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

2 décembre 2011

Playing dress-up

I went to the Mayotte M'Gombani Fashion Salon today, as you can probably see from the photos. Different creators were holding stands with their various wares: trousers and tops, colourful dresses, earrings, necklaces, oven mitts (rather the odd one out),...

Posté par calligraphy à 15:20 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

Tags: mayotte, clothes, kishali, salouva, december, beauty, boueni, bouéni, henna, mahorais, mdzindzano, mgombani, mode, salon

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28 novembre 2011

What Not To Wear

Before coming to Mayotte, I’d looked them up in books and on websites, talked to people about them, looked into what was available locally. I’d looked into the materials that went into making them and how said materials would stand the test of time, humidity,...

Posté par calligraphy à 06:13 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

Tags: mayotte, clothes, dress, salouva, t-shirt, shop, advertising, british telecom, december, jeans, summer, tesco

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21 novembre 2011

It's raining, it's pouring...

View from the flat. The rainy season started in the middle of last week. Tropical rain is quite interesting. It goes by short blasts of heavy rain followed by great lengths of nothing. But in the wet season, it rains at least a little every day. These...

Posté par calligraphy à 05:35 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

Tags: mayotte, rain, april, change, climate, holes, mum, november, puddle, road, season, wet

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6 novembre 2011

Music in Mayotte

This is the music group I’ve been with for a month so far. The level isn’t brilliant, but we get on well and are happy playing together. The group is called L'Amicale des Bretons de Mayotte. Marion plays the flute, the accordion and the piano. She started...

Posté par calligraphy à 15:11 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

Tags: mayotte, school, accordion, acdc, brassens, bretons, flute, francoise, guitar, lessons, marion, martine, maxime, music, recorder

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18 octobre 2011

The Gold Rush

Things have been a little complicated recently. First, the strikes started because of the cost of living here. For example : 4.20€ for a 1kg packet of rice, 2.83€ for three large potatoes and 3.50€ for a packet of butter. "Essential" products here are...

Posté par calligraphy à 16:29 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

Tags: mayotte, food, mzungu, pupils, butter, chicken wings, cost, dustbin, gas, hunger, living, mabawas, rice, strike, supermarket

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30 septembre 2011

The Dark Side of Mayotte

Most of the time, Mayotte is postcard-pretty and the people are lovely. But it isn't "home" yet. It’s not that I don’t like coconut trees and papaya fruit, having the lagoon just next door and going to school on a scooter. I do. But some things take a...

Posté par calligraphy à 05:05 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

Tags: mayotte, house, lagoon, water, dirty, electricity, postcard, pretty

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29 septembre 2011

He runs... he strikes !

It was the school cross-country race today. All teachers and staff had to be present, even those on their day off, which happened to be my case. We were sent into the undergrowth to cheer the students on and to give out water and sugar where necessary....

Posté par calligraphy à 02:12 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

Tags: mayotte, food, girl, mzungu, school, teacher, boy, colour, country, cross, expensive, petrol, price, salary

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28 septembre 2011

Never ask a question if you don't want to know the answer.

Emily and the Car Saga 20th August. Search for car and scooter on used car newspapers and specialist garages. 23rd August. Find white 3-door air-conditioned 206 HDI through newspaper. Visit car two blocks away, test-drive car, the odd funny noise and...

Posté par calligraphy à 04:14 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

Tags: mayotte, 125, 206, battery, car, emily, five minutes, garage, light, newspaper, scooter, tyres

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27 septembre 2011

Whales

I went on a “whale safari” with a few colleagues last week. There are often whales and dolphins in the lagoon, but not this day, so we went right out of the lagoon and up to the north of the island. The trip itself took about an hour and a half by reinforced...

Posté par calligraphy à 10:20 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

Tags: indian ocean, island, mayotte, colleague, jaws, lagoon, safari, splash, water, whale

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26 septembre 2011

Birds and Beasts

The first animals we saw upon getting out of the plane were zebus. Cow-like four-legged creatures with a bump on the back of their neck where they store water and fat for later. They stared at us, we stared at them and wondered where on earth we had ended...

Posté par calligraphy à 10:43 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

Tags: island, mayotte, flat, banana, bat, gecko, hotel, margouillat, roussette, zebu

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