After Josiah’s nap, often we go out for a walk to buy bread, search for bananas and pick up some roasted peanuts from the roadside stands.  We greet the people in our neighborhood.  They love talking to Josiah, and he loves holding the change (about 15 cents) to give to the “peanut ladies” as we walk.

Taking a walk with our friend, Ali…This is out our front door

starting our walk

Where we get our taxi for school

Getting bread.  They cost about 20 cents a loaf.

No sidewalk, but doesn’t phase Josiah.

One of the local shops, where we can get eggs and vegetables. Eggs are expensive, about 25 cents each and are not refrigerated.

It has been a while since I have posted…only because it is not so easy to describe life here on the islands.  I remember my first trip out to this continent, about 12 years ago, when someone described it as a “world of contradictions:” where on the same street you would find someone talking on their cellphone (this was before everyone had a cell phone) and  find another using the sidewalk as a toilet.

Well, thankfully, some things have improved since then, (more people have cellphones and fewer people are using the sidewalks as toilets)  but there is still a long way to go!

You know you are in Africa when…

-You have yet to see a street sign, traffic lights, or traffic signs..

-You don’t have a street address (just a neighborhood name) and yet people still manage to show up at your door for a visit!

-Your screen door mysteriously shows up with a new rodent sized hole each morning…

We thought the first hole was just an “accident” with the mop…but after we taped it with duct tape and the 2nd one showed up, we figured out it was something chewing its way in each night…

-The electricity shuts off right after the sun goes down 5 times a week.

-You get an electricity and water bill that goes back 3 years, when you just moved in about 3 months ago.

-You feel an overwhelming appreciation for geckos, lizards and spiders (they eat flies and mosquitos).

-You have to put rice in the freezer to kill the bugs.

-You have to put peanut butter (and almost everything else in your pantry) in the refrigerator (to avoid ants).

-The mouse that you trapped ends up being a meal for a shrew. [thankfully, no pictures]

-Holidays are contingent on whether someone sees the moon the night before.

-You buy a generator and it breaks down… (okay it doesn’t have to be Africa for this to happen, but it happened to us, while in Africa! =)

Dale and his electrician friend “repairing” the generator. It works now, but we are not quite sure why it stopped working.

-You have friends named “Doo doo” (see above picture of Dale and his friend Doo Doo–really, no joke) and “Bozo.”

-It’s been 4 months since your daughter has used a car seat…YES, only in Africa!!!  I know!!  I know!!

Abigail is now 10 months old. She can balance herself on her own feet for a couple of seconds; she can hold her own bottle; and is eating table foods!

-You walk into a grocery store and see a wall of chocolate breakfast cereal!  I think it has to do with the French influence…I have never seen such a thing before…incredible.

This is in our newest grocery store…even our kids don’t ask us to buy these types of cereal anymore.  There can be “too much” of a good thing!

-Random shop keepers and taxi drivers ask to marry you.  It’s always good to have in your back pocket that you are already married and have four kids.  Then they stop asking!

Here is our good friend Ali, helping me shop at the market…where I was able to turn down another spontaneous, unsolicited proposal. And Yes, people try to marry off their daughters to my hubby too…

–Lastly, you know you are in Africa when: your friend finally finds chocolate chips at the brand new grocery store and pays the extraordinary price…only to have them all melt together into one glob before she manages to bring it home…

The boys with their good friends playing with legos, what else?

Abigail at our teammate’s baby shower

We all know that communication is key to sharing, to relationships, to work, to medicine…and how do we communicate?  Language… Oh the challenges of language!  Never did I think that I would ever learn French… but here we are speaking French and loving it.  Dale will give his first sermon (ever) in French at the Malagasy chrch this Sunday!  French is the official trade language here, used in schools, universities, hospitals and business.  But, there is a local language that is spoken in the home, among the young and old, that is very different from French.  This is the language that our team is learning. This is what we have been concentrating on since our arrival 4 months ago.  It has been challenging and sometimes exhausting, but as we learn the local language, we also learn about the culture and community…

A typical morning greeting will go something like this:

-How are you?

-Well.

-My health is good.

-Okay, my health is good too.

-How are the children?

-The children are well.

-How is your husband?

-He is well.

-Have you woken up well?

-I have woken up.

-Good morning.

-Thank you!  Good bye!

-Thank you!

(We have are first local language exams today!)

Dale and his language helper.

Grace and her language helper during “language concentration week”

Abigail, already 9 months old! She is pulling to stand, holding her own bottle, and feeding herself finger foods!! (She is wearing a shirt that her Uncle Josh got for her at the “patent office” from home)

Josiah reaching for a piece of cake during EED… last Friday.

Our little crew. Currently they are on vacation for two weeks from school. Dale and Mark have been doing remarkably well in their French school. Mark got an “A” for memorizing a poem (in French) and Dale has already memorized 2 poems (in French)!