Category Archives: culture

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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An unusal Christmas

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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.

CSI

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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.

A taste of Malagasy

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Introducing……Madame Lalao, our Malagasy teacher for 5 months. She is why we are living in Antsirabe, the high plateau area of Madagascar. It is a 13+ hour drive from the town we will eventually live in, Mahajanga. Learning with her is worth every mile traveled to get here. She is excellent, inside and out; a true treasure. She is not only teaching us grammar, phonetics and vocabulary, but also heart and soul of Malagasy culture; beliefs, customs, values. We are privileged to learn with Madame Laoloa. Here is a soundbite of her teaching us a song:


Her son teaches our class for an hour each day. Here he is giving us a hands on lesson about the variety of vegetables we can find at the market. Our teachers have been great about teaching us very practical words and expressions. This has made a huge difference for us in day to day living.

Sekoly

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Four mornings a week we sit around our kitchen table with 4 other students hammering away at the grammar, phonetics and vocabulary of the Malagasy language. Oliver enjoys an education of a different kind during these 4 hours. He is thrilled to trot off to Sekoly (Malagasy word for school) and spend the morning exploring, learning and adventuring around Antsirabe with Jamie and his two gal pals, Isabella and Eliana.
Here is a snapshot of a day in their life:
“We went for a hike at Sekoly today.  We drove out of town on a really back road to a bridge; then we climbed a hill and met some people carrying a lot of charcoal on their heads on their way to the market. We bought some little baskets from a lady and some sweet potatoes to fill our baskets from another lady and then walked back to the car.  On the way home we pulled a car out of the mud and did some major off-roading in the process. It was a good day.” Jamie

Alive in Antsirabe

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Just a quick note to all you who are wondering if we are keeping our heads above water during our first few weeks in Madagascar. Thank you for your emails, etc checking in on us. We are settling into our new (but old) and temporary home in Antsirabe, Madagascar. We have been warmly welcomed by several Malagasy people who are friends with the owners of our rental. Connections are so key! We deeply appreciate the help they have offered as we are on a steep learning curve right now. We have been guided in key tasks such as where to have furniture made, where to buy cushions for that furniture, where to buy upholstery for those cushions, how to kill massive amounts of aggressive fleas that have taken over our bathroom, how to avoid being charged 3x the normal price for things because we look like tourists and figuring out what we can and cannot find in our new town. We are also in our first week of Malagasy language class. That deserves a blog of its own, which should come soon. In a nutshell though we are taking in massive amounts of new cultural and linguistic information. Malagasy language and culture are entirely different from anything I have ever known. The words have a fun ring to them though and seem to roll of the tongue much more fluidly than French. We’ll keep you posted as the adventure continues