Decisions, Decisions

Written July 23, 2012, 20:00

Manambaro

    “You were really good at magnosying, Éric, I saw you.”

    I was at Clotilde’s stand buying bananas.  The price was high, but I’d waited til late in the afternoon, and she was the only one with bananas left to sell.  Golden-orange light threw shadows over the twos and threes of people standing by the road, relaxing away the last of the daylight.

    “So you know how to magnosy, and you also know how to harvest rice.  And planting rice is even easier.  You should become a farmer!” she announced happily.  “Marry a Gasy girl and live in Manambaro!”

    Tempting.  No credit card bills, no student loan payments.  No contrived scandals-of-the-week from Fox News.  And the peasants here are no more ignorant (proportionally, all factors considered) than the rednecks in Berryville.

    It would be like doing Peace Corps for the rest of my life.  I wouldn’t forget how to live healthily, and I could be a shining example to the whole town.  Wash your hands, cook your food well, don’t make your wife do all the work.  Plan your family so’s ya don’t wind up with fourteen squalling urchins and no way ta feed ‘em all.

    But then... I’d probably have to give up video games.

    And I rather like video games.

    So no deal.