Arrival!

 

Greetings from Madagascar! I have had a wonderful three days with Ando’s family!  I stayed in Mama and Papa Jean-Paul’s home in a town near Tana, the capital city.  The town I stayed in was so calm and peaceful.  The family I stayed with is so kind and hospitable.  I miss them already!  Toky and Iena took me around the city and should me around Tana.  The city is filled with many colorful buildings and has several palaces!  It is very populated since many people go there for work and school.  And because it is the center city, you have to go through Tana to get to the surrounding cities.  This means that there is a lot of traffic.  I experienced that it can take hours to get home even though you are just one town over from Tana!  

I have had the opportunity of visiting a couple schools in the past three days, and was asked to give a speech to the students in the English classes on encouraging them to go to college.  It was such a joy to meet and speak with the students. Two of the classes I talked to were Toky’s students! 

It was great to see both the countryside, where there are rice patties and vegetable farms, as well as the busy city life in the central region of Madagascar.  I enjoyed learning about Malagasy culture.  One of the things I learned is that the bathroom is always located outside the home because it is seen as unclean to have it in the home.  I also learned that when Indonesians and Malaysians came to Madagascar by boat, they build their houses with roofs that resemble an upside-down boat.  This is to remind them of how they journeyed to Madagascar. 

The food in Madagascar has a new kind of flavor to it!  Every meal has rice as its foundation, as well as some special topping to it, such as zebu, chicken or vegetables.  This means that you eat rice three times a day; I never knew rice could be prepared in so many different ways!  A couple other new foods that I have tried include mashed avocado with sugar on bread and taking bananas, dipping them in a mixture of flour, sugar and water and then frying them!  Both are very delicious treats!

I am so grateful for the Malagasy family I stayed with!  They have been nothing but loving and hospitable.  I was sad to leave them today, but am excited for what is to come.  I just arrived to Diego Suarez today and will be here for a couple of days before I head off to the clinic I am interning at.  I am not sure when I will have internet access again, but I will try to remain consistent with my blog postings!