After a couple of weeks of rough travel, we returned to the place she had become one of the Betsileo, and I spent the afternoons, staring at the sky, and what preceded it - a rock formation jutting out from craggy rock face rising above our encampment. At first sight, you took it for a gigantic submarine. Up towards the peak, two large cairns opening like a mouth. Above them, a diagonal crevice, clearly delineating two eyes and a nose, and you saw what it really was - a monstrous sarcophagus.
Beneath the shadow of the rock formation, the hill sloped downwards. Hundreds of boulders clung to the hillside – Easter island oblong shapes that appeared to have been placed there in pre-determined order.
Further East, the Ifaga mountains jutted into the small plateau of arable land in the shape of a hippopotamus. Descending from this second range, the hills formed seven perfectly symmetric triangle-tents, and another massive stone in the shape of a crouching lion – a grove of trees. Then SSE – a sheer wall of adjoined peaks, reminiscent of les Dentelles de Montmirail in Vaucluse, and the serpentine RN7, leading back to Ambalavao, and contact with the world.
Further East, the Ifaga mountains jutted into the small plateau of arable land in the shape of a hippopotamus. Descending from this second range, the hills formed seven perfectly symmetric triangle-tents, and another massive stone in the shape of a crouching lion – a grove of trees. Then SSE – a sheer wall of adjoined peaks, reminiscent of les Dentelles de Montmirail in Vaucluse, and the serpentine RN7, leading back to Ambalavao, and contact with the world.
Our work was to determine whether the piece of paper in her possession would be honoured by the local Betsileo, or whether they would continue to attempt to poison her, and take back the land.
