July 12, 2004
"Soccer game and Digital pictures"
by Sean McCarthy

Yesterday there was a soccer game between the village of Andranofantsika and another town about 15 km away. It was scheduled to start at 3:30, so we cut into our beloved siesta (gasp!) to get afternoon trap-checks done in time to catch the game. We had to take two trips in Fossamanga (the name of our truck) to get everyone there. Even though it was only a 15 km (7 mile) drive, it took about 30 minutes to get there. The road had potholes all over and several bridges that were washed out from the cyclone this past year. The villages we drove through seemed much more isolated than even our tiny village of Ambodimanga; they are deeper within the forest and made for some beautiful landscapes. I was trying to take as many pictures as I could while I bouncing around in the bed of the truck.

By the time we got to the soccer game, it was already half time and I was in the first truck of people. There was quite a crowd from both villages, and they were very into the game with load cheers, especially from the women, when their team was doing well.

I was taking some pictures of the game with my digital camera and a crowd of kids started gathering around to stare at the white guy with the strange gadget. When I turned the camera around to show them the pictures of the soccer game, they were amazed and started calling all their friends over to see. I herded the kinds into a small group and took a picture of them. When I turned the camera around to show them, they almost died. There were shrieks of laughter and fear all at the same time. I had the camera strap around my wrist and found myself being jerked every which-way by the kids grabbing the camera to show all their friends the image on the camera. Pretty soon I was taking pictures of a guy with a machete in a military pose who asked me to bring back a copy of the picture if I ever came back to the village. I felt like my camera was stealing some attention from the game, so I turned it off and put it away. Even after the camera was in my pocket, kids were following me around for the rest of the time we were in the town.

After the game, which ended with a 3-3 tie, we started walking back as the truck took the first group back to camp. We walked for over one hour and got a great chance to see this beautiful part of the park and some cool little villages on the way, just as the sun was setting. We were a little trigger happy and started taking pictures of everything we saw- from a gorgeous scenes over a rice paddy, to a taxi-brousse packed with the Andranofantsika soccer team shouting cheers as they drove by.

Finally the Fossamanga came to pick us up. I don’t know why yesterday seemed so different from normal day here in camp. Our campsite is within the borders of the park where we hike daily, and we interact with the local people on almost a daily basis. But I think yesterday jolted me into realizing the significance of our incorporation into the local community in such a welcoming way. Sometimes I find myself going through the day-to-day activities and forgetting to really take in everything that I see. Yesterday definitely snapped me out of that.