Colours, Aromas and Spices, Madagascar

Well, lets sneak in one more update in May!
That would be thanks to this tedious working assignment I have right now and when the closer you come to the end the more anxious you get (the negative kind of anxious).
So thank God there is a tennis match right now...and while watching that, I thought it would be nice to show a few cards as well, before I go back to the working stuff...yeah, I am multitasking...watching tennis, posting cards, drinking coffee..you name it :P

My first card for today arrived recently...and when choosing the cards for today I came to a realization that this is my first written and stamped one from Madagascar! I got quite confused cos I was convinced I had another w/s from there already, but obviously I was wrong...and that made me even more glad having received this splendid card, showing a beautiful market!

this place is simply a paradise for all senses...and even though our markets are maybe not arranged the same way, here you can find almost all the things you can see on the card, regarding vegetables, spices, seeds etc. Yes, conserving vegetables in jars like that is one of the favourite 'hobbies' of a typical Macedonian person :)
Comes in handy...esp. during winter.
And then those jars that look as if having some sort of paste/spread inside...reminds me of our ajvar or malidzano...mmhmm mhhm mhhmm, feeling hungry at the very thought of it!

But seriously, I could spend hours and hours at a place like this! And probably leave dizzy :)

Stamp was issued in 2012...and that's like all I know about it...for some reason information on Madagascar stamps is quite scarce...though while searching for this one I came across some other Madagascar issues..and boy my jaw dropped at all those space related stamps they have! EXTRAORDINARY!!
Maybe I'll get my hands on some of them...one day :)

Quang Tri, Viet Nam

First it was Kazakhstan, and now it is Viet Nam, and I get to have cards from these two rare places thanks to dear Jo mainly!

And this time she chose a lovely card from my favourites, which shows a rainy day at the market in Quang Tri.
This is a city in central Vietnam, the major city of Quang Trí Province, which lies near the Demilitarized Zone, an area that separated North and South Vietnam after Vietnam was partitioned at the end of the First Indochina War in 1954. People living here are said to be poor unfortunately.

But this card is just too beautiful to me, with all these people wearing the same hats and with these different nice colourful clothes on , just creates some lovely and unique atmosphere.
Curious to know what exactly they are selling at this market...I am pretty much convinced that even though im rather picky when it comes to food, here I would love to try the most unusual stuff they might be selling...as long as its not bugs and crickets and such...

The stamp on the right is from a set of 4 issued in 2009, representing flowers, while the left one shows a carp and is from a set of 3 fish stamps issued in 2008.

Dabai, Nigeria

it's weekend time! which means its update time! though if we are to be fair, 7 days ago was also a weekend time and i should have made an update already, but taken all the circumstances in account, id be happy if i manage this one...time is just not on my side...but thanks for still dropping by every now and then to check if there are some news...

and since i had to have a time gap here, i thought it would be nice to give this blog a treat with a new country...which is also not one of those countries i thought id have a chance to have a card from, written and stamped, any time soon...but i actually have two now ;) So here comes the first one...
It shows a Local Market in the Dabai Village in Nigeria, where Markets of this kind are very common in Nigeria, as well as Africa in general...if we are to assess the hygiene factor, im not sure i would give this place a high-rank...but i guess thats how these markets work..
My whole Nigeria-postcard thing didnt start off very nice, but fortunately, ended up well...and im happy to actually have two written and stamped Nigerian cards...since due to politics, i almost gave up on them, but here we were able to fix the misunderstanding and send each other cards.
Ok, i wont pretend that im full of knowledge about Nigeria....coz im not....i still dont know why i admit such stuff publicly though...
Nigeria is said to be the most populous country in Africa and as well the most popular 'black' country in the world with over 150 million people living there. But believe it or not, in Nigeria, the human rights are still at a very poor level and many abuses are done from the side of the government officials. As some of the most significant human rights' problems are considered to be: extrajudicial killings and use of excessive force by security forces; impunity for abuses by security forces; arbitrary arrests; prolonged pretrial detention; judicial corruption and executive influence on the judiciary; rape, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of prisoners, detainees and suspects; harsh and life‑threatening prison and detention center conditions; human trafficking for the purpose of prostitution and forced labor; societal violence and vigilante killings; child labor, child abuse and child sexual exploitation; female genital mutilation (FGM); domestic violence; discrimination based on sex, ethnicity, region and religion; restrictions on freedom of assembly, movement, press, speech and religion; infringement of privacy rights; and the abridgement of the right of citizens to change the government.

unbelievable...

the stamp on the right was issued in 2004 and comes from a set of 4 under the subject of Children's Postage Stamp Designs - Education the Great Liberator (Umaru Jessica). The other one was issued in 2007 regarding the  the 24th UPU (Universal Postal Union) Congress in Nairobi 2008. It shows a man and a woman and the caption reads South-South Zone Costume.