5: Mauritius, Quatre Bornes (Ruth)

23. rd of June in the afternoon we arrive in Mauritius, a seeming paradise island with beaches all around. Even though it is winter here at the moment temperature is like Norwegian summer (17-23 degrees Celsius). There is no other transport available from the airport than taxi. After a 45 minutes drive along the beatutiful coast we arrive at Hotel Ambre, a most wonderful tropical beach hotel. Here we stay for 24 hours. We eat luxurious meals for dinner and breakfast at the cost of our price.

In the evening there is a Sega show, with local folk music and dancing. The music is very exiting and rhytmically complex, most interesting for both of us. The music here is one of the reaons we had for coming. We first are presented to the old forms of the music. All the original instruments are shown to the audience and we are allowed to try them. The music is a most special mixture of African and Indian impulses. They use djembe drums, a bass drum, some flat drums called Ravane are played by tvo hands (formed like an ocean drum), triangle, a flat shaking box made from aluminium and thick bamboo stems to be beaten, making different sounds. The dancers are most beautifully dressed and very skilled. The show holds a high musical quality. In the last part of the show the audience is invited to try dancing on the stage together with the ensemble. They are good at including and encouraging the newcomers. Of course Mari and I join in - it is great fun to dance together with these musicians and dancers. The next day we stay in the hotel area during the daytime, swimming and relaxing on the beach.

In the afternoon we find a bus to take us to our next lodging: this time as couch surfers in the house of Sanjay, a very open an most interesting person to talk to. Sanjay lives in Mauritius for some years working on medical technology. Interesting enough he tells us that he cooperates with specialists in telemedicine in Tromsoe, and we are proud to hear that Norway is quite in the frontline of telemedicine development. Sanjay has his family (wife and two children) at home in the northern part of India. As a foreigner he has most interesting reflections on the Mauritian mixed population, which I will come back to. Since he does not live with his dear family Sanjay hosts couch surfers and thus creates a network of contacts throughout the world. The need to do so is big, sice Mauritus according to his experience is a rather limited island society. He has not made friends with local people here, he tells us. We are happy to meet such a wonderful person with whom we can talk about all kinds of themes. He is a really "deep" thinker, and we feel very much welcome in his house. We like his style of hosting. He is not overdoing and goes on with his normal activities while we are there.

One of the days we go for a small trip to Port Louis, the capital. We see an international exhibition "World Press Photo" which is most interesting, shocking and beautiful. The photos cover all the most important conflict areas in the world. We are very glad to have seen this. One Norwegian photographer, Espen Rasmussen from Verdens Gang, was among the top photos.