Madagascar Missionary Kid 

     How good are you at hunting down the truth?  Think you can figure out fact from fiction?  Here is your chance to try!  The following is an HONEST recounting of a typical day of one missionary kid in Madagascar EXCEPT for a few significant details, which are NOT TRUE.  Your assignment, should you choose to accept it; is to find all the information in this story that is NOT TRUE.  The story is about Benjamin Cox.  He and his family are missionaries in Madagascar, supported in their work by the ELCA.  The family first arrived in Madagascar when Ben was 6 and his younger brother, Jeremiah, was 9 months.  Now they have been there a year and a half and have already learned a lot about Madagascar, including lots of words in the Malagasy language.

      You will find several things written in blue in the story.  You need to decide if that information is TRUE or FALSE.  Before you start, here is a clue; there is ONE piece of information in each paragraph that is false.  (Everything in black is true.)  Happy Hunting!

      Roosters crow. Taxis rumble past. Lemurs swing through the palm trees near the bay.  The morning sun warms the town of Diego as it gets ready for a new day.  It’s time for Benjamin to wake up too.  He is still asleep with his pet boa constrictor snake that he found in their yard.  Ben is slowly wakened by his dad as hungry mosquitoes try to get inside his mosquito net.  The net around his bed protects him from mosquitoes that could give him malaria.  As Ben gradually wakes up, he asks if it’s a long or a short day at school.  It’s hard to keep track because two days a week Ben has afternoon class, but the other three days he only studies from 7:30 to noon.  That gives him plenty of time in the other afternoons for creating, playing, and gardening in their big yard surrounded by a fence.

      After Ben pulls on his shorts, T-shirt, and sandals, he rushes downstairs and out the door with a bucket to do his morning chore of fetching water from a spigot about a block away.  Then his mom pours the water into a filter, which will clean it enough for drinking.  Next, Ben grabs a long stick to swing at a yellowish-red mango on their mango tree.  If it is ripe enough, it will fall down easily.  Ben whacks once, twice, and the mango falls to the ground. 

      When breakfast is ready, Ben throws down the stick and runs in the house.  The kettle of watery rice is waiting on the table as everyone sits down for the morning meal.  Ben chooses a table prayer in Malagasy for the family to sing together.  Sometimes they pray in English, sometimes in French, and sometimes in Malagasy. 

      Soon it is time for Ben to go to school so he brushes his teeth, puts on his cartable (backpack) and heads out the door.  This morning Ben’s friend’s dad will walk the two boys to school, about a 15 minute walk.  As soon as Ben enters the gates of his school, he switches quickly to using French: greeting his friends, reading, and writing, everything in French.  That is because Ben attends a French International School.  But Ben really does double duty.  He also studies English reading and writing with his mom at home so that he’ll be able to return to school in America some day.  At home, Ben is the only student.  At French school, most of Ben’s classmates are Malagasy, who also know French, but some have Chinese, Indian, or French heritage.  Being the only American in his school, Ben is sometimes asked by other students to teach them English words.  Ben is happy to help them.

      When the 12:00 bell rings, Ben and his class head out of their room towards the front gate.  There he finds his mom and friend, who will all go home together.  On their way, they pass coconut, mango, jackfruit, and banana trees growing along the road.  They also pass the herd of elephants that has come around in recent days to drink from the nearby lake.  Lunch is still not ready when he gets home, so Ben goes to help one of the Malagasy workers who lives in the yard.  She is working on getting her lunch of rice ready.  Three times a day she eats rice, which she cooks over a charcoal grill.  Ben crumples up newspapers and gathers little sticks as kindling.  He is eager to help the young Malagasy woman who takes care of Ben’s brother during the day.  As they work, Ben tells Martine about his trip to the local beach the day before when Ben and a friend had spotted an octopus, several starfish, crabs, lionfish, and many more.  Martine is interested but not excited to hear about the dangerous ones.  She also doesn’t like the chameleons that live in the yard. Whenever Ben finds them and brings them out to show everyone, Martine hangs back.  She isn’t interested in watching them change color or seeing how their eyes go different directions at the same time.  Some Malagasy people are afraid of the chameleons because they believe they are “fady” or taboo, so will not go anywhere close to one, not even a toy one.  They believe that if they do, the spirits of their ancestors will get angry and punish them.  Martine does not believe that.  Since she is a Christian she isn’t afraid of the ancestors.  Still, she is not interested in being around any chameleons.

      As Ben and Martine get the charcoal fire going strong, Ben’s mom comes out to announce she’s taking Ben and Jeremiah to McDonald’s for lunch since Ben’s dad is out of town for a few hours.  He has gone to another town to teach people about Jesus.  On their way home, Ben, his brother, and his mom decide to stop and have ice cream at the San Diego Café.  

      Back home, Ben gets some of his allowance and walks just outside the gate to buy some fruit from one of the stalls set up outside the fence.  He comes back with a clump of bananas to share with his family.  He settles in to do some English school with his mom, but they are interrupted by the phone ringing.  It’s one of Ben’s friends asking if he can play with Ben later.  Ben’s mom says it’ll be okay when school is over and Ben’s chores are done.  Afternoon chores include pounding rice in a hollowed-out log with a long pole and then sifting it to get rid of the chafe. 

