the letter “M”.   Sounds easy but it isn’t.

 

All those M words blend together and are a mouth full. Manatanteraka-to finish, manasarotra – to make difficult, mihinana-to eat –so many “m” sounds. They tend to repeat letters mitsitokotoko, Mahalala, mandrindrina. When a Malagasy is saying the word it all blends  together.

 

To change the verb to the past just change the “M” to “N” and to change it to the future change the “M” to an “H”.  Nihinana – I ate, or Hihinana – I am going to eat.

 

And the sentence structure is the opposite of ours.  The sentence starts with the verb. Mihinana vary aho.   Literally “Eat rice I.”  Matory tsara ianao. “Sleep well you.”  Question are a little different.

 

Names of towns and of peoples last names tend to be very long. The President of Madagascar is Hery Rajaoharinampianino. A tongue twister if I ever saw one.

 

One thing Peace Corps does very well is language training. Our language teachers never speak English – even though they all speak some- and of course we live for 3 months with host families who speak no English.  The first month is the hardest, most meals are eaten in silence or with very basic language skills.  Tamara eat rice, Neny eat rice, Tada eat rice, Tamara like rice, Neny like rice, Tada like rice etc. Very humbling. My host family is so patient.

 

Counting is another challenge as they count right to left.  124 is said 4 plus 2 ten’s plus 1 100- I always get it wrong.

 

I am not very good at new languages and it took me a long time to learn Spanish. My son Douglas will tell you that my Spanish was still fairly rough when we left Guatemala in 2006.  My saving grace is that I am always able to communicate in some form and not afraid to make a fool of myself trying. I literally had to make the gesture of how to use toilet paper to get it across to the women that I wanted to buy some.

 

I remember an incident in 1980 when I went to Honduras to teach a “Prevention of Blindness” program. The project was proceeding very slow and I was to report to the Minister of Health and his staff and some ophthalmologist with an update.  I said in my best Spanish that I thought one of the reasons for the slow progress was that the nurses were afraid of the new changes. “Tienen Miedo”

 

There was an audible gasp, mouths dropped and heads shook.  My first thought was that they were not accustomed to hearing an American speak so boldly and tell it like is so I repeated the phrase louder with more confidence saying essentially “Oh yes they have a lot of fear of changing.”  Dr Gomez, one of the ophthalmologist leaned over to tell me I was saying mierda instead of meido – in all honestly, they sounded a little alike.  But meirda is SH__, not fear – so I was essentially saying they had a lot of SH__!

 

There are 42 different way to say “to go”- to go to church is different from to go out, to go vacation etc. how will I ever learn them all!

 

Moramora, KelyKely as they say here – slowly and a little at a time!  Each day I see slow progress. I am expected to make a simple health presentation next month on hand washing or nutrition, in Malagasy of course.  I plan to use a lot of pictures and gestures.

 

I go to church with my host mother every Sunday. She is not Catholic and attends the Pentecostal Church. I go with her because I know it means a lot to her for me to sit next to her in church. I will attend the Catholic church when I move to my permanent site.

 

 Last Sunday I was standing in the crowded hot church, belting out the hymnal in my best Malagasy as I followed the words on the board.  It was an uplifting song and suddenly I stopped mid verse and looked around. I took a deep breath as I looked around me and said “Oh my Gosh, I am in Madagascar, in a small village called Mantasoa, surrounded by all these wonderful Malagasy people singing praise.”  It was another one of those Ahhh moments that brought tears to my eyes. 

 

Did I mention that church services last 3 hours?  That may have contributed slightly to the tears!  Also we climb down two hill sides and cross over the rice fields to get there. There are elevated surfaces through the middle of the rice patties about 15 inches across. If anyone is coming from the other side we must hold on to them, sort of hug and slowly turn so we don’t fall in.  There is not enough room to pass side by side. Going home we have to climb those two hills!!

Here is my Chamber pot and the bucket I use to bathe -only one bucket of water every other day.

LIFE ITSELF IS THE MOST WONDERFUL FAIRY TALE -Hans C.Anderson

 

 

 

 

 

    

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

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