Back to the Middle Ages?

Returning to Madagascar after two months of holidays in Europe is not exactly going back to the future. I can't help but feeling being thrown back into the dark ages. The unlit, eerie neighborhoods, the roads completely dark and deserted after 8 pm in the evening, the businesses closed between noon and 2 pm, our house full of candles on stand-by in case of a powercut, twelve minutes to open a webpage...

Okay, I may be exagerating, there were no webpages in the Middle Ages, and I know it's not all dark and desolate here. But it is unnerving to see so little progress over the years; economically, politically, infrastructurally... In the rural areas where 75% of the population live, the conditions are truly medieval; parents sleep together with children, chickens, and cockroaches in the same room, their sleep-wake rhythm follows that of the sun, they relief themselves in the bushes, and electricity and motorized tools are things they may not even have heard of.

So I can't help wonder, will there be light for these people during their lifetime?

Personally I am convinced that I will find back my own little life light soon. It always takes a few days to readjust to my adopted country. I try to look at the bright side: this morning internet was fast, only seven minutes to open my blog! I went to a brandnew shopping mall! It even boasts the first ever escalator in the country.
And, top of the top, someone was painting white lines on one of Tana's main roads! Real 21st century progress!

Brand new shoprite Mall

Is that a real escalator???

They didn't have white lines in the middle ages did they? :-)