Featured Blog Posts (10)

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that there are much less materials online for learning Malagasy than there are for other languages. The only online language course that I know of on Malagasy is in French and it is quite old as well. Over half the languages that are on Google Translate are much smaller in population and many are official languages nowhere, yet Malagasy still doesn't have a showing there.

With this post I would like to do a bit change that, but being a…

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I will visit Madagascar in a few weeks and I hope to have a few basic words down for once I am there. As such I have been working with what sources I could find on the internet. And there aren't many when compared to other languages, that's for sure! So to…

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I'm dying to get back to Madagascar. I had some of the most amazing experiences of my life on the eighth continent. The people, the culture and the rainforests had a profound impact on me. When we gazed at the night sky in Berenty it seemed like we could see the farthest corners of the universe. Suffice to say you have never really seen the night sky until you have gazed up at it from the pitch-black spiny forests of Madagascar. The sound of villagers playing valiha (a bamboo tube zither) in… Continue

Thanks to a break down in the rule of law brought about by the coup, crowned lemurs and endangered golden crowned sifaka are being slaughtered by gangs and sold to restaurant owners as exotic meat. These animals have limited ranges and could very easily be wiped out. When I think about these gentle animals, who probably approached their killers curiously as they are used to ecotourists, it makes me want to cry.



This is a tragedy not only for the lemurs, but for the people of… Continue

To our friends in Tana and all the other cities that have seen violence over the weekend, we want you to know our thoughts are with you. We sincerely hope Ravalomanana and Rajoelina can solve this dispute through a free and fair election, and that there will be no further loss of life. It would be a crime to allow critical foreign investment to evaporate and the nascent eco-tourism industry to wither due to unnecessary political grandstanding. As Dany put it, lets hope they can come together in… Continue

Article of Wikianswers http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_meaning_of_christmas_in_madagascar



Christmas in Madagascar means a time of festivities for the people of the island. The day of Christmas is celebrated by the Christian population living in Madagascar. However, celebration of Christmas in Madagascar is somewhat different from the celebrations in other parts of the… Continue

CHOICE OF THE CHILD'S NAME

The Malagasy young boy is circumcised as soon as he is sufficiently strong to support the operation. The circumcision can be done individually or by group of children; it is according to the families and the areas.

Circumcising a child is a way to introducing him into the adults social life, it is a way of allotting a NAME to him.

The Malagasy baby girl is not excised. That is valid for all the island.

Formerly, a Malagasy child received a… Continue

This is not an article of a psychologist, nor a doctor, even less than an adept of Feng Shui, or other matter related to the sleep disorder.



I speak about my own experiment. Thus I cannot assert scientific facts. Each one will experiment and confirm or not the observations of my Ancestors.



According to the Malagasy habits the house was to be traditionally directed north/south with the open window towards the east… Continue

By Dan & Mika



Preparing for the Trip

Three days prior to leaving for Madagascar we head to the Straub travel clinic for a consultation and routine vaccinations. The next day I have a violent reaction to one of the vaccinations. For two days I have an intense fever and shivers so severe they border on seizures. We almost cancel the trip, but on the third day all my symptoms suddenly disappear.



Feb 23

We arrive in Antananarivo, known as… Continue

What is the origin of the name of the country?

The Arabs say that it results of "mata qash " = the distant country. It is to verify. I do not speak Arabic I can not say if it is true or not. According to the historians the traveler Marco Polo would have mentioned the island of Madagascar in his narratives. Others say that he confused with Mogadishu (in Somalia). But the name stayed. Although Portuguese and French called it Saint Laurent in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Even the… Continue