August 23, 2007
Toamasina is a very flat, sprawling port city on the east coast of Mad. Main streets are broad and tree lined. And, refreshingly for large cities, the pollution does not overwhelm. This may be because most people walk, bicycle, or pousse-pousse; there are thousands of pousse-pousses. Pousse-pousses (and, I hope I'm spelling this correctly) are a sort of rickshaw, brightly painted in yellow and red. Most are pulled by earnest men in flip-flops (although, many are barefoot), and some are powered by a bicyclist. A long trip seems to cost 2,000 Ariary, a little more than a US dollar. Not expensive, but used frequently, would start to become so. A Peace Corps teacher we met told us, we "shouldn't feel guilty, pousse-pousses were not hard to pull." Adding, I thought dubiously, "...once you get started."
As you may be aware, Leah and I prefer to walk, so we do. And, as we walk, we are followed, sometimes relentlessly, by the pousse-pousseists, to coin a word. They call, whistle, wave, follow, want to know if they should wait for us somewhere and sometimes just sit, looking vaguely forlorn, while waiting for business. At the market there are dozens competing with each other. In the heat of the day, they sleep stretched back in their cart with the handles resting on the ground. I appreciate that pousse-pousses allow cleaner air, provide jobs and are convenient. So, on our first day, after initially repelling them and trying to walk without a map to the hotel ourselves, we took a pousse-pousse.
Not surprisingly, I felt guilty. I sourly hunched forward in the cart with my elbows on my knees and my hands propping up my head. There I was, perfectly capable of walking on my own, having a person tote me around. The other day I saw an exceptionally big, tall Westerner being dragged around by a Malagasy man at least two feet shorter. And, I started thinking, even if they provide jobs, they are terrible jobs and too many people are doing the same terrible jobs--what Leah would refer to as 'under employment', although you would have to ask her to explain that special economic term. (Leah posted about 'under employment' from China last year.) And, there are far more waiting for work than working. Pousse-pousses are not the answer to unemployment. And, while they allow cleaner air, so does walking.
So, I no longer feel like taking pousse-pousses and thought you should know why.
