“Languid”, “calm”, “quiet”, “gentle”…could such words ever properly describe a market, let alone a butcher’s shop within one?
They did in fact fit our experience of the covered market in Antsirabe, late on the morning of 12 May 2018.
This is the first of three very different posts about markets in Madagascar. (all photos copyright Doug Spencer)
Antsirabe is Madagascar’s second largest city, contra Wikipedia and “official” stats, this city’s “real” population (i.e. those who dwell in its actual urban area, rather than as defined by hopelessly out of date and unreliable “official” figures which relate to an arbitrary boundary) is probably much nearer to one million than to 250,000.
(Tana – Antananarivo – is also very much more populous than most “official” figures suggest. Its real population is closer to 3 million than to 1 million)
Antsirabe is only 170 kilometres south of Antananarivo, but “four hours away” is a very optimistic estimation of likely driving time; most Westerner visitors will likely be astonished by the vehicle-eating potholes!
It is a pleasant highland town, surrounded by fertile country, and relatively prosperous; underline “relatively”: Materially, Madagascar is one of the world’s poorest nations.
Most of Madagascar’s beer is brewed here.
Late on Saturday morning, Antsirabe’s covered market was a much more serene place than we had anticipated.
It did prove the quietest of the several markets we visited in Madagascar, but the others were still very much less “shouty” or “pushy” than markets we have experienced in various other “Third World” countries…and in some “First World” ones.
I loved the way the butcher’s boy (in this post’s featured image) deployed his pretty purple whisk, to gently shift flies, rather than attack them.
Conventional wisdom concerning sausages was defied, here.
If you look carefully you can see that the young sausage-maker is a little shy/self-conscious, but the older man (his father, I think) is quietly delighted that visitors are interested/admiring.
The next Madagascan post will be devoted to real live examples of Lemur Catta, this very large island’s emblematic species – the ring-tailed lemur.
Before that, however, Pelican Yoga’s next two posts will likely incline to wine and to music – both, from excellent Australian sources.
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