Wednesday, March 27, 2013

12th day, Toliara - first lessons and insights



In the market, you need to know where to find what you want. Every day, I find something else by coincidence. I now have spaghettis, tomato sauce and dish washing soap, but am still lacking salt. Maybe tomorrow, I will have what it takes to prepare a meal at home.

I had a “medical information session”, which was amazingly useless. The best advice the doctor could give me – and the one I wanted to hear – was that there is no point in taking malaria prevention pills over a period of 3 months, and I happily stopped taking them immediately.

When I walk down the streets, people stare at me like at a circus attraction. I am white, a woman and by myself. This, in combination with Toliara being a small town with high unemployment rate, ergo a high rate of boredom, explains this excessive degree of attention I receive. I realize how much of a newbie I am still, when a guy comes up to me and says “hi”. Thinking that it is somebody from the WWF office whose face I don’t remember (which is a highly realistic scenario), I greet him enthusiastically and even give him the “bise”. When he asks my phone number and hotel, I am starting to realize my mistake.

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