I've been using the word "vasa" a lot - it's the Malagasy word for foreigner, and it's usually what little children and creepy men call out to us when we walk around town in Fianar. We foreigners use it to refer to ourselves, but somehow when it's being called out to you by people in the street, by children point and laughing at you and by men sexually harassing you, you really start to hate the word. It's not meant to be offensive, but somehow it becomes so, I guess because we're from a multicultural, multiethnic country where you can look like literally anybody from anywhere and still not have people point at you and say "FOREIGN!" Like, literally, "YOU DON'T BELONG HERE!" I don't understand why they laugh when they say this - what's so funny about the fact that I'm not Malagasy? There are plenty of other foreigners around town, so it's not like seeing one is such a rarity...I think it's just one of those things that I'll never completely understand, having been raised in a country founded by immigrants that celebrates diversity.
But back to the point of this post: I should have known better than to think that a word in Malagasy would be spelled exactly as it sounds! Turns out it's spelled "vazaha," although it is pronounced "vah-ZAH" (with the emphasis on the second syllable, if you're speaking true Malagasy; usually I'm too lazy and just say "VAH-zah")
I realize that most of my readers don't care about this distinction, but I had to make it for the sake of authenticity.
To make this blog post more worth your time, here's a photo preview of my next blog post: a gecko eating a banana at Ranomafana National Park, where I finally saw Madagascar's most famous celebrities: LEMURS!!!
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