A new year and bumpy roads

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Welcome to our new website! It is time to freshen things up a bit for 2012. It’s hard to believe that it’s already been nearly four years since we started our adventure towards Madagacar. As we bring in the New Year we also celebrate our one year anniversary in Madagascar. Oh the stories to tell! And we have told quite a few through our years of blogging (see highlights from the past year below). We know there are many more stories to come as we move forward in life and ministry in Madagascar.

Whether you are a friend, supporter, family (hi mom’s) or just passing by we hope you find what you are looking for here. We invite you to connect with us in one way or another and join us on the bumpy road of life in Madagascar.

Travel Update

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We made it to the US. After 30 hours of flight time and several days of in between, we are glad to of landed at our home in Alaska. Now working our way through the crazy fog of a 12 hour time change. We are tired, but happy campers.

Top 10 Miss List

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As we close up shop on this end of the world for a few months to head back to the states there are many things we will miss about home in Madagascar:

1. Opportunity

Daily we are faced with opportunities to give in tangible ways to people greatly in need; a loaf of bread, a bottle of water, a prayer, medicine, a listening ear.

2. our teammates

Jamie and Alissa Shattenberg and their little brood of 3. They are much more than our teammates. They are like a brother and sister to us as we have ventured through the highs and weathered the lows of our first year in Madagascar together.

3. Fish

oh, the fresh fish in Madagascar….its is good….and big….and cheap.

4. the land

Madagascar is beautiful. During the rainy season the land turns vibrantly green overnight.

5. Friends

The last six months in Mahajanga has been a time of budding and deepening relationships. We look forward to growing in these relationship upon our return.

6. French school

Oliver has taken off in his school in every direction. He will miss his teacher, classmates and new found language (although we still do get occasional reports of his determination to teach others English).

7. Mangarano

This tiny mango packs a lot of punch and is the new family favorite. Its so good you literally drink it. Just cut a little hole and voila, instant goodness.

8. Freshness

Having very little access to traditional store bought foods means we live from scratch. Although its a labor intensive lifestyle in the kitchen, the payoff is worth it. Fresh tortillas, fresh bread, and homemade spaghetti sauce are a few of our weekly staples.

9. Beach

We live in a coastal town and our house is a 5 min. walk from the beach. That comes with some serious perks.

10. Sunsets

Nothing like the sunset over the Mozambique channel. We love our special family tradition of trying to catch as many sunsets as we can.

Chains and Trees

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Last weekend we took a trip to visit our friends at Toby. As per our previous experiences, we were met on the spot by the illest person on site at the moment. This is always a bit confusing because due to our own language and cultural barriers we are by far the last ones to know that the person we are conversing with is ill. The last two times this has occurred it is after our lengthy and tangental conversation that I realized the man before us had chains either on his hands or feet. This means he’s ill. Why chains? Chains are a way that the Toby staff or fellow family members use to restrain a patient that they see as a danger to himself or others. They are used temporarily when needed. In this man’s case he was in a full blown manic episode. He has Bipolar Disorder however his caretakers have very little to no clinical knowledge about this disorder. What they do know are the signs of it: he hasn’t slept in days, he won’t stop talking and pacing, he thoughts far exceed reality, etc. Since the opportunity presented itself we were able to assist his family and Toby staff with education and understanding about the cycles of Bipolar Disorder and to help sort out various medications they had on hand but did not know how to effectively administer.

Our purpose of this visit was to teach about health and hand out trees. Not just any tree, the miracle tree that we have been raving about. The church filled with men, women and children and Jonathan gave a presentation. Then we opened up the trunk of the car as people gathered eagerly to receive their tree. I heard people walking away shouting, “vitamins, vitamins” as they proudly walked home with their new Moringa tree.  It was a joyous occasional for all.

