This is a panoramic view of my front yard... what I see every morning when I first wake up. On the far right is my "shower" house, then scanning left you see three chicken huts (and the mango tree where they prefer to sleep), in the background is the outhouse, and on the far left is the kitchen hut where the village chief's family cooks and eats.
This is where I live my life, where I eat all my meals sitting on woven mats, where I clean my dishes, play with children, slice vegetables, cook rice, prepare fresh fish and socialize with my fellow villagers. Yards are different in Madagascar... it is where life happens... it is an open, common space. The home is meant for sleeping and storage.
When I first moved to my village one year ago tomorrow, living my life "exposed" in the front yard was surprisingly hard for me. I was used to a certain level of private, personal space; each meal I would cook and eat alone, inside my hut. Slowly over the last year I have come to live more & more of my life in the front yard like everybody else. I moved my one chair outside. I moved my dishwashing station outside. Now I can't even eat sitting at my table (I tried the other day, it felt odd). And I rarely eat alone anymore, because the families that share my yard welcome me to eat rice with them at every meal.
I've moved into the front yard. Year one, down.
So wonderful! It's exciting to hear how you've grown in such a beautiful way. Lovely! Wish I could eat rice in your yard with you, Vanessa Rae.
ReplyDeleteHi I'm doing a project for my college class on the laundry detergent market in Madagascar, the top brands, how much consumers are willing to pay for detergent, etc. Our project requires us to find social media contacts in Madagascar if you could help me that would be really great here's my email brittany.person@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteThanks!