Thursday, October 26, 2006

Hi all,
Tomororow night is the big ASA (American School of Antananarivo) Halloween party. It has become quite a tradition with trick-or-treating using candy which we have to provide ahead of time (1/2 kilo per trick-or-treater) at houses in a set area that agree to pass out the candy. That is followed by a party that includes a howling contest, costume prizes, pumpkin carving, etc. The boys are very excited about participating in this party in a way that we just couldn't do in Diego. We may miss our small, homemade kind of party though in which boys trick-or-treated to ALL the doors of our house several times, bobbed for mangoes, and played other simple games. We had also passed out a sheet about the background of Halloween and tried to build in a Christian message. And we had the possibility of keeping FUN costumes and candy, but getting rid of all the scarey, yucky stuff that seems to come with Halloween in America. Here we don't have that luxury. So it will be a new experience for our boys.

Monday, October 30, 2006

Ben and Jeremiah had a great time at the Halloween party. Ben was an old man who stayed "in character" most of the night. Jeremiah was Spider Man. Doug and I also dressed up with Doug as a tiger and me as an old woman (yes, even older than I really am!). We found masks at a special sale a few weeks ago which we didn't think were even sold in Madagascar. It added to the fun that we were all dressed up. In spite of many Americans living in the area of trick-or-treating, we still got a lot of very strange looks from Malagasy people who must have been wondering why so many people were walking around looking so bizarre. Besides trick-or-treating, the boys were also excited because they each won the pumpkin carving contest for their grade level. We had a rather tired weekend after so much walking and standing around and staying up late which we're not used to. I'm getting too old for parties!

We were thankful that the rain stayed away for the party. Just a week before that the rainy season had begun with several nights in a row of thunderstorms and heavy rain. That doesn't always start so early in the year. But the discussions of Plan B were not necessary because the weather turned nice again.

It wasn't great timing for us to have rain starting early since we are still in the middle of a construction project to transform our yard from a child's nightmare to a child's dream. It's still going on but progressing. What was expected to be completed in a week is now dragging on to several weeks because the workers are all guards at the American School and they can only work for us on Saturdays, now that the week of vacation is over.

It has been hard for Ben to transition back to school again after that week off. He prays regularly at night that they will stop giving homework at this school. It has been quite a change for him to adjust to this school and the heavier work load. Other than the homework though, it seems he is really enjoying school a lot. Just heard from his computer teacher (named Marco and he reminds me of my brother, Marco's son, Eric!) that Ben is very diligent in his work in that class. Report cards for first quarter come out this Friday so hopefully we'll find out that his diligence has paid off elsewhere too.

Better stop for now.

Blessings,
Monica