Fianarantsoa

I would like to share with you some impressions from the city we are living in here in Madagascar: Fianarantsoa or short Fianar. The city lies in the central highlands of the island, about 500km south of the capital Antananarivo, which makes a 7-10 hours drive (for details on the trip see Diego’s last post…). Fianarantsoa is somewhere between the second and the fourth biggest city of the country – given a national average of 3% annual population growth, these kinds of statistics are difficult to keep track of. Fact is that the ambiance is more of a village than a big city: People know each other, and as a foreigner, they especially know YOU. Two anecdotes:
1. During my first days in Fianar I lived in a hotel, but moved to a small furnished flat when I was fed up with it. Not surprising for me, however, I forgot something at the hotel. I hadn’t told the guy at the reception where I was going – none withstanding, some hours after my check-out he stood at the doorstep of my new flat... Apparently, he had phoned the taxi driver who had taken me there and who also knows the owner of that flat, and thus had the exact information on my whereabouts.
2. The first weekend after Diego’s arrival, we checked out one of the two swimming pools of the city. On Monday morning, one of my colleagues at work already knew where I had spent my Saturday afternoon – her son saw this one and only white couple at the pool place and they somehow figured out it was us.

As far as Fianar’s shopping options are concerned, it has been quite a change as well. Basically, people buy almost everything in street markets: fresh food, soon-to-be fresh food in form of living animals, second-hand clothes and shoes, household stuff, furniture, etc. Apart from the markets, there is one street with small shops that sell more or less the same non-food stuff than on markets but in a more orderly fashion – and without the option to bargain the final price. Finally, there is the one and only supermarket of the town: “Supermarket 3000” (formerly 2000). The good side of that shop is that you can find quite a lot of stuff including shower gel, which is rare because people normally use blocks of soap instead. The bad side is that most items are imported because Malagasy industry is practically non-existing (especially since the political troubles of last year – but that will be another post…). Hence, things are very expensive for local living standards. This elevated price level has not only caused us some embarrassing situations at the cash desk, where of course no credit card is accepted. Moreover, it has the consequence that only foreigners and upper class Malagasy can afford shopping at the supermarket. Therefore, each time you step out, a bunch of children and old people are begging you for money and following you quite a bit down the road. This always makes me feel a mix between bad consciousness and anger.

Here are some views on the city. It is nicely bedded in a hilly landscape with abundant vegetation. There are even rice fields within the city, namely right next to where we live now (red arrow).

From far away Fianar is quite a beauty. Not so much from closer though. The city population is quite poor and sometimes lives in really miserable conditions. At the same time crime does not seem to be very frequent. This said, it is not a particularly good idea to walk around for ages in the middle of the night, especially since street lightening is not very functional.

Fianar is divided into three parts: a lower part, where the – currently dysfunctional – train station is and where I work; a middle part that hosts the town hall and the banks; and an upper part which is the old town. We live between the lower and the middle part, which is a perfect location. It also offers me some much needed physical exercise going up and down and up and down the hills with my bike four times a day (people usually go home for lunch). The house we are living in is beautiful, security is good and neighbours are nice. And now the most important information: Our flat has a guestroom – so you should come and see it with your own eyes ;)