Getting Used to Madagascar

Hello my dear readers. It has been a while. Not that I had nothing to share. On the contrary. This country is full of stuff to blog about, and things never cease to amaze me. Take the upcoming elections for example. A political circus that one could blog about every day.

Madagascar 3
After 3 years of temporary 'government', elections will finally be held in July this year - insh'allah. No less than 49 candidates have presented themselves at the electoral commission; a Guinness book of records world-record. This in itself is a fun fact, but it gets better. Current and previous presidents were officially excluded from presenting themselves. They promised not to run. But one minute before closure, current  'president' aka former DJ comes running in the election office, throws his dossier on the table, and gets accepted. Previous president aka The Dairy King, has in fact kept his 'promise' but put his wife (!) up as presidential candidate. And then there is Mr previous-previous president, (already been on the throne for 23 years), who, at 76 years old, still think he should run the country. To show that he can still perform he did  than 20 push-ups en plein public on the  hot tarmac of Ivato international airport! Ha ha! It almost makes the circus scene in the movie Madagascar 3 look like non-fiction...doesn't it?

Getting accustomed
But you know what? Somehow this doesn't surprise me anymore. I guess that after three years I am  growing accustomed to Madagascar. I admit that it has taken me quite a while to acclimatize here. Apart from getting used to good things such as having domestic help :-)

Recently I experienced something that I think I could get used to really easily. Traveling by private plane!  Yes, for my consulting work for Ambatovy Nickel Mining company I have had the pleasure to travel by the company's Twin Otter. Flying to Tamatave in one hour in stead of ten hours by road.

No boarding card, no lines, no passport control, no taking off belts, sun glasses, shoes, bracelets, earrings, opening laptops - straight from the coffee room into the plane seat. Enjoying the incredibly beautiful landscape, to land next to a troop of  zebus. Now that, I think I can get used to real fast!

Landing in between the zebus in Moramanga

Good views from the Twin Otter