There are so many things that I love about my home country Madagasikara, but what I love the most are the cool people -Malagasy (gasy)
There are a lot of cool gasy, and you wouldn’t even expect some of these people to be such passionate and interesting folks. I love seeing those cheerful and joyous people, who despite the challenges can still smile and push forward, those are my kind of people.
When I got to Canada to visit my friend, I was really fortunate to attend the independence day event thingy they had going on in Moncton, New Brunswick. And to say it was awesome is an understatement.
I haven’t seen such vibrant and well executed way of showing our culture in so long (they really put a lot of work into it!). I’ve always loved seeing traditional dances and clothing from Fetin’ny Teny Malagasy in my school, or from the TV and some local thingies, but seeing the such awesome performance in person, in New freaking Brunswick, was really really shocking… in a good way.
From the opening ceremony with Lamako, to the closing dance with everyone doing the Afindrafindrao, and all the absolutely awesome traditional dances in cultural clothing in-between, it was really a joy to witness my culture be shown off like this in such a faraway place. Annnd I got to eat some maskita, not the best I’ve had, but it tasted emotionally amazing XD.
It was so much fun watching traditional performance, with proper outfits and looks! Everyone had something fun an unique to show, and it was really enjoyable. I also loved the fact that the event had a homemade vibe to it. It was just a small communities that came together to create something that feels familiar which everyone enjoyed.
Meeting new people there was soo niiice too! They felt pretty familiar, even tho it was really the first time I was there. It’s cool feeling familiar in another country while visiting there for the first time. It feels good meeting gasy in different places, and getting to meet many cool people there was a great experience. Lots of people were open and chill, and so much smiles! ‘Will definitely be back to visit that otherwise pretty boring place.
You know the one thing that I really love, not just in Malagasy, but also those who immigrated to a new country, is that everyone is working hard for a better tomorrow. And I know, literally everyone is doing this, but those who come from another country I believe knows this better. And most of all, with a lot of the gasy that I talked to, they all have goals and aspirations to achieve something that seems far-reaching, or that might even seem impossible in the short run. But they are fighting against the odds, they are doing their best. They are dreamers, working to make the impossible come to life.
So it’s really awesome to see events like these, where the gasy smiles and have fun together. You wouldn’t even know how hard they’re working, or how much they are carrying on their shoulders, because they smile so wide and have such passion and energy.
These colorful people, they’re my people, they are Malagasy.