Excavator
From Antsirabe we headed south on the RN7, the best road in southern Madagascar. We found an excavator on its back in a rice paddy, bottom up in the mud like a dead bug. Not a good way for an operator to start his day.
Along the way to Ambositra we came upon what looked like a collapsed bridge. Apparently the bridge was bombed at the order of the old president, to isolate Antananarivo. Voters in Tana were not favoring him; he ended up losing (36% to 42%) to the then mayor of Tana. The river it spanned, like all the big rivers we saw, was running very muddy.
Our main focus in Ambositra was to visit some Marque://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marquetrytry artisans. Madagascar is well-known for its marquetry, and Ambositra is the center of the work. Since Dona creates marquetry herself, using it to accent lamps, boxes and other useful pieces, we wanted to see some of the local artisans at work. Dona uses the double bevel technique, with thinner veneers than we saw being used by this artisan, who was using the window method. The work he produced was wonderful. My diary days "Marquetry — Nary," I don't know if that is the artisan's name or just the name of the shop. In any case, he told us he started at the age of 20, and has been doing it for 31 years. He used primarily three woods: Madagascar Rosewooder (Dalbergia baronii, D. louveli, D. maritima)a>, Palisander (Dalbergia madagascariensis), and another wood whose name I didn't get. The "other" wood was put in mud for either hours, days, or a full month to get different color shades — red, green, and colors in between.
Almost all Madagascar hardwoods are endangered. The amount used in local marquetry is miniscule and insignificant compared to exportation for furniture.
This artisan was amazing. We asked how he got started, and he told us that because of a disability he could not help in the rice fields. (Notice his crutches leaning against the wall beside him.) So he searched for something else to do. It was fascinating watching him work. His hand-operated saw was crude, and wobbled some when used; it was weighted down with a stone block instead of clamped to his work table. The return spring on the saw looked to be an old bedspring. He made his own sawblades using the wire from steel belts in an old tire; he flattened them with a hammer and then cut teeth into them with a chisel, which he sharpened on a stone.
We stayed at Hotel Anjara up narrow stairs to a third floor room with a nice view over the city. Unfortunately, like all of Madagascar, the view was obscurred by smokey haze.
Our room and much of the hotel contained Zafimaniry woodwork; wood pin hinges on doors, wood latches, etc. A shower sign implored us to avoid getting the surrounding wood wet.
The other thing we were interested in seeing was how the local silk manufacture and weaving was done. Lova inquired around and then we wandered down a steep brick alleyway to where a lone woman had a shop where she turned silk from the endemic wild silkworms into cloth. She explained the process to us and demonstrated on her floor loom.
As in Antsirabe, there were lots of hand-drawn or pushed carts and rickshaws.
We mailed some postcards we had purchased in Antsirabe about 15:00. They must have been the first stamps / items to be mailed for some days, as the clerk had to set the date on her stamp for hand cancelling.