why this nickname?

... because I'm malagasy but above all, a citizen of the world, a global mom!

Topics I'd like to write about and to share with my circles are about being a mom nowadays from a country on the other side of the globe, living, working, and raising my children in the western world. This was a free choice with a long way to come to it.

My destiny was probably sealed 23 years ago almost to the day. On the 20th December 1989, I took the plane, Aeroflot, russian airline! I was 17!!! so young!

I had no fear, no doubt, no idea about what was waiting for me!

Long long way, long journey:
Antananarivo, Madagascar, maybe 3 p.m.: who had really realized what we were about to do? my dad? my mom? A real change of life was that, radical! the first of many more changes...
My seatmate was an italian doctor, that was what he said, working in Nosy-Be at that time. He had another compatriot a few seats away. I had cried, I was so sad from Antananarivo that I ended up falling asleep on this italian guy's shoulder! Embarrassing...
Nairobi, Kenya? or Aden, Yemen ? or both stops? I'm not sure of anything, memories are now vague, I'm still having a few images in my mind, seeing myself inside this airport looking at all these duty-free shops...
Then Simferopol, Ukraine... Ukraine!!! Oh God! why there? because it was strongly snowing in Moscow and the plane couldn't land! How many time did we wait?
Moscow airport, Russia... no, USSR! The 2 italians said goodbye to me there. 2°C outside. I remember, I went to the bathroom to put on my pantyhose. Then I had lunch, I met a malagasy woman at the restaurant...
Brussel, Belgium, the next day at 7.30 p.m. the end of the air travel but still more than 200km to make by car!
Finally, Bonn, Germany! it must have been late, 10 or 11 p.m.

What is it if not destiny?!?

The next 9 years have definitely influenced my life and my personality, and definitively made me a world citizen. I had to learn the german language, to integrate myself in the german society. I've travelled to the Netherlands, Tunisia, France, Belgium. I had fellow students from all over the world: Germany, France, Congo Brazza, Congo Kinshasa (former Zaïre), Poland, Greece, Iran, India, USA, Senegal, Peru, Brazil, Mexico, Korea, Cameroon, Thaïland, Indonesia, China, Bulgaria... I can't list them all!

No fear, no doubt... and the strong idea that I had control over my life! Because life was hard, it wasn't easy to finance myself my education, but what a freedom feeling!!!

October 1998, back to Madagascar!

Some fear, no doubt!! An impulsive decision. Do I have some regrets? I guess, it was written things have to happen like the way they happened.

2005, I "came back" for the first time again to Europe and from there, a thing that I was sure about: I'm not a person of a one country. Good for me that I was living on an island, no frontier!!

2009, a great opportunity to move to Senegal! with my husband, with my children. Africa!! Not everyone has this chance! And it was my children's turn to become citizens of the world! At school, they had classmates from Senegal, France (of course), Ivory Coast, Lebanon, Cameroon, Syria... someone told us, there were more than 60 nationalities in this school!!!

December 2010, a dream that I didn't dare to dream became true! The discovery of America! the discovery of THE city, New-York City! Coup de foudre!!! How not to fall in love with this amazing city?!

July 2011, France, the quiet South-West! No fear, no doubt, big hope!

Another world. Much smaller! More charming! Far from anywhere? Not really! I only need to take my car and to drive until I reach the city of my choice. I've probably and unconsciously learned never to set limits in my life. No limit! No frontier!

It's now deep in me, part of my DNA: I'm from all over the world and I wish I could go everywhere I want to go. I come from Madagascar but I'm not feeling guilty because I don't live there... Similarly, it doesn't matter if I won't be buried there. And I know how important all this is for malagasy people. It's only the story of my life, it's just as simple as that!

And the most important thing is: it will be the same for my children. I want them to have a bigger perspective than mine. I want them to go global!

No fear, no doubt, big hope!!!