Last Tuesday, me, Bernard (the architect), and Bako (my Peace Corps counterpart) went to the capital city (Tana) together to hunt for equipment. We left our town at 5 in the morning to beat the terrible beast that is Tana traffic. We got in a few hours later, got breakfast, and went to a hardware shop. (Rather, we spent about an hour trying to find a parking spot before getting to the shop... this city isn't very pedestrian friendly, but apparently it isn't very car-friendly either).
We went into a shop at the top of a hill. Now, this shop didn't have very much open space in it to begin with, and it was PACKED. We squeezed our way through the door and barely had room to enter. Luckily Bernard wiggled to the front desk and haggled for all the supplies we needed.
We waited in the throng, and slowly workers would hand us sets of requested items: gloves, hammers, nails, trowles, helmets, etc. They gave us a big cardboard box to pack it all into, which one of the workers took to our car (parked down the hill) by balancing it on his head, as is the style in Madagascar.
Bernard getting saws handed to him
The fruits of our first purchases... all the equipment the workers will need!
After getting receipts for everything, we got into the hot, sweaty car and drove around a bit until we found some women on a street corner selling wheelbarrows. I waited in the car with Bako as Bernard got out to haggle (cultural note: people tend to not go down as much in price if they see a white person). We got a good price for four wheelbarrows, which we loaded on top of the car.
After a quick lunch break of traditional Malagasy "rice with a sidedish," we went to a smaller market area and found a shop that sold all the railing material. Again, I waited in the car until the price was set, and then came in to give the money. It was cooler in this shop, which was a huge relief from the oppression of a sweltering Tana afternoon. The salseman was very excited to see a "foreigner" and even tried speaking a little English to me ("Madagascar nice? Thank you! One minute, is no problem). He was very friendly, which was nice from the usual indifferent vibe I get from most sellers.
The last thing to get was shovels and spades. Bernard found a stand that would sell them to us (handles sold separately), so again he did one last haggling dance. When he gave the signal, I came out and we traded cash for goods. With shovels loaded in the car, we now had everything we'll need from Tana to make this bridge possible!
We are going shopping locally in Antanifotsy on Thursday. We'll get some cow carts to haul about 1/4th of the cement, wood, and sand we'll need. We'll be buying that in portions so it doesn't overflow our little storage house in Angavo (near the construction site).
The workers will break ground next Monday, May 4th... May the fourth be with them!
I'm still teaching during the week (oh yeah, I'm an ED volunteer), but I'll be biking out to the construction site every Friday to observe. May 8th will be my first day out there... can't wait to see this unfold!
