He called me Malagasy!!!

So, walking everywhere has it's advantages because you really get to know your neighborhood and your neighbors! Walking the kids to school, we always pass the same group of young men who sit on the side of the road with their carts waiting for someone to come along and ask them to work for the day. This group of men started off just staring at the boys and I as we walked by. I would greet them in malagasy and they would just stare. After about a two weeks they started greeting us back. It's kind of like dealing with the greeters at Walmart. We had to train them how to greet us as well! Last week we were walking to school and I didn't greet them because I was busy talking to the boys. One of the guys shouted out “Manahoana Faza”, Good morning foreigner. Now, when children call us faza we don't mind so much but when older people do it it's just fairly annoying and somewhat rude. So I answered him back with “Manahoana Malagasy”. All his friends cracked up laughing! So this is how we greated each other last week. This week as we were walking to school he called out, “Manahoana Malagasy” to which I replied, “Manahoana faza”. Laughter! It's a common language that brings smiles to everyones face!