Any ambanivohitra (The Country Side)

Peachland/Summerland – BC – Summer 2010

Well here I am back again but at least still have a weekend to relax clean, cook and blog The one week break was great of course and as promised brought tons of pictures and wonderful memories. This post is going to be one of those long post that I will read later on let’s say in a year or 10 to 20 years from now and will reminisce the good times I was blessed to have. So that means I am planning to really stick to this blog no matter how slow I post and no matter how uninspired I would get

We visited these charming small towns called Summerland and Peachland in BC during the mini-vacation and needless to say I fell in love with them. I wish we could have spent the rest of the summer there or the rest of the year why not? These two little towns really reminded me of the Malagasy country side where I used to roam around and cherish during school breaks. You see we spend most if not all of our school breaks at the country side. Most of the time we go to my mother native town and sometimes at my uncle or aunt’s farm in another city.

Oh the abundance of fruits, vegetables, rice, laughter, sunshine, games to name a few were my very found memories of the country side. You see my husband did not experience this so he took little interest to these two little towns we visited ahaha He grew up near the ocean so he loves water. He wanted to spend the whole week laying on the beach (a lake beach lol). Anyway these childhood memories in the country side were very much rekindled during our visit.

Apple Orchard and Farmer’s Market

The story that I often tell my husband (actually his favorite) is the “Grande Vacance” (equivalent to summer holiday) when we had to look after the my grandma’s ducks ahaha. My grandmother had about let’s say 60 or so ducks and geese, yes a lot! She was a farmer and the kindest woman I have ever known. When we come to visit her she would spoil us rotten ^_^ but my mother would insist that we (me and my little brother) were given a task (a real one) that could help her during her very busy day at the farm. So she decided under my mom’s supervision of course that we would look after the ducks and geese during the day. Boy we thought it would be a piece of cake and lots of fun but think again lol we were so wrong! We should have chosen looking after the cow or zebus lol So during the day, we have to let out these ducks/geese so that they can roam around, eat and have fun The funniest and weirdest thing is that they know exactly where they were supposed to go once you open their gate and they form a single line to go to my grandma’s pond. They also know their way back and this is about 10 minutes walk!

We would bring with us some beans, corns, peanuts, cassava, etc to be pealed or variety of other little tasks that we could do while we are looking after the ducks. We would also take care of getting food to be cooked for dinner My grandma’s  little pond where the ducks and geese would spend the day is actually near rice  and vegetable fields so our task is to make sure that the ducks/geese do not cross over the pond and go to these fields. That was not an easy task because the ducks/geese loved to tease us especially when they were more than 60 of them and also some of the rice/vegetable fields were not ours but of other families so we had to be extra vigilant. We tried to make the best out of it and had the most fun times because there were so many fruit trees around. We had guavas, peaches, avocados, apples, tomatoes, etc for snacks and we would create many different kind of little games while chasing after the ducks/geese.We are usually very tired by the end of the day and have the best night’s sleep. This was helpful for my mom because we were very afraid of the dark and believe me it is oh so very dark over there as there is no electricity!

Quail’s Gate and Jackson Triggs wineries

Another thing that truly make me reminisce the time I spent in my mother’s native town is the quality of food. It was always a simple meal, nothing fancy but were the tastiest meals I have had. My parents would tell us that this is because the meals are cooked on wood fire. I would like to believe so but I think freshness has a lot to do with it as well.  As I said above, we were also responsible of getting food to be cooked for dinner. This was not like the ducks/geese business as it was quite an easy task but also very enjoyable. We would pick some peas, carrots, onions, tomatoes, potatoes, etc and thanks to my mother who is creative and a great cook she would always come up with something wonderful for dinner.

We also learned the hard work and dedication that comes with farming as we get our hand dirty especially during harvesting. One particular time I remember regarding this is when we peeled cassavas, baskets upon baskets of them! You know in order to store these cassavas which would be the replacement of rice (a Malagasy staple) during winter time you have to peel the outer skin (not the whole skin) and dry them so that it can be stored for a long time. During cassava harvest time, you will see all the villages’ balconies and porches full of them! Every morning we would get a cassava peeling assignment and I remember one day I managed to peel 10 baskets of cassavas (with help lol) wow I was so proud of myself and I also said goodbye to my cute and neatly manicured city hand ahaha.

I almost forgot to mention as well that there was no running water in the village (or the whole town lol). We usually had to get water from a fountain, yes a real one and far far away! This means there were no wells either. It would take about a good 20 minutes walk to get there but I was always amazed by the strength of these women carrying the big bucket of water on their head, that takes mad skills my friends For our case it was my uncle (the youngest of the family) who took care of that job thank goodness. My grandma had a big wine barrel in her kitchen and my uncle has to fill it with drinking water every morning and in the afternoon. So it took him many trips to the far away fountain with buckets upon buckets on his head to fill this barrel. That is when we also learned the value and preciousness of water as we would not even imagine spoiling away drinking water because it was so hard to get in the first place.

Glorious Apples!

That was just a glimpse of these fond memories I had spent during school breaks in the Malagasy country side but there are many more and maybe I will keep those for other blog posts While in Peachland/Summerland I realized how fond I am of the country side and that I learned so much during these times. I learned how to share my mofogasy (a Malagasy specialty bread/cake) with a dozen of my cousins, learned that I cannot climb trees no matter how hard I tried (but bribed my cousins to get the best fruits for me lol) but I also learned that life can be as simple as  you would like it to be and you can or should be happy with that.