Madagascar
Our host: YWAM House of the Nations, Antananarivo, Madagascar
Faly: base director, grounded man, devoted to God, lighthearted, boistrous accordian player extrordonaire
Teaching English: Bible stories, conversational speaking, word games. One fine day Nat and I decided to take the opportunity to teach while the rest of the team was engaged elsewhere. I might add that both the interpreters were with them. They told us the kids had a decent grasp on the language, so we (but mostly Nat) walked bravely down to the school. It began well. Nat has a way with kids. Fairly early into the class we began to realize that their language level was not jiving with what we'd heard it was, and therefore some of our ideas didn't go over as well as we thought they would. Heh heh. Left with spare time and a classroom of attentive Malagasy children, we decided on a lively game of pictionary! It seemed like a great idea. Under the conditions, it was impossible for either of us to think of one thing to draw. In a moment of sheer genius, we decided to draw...a window! All those years of education are paying off, Dad.
Kids Programs: acting out Noah's ark and Daniel and the lion's den, water balloon toss, duck-duck goose, limbo, general mayhem (all in good fun), one girl walked home with my flip flops.
Chicken Run! rules: two people to a team, cannot use props, no chicken abuse, chicks 10 points, hens 20, roosters 30, must have photographic proof. A great stress reliever! My teammate Aaron and I came in second place.
Elderly Widows group: one very talkative woman, seemingly oblivious to the fact that we do not speak the same language, told the girls via translator, among other things, that she is over a hundred years old, but she's not sure by how many years...
Teaching on the Kingdom of God: the law is love, the currency is faith, we are aliens in the world, looking for a city whose foundations are eternal, whose architect and builder is God. (Hebrews 12)
Villiage Visit: 45 minute walk away, beautiful country side, home visits, bunches of kids, soccer, drawing, dramas, many kids wanted to know the Lord.
One day excursion to the Rainforest: overnight in bungalows, tramping through dense foliage to catch a glimpse of the lemurs.
People: most Malagasy people have come from Indonesion and Malaysia. Culture is more similar to Asia than Africa.
National Vision: the President has a vision and strategy to develop and empower the people through economy, education, and health care. He has enthusiam for entrapranuers. Faly is involved in the wind generator project to use natural resources and technology. It is a blessing for them to be isolated from the rest of the contintent as they seem to be free from the apathy and corruption that has infected so much of the rest of Africa.
Team stuff: We worked hard at keeping and building our unity. Had a lot of good talks. Nat and Aaron got the flu and were ill over our intense travel to Homa Bay, Kenya. They are troopers! We watched Hidalgo on the laptop during the two hours of power we had in the evenings.
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