The teacher, the porter and the translator
Moramanga, 21 August 2014
He kept repeating the word mahafinaritra (pronounced maaf-na-tra — meaning ‘be pleased’ but could mean ‘fine’, ‘beautiful’ as well) every few steps, every few sentences, and at every short stops along the way. As a foreigner who has a very limited Malagasy vocabulary, which does include this word mahafinaritra, if I have to pick my favourite Malagasy word, it would be azafady (a versatile word that could be used from ‘sorry’ to ‘please’) — his was clearly mahafinaritra.