Vazaha Invasion

Fort Dauphin is buzzing with the news that a South African cruise shipping is sailing into port at the end of the month. Almost 2000 wealthy, demanding vazahas will pour off the ship and invade our little city for the day. This will be very strange (hafahafa, you might say). Fort Dauphin is a city where if you see a foreigner you haven't seen before, you wonder what they are doing here and have the urge to join the Malagasy children in a choir of "Bonjour vazaha!"

Taxi drivers will be charging extortionate rates (at least compared with the standard 50 cent trip), and I'm sure we will see similarly inflated prices for food and everything else in town for those 5 short hours. The local Chamber of Commerce is offering tours and is struggling to find enough English speaking guides in town cater to that many people.

I am tempted to take a chair to the market and just sit and watch the mayhem. We are all wondering if this will turn out to be a good thing or a bad thing for the locals and the economy. Obviously, there are upsides and downsides, and the looming risk that FD may just not have have sufficient infrastructure or organization to take on this type of tourism.

Anyways, I will definitely get some photos of the madness, and will let you know how it turns out.

P.S. For those of you who know what I'm talking about... the Bolo factory has come out with a new line. We now, in addition to the classic vanilla and banana, have orange and cappaccino! Exciting, I know.