However, regardless of whether or not you have money in your pocket, it is always fun to walk through the “Malagasy Arts” stores near the town center and watch the artisans at work. Their woodworking and basket weaving skills are incredible, and the pace at which they are able to work is a treat to watch. One day Gil and I were walking through some of the shops and Gil started talking to the shop owner. Apparently, if you give their workers an idea of what you are looking for, they will make something specifically at your request. Tres cool!
Below are a few pictures of artisans working on their wood pictures...
While the prices here are cheaper than places like Tana (and of course WAY cheaper than the U.S.) and the fact that several of the local shop owners have seen me around town everyday and know I’m not a tourist, Katie Paleface Holt is still given “vazaha” prices right off the bat. After talking to some of the ADRA employees who live here, they told me the “vazaha” prices are 2-3 times (sometimes upwards of 5-7 times!) the normal prices they would sell these crafts for. Lol! I know we are talking about a matter of $2-3 here, or at most, for an intricately-carved rosewood bowl or other craft, about $10-15, and I know that these things would be sold for 10-20x the price in the U.S., but it’s the principle of the matter to me: I hate being HAD!
*Here Gil and I were trying on hats (these are traditional hats you see people wear in this region, and yes, mine's too small and I look stupid, I know) and at this shop, the lady tried to sell them to us for 1500 Ariary (approx. 75 cents). Sure, doesn't sound like much, but when we visited another stand at the local market we always shop at for our food, a market where the shop owners know we are not just tourists, the owner gave us a price of 400 Ariary for one of those hats. Haha! The first lady was definitely trying to make the sale of the century to us.
So, I’ve decided to take the smartest advice there is when shopping in the developing world: have a local go in and bargain for you. I am fine bargaining for baskets as I can bargain those down, but there are a few cool rosewood bowls and figurines I want to get before I head home and I have no clue what a good price for these things would be, so I’m not even going to try. I’m just going to take a few pics, show one of the local ADRA employees, and send him or her in to do my dirty work, haha.
In the meantime, since we are pretty much dead in the water without our internet as far as my part of the project and my school research goes, I’m having fun conducting my little reconnaissance work and watching the locals create their amazing wood crafts, baskets, and just about anything else you can imagine. The Malagasy artisans truly are talented!
One of Ambositra's artisans...carving something I'll most likely buy before heading back home to the States, haha.
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