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

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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24 juin 2013

Dramatic

For the last six months, three colleagues and I have been doing a drama workshop with the kids at school. I filed it as a "school project" at the end of last year, so the Vice-Rectorate (high education authority) gave the school a grant of seven hundred...

Posté par calligraphy à 02:25 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

Tags: mayotte, pupils, school, beach, english, market, french, kids, culture, drama, history, polygamy, props, stage, violence

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11 août 2014

Réunion mon amour, part 1 of 2.

The original plan for July's holiday was a safari in Tanzania. That fell through because it turned out to be extremely expensive and rather difficult to organize. Plan B was a trip to South Africa with P, visiting Johannesburg, Kruger National Park and...

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

Tags: island, airport, mountain, shoes, reunion, hike, backpack, cilaos, cirque, hell-bourg, mafate, roland garros, rucksack, salazie, volcano

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14 avril 2014

Majicavo

The village I live in is called Majicavo. Literally, it means "where there is no water". Like all Mahorese villages, it's a very poor place, but near enough to the capital (Mamoudzou) for people to want to be modern and Westernized. Also like all Mahorese...

Posté par calligraphy à 01:54 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

Tags: mayotte, house, emily, shop, town, village, camera, kids, concrete, corrugated, iron, mosque, shack, douka, majicavo

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30 septembre 2013

Parent-Teacher Meeting

It was National Parent-Teacher Meeting Day on Saturday. You can thank the Vice-Rectorate for that. What a mess. It started off innocently enough. Instead of each school organizing its own PT meeting, the high education authority in Mayotte decided to...

Posté par calligraphy à 04:21 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

Tags: mayotte, pupils, school, teacher, children, group, individual, explain, homework, meeting, middle, mother, parent, primary, secondary

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15 juillet 2013

Tsumu n'djema wa aïd m'baraka

Ramadan started last Wednesday. People started rushing into various markets and supermarkets to buy the necessary food for the feast before the fast. In Mayotte, celebratory foods include mabawas (chicken wings), green bananas, cassava, breadfruit, goat...

Posté par calligraphy à 03:20 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

Tags: mayotte, salouva, sea, culture, ramadan, allah, evil eye, faith, highway code, mubarak, muslim, purification, rite, ritual, spirit

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19 novembre 2012

High heels and red carpets

On Saturday, we went to the annual Fashion Salon in M'Gombani. Except that this year, we didn't just go round the stalls outside which were selling colourful African printed material and bamboo sticks: we stayed for the fashion show itself. It started...

Posté par calligraphy à 04:02 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

Tags: indian ocean, mayotte, clothes, mgombani, mode, salon, chiromani, designers, fashion, heels, lace, model, satin, show, silk

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23 octobre 2011

Raving about Diving

An interesting morning spent diving in the lagoon today! Called a baptême de plongée, it’s an initiation to diving where everything is done for you, the idea is really to see if you like it and if you’re capable of not panicking underwater. Hippocampe...

Posté par calligraphy à 16:54 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

Tags: water, colour, barrier, beautiful, certificate, coral, diploma, diving, fish, hippocampe, mask, passe en s, peace, plongée, reef

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19 décembre 2011

She'll be coming round the mountain...

I went round the Mont Choungui last week-end with a walking group. It's near the bottom of the island, and is the most famous mountain in Mayotte, if not the highest (That's Mont Bénara, 664m). From its top, you're supposed to be able to see all the southern...

Posté par calligraphy à 15:00 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

Tags: banana, boy, rice, banga, chameleon, choungui, coconut, forest, maki, mont, spider, teenager, village, web

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2 mars 2015

Grating coconut

In Mayotte, coconut and coconut milk are frequently used in cooking. Mataba, one of the most common dishes here, is made by mashing cassava leaves and mixing them with coconut milk, sometimes adding meat or fish later on. Fish and chicken are regularly...

Posté par calligraphy à 01:42 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

Tags: mayotte, food, women, coconut, mahorese, job, cooking, chair, chop, cut, grate, knife, prepare, shell

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16 juillet 2012

27

I think you would be horrified if you saw the state your parcels arrived in. That's why they're going on the blog. The packages shown above are presents that Mum, Nanny and Papi sent me, a colourful top and a batch of Economists. The beanies you sent...

Posté par calligraphy à 03:08 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

Tags: box, clothes, t-shirt, beanie, birthday, economist, envelope, fragile, hat, package, packet, parcel, post, send

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10 juillet 2015

Pamandzi

On my last day in Mayotte, I returned the flat keys in the morning, then went to see the man who was buying the car from me. When he had come to my flat to test-drive the car, he had brought a young mechanic with him, and hadn't actually driven the car...

