Category Archives: adventures

An unusal Christmas

Posted on by
3

Our first round of holidays on the island have been full of firsts. From killing our bird for Thanksgiving to new traditions and awkward moments at Christmas we are embracing our new and different way of life. The biggest different  this Christmas has been the heat. Living on this side of the equator on a tropical island is a whole different ball game. The downside, suffocating humidity and endless sweat; the upside, water. Ice cold water to drink and ocean water to swim in are a few of our favorite things this year.

A trip to the beach down the street on Christmas day was refreshing fun for the whole family.  However, strange and a bit unsettling to be surrounded by sand instead of snow this Christmas.

An awkward, but not untypical, moment occurred on Christmas Day when a communication mishap resulted in our failure to understand that we had been invited to a formal Christmas dinner at our landlord’s house (he lives upstairs from us). We were surprised when a family member came down to ask where we were; they were waiting for us to start. We apologized for our misunderstanding and told them we would arrive for dessert. After an hour and a half we headed over only to find that they were on course 2 of 7. We rode out the next 5 courses with them with fine and frightening delicacies like escargot and lamb. We were so full by the time we came home that we decided to delay our planned Christmas dinner until the next day.

A new year and bumpy roads

Posted on by
Reply

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.

The Village Trip

Posted on by
Reply

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Last month we took our first trip to the bush as a family. Our little family of four along with our teammates Jamie and Alissa, their kids, a short-term worker and 8 other Malagasy friends and partners hopped aboard a helicopter and a boat to take the rugged trip 120 miles south to Mahabana. Mandy and the boys experienced life village style while Jonathan worked with our partners to conduct a medical clinic and provide health education.  Life village style means a few things: lots and lots of sand, lots and lots of rice, community meals three times a day, a tribe of kids always on our heels and a true rugged experience. It’s hard to sum up the trip because each of us had a unique experience of our own. In a word, for Jonathan it was fulfilling, for Oliver it was fun, for Alex it was rough (fevers several times a day) and for Mandy it was challenging. All in all we are glad we did it and we learned a lot. Mahabana is a special place with an amazing history full of darkness and hope (click here for more details on the history of Mahabana). We are blessed to take part in promoting health and healing in this far corner of the earth.

Barking Turkey

Posted on by
2

It was a new experience celebrating Thanksgiving this year… our first in Madagascar.  Preparing the turkey was my biggest feat.  It started in the market picking out the least scrawny and youngest one I could find.  I haggled over the price by pointing out the weaker points of the turkey while the seller promoted it’s finer qualities.  We settled on a price, I picked him up by the feet, and we went on our merry way.  The next step was changing it from a feathered, walking, breathing, clucking animal into one of those pieces of meat you buy in a US grocery store already plastic-wrapped.  I won’t bore you with details but it involved chopping, dipping in boiling water, plucking and gutting.  The final result on our Thanksgiving table was a roasted turkey sure enough but only a little bigger than a chicken.  Oliver summed up the experience well when he told a new acquaintance: “Daddy cutted the turkey’s head  when it was still barking.”

 

Sharing

Posted on by
Reply

A hundred times a day we tell our kids to share. It’s a hard lesson to learn for our little tykes who want to rule the world…have their cake and eat it too, and then have some of everyone else’s.

Learning to share isn’t just a lesson we teach, it is one we are also taught everyday living here in Madagascar. Malagasy people excel at sharing. If there is food, everyone eats it. If there is a toy, everyone plays with it. If there is a bed, everyone sleeps in it.
Yesterday we headed out for  an overnight family camping trip. The site we were headed to was only 40 miles away, however on the infamous bad roads of Madagascar it is not unusual for 40 mere miles takes 3+ hours. With one hour to go we passed a small cluster of grass huts and then noticed a man waving us down. He asked if he could have a ride to his village which was near to where we were headed.
Jonathan and I looked at each other, then looked around our car. Stuff everywhere, tired kids, car seats that would need moved for a stranger to sit in the back seat, or me moving out of the front seat and squeezing between my kids which usually doesn’t go well. All of this silently passed through our minds as we looked at each other with the nod of agreement and responded to the man, “No, we can’t give you a ride. Sorry.”
We drove a few feet forward, pausing before crossing a small river. A pause just long enough for us to reflect on what just happened  and feel an undeniable weight of conviction. We looked at each other, “What are we thinking? Only about our own comfort and convenience. How selfish is that?” Jonathan hoped out to look for the man, I saw him in front of us and waved him back to car. We welcomed him in to the font seat as I hoped in the back. His name was Zoto and  he had been walking for 4 hours, eager to get back to his wife and 8 children. I shared a snack with him, which he turn saved to share with his kids back home.

