Tales of Tyre-racing, Makis and M'zungus.

20 mai 2013

Kawéni

My school and most of my pupils belong to the village of Kawéni, between Mamoudzou and Majicavo-Lamir. Both village and school have quite a reputation. The village is known for being the starting point of most of the complaints, robberies, strikes and...

Posté par calligraphy à 02:30 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

Tags: mayotte, kawéni, school, people, mangrove, village, clandestine, immigration, mountain, sugar, industrial, roundabout, shack, slum

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13 mai 2013

When in Spain...

I went to Madrid during the half-term holidays to visit P, who was transferred there for his job last December. I'd never been to the capital city before, so that was a very interesting experience. On top of trying to speak Spanish, I learnt a few things...

Posté par calligraphy à 02:43 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

Tags: food, holiday, teacher, emily, philip, learn, trip, madrid, spain, palace, shoes, spanish, week

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6 mai 2013

Salama Djema

Mayotte is made up of two main islands, Grande-Terre and Petite-Terre. Between the two islands, the only means of transport is the ferry, known as the barge. There's even a verb for it: barger. Barging costs 75 centimes for a pedestrian, 2€ for a 50cc...

Posté par calligraphy à 02:53 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

Tags: island, airport, lagoon, car, scooter, people, petite terre, barge, euro, ferry, grande terre, pedestrian, salama djema

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29 avril 2013

Before coming to Mayotte...

Before coming to Mayotte, I didn't know that temperatures could be so constantly hot, never going lower than 27°C even at night. From the first rays of sunlight to the last, the temperature is between 28°C (dry season) and 34°C (rainy season), and it's...

Posté par calligraphy à 02:58 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

Tags: island, mayotte, temperature, colour, sun, skin, mosquito, tropical, nationality, paradise, sweat

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22 avril 2013

Musical Boats

It's name is the M'zouazia. Its construction started in 2006, and it was put into water for the first time in November 2011. Built by a man called Nicolas Hilly and his family, the construction took place in the village of M'zouazia in the south of Mayotte....

Posté par calligraphy à 02:45 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

Tags: mayotte, teacher, boat, music, concert, bao, mzouazia

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15 avril 2013

Who let the kids out?

Last Thursday, I was called in to replace a sick colleague on a school trip. The idea was to take a class of 14-year-olds to visit the remains of a sugar-cane factory, a copra dryer and a museum about ylang-ylang flowers and vanilla. Two teachers, twenty-nine...

Posté par calligraphy à 02:19 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

Tags: mayotte, girl, class, pupils, school, boy, photo, coconut, ylang, students, oil, vanilla, distillery, copra, jimaweni, mtsangamouji, museum, soulou, sugar, trip

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8 avril 2013

Makis and Turtles

While P was here, we went down to the south of the island to one of the most beautiful (and most touristic, unfortunately) beaches in Mayotte: N'Gouja. Twice. The first time was during the school holidays, the second time was on the Monday when everybody...

Posté par calligraphy à 01:11 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

Tags: indian ocean, mayotte, water, coral, beach, sand, sea, maki, swim, turtle, ngouja

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1 avril 2013

It's raining.

Tropical rain isn't anything like European rain. It's not cold, for a start, there's none of that freezing drizzle that bites into your skin and makes you huddle inside your anorak. You can go out in the rain here and actually stay under it for as long...

Posté par calligraphy à 03:06 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

Tags: mayotte, school, lesson, rain, rainy season, children, adult, dentist

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25 mars 2013

The North from East to West

When P was here, he wanted to see if his scooter still worked. As I hadn't gone anywhere near it for the past few months, it didn't start. P pulled bits of it out and put it all back together, gave it some petrol and kept trying, and it started a couple...

Posté par calligraphy à 02:15 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

Tags: island, mayotte, house, green, scooter, shop, beach, village, philip, bamboo, north, animal, building, concrete, corrugated, iron, mosque, sheep

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