November 2, 2006
Happy Thanksgiving Week,
The stores are NOT advertising turkeys and cranberries and pumpkin pie fixings here in Antananarivo, but we will celebrate nonetheless. This will be the first year in Madagascar that our boys will have Thanksgiving OFF of school. French school never took that day off so we usually just let the boys stay home in the afternoon but then it was back to school on Friday. This year they will have both Thursday and Friday completely off. One more advantage to attending the American School.
We have invited a couple families over to celebrate with us that day so are trying to figure out where to find a turkey to buy. Last year we had our own turkey we had raised and Ben refused to eat it. In previous years there were no turkeys available in Diego. This year we are hoping Tana will be different. It is pumpkin season so we can have pumpkin pie for sure, and it will even be easier to find the "basic ingredients" that weren't so basic in Diego. I sometimes had to go to three stores up there just to find butter, flour, and sugar. Now we can shop in a modern, HUGE, store that is much more consistent about having the basics than Diego. Imported treats come and go so we can't count on them still, but at least we can find eggs, milk, and cheese routinely. We have yet to find cranberries here in Madagascar, however, and our usual cranberry delivery didn't happen. Our Global Mission supervisor has brought us a can of cranberries the last few years when he came for his annual November visit, but this year his luggage was completely lost somewhere in Africa so the cranberries are possibly being devoured by someone who has never even heard of cranberries before. Savor your cranberries for us too this year!!
We still have much to be thankful for, cranberries or no cranberries! We are all healthy and adjusting to this new life in Antananarivo. It seems in many ways this is a perfect place for our boys. They are learning in English, exposed to American culture, (thus the shock won't be quite as great when we do return to life in the US) have great teachers and lots of English-speaking friends, able to worship in English, and yet are still surrounded by opportunities to interact with and enjoy Malagasy life, culture, and friends, as well as a wide array of other nationalities and cultures, continue to learn French (although Ben is a little bored with French class), and all the while participate in their mom's and dad's ministries in small ways here and there.
Even though Ben still complains about the amount of homework, he is really enjoying the many activities this school offers. He has been taking tennis on Tuesday afternoons and computers on Thursday afternoons. They each just brought a kilo of rice and beans to the school food drive to benefit local orphanages. A big difference from food drives in the US was that we could go out our door, buy a kilo of each in bulk from merchants along the street, stick it in a plastic bag, and deliver it that way.
Jeremiah has also been participating in an after-school activity on Wednesdays. It's called Crazy Kid Concoctions and they make fun things like silly putty and crazy paint, etc. Not only is it a great adventure making cool things, but he LOVES the teacher so has had a wonderful time. He has one more session of that before the activities all change. Rumor has it his grade level will be offered swimming in the next session so I know he'll LOVE that one.
In spite of the many benefits to living here, Ben continues to miss Diego immensely!! We decided to give him a quick trip back to Diego in hopes that it might give him some time for grieving and closure. Doug has to go up this Friday (day after Thanksgiving AND Jeremiah's birthday) for the synod's 20th anniversary so we decided to let Ben fly up with him. The time was too short for all of us to drive and too expensive for all of us to fly, but we decided to spend enough to get Ben there. We've arranged for him to have time with friends in two families but he will spend most nights with Doug at a hotel. Doug is planning to take Ben by the school, our old house, our favorite old "snack shop," and lots of other places. Ben is hoping to find his cat that disappeared the day we were leaving last April. We are afraid it became somebody's lunch but we haven't told him that. I just hope he will be able to accept that it is not coming back. That one has been a hard one to let go of.
Ben also had a hard time accepting this new yard in Tana because it has no "climbing trees." Our yard in Diego had two huge mango trees which Ben loved to climb! When Ben visited his friend, Nic, and discovered the most incredible climbing tree in his yard, Ben was reminded of our "barren yard" and broke down in tears as soon as we left. That prompted Doug to start searching for an idea of a "climbing tree substitute." We discovered that the guards at the boys' school did Saturday building jobs so we hired them to build our new playground. The cost has at least doubled from their original estimate and has taken several weeks longer than projected, but it is almost done! The boys are excited to have plenty of room to climb and play. The design was done by Doug with input from Ben (boat idea was Ben's) and we still have more we would like to add in time. It has added to the sense of "making this home" for all of us!
With Doug and Ben planning to be gone on Jeremiah's birthday this week, Jeremiah and I will plan to do something fun, even just the two of us, to celebrate his real birthday (birthday party will be the following weekend). I've thought about taking him to a lemur park if I can figure out where it is. At least we'll have the car since Doug is flying to Diego so we can hopefully find somewhere fun to explore. The following weekend (Dec. 3rd) is also the presidential election in Madagascar. We are hoping and praying that it will go smoothly and many who pay a lot more attention to these things than we do are predicting that it will be just that. No one wants to return to the situation of 2001-2002 when the country shut down for several months as a result of a contested presidential election. We do expect, though, that there will be "incidents" here and there. In fact, they have already begun. Last Saturday a retired general who had been denied the possibility of running for president attempted a coup to overthrow the government. It did not get very far and caused no significant disturbance in the country (even though one soldier was killed in the conflict). We felt absolutely no effects from that and are optimistic that any further similar incidents will not amount to much. We say that to reassure you that we feel we are safe and not in any danger. Global Mission has made it clear though that IF there were to be any danger,we would have the possibility of leaving until that danger passes. Thus, you can be assured that we are safe and will remain so. We would covet your prayers though, for this upcoming election and the country of Madagascar, that the process will be fair and transparent and that the results will be trusted and respected. If you want to follow the news about the election or other items of interest about Madagascar, we will try to post any we find on our Project Shalom website. (www.projectshalom.org)
We should also mention that we've been very thankful to have electricity 24/7 here in Tana, quite the switch from Diego. Unfortunately we hear that the president is just so barely keeping the system going (by taking money from other ministries to pay the electricity bills for example) until after the election, when we can expect major power cuts across the island. Groan!! In that case we'll be thankful for the battery-powered rechargeable light we just got from the mission!
That reminds me that at school this year each of our boys had to write /tell about that for which they were thankful and Ben wrote a three paragraph essay on why he is thankful for electricity. Jeremiah had to report his orally. While everyone else was thankful for their parents or siblings, Jeremiah said he was thankful for Fred (our German Shepherd)!
We hope that you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Know that we are thankful for you, your encouragement, and prayers at this Thanksgiving time and all through the year!!
Love,
Monica, Doug, Ben, and Jeremiah