Salama Madagasikara!: Day 10

Whoa! Its over week in Madagascar already! How does the time fly so fast!

Today despite of the very heavy rain at morning we jumped into car and took off with Joël from Fanilo Tours for couple hour tour around Tamatave. There were so much to see and hear, and we did see many things that normal tourists never get to experience. Main thing was to visit churches, as they tell a lot about the people and the culture.

We went inside the Catholic Church of Tamatave. Many things remind of the ones in Poland. Sadly their big altar cross was taken down for renovations.

Next to the church was a goat market and people were picking out their future meals there.

After this we headed to the cemetery. Again a great place to understand the local life, the past, the present and the future. There were a lot of Chinese people buried here. This was the richer people cemetery. Sadly sudden flood from the sky stopped our trip short and had to take a speedrun to the car.

After the cemetary we continued our tour on the roads that had become rivers.

Then we went to the local Lutheran church. Pictures were not allowed, and we got to tour all the place. They were doing renovations at the backside and on the permises they held a school for deaf children.

The next part really shown me the difference between western and local care for mental disorders. It was not easy to see, but this was the best option for the patients there.

When person is brought in for weird behaviour, take take him to hospital to get checked for possible physical causes. If none are found, person is taken in to the hospice at the church and healed with prayers. There are no medications, no fancy therapies etc. If person is aggressive, he will be chained from feet and hands with metal cuffs to avoid harming others. It all sounds cruel, but the other option for these people is to be killed on street as they think they are posessed by demons, or they end into solidary confinement in prison or public hospital. As we were told, most of these people actually get tonreturnnto their families afterwards.

When living in a very poor country and not having the methods of care we have available in west, this is the best they ca offer.

After visiting there we continued to the port. The port in Tamatave is biggest of the Eastern ports in Madagasvar and they were doing works to enlarge it still to allow even bigger ships to arrive.