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<\/a><\/p>\nThe water in the rice paddies has dried up significantly (but not all), and much of the effort has shifted to digging up the mud, making bricks which are allowed to dry in the sun, and then baked in a self-constructed kiln in the fields. \u00a0I now bike or run through the fields 3-4 days a week, and the smoke from the kilns has made the ride a bit more difficult, though the skies become an odd shade of pink at sunset.<\/p>\n
Along one of the main roads in town is a large levee, or “digue” (dike) with a path along the top. \u00a0Often when it is sunny, people will dry their clothes on the grass on the side of the digue.<\/p>\n Mostly young men, but occasionally families, will transport goods through the city using hand carts. \u00a0Often they appear overloaded. \u00a0Antananarivo is somewhat hilly, and the uphill slogs often look pretty brutal. \u00a0Typically there will be someone up front (usually barefoot) pulling with everything they’ve got, and they will enlist the help of 2 or 3 colleagues whose heads and\/or shoulders will be fully engaged at the back of the cart.<\/p>\n June and July are winter in the southern hemisphere, but temperatures in the 60s don’t keep people out of the water when there is work to be done. \u00a0Typically that work involves a few men with buckets bailing water from one field into the next, so that they can start producing bricks.<\/p>\n An official taxi stand.<\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a>It’s tough to drive on most roads because the sidewalks, to the extent that they exist, are often home to roadside businesses. \u00a0This forces pedestrians into the streets, and the single line of cars moving in each direction means I am always cringing because it looks like the right mirror is constantly inches from hitting someone in the face or head.
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