Ahhhhh, ewa !

"Ewa" is Mahorese for "Yes". Depending on the tone of voice, it can mean anything from a basic "yes" to "I understand, light has finally dawned!". The kids at school always say "ewa" when they understand something, and finally getting them to say "ewa" when you've been explaining the same thing for the last ten minutes is great.

The other day, P went out for lunch with a few colleagues. They went to a small restaurant in Passamainty, the sort of restaurant that doesn't look like anything much but is clean inside and where the food is generally basic but good.

They sat down and ordered their meals, different variations of chicken, rice and chips. The waitress took their orders and disappeared. She then came back to see P : "I've forgotten you. What did you want?". Disappeared again. Came back to see one of the colleagues. "I've forgotten you too, what did you want?" And so on for each of them. When she brought their meal out, P suggested that it might be an idea to acquire a notebook and actually write people's orders down so as not to forget them. "Ahhh, ewa", said she, "that might help". We shall see.

* * *

At EDM, the electricity company, where everybody goes upon arrival to set up their electricity and to pay their bills, there's a ticket system. As in many other public places where queueing is a national sport, you take a ticket and wait your turn. The average wait in August is two hours. Most people take their ticket and sit dutifully - or stand in a corner, depending on the available space - for two hours. Whenever there's a gap in the numbers because somebody doesn't come up, the people behind the counters call those waiting with children to come forward... or their personal friends, whoever's nearest.

Last year, it was our turn. We were among those dutifully standing for two hours. Little by little, a few Mahorese men arrived, took several tickets and disappeared again. An hour and a half later, these men reappeared, with tickets that necessitated by then only half an hour's wait. They then proceeded to sell said tickets to the waiting customers, or to those who had arrived ten minutes before and were starting to worry about spending all afternoon waiting around.

The men stood to earn a few euros per ticket, and the waiting customers - mainly white - had nearly all received a large sum of money upon arriving in Mayotte... and didn't mind spending a few euros to jump the queue !

* * *

We were talking to a Mahorese friend who had a problem with his car, a Ford. He took it to the garage, who didn't have the necessary replacement part, so he asked them to ring Ford and get them to deliver it. In the afternoon, the mechanic rang our friend and told him the car was ready. "Already?" asked the friend.

"Yes."

"Has Ford already delivered the part? That was quick."

"I didn't bother ringing them. There was a Ford over the road, it hasn't moved for the last few days, I think the owner's gone away. So I borrowed the part I needed to repair yours."