Sunset on the Indian Ocean
Photo : Max GUEROUT

The end arrives and our small and older readers ask us a large amount of questions via the forum. One does not resist their kindness.

Catherine asks us whether traditional orientation of space in the Madagascan houses, namely: the eastern wall, blind, where one requests the ancestors and the gods, an opening to the Western South was observable on our site. We knew these characteristics, but it seems well that the environmental conditions prevailed on the tradition. The blowing trade wind of the South East, the openings of the buildings are located at the West for two of them, and at north for the third, but this last opening in a corner is protected from the east coast.

A text of L. Molet precise: “It is along the eastern wall that the large jug containing drinkable water.”, in front of the building that we identified as being the “kitchen”, we found a large lead basin which had good chances of containing water. It was with the foot of the Western wall, to undoubtedly prevent that the sand blown by the wind did not accumulate there.

Generally, our observations show a systematic adaptation to the local conditions (stone construction of the habitat in spite of the Malagasy tradition to build with plant materials, orientation of the buildings) rather than a respect of the traditions.

One can even wonder whether many practices imposed by the middle were not systematically transformed into traditions by our ethnologists, and if these companies did not have a larger free will in their choices than it is said.

Today, Joël, the weather engineer, makes for the IFREMER the monthly assessment of the rises of the turtles, the figure of 694 has just been reached. With 150 turtles per laying on average, here are approximately 100.000 small turtles launched in the terrible adventure of survival, watched by the Hermit-crab, oysters, frigates, carangues, barracudas and other carnivorous fishes.

Yesterday evening, the clouds of storm suspends on the horizon gives us a sumptuous sunset, postcard, of course, which we don’t resist putting in our camera.