Ilakaka, Madagascar. This town was put on the map when a Frenchman discovered a very large sapphire field here in the late 90's. The field is apparently huge, something like 10 km long and 25 km wide. This sparked a 'gold' rush of sorts and the town grew exponentially and for a period of time was very lawless, where might was right, and dangerous, as people tunnelled into the ground to find the gems and many people were suffocated when tunnels collapsed. The government stepped in and dictated that the mining had to be done by open pit. We stopped at a gem dealer and he took us to his open pit. We drove there, off the chaotic main road onto a horrifically impoverished side road where we got out and walked to the pit. We peered over the edge and watched as a group of labourers were digging the dirt and manually shovelling it out of the pit. They dig down as much as fifty metres through the earth and sand depending how far down the pebble bed is, (where the gems are), and stop at the sandstone bedrock. It was depressing to watch the work these men had to do. There are hundreds of these open pit mines all over the area and they are not refilled when the pit is exhausted. We also saw several test holes, where they dig a well straight down to see what they find. If they hit gems then they expand it to a pit. It costs about $30000 to dig a pit and anyone can do it. This town is full of people from all the regions of Madagascar and foreigners from Sri Lanka, Thailand and India who are experts in gems and control the whole trade. We watched as a man collected air in a large plastic bag and then squeezed it with his arms to force air into the wells for the workers down there to breathe. As we were walking around we were followed as always by kids. They were filthy and aggressive. Apparently in the past some tourists had paid for pictures of them and now they expect money if you take a photo and constantly want you to take one. We were warned not to take any. It was sad because I am sure that these kids do not go to school and there future is probably in one of these pits.
To see photos and read more about my Intrepid tour of Madagascar and other tours and places I visited on my second year long sabbatical world tour please check my blog:
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