Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Adventures in Madagascar: Toliara

We flew out from Tana at 5:10am on Sunday morning. We were picked up at the airport by Pete Schaffler (Pete and Kara Schaffler are the AIM missionaries here) and after we settled into our hotel, he took us to the beach for a couple hours. I have now stepped foot in my third ocean, the Indian Ocean (technically, it is the Mozambique channel, but it's part of the Indian Ocean).

Our English clubs here are much different than in Tana and Antsirabe. Our youngest student is 9 years old, and our oldest student is 47; most of them are in their mid-twenties! At first I felt weird teaching them in this capacity; that is, most of our activities are geared toward children. However, we simply figured out how to change some things and make them more of use to adults, so it works out. It feels like here we can develop real relationships with our students because we are on more common ground concerning age. Several of them have asked us questions about our personal lives.

One of the most beautiful things is singing time with these students. It feels like we are truly worshipping together. The Malagasy have beautiful voices, and they seem to harmonize almost on instinct. One of our students even brought his guitar and plays along to the songs on it.

Thank you for all your prayers so far. I have kept in good health, and we've been able to find sufficient energy for each day (though by 9pm we're exhausted and ready for bed). Please continue to pray that God's message will be spread through our clubs. Also, we ask prayer for the AIM compound's night guard back in Tana; he lost his wife to cancer last week. Lastly, pray for a friend of the Schafflers who has gone missing here.

I'll try to write again soon!

In Christ,
Renee

1 comment:

  1. i love reading about what you're up to. thanks for keeping us posted. and i adore harmonization. so pretty. i wish i could hear it!

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