Fianarantsoa

I have reached the destination of the journey! Fianarantsoa, or Fianarantso/Fianar as they say here. The meaning is: a good place to learn.

The 250 km trip from Antsirabe took seven hours, but we arrived well before dark. The road leads through wide valleys with rice fields and small villages with thatched houses built from the light brown clay, through indigenous forests where the lemurs live, through small towns with stalls and shops virtually on the edge of the road, so close that I could have touched them from the car window. People walk in the middle of the road, drive cattle, children play and the puss-puss (rickshaw) drivers slow down the traffic. This is the main road from north to south in Madagascar! It is really something to experience, but tedious if you are a frequent traveller here.

The workshop has started today, with about twenty participants. Looking promising!

I am on a slow internet connection so I am not able to upload pictures for the time being.