The Things That Live in Madagascar

Disclaimer: The creatures pictured are not necessarily only found here. They are just the ones we’ve encountered in our time here.

The lemur pictures are from this past weekend.

Lemurs are the most famous animals Madagascar is known for. If you remember the movie, you might break out singing, "I like to move it, move it!"

We could get really close to them and Kasen was amazed by these unique animals.

Yes, we live in Madagascar too (at least for the next few days).

Nocturnal lemurs

Another nocturnal lemur

An Iguana

A chameleon

Another one that's well hidden in the grass

Preying Mantis

Dragonfly

You know what this is. It might be a hissing cockroach that is known here in Madagascar. It was soon a dead one after this picture! The total count right now is 37...

Spider web on the ground

I'll Never Complain About Laundry Again

Laundry is a completely different experience here. See for yourself:

A local washing house

Washing clothes in a small river

Washing in a larger river

Drying the clothes

More drying

We haven’t had to do our laundry this way thankfully. We have borrowed washing machines from the other missionary families here and have hung our clothes on the line everyday, which is more work than at home, but nothing in comparison with how most of the local people have to do their laundry. I’m thankful for the modern conveniences we have in the U.S. and next time I moan about having to wash, dry, and fold another load of laundry (I swear kids triple your laundry output), I will remember the laundry experience here.

Giveaway Winner Announced!!

And the winner of the Giveaway for the Authentic African Tall People Wood Carvings is (drum roll please)...

JESSICA!!!!!

Jessica, please contact me with your mailing address within 36 hours so I can mail these awesome carvings to you!

Thank you to everyone who entered!

The Airlift (Posted By Kai)

One of Peter's workers had a motorcycle accident last week and fractured several ribs and broke his collarbone. Unfortunately it occurred about 35km from the nearest hospital, and even once he did get there, the hospital could only stabilize him but was not able to give him the proper care he required. He needed to be air-lifted back to Tana, so Peter asked me if I wanted to go along for the ride!

It started early at 5:45 in the morning. Peter, Jacques, and I left at dawn for the airport and made the journey across town picking up a missionary doctor on the way. We arrived, checked in, and piled into the 12 passenger MAF plane. I got to sit in the co-pilot seat on the way down. It was totally awesome!!!

It was less than a 1 hour flight in a prop plane, but would have taken over 10 hours to drive the guy from the town on the coast up to Tana. That gives an idea of the condition of the roads, and when your ribs are busted up, every bump feels like torture.

I haven’t really had time to think about flying a plane with being in school and the prohibitive expense, but sitting in the co-pilot’s seat brought back the memories. I was fine with the take off and the flight. It was fun and beautiful, but the addiction of flying for me is in the landing. Lining up for the runway, bringing it down nice and easy, sitting in ground effect for a few seconds, and then gently kissing the ground is what is so awesome about flying to me and I suddenly missed it very much.

When we got to the hospital, it was only about 150 yards from the Indian Ocean, but was not the cleanest, most up-to-date place (the maternity ward beds had mattresses without sheets and the smell of urine was in the air). I’m not sure that even if I were deathly sick that I would want to go there. But the man was stable and they had the equipment to take a chest x-ray. We loaded him into the plane and made the trip (much faster and smoother than the alternative) back to the awaiting ambulance. He was in stable condition and definitely has a much better chance for full recovery here in Tana than where he was.

I got to see cascading waterfalls, lush rainforest, tiny villages throughout the countryside, and our compound all from the air. It was incredible.

I felt really blessed to go on this incredible adventure!

The plane

Tana

The runway at Mananjary

The Indian Ocean

Rice Paddies

The Doc

(If you zoom in on some of these pictures, you can see tiny villages along the river. They are mostly made of huts in a clearing and they were all over the place.)

Beautiful waterfalls!

The rainforest

A reservoir

Our compound

(It is the forested area surrounded by city. If you zoom in at the right place you can actually see our house!)

My Rite of Passage

Since coming here I’ve tried my hand at making wheat rolls. However, it’s time for a confession: although I love cooking and baking and have made everything from Pad Thai to Spanakopita and more, I had actually never made bread before. Gasp! I know, I know. How can I truly be a woman, right? I regularly make sweet breads like banana, zucchini, etc., and love to cook and bake when I have the time, but when it comes to rolls and bread, I’ve always just bought the premade loaves in the nice preserving packaging or the Pillsbury rolls you take from the container, put on the baking sheet, and bake. So when I discovered there is nothing in the way of wheat bread here, I borrowed a recipe from one of the other missionary women and decided to try my hand at it. I wish I could say the first time I just whipped it together and voila, we had wheat rolls, but my first experience didn’t happen quite like that…

I was a little over zealous in my attempt to make big, fluffy, moist rolls, so when it called for warm water to be mixed with the yeast, I boiled the water because I don’t have warm water in the kitchen. I mixed in a little cool filtered water so it wasn’t boiling, but hot, and then added it to the yeast and honey. Yup! You know what happened next. I mixed it together and waited for the reaction with the yeast to take place. Nothing happened. I started preparing the second set of ingredients. Still nothing. I decided that enough time had passed, so I combined the 2 mixtures together, kneaded, and then formed the dough into rolls. I waited for them to rise…and waited…and waited. Finally I gave up and threw them into the oven thinking they would rise while baking. 20 minutes later, they were cooked, but still as flat and unfluffly as they were when I put them in. I was a little bummed, but decided to try one hoping they still tasted just as good. Hmmmm, the best way to describe them would be firm and chewy. Actually, chewy is a bit too generous—think physical therapy for your jaw. Most of those immediately found their way to the garbage can, the others were set outside to choke the rats (hee hee, j/k). When I found out that I had killed the yeast, I decided to try it again with warm water and that made ALL the difference. I now can make warm, moist, fluffy, soft, raised rolls!

Now that I have accomplished this great feat that most everyone else in the world (men and women alike) have achieved, I must say, there is something earthy, rustic, and gratifying about this simple task. There’s something to watching the yeast bubble and froth and then kneading the dough. I felt like I was living before my time when this novelty was an everyday occurrence. I felt a bizarre connection to all the women who have lived before me because I have now taken the leap and experienced what most other women have done for thousands of years. I’ve made bread!!!

Is this to say that when I head back to the U.S. that I will make all my bread from here on out and throw off the chains of modernization? Absolutely not!! I appreciate others hard work to make my life easier. I also LOVE to find a good deal and sometimes I can buy a $5 loaf of bread for $1 through sales and coupons, so I have a very similar feeling of gratification without actually needing to bake it myself. But if I find myself with a little extra time and the desire to do something as easy as it is timeless, you may find me mixing a little yeast with some warm water and honey and smiling at the reaction.

Here are a few more pictures of food preparation.

The start of a casserole. A delicious variety of colorful vegetables.

A little sauce mixture added. I'm not normally a complete vegetarian, but while we're here I am. Just look at the meat market pictures from my previous post and you'll understand.

Hot and steaming from the oven.

Banana bread

Cleaning the green beans. You have to soak everything in bleach water for 5-10 minutes to kill the bugs.

Fresh papaya--mmmmmmm!

And juicy pineapple

I also buy a bunch of flowers every week from a local stand outside the grocery store. The 2 men who sell to me have started to remember me, so I'm getting better deals :-)

Also, don’t forget about the giveaway that’s ending in a few days. If you haven’t signed up yet, click here to read how.