      Finally all the school work and chores are done and Ben calls his friend back to tell him he’s ready to play.  They decide to go to a neighborhood park to play on the jungle gym there.  As Ben heads out to meet his friend, he stops for a few minutes to help the guard water the banana trees that have recently been planted in the yard.  Most of the yard is still just dirt because it has been the dry season.  Once it starts raining though, Ben's family has been told that things will start growing throughout the yard.  Today they hear that a cyclone is heading their way, so Ben’s family is starting to prepare with extra candles, matches, and lots of drinking water ready. 

      Ben is excited to hear that they’re having chicken for supper when he gets back .  He especially likes nibbling on the chicken feet with lots of tasty sauce on them.  His family  doesn’t eat chicken as often as in America because chicken is usually the most expensive meat in the huge outdoor market in Diego.  It’s more expensive than shrimp, steak, and lobster.  As Ben’s family eats their meal, they hear their hired guards and other workers in the back yard singing Christian songs in beautiful harmony.  Frequently they can be heard praising God together as they go about their evening chores.  Soon Benjamin and Jeremiah head upstairs to shower off the reddish-brown dirt which runs like a dark river out of their hair and off their feet until they’re finally clean.  Teeth brushed, pajamas on, stories read, prayers said, songs sung, and the time has come to say goodnight to another typical day in the life of Benjamin Cox. 

Answers:

Paragraph 1: 

If you guessed that the boa constrictor is false, you are right!  Ben does not have a boa constrictor or any other snake for a pet.  He does, however, have two dogs, Fred and Turbo as pets. 

 If you guessed that the malaria information is false, OOPS, try again.  There are many mosquitoes in Madagascar that carry malaria so can give people malaria by biting them.  For that reason, Ben and his family all sleep under mosquito nets and close up their house during the early morning and early evening hours when mosquitoes are the most likely to come in.

 Paragraph 2:

If you guessed that the morning chore of fetching water is false, you are right!!  Ben is very lucky that his family has running water in their house.  Many Malagasy people, however, including many children Ben’s age, need to walk to fetch their water in buckets.

 If you guessed that putting the water in the filter was false, OOPS, try again.  Ben’s family needs to put all drinking water through a filter that cleans and purifies it so it will not make them sick. 

 Paragraph 3:

If you guessed that the watery rice was false, you are right!  Ben’s family does not eat watery rice for breakfast like almost all Malagasy people do.  Instead, they eat cold cereal (when they can find some in town that is cheap enough), toast, yogurt, or fruit.

 If you guessed the table prayers in three languages as being false, OOPS, try again.  Ben’s family takes turns choosing the table prayer and their choices include prayers in English, French, or Malagasy. 

 Paragraph 4:

If you guessed that walking to school was false; you are right.  Ben and his friend get rides to school by their parents who take turns dropping off and picking up the boys.  Most Malagasy people, however, walk when they need to get somewhere because they do not own cars and the buses are too expensive.  People will even walk several days to go to another town to do business or visit family there.

 If you guessed that being the only American in his school was false, OOPS, try again.  Ben IS indeed the only American in his school.  He is, in fact, the only native-English speaker in his entire French school.

 Paragraph 5:

If you guessed that the herd of elephants was false, you are right.  Unlike mainland Africa, Madagascar does not have any “big game” like elephants, giraffe, hippo’s, lions, etc.

 If you guessed that the rice three times a day was false, OOPS, try again.  Most Malagasy people eat rice three times a day.  Those who can afford it add vegetables, meat, fish, or leaves in a sauce to put over the rice. 

If you guessed that seeing the sea life was false, OOPS, try again.  Ben did see all the sea life in the story on a family outing to the nearby beach.

 Paragraph 6:

If you guessed that the trip to McDonald’s was false, you are right!  There is still not a single McDonald’s in all of Madagascar.  Can you guess where Ben is going to want to eat when we get back to America?

 If you guessed that having ice cream was false, OOPS, try again.  Even though the ice cream is not as good as in America, it is still very good ice cream which we occasionally enjoy as a special treat.

 Paragraph 7:

If you guessed that buying bananas was false; OOPS, try again.  Just outside our gate there are fruit sellers who sell a great variety of tropical fruit that is in season, including bananas, pineapple, papaya, mangoes, jackfruit, etc.

 If you guessed that pounding rice was false, you are right.  Ben does not have to pound rice, but many Malagasy people do.  They put the rice kernels which are still in their husks into a hollowed-out log to pound them with a long pole.  Even children Ben’s age do this as part of their daily chores.  After being pounded, the rice is sifted in a flat basket to get rid of the husks.  Ben’s family is able to buy rice that has already been pounded, sifted, and cleaned. 

 Paragraph 8:

If you guessed that going to a neighborhood park was false; you are right.  There are no neighborhood parks with playground equipment here in Diego.  We are fortunate to have two swings in our yard, but that is the extent of the playground for Ben.  He’s looking forward to American parks!

If you guessed that the coming cyclone was false, OOPS, try again.  Ben’s family needs to be aware of possible cyclones coming and be ready in case they lose their water for a few days. 

Paragraph 9:

If you guessed that the chicken feet was false, you are right.  Ben, like the rest of his family, does not like to nibble on the chicken feet.  Many Malagasy people, however, would happily receive nothing more than the chicken’s feet in order to add flavor and a little bit of protein to their daily rice.

 If you guessed that chicken being expensive was false, OOPS, try again. Prices vary from day to day and week to week for beef, pork, seafood, etc. Yet chicken is indeed the most expensive kind of meat or seafood that can be bought in the market most of the time.