Lemurs, costumes and fun in the sun

Posted on by
Reply

With two weeks off of school for fall break we have been enjoying more intentional time together in the great outdoors. Trips to the beach and an adventurous overnight family camping trip was just what we needed to help us beat the heat and have some fun.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Broken

Posted on by
Reply

It was a blood curdling scream that sent Mandy and I running into the living room.  Oliver was on the floor below a bench and stack of cushions trying to to get up.  As I drew closer, I could see the injury… there was a very definite deformity in his right forearm.  Within minutes we were on the road to the hospital where I have been working.  A quick x-ray confirmed my fears… a fracture through his ulnar and radius.  It took three painful attempts and a phone call to an orthopedic friend in the states before the local doctor and I were able to get the bones back in place.

For Oliver it was a horrible experience with the pain of the broken arm and the confinement of a cast, for me it was a stressful ordeal sharing the hats of father and physician and for Mandy it was heart breaking to see her son in such pain and then to part from him several days later for her trip to the States.

Now Oliver is 5 weeks post-injury and doing famously.  He has figured out how to run, climb, jump, and eat with one arm and one plaster “club”.  We are eagerly awaiting the day, October 25th, when he can remove the protection and return to playing at the beach and in the pool.

Traveling the Mozambique Channel

Posted on by
Reply

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

This week, I (Jonathan) took a 14 hour one-way boat ride with some teammates to the village of Mahabana to do a medical clinic.  We left at 3am under a star-lit sky and arrived in the village just as the sun was setting. During this epic trip, we saw lots of coastline and caught some fish for dinner.  The last four hours we were driving into a headwind which sent waves of spray over us.  By the time we arrived on shore, we were soaking wet and surprisingly freezing cold.  Here are some pics from our outbound adventure:

Sacred Rock

Posted on by
Reply

Landmarks here in Madagascar that look to me like a great place to hike or explore are almost invariably an important historical and spiritual center for the Malagasy people.  Last week, our teacher took us to a large rock structure in the mountains where the region’s king used to live and was buried over 300 years ago.  Today, his descendants continue to sacrifice animals as was made vividly clear to us by the blood stains on his tomb.  We were able to explore a cave and some crevasses in the monolith and saw some fruit bats, falcons, and other wildlife.  It was a great opportunity to practice Malagasy, learn more about the culture, and get some exercise in the great outdoors.  It was a great day except for a close call our teacher had with a falling, table-sized boulder.

CSI

Posted on by
Reply

A metallic crash, a moped flying through the air, a dash to the hospital, demands for payment, the chief of police, chalk on the pavement… no it is not a CSI episode but rather the fallout from an auto accident Madagascar style.  A couple of weeks ago while turning into our driveway, we were side-swiped by a moped that was driving at a high speed.  We were fine, our car had minimal damage but the moped and rider were worse for wear.  It was quite a stressful experience for us to navigate the cultural and legal implications of our first major traffic incident in this country.  Fortunately, we had friends with connections to the chief of police who helped us through the process and the rider was released from the hospital the next day with only minor injuries.  The humorous side for us was when the police decided to do a whole reenactment of the accident, stopping traffic on the main road through town, breaking out the chalk, and going to town with the measuring tape.  I wish I had photos but it just didn’t seem appropriate to bring out a camera during such a solemn event.