Saturday, July 9, 2011

Adventures in Madagascar: Food, People, and Chameleons

Oksy, time for some stories of our first week in Madagascar.

First, the food. We've had some very interesting meals here. The first night we had pizza that had egg, shrimp, and some kind of meat on it. I thought it was delicious...so I ended up eating most of the leftovers over the week. :) Typical Malagasy foods include a LOT of rice, which I love. You have to be careful when you eat the rice from the market; sometimes it has stones in it, so you have to bite down carefully! There's also lots of vegetables: tomatoes, green beans, carrots, some other stuff I don't know. The fruit that is very popular here is papaya, avacado, bananas, and pineapple. I've also tried jackfruit for the first time. It's REALLY good; it tastes like bubblegum and it is really sticky. Yesterday I had fish for lunch, which was delicious. While here we've gone to a Chinese restaurant, an Indian restaurant, and a Korean restaurant! So, we're getting a well-rounded food experience here.

Second, the people. I love the people here. They're very friendly; the children love to shout Bonjour when we are walking by because they think we are French. The buses are very crowded, but people help us pull out the foldable seats that go in the aisles. Every morning we walk about two miles to get to the school where we are teaching. I love this because we get to see so many people. We've also gone to the market several times, and I've gotten to the point where I am able to use simple enough vocabulary to buy things from the vendors. The people in Antananarivo are really more Asian-featured than African-featured. They tell us that they do not consider themselves "Africans", but they are a separate people with their own identity. People dress very Western here, at least in the city. Some of them are very helpful; like the vendor who helped my teammates practice counting in Malagasy.

Third, a story about chameleons. In the AIM compound where we are staying there are chameleons. We searched and searched for them for two days, but we couldn't find any. Then we asked the gardener, Solofo, to find one for us. Solofo is terrified of the chameleons, but he found one for us and was using a broom to bring it over to us. When the chameleon fell off of the broom, he dropped the broom and ran away screaming! It was hilarious! We were very thankful for him finding one for us, but he must have thought we were crazy to go so near the chameleons!

Tomorrow morning we leave very early for Antsirabe, where we have our second club. Pray that it will be as successful as the first and that we will be able to keep our energy up. Also pray for health, as three of the six of us have had a 24-hour sickness because of food. So far I've been okay, but I'm hoping to keep my health. Thanks for all your prayers and support!

In Christ,
Renee

1 comment:

  1. bahahahahhaa! that's hilarious that the man went away screaming from the chameleon. they are strange looking creatures that's for sure. i suppose it's good that they blend in with their surroundings so well.

    that food sounds divine. rice. :)

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