…or maybe better, there is plenty of life at the beach. The beach in Toamasina that is…
I had a great visit to Toamasina a few days ago. It’s the major port of Madagascar and it’s on the eastern side of the island. Life moves at a decent pace in this port city…but the beach, as everywhere seems to have its own rhythm. It sits with its back to the life of the city and gazes out at what might be beyond. It walks with a carefree cadence and capitalizes on the beauty, and the breezy easiness of the salt air… well maybe for those who come to relax or to clear their head anyway…
The beach and the ocean that it borders is a source of food and tradition and life.
We (my awesome new friend Sthela and I) took a break from our many meetings and came to the beach. We watched the rain clouds come in and let lose their water, we found refuge under a beach umbrella and we watched through the rain and it’s subsiding….
We saw at first a single man pulling and pulling a never ending rope. When I first saw him, I thought, “oh this will be fun I wonder what he caught?”… And he pulled and pulled and walked to the edge of the sand and back to the edge of the water pulling and pulling, “what amazing fish did he catch, maybe a shark??” Pulling, pulling.
Then some other groups of 2 and 3 showed up, pulling and pulling… maybe they were working with this first man? But they pulled and pulled and crossed his path and met up with others. Still the first man pulled and pulled that never ending rope…
Finally to the left of us another group would appear. Pulling with perfect rhythm, pulling in perfect form, pulling the opposite side of the net as the first man, pulling, pulling. How long was that rope, how far did that net go out into the ocean and away from our comfortable chairs underneath our breezy umbrella?
The net began to emerge and was pulled onto the beach; the bounty of fish was collected in a small pail. The harvesters were satisfied with their collection.
The rope is recoiled.
And out to the ocean of food again and again.
Through the hours and the days, through the months and the years. Pulling and pulling, perfectly formed together, obeying an understood rhythm, collecting the fish in a small pail again and again.
One could learn a thing or two about simplicity, cooperation and enough … from Madagascar.
Madagascar Vaovao 