Category Archives: place

Top 10 Miss List

Posted on by
5

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.

Where there is no normal

Posted on by
5

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

Posted on by
Reply

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.

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.

Sekoly

Posted on by
Reply

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