MADAGASCAR BEHIND THE SCENE

My journey to Madagascar to discover this wonderful African island and its population began one day in June. Flight Milan-Antananarivo.

People were immediately struck by their hospitality and ability to face life "slowly" and with a smile, even when the water is missing and the one in the sun drums is ending; when men dig tunnels in the earth for hours, without any security, hoping to find precious stones to sell; when they take zebues for grazing for miles or reach the markets where they sell the products they grow and the animals they breed; when children lack pens to write and clothes to warm up on cold winter mornings at school.

People of all ages who, before dawn, pour into the street to work until the sun sets and electric lights, in the largest centers, can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Then the sky appears in all its truth: black and full of bright spots to admire in the austral night.

Nature, with such strong contrasts, conquered me. Traveling Madagascar from south to north and from east to west I have crossed very different climatic zones: on one side the arid ones, where the red color of the land dominates, on the other side the verdant ones due to the abundant rains.

I could observe unique animals like the lemurs living in the few remaining forests, but also the expanses of corals condemned to an incessant bleaching, which makes every year more problematic the subsistence of the coastal population has always been linked to fishing.

I lived in contact with nature and its inhabitants: women, men and children that I met during their daily life, during the circumcision ceremonies, in the shops where they make toys and objects with recycled aluminum or where they make decorated paper with flowers.

This trip has allowed me to make an extraordinary experience in an island that risks losing much of its wealth due to environmental problems and a too often mismanaged resource management policy.