Madagascar Teacher Moves to Yekaterinburg for Love

“Where’s Alex the lion?” — people ask me when they learn I’m from Madagascar.

Three years ago, Mamisou Andrianoumenjanahary from Madagascar dropped everything and moved to the outskirts of Yekaterinburg. She made that bold move for love. On social media she met Pavel — they talked online for a year, and a month after their long-awaited meeting, the couple went to the registry office.

There was another reason the young woman ended up in Russia: she dreamed of teaching Russian, and learning it without practice was impossible. Today Mamisou works as a teacher, runs her own blog and speaks fluently one of the world’s hardest languages (and knows three more!). The beauty told E1.RU what surprised her in Russia, why she doesn’t plan to return to her homeland, and explained what she loves about Yekaterinburg.

Mamisou was born in a small town called Manjakandriana. She was raised only by her mother. After finishing 12 grades of school, she planned to enroll in medical school, but after visiting a student fair she changed her mind. In the end, Mamisou enrolled in the philology department at a state university in Madagascar:

“Russian is exotic — almost nobody here knows it. We studied for a month, and then there was a competition to get into university. I succeeded; for three years I studied Russian and other languages. But the instruction wasn’t in Russian — it was in French or Malagasy (the national language of Madagascar — Ed. note). When I got my bachelor’s degree, I didn’t really speak Russian — I only knew the theory. To speak fluently and communicate like I do now takes a lot of time.”

When Mamisou moved to Russia, she was 25. She admits it was fate. After finishing her studies in Madagascar, she realized she wanted to link her life to the Russian language. She prepared all the documents and sent them to Russian universities. She didn’t even consider other countries.

“For example, it’s very hard to move to France; there are big visa problems there. They don’t let everyone into their country. I studied Russian and, of course, wanted to go to Russia. What would I do in France? I want to study the language more deeply, and even if I ever returned home, I could teach at a university and build a good career. But if I had stayed in Madagascar, I’d only get a job at a school, and they pay little there — I don’t want that. And I like it in Russia,” Mamisou explained.

But the main reason the beauty ended up in Yekaterinburg was meeting her husband, Pavel. They were in the same Russian-language learning chat — he noticed Mamisou and messaged her privately. That’s how it all started.

“He had never seen me in person and immediately introduced me to his parents. I told my mom: ‘There’s a man who wants to build a family with me.’ And she answered: ‘But you don’t know him.’ I said I trusted my heart. I didn’t even wait for a response from the university and came here. I wasn’t afraid — I didn’t think he was some psycho. A month after we started living together, we went to the registry office,” the young woman shared.

Mamisou found out she had been accepted to a master’s program at the pedagogical university in Shadrinsk when she was already in Yekaterinburg. The only problem was that she needed to return home to get a student visa in order to enroll on a state-funded place. To avoid leaving her beloved and going through the ordeal of endless flights, the African woman decided to study on a paid basis. Today she is a successful educator, teaching Russian online to foreigners.

A year later, a baby named Viktor appeared in the family, which made returning home even harder. Mamisou explained that a flight for one person costs at least 150,000 rubles ($1,600 at current rates): “The best option is to invite my mom here so she can see something new and her grandson. She would love to hug him for real.”

The most popular question Mamisou has been asked in Russia for three years is, of course, about the cartoon “Madagascar”: “‘Where’s Alex?’ And I don’t know what to say, because they’re not from our country. As for nature — it’s true, we just don’t have such animals: giraffes, lions, hippos, penguins that arrived on a ship. But we do have lemurs. I’ve watched that cartoon many times in different languages.”

At first, things in Russia were unusual: Mamisou admitted she was surprised by how clean the city is, because in her homeland people litter absolutely everywhere.

“For me it’s clean, because I’ve seen worse. There, no one says you can’t throw trash here, you can’t do that — everyone does as they please. Also, here there are forests and parks everywhere; in my town there’s little of that. In Russia people are also hospitable — on any holiday tables are laid out, and everyone always says: ‘Eat, eat, eat.’ I remember when we visited my husband’s relatives, and one aunt said to my mother-in-law: ‘Why aren’t you feeding her at all? Look, she’s so skinny,’” the African woman said.

Mamisou also shared that she wasn’t prepared for passersby’s reaction to her smile and excessive friendliness, because in Madagascar it’s customary to put on a mask even when you feel bad inside.

“I remember getting into the elevator and immediately smiling: ‘Hello, everyone!’ And they looked at me so… It was a disgrace, basically. I didn’t know that you shouldn’t smile at everyone. Here, if you don’t like something, you don’t like it. And if people smile, it’s a sincere smile. It’s about reality, not a mask,” Mamisou added.

Mamisou has also mastered Russian cuisine. In her opinion, our dishes aren’t very different from Malagasy ones:

“Here lunch is soup, a main course and also a salad, while we eat rice three times a day. But there are side dishes, for example, meat or egg with rice. We also eat soup with rice. It doesn’t get boring. When I miss home, I cook Malagasy food for myself and my son. For my husband I make Russian food, but I still don’t know how to make dough for pelmeni. I remember when I first tried herring, I said: ‘What is this? Raw fish? I’ll never eat that.’ But just recently I bought it again, tried it — very tasty. Now I eat buckwheat fine too, but I don’t like holodets.”

The Ural weather doesn’t scare Mamisou either. In the town where she was born, the sun also peeks out only occasionally — most of the time it rains (just like in Yekaterinburg this year).

“We have winter too, but not minus 40°C (-40°F) like in the Urals. There’s a lot of forest there, so it rains all the time. And it doesn’t bother me — I even like the climate here. When it was hot, I felt very bad. I can’t stand it,” the young woman shared.

She has visited Moscow and Izhevsk with her family, but she considers Yekaterinburg the ideal city to live in. She probably won’t return to Madagascar — this year Mamisou received a Russian Federation passport.

“In Moscow everything has to be done very fast; no one sleeps there. I can’t live there. Usually in Yekaterinburg we walk in Mayakovsky Park, on the Plotinka [the dam area in central Yekaterinburg]. I don’t have a favorite place — I like everything. The only thing I miss that Madagascar has is fresh greens, which I love and eat a lot of,” Mamisou shared.

Also read the story of Seydou Guindo, who moved from Mali to Russia to fulfill his dream of becoming a doctor and making people healthier. The 25-year-old student at Ryazan State Medical University has decided on his specialty — he will be a dentist and has already done an internship as an assistant at a Ryazan clinic.

We also wrote about how a Cuban ended up in Siberia and found love and a calling.