Kids are inspired by the World Cup

Last saturday, while waiting for the ICE Club meeting, in the playground of EPP (Public Primary School) Analakely, I was attracted by children’s shouts of joy. They were 5 guys and 1 girl playing football. Their ball was special. They made it by themselves. They winded a rope  round some used plastic bags and pieces of rag and that’s it. They seemed to have their own rules but repeated from time to time , I guess, words they could hear on radio or TV ‘corner’ and ‘penalty’. They were so cute

The sacred hill of Ambohitrabiby

June 5, as I said in my previous posts, I went hiking in Ambohitrabiby. Ambohitrabiby is on the National Road #3, 20 km from Antananarivo.

I made some research about Ambohitrabiby before going there. Ambohitabiby is well-known for its silk production. I also discovered that it is one the 12 sacred hills in Imerina. [History... would I be good at it? lol] The King Andrianampoinimerina (1745-1810) had 12 wives. He chose 12 hilltops where he placed each of his wives. There were Palaces and tombs in each of these 12 hills that is why they are  sacred.

I expected to visit the Palace in Ambohitrabiby. It made me so sad to discover that it has not been maintained so we could not visit the Palace. We could just visit a room they called ‘museum’ (also poorly maintained ) where paintings were hung on the walls (see pics). The paintings showed the hill in the era of kingdoms, the life of the villagers.

We could also see tombs of the Kings and Queens who had reigned in Ambohitrabiby. We could see the King Rabiby’s and his wife’s tomb. The name Ambohitrabiby came from this King (Habib) Rabiby (1500 – 1575) later. Ambohitrabiby = Ao amin’ny Vohitr’ i Rabiby (At the hill of Rabiby).

We could see as well the tomb of the King Ralambo (1575 – 1612) well-known as the one who taught Malagasy people  that beef is edible. By the way, I could learn that at the beginning, oxen were called ‘Jamoka’ (see pic of the entrance gate). The ancient villagers of Ambohitrabiby used the gate to make the ‘Jamoka’ enter in the village. They chose fat oxen for the King so everytime they tried to make the oxen enter the gate, they shouted ‘omby ve sa tsy omby?’ (does it fit the ox or not?). When the oxen could pass through the gate, the men shouted ‘omby’ (yes, it fits the ox). Then, people have kept the name ‘omby’ to call the oxen.

An exciting experience I lived in Ambohitrabiby was when I crawled in a ‘zohy’ (a kind of underground tunnel used for escape if enemies attack).

Ambohitrabiby is not a big city and new technologies are not really seen there. People have countryside life style and it was so touching that all villagers still said ‘Manao ahoana, tompoko ô’ (‘Hello’) when we passed by.

Enjoy the pics.

This link may interest you: ‘The Merina (or Hova) Dynasty’

Silk production

Saturday, June 5, I went hiking in Ambohitrabiby. Before going up to the Palace, we visited a family who works on producing silk. A man had explained the process of silk production. I really loved it because it was the first time for me I could see how it works.

They place the silkworm moths to lay eggs on a paper. After about 10 days, when the eggs hatch, they cut mulberry leaves into little pieces to feed the larvae. A month after hatching, the silkworms stop eating and spin their cocoons. Some cocoons will be kept to allow them complete their  life cylcle for the silkworm to lay eggs again and ensure continuation of the species. The other cocoons will be used for the silk production.

The cocoons are poured into a big pot of boiling water for 10 to 15 min. to dissolve the gummy substance that holds the cocoon filament in place. This will make the filaments of some cocoons join. These filaments are then ready for reeling.

I noticed that their methods were simple and the machines they used were old and traditional ones. But the silk they made was just… NICE. It was quite expensive; one meter of silk costs 50,000 MGA.  Imagine how much my sis in law would spend for the  tablecloth she wanted to order! Anyway, I think it is normal if you could see the thousands of cocoons they used to make it.

the silkworm moth