What's inside this crater in Madagascar?

our facilitator. More specifically, they migrated from Manandriana, a district in the Amoron'i Mania region, in the central highlands of Madagascar. A journey of more than 380 kilometers. Like most people in Amoron'i Mania, the residents of Ambohiby are Betsileo. The third largest of Madagascar's 18 main ethnic groups. Meaning that they not only migrated to a new home, but also became an ethnic minority. I now live in a place where the Merina people are the majority. It was still unclear why they chose

this

particular location, such a remote location. Until they sat down to interview Razafinatiala, one of the elders.

And they named him after her. Anosibe Ambohiby. Anosibe Ambohiby. Anosibe Ambohiby - or Ambohiby "Big Island". So we had an answer as to why they lived here. And why they had traveled all

this

way to live in a place like this. He went through the water and he went through the ground. But more than anything, it was because of the space. And it's easy to see why. In the entire Tsiroanomandidy district there are just over 49 people per square kilometer. But in Manadriana, the immigrants' original home, that density is more than double. And for farmers like them, space to plant crops, raise livestock and build a life is everything.

And then the villagers took Lalie and the team to see

what

they had done with all that space. A huge field of hundreds of lemon and orange trees. Citrus fruits are a cash crop: fruits grown for the purpose of selling in a market. But to sell their products in a market, they have to transport them down the mountain to Antaniditra. The same difficult trip that Lalie and his team had just made. The remoteness was the first thing that fascinated us about this town. And it was a central part of his story. But it was a story that extended far beyond this place.

Madagascar has one of the least developed road networks in the world, with only 5 kilometers of roads per 100 square kilometers of land. The majority of Madagascar's population lives in rural areas very similar to this one. But only a small fraction of that rural population lives within 2 kilometers of a year-round road. Which means almost 16 million people are essentially living offline. Better, more connected roads mean easier access to schools, hospitals and markets. It's easier to build a better life. Hi, hi Christopher, how are you? We have finally been to the

crater

. They live in a very, very, very remote area.

Because this is like the center of the

crater

. And the way they live in the middle of the crater and can sustain themselves... it's amazing. But accessing there... is not an easy life. When I was reviewing all the images that Lalie's team sent us after arriving home, I couldn't stop looking at this perfect combination with the first image we saw of the town. And it caught my attention... Apart from a few photos... taken with cameras hundreds of kilometers high in the sky...   ...there is basically no record of Anosibe Ambohiby anywhere on the Internet. Until now. With the Internet, we can observe practically any part of the planet.

Some of the places we found could be made up. Or you could be surrounded by conspiracy theories instead of facts. And some we can't learn much without showing up, asking questions, and letting people tell their story.