Posté par calligraphy à 17:12 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

Tags: island, mayotte, cat, water, petite terre, gite, last day, corrugated, iron, ramadan, graffiti, small, pamandzi, chez faida

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11 juillet 2015

Kwahéri Maoré

When I arrived at my Mahorese school, I met several teachers who were in their last year in Mayotte. And universally, they told me that when you're in your last year, you're already at your destination in your mind. One, named Henri Denglades, was going...

Posté par calligraphy à 07:05 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

Tags: france, mayotte, house, school, car, motorbike, flute, change, village, family, plane, lille, small, world

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8 décembre 2014

Rain at School

It's been raining quite a bit recently. This is the effect of all this rain on my school: quite impressive, actually. Everything and everyone gets soaked five minutes in, the kids go swimming in the puddles, bags and books included, and you can't hear...

Posté par calligraphy à 02:48 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

Tags: water, pupils, school, teacher, bottle, bag, rain, room, swimming, pool, umbrella, football, everywhere, plastic

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29 septembre 2014

Urahafu Na Unono

On Friday, following various complaints from teachers regarding the dirtiness of the school as a whole and the rooms in particular, one of my colleagues launched "Operation Urahafu Na Unono", or "Operation Cleanliness" in the school. This operation had...

Posté par calligraphy à 02:04 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

Tags: kawéni, school, teacher, white, clean, board, window, brush, floor, mop, sponge, stairs, tidy, urahafu na unono

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1 juillet 2013

Practising for the Grand Tyre Race

About two weeks ago, the lady in charge of the Bretons of Mayotte Association sent a collective e-mail out, asking for people to become "ambassadors" for the tyre race which was to take place on the 29th of June. I responded, asking what would be involved,...

Posté par calligraphy à 01:10 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

Tags: mayotte, tyres, bretons, friend, race, run, tyre racing, soap, 30, cavani, edition, practise, stadium, stick

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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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24 décembre 2012

Rich gentlemen have it, boys!

On the last day of school, my class - MY class, the one I'm the main teacher of, the one I theoretically have the power of life and death over (or at least a say in what happens to them next year) - seemed rather excited. So did everybody. The holidays...

Posté par calligraphy à 03:50 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

Tags: food, class, holiday, school, death, cake, children, biscuit, hungry, last day, life, poor, present, sweet

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19 février 2012

Mahabou and M'Gombani

This Sunday afternoon was lovely and fine, so we set off to walk up and around the Pointe Mahabou, a cliff on the other side of Mamoudzou where the very first sultan of Mayotte, Adriansouli, was buried. Other cars were driving up, so I started driving...

Posté par calligraphy à 08:31 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

Tags: mamoudzou, sun, road, brochetti, flowers, m'gombani, mahabou, maoulida, park, restaurant, shengue, signpost, state, walk

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15 janvier 2012

Water, water everywhere...

I got a call the other day from a girl I’d met at a friend’s birthday party, asking me if I wanted to do something on Sunday. The search was on. She rang me back yesterday evening, having thought of going to the beach, renting a kayak, paddling round...

Posté par calligraphy à 20:34 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

Tags: indian ocean, island, water, emily, coral, diving, fish, mask, reef, camera, flippers, friend, kayak, swim

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15 décembre 2011

Bouéni Jolie

You often see girls and women here with m’zindzano on their faces. It’s a beauty mask made from sandalwood ground on a pure coral table, mixed with a little water. The table is made of one piece of coral, and often weighs 3 or 4 kilograms. It is the fine...

Posté par calligraphy à 04:40 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

Tags: mayotte, ceremony, coral, mask, photo, beauty, boueni, mdzindzano, jewellery, cosmetic, mzindzano, paste, sandalwood, skin

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10 décembre 2011

Christmas Market

There was a Christmas market today in front of the M’biwi Café, just down the road from us. I thought a Christmas market by 32°C sounded interesting, so I went along after work to see what sort of things were up for sale. The first thing that struck me...

Posté par calligraphy à 11:36 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

Tags: mayotte, food, papaya, clothes, mzungu, postcard, colour, basket, christmas, jewellery, juice, market, pineapple, tortoise

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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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2 septembre 2013

Here we go again.

School's back. Again. The yearly rush of pupils who have been hanging around the school doors for a good week now, staying outside all day and convincing their parents that classes had already started up, thereby getting out of working in the fields and...

Posté par calligraphy à 02:08 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

Tags: mayotte, stuff, colleague, kawéni, pupils, school, teacher, back to school, book, pen, rentrée, room, staff

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