Where there is no normal

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If you’ve spent any time on the fringes of the earth then you are probably familiar with the popular book, Where There is No Doctor. It’s a household staple for us traveling types. (Even though we have a household doctor of our own, Jonathan has found this book to be a very useful teaching tool). All that to say as we pack our house and bags again and prepare to spend a few months stateside I have been doing a lot of reflecting about our wild and at times unwieldy life style where “normal” is hard to come by. Our little world has been turned upside down and spun around a few times since we left our home in Alaska in August 2009 to begin a grand adventure. From traveling across the US in our VW camper van to studying French in our dingy Parisianish apartment to settling into life on the remote island of Madagascar, its has definitely been a life-altering experience. We’ve been stretched far outside of our comfort zones; we’ve learned to adapt to new people, places, languages, custom, foods, weather; we have been challenged with how to respond responsibly to the extreme poverty that surrounds us and we have been sTrEsSeD…sometimes thriving under it and sometimes being crushed by it.

that's not snow

Our latest not normal experience has been living through the wet/cyclone/rainy season. Strange and unusual things are happening all around us. Namely massive amounts of mold and bugs. “Oh the ants come marching in” is a daily theme around our house. And something about wet weather makes ants ferociously hungry. A grain of rice on the floor will draw out hundreds. I have even seen an army of ants carrying away a live roach for dinner, unbelievable. I remind myself daily that I am bigger and stronger as I go to war against these tiny terrors. Crazier than the ants though is the mold. Things around our house are molding before our eyes: hats, jewelry, wall hangings, bags, toys. Jonathan came in the kitchen the other day holding Alex and exclaiming, “you will never guess what molded?” (a daily guessing game in our house). I exclaimed back in panic, “Alex!” I have just been waiting for it, fearing we are next. Thankfully that hasn’t happened yet, it was just a mat outside.

Rain, Rain Go Away

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We are experiencing our first tropical storm on the island. Chanda, as the experts call her, is currently 500km south of us, but her tail end is still giving our town a beating.
I am finding that there is a lot to learn about tropical island rainy/cyclone season in Madagascar.
While there may be annoyances for me like laundry that never dries, cooped up children and an army of outside life that takes up residence inside (aka BUGS), it is nothing compared to what our friends and neighbors endure.
It doesn’t take much wind and rain to topple over a house built on sand or a house built of leaves and flimsy pieces of metal. And that is what most houses around us are made of. It’s hard to imagine what it would be like to live in a pool for days. Beds, clothes, furniture soaking wet until finally the rain stops and the sun returns. This is reality for many people where we live. There is no laundromat to dry their blankets. Everyone is at the mercy of the weather; literally praying that the sun will come out tomorrow.
We helped a friend today buy the materials needed to patch her roof to keep the rain out. She had been plugging holes with bars of soap through the night until the soap ran out. For $2.50 she can patch holes in her roof; this is more than half a day’s wages. A steep price when you are living on pennies.

That’s life in Madagascar.

The Gift of Giving

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It was a shopping spree like none other.  One 100lb gunny of rice, 10 live chickens, several baskets of assorted vegetables, a sack of flour and a sack of sugar.  Mandy and I loaded up the car, grabbed the boys, and drove out into the bush.  We were headed back to Toby [Toobee]  to bring a little Christmas cheer to some of the poorest and neediest people on the planet.  As we pulled into the compound, the bell gonged and the sick and care-givers alike began to collect in the plain concrete church.  We greeted many with whom we had met during our last visit:  the pastor, the community leader, and the sick man who had previously been chained up to protect those around him.  It was such a pleasure to give this gift from us and our supports to this community… to see their eyes light up when they saw the luxury items of flour and sugar… to hear the kids sing and dance… to see the smiles on the faces of the sick.  For us the most touching moment was when an elderly sick lady presented us with her chicken as a thank you.  It was a poignant reminder that it is not the gift but the heart of the giver that is important.  It was a powerful opportunity to reflect on the greatest gift of all as we celebrate the birth of Christ.

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