Jim Fiebig, our advisor, took us around the city centre for four hours today so that we can ‘get our legs’ for the country. We learned the capitol’s full name, Antananarivo, literally means; “cannot be defeated by 1,000 warriors“ -- though I have no way of knowing whether this is true or not, but we had great fun with it anyway.
This photo was taken during their annual holiday celebration.
The city centre is located in a central valley - with hundred’s of steps leading down to the main square often referred to as L' Avenue. The center section is a walking district with many shops, restaurants, money-changers and store fronts with roadway circumnavigating the area. Today, the 26th of June, is the country’s national holiday similar to what July 4th is in the USA. So the town square and local streets are filled with families walking here and there, enjoying their time off from work.
Before we started working with the dealers, we took a drive in the hills area above the city. As you can see in this photo, the city stretches for quite a distance. Yes.... that is smog, not just a hazy day.
We took lunch around 1pm, and then set up tables on the balcony overlooking the festival on the streets below us. Rough and cut stone dealers began to show up around 2pm or so. As a team, we spent the next three hours immersing ourselves into ‘buying mode’ with our nifty collection of gemological tools and our new dealer friends. Seems everyone came away happy as all of us spent some money, and the dealers left a little lighter.
After the day-and-a-half flight to get to Mada, my body requests rest, so I’ll try to write more tomorrow.
