by admin | June 9, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
Fall is ending and winter is beginning here in Madagascar and with it, the glorious and HUGE poinsettia’s are in full and vibrant bloom!
by admin | June 7, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
Last week our Malagasy class w ent on a field trip to a center for adults who are blind. This center teaches them a variety of trades so that in time, they may be employed as rug weavers, scarf and sweater knitters, basket makers, etc. The center and the people were...
by admin | May 25, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
Earlier this month, we had our annual WorldVenture field meetings, which consisted of a day of prayer, a day of business, a day of team building and a day of play. Our immediate team recently tripled in size when our family of five and the Casurella family of four,...
by admin | May 24, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
Madagascar, probably like most other developing counties, is home to the “knock off” as seen here in this classic case… is this pair of shoes made by Reebok… or Nike… apparently the manufacturer couldn’t decide either.
by admin | May 22, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
Last weekend our family traveled to Antananarivo, the capital city, so that I could attend a conference about “Ideas For Women’s Cancer Control in Africa”. This conference, organized by TEDx, brought in specialists from several countries, including Italy, France,...
by admin | May 20, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
OK, so this is NOT our house… in fact, it’s NOTHING like our house… this house is in the remote village of Mahabana that we’ve been going to for the last 12 years… HOWEVER.. we DID GET THE HOUSE we were hoping and praying for! If you don’t get our...
by admin | May 18, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
Yesterday our Malagasy class took a field trip to a school for visually impaired children. The purpose of such field trips is to not only to be able to listen and speak in Malagasy but also to raise our cultural awareness. I love these field trips and find them...
by admin | May 17, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
Last week I finally had a chance to pull out my mother-in-law’s old Singer sewing machine. Sewing was a wonderful hobby that Bonnie and I enjoyed doing when we lived together 9 years ago. She passed away in January 2010 and I consider this sewing machine to be a bit...
by admin | May 11, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
Rice is not only a way of life here in Madagascar, rice IS life! The Malagasy people are a blend of african and malayo-indonesian and signs of this heritage are seen throughout the country. Rice fields can be seen in the wet rain forests of the east coast, the...
by admin | May 3, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
Easter here in Madagascar is celebrated a little different than in the States… no dyed eggs, Easter bunny or candy stuffed in plastic eggs, but that’s not to say there’s not a party. The town of Antsirabe where we currently live is the party capital when it...
by admin | April 29, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
We get some pretty fantastic thunderstorms here and as a result, we get to also enjoy some pretty fantastic rainbows such as this one seen from our front porch.
by admin | April 26, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
Two weekends ago, we hopped in the car and drove 90 minutes south to the town of Ambositra, the wood-carving capital of the island. While there, someone pointed out where we could find raffia handmade items. We climbed up a steep trail and emerged at the top of the...
by admin | April 26, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
As Easter approached this year, I realized I was disappointed in that we weren’t going to give the kids the Easter festivities that they’re accustomed to… church would look different, Easter with family would look different, and the Easter egg hunt would look...
by admin | April 17, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
The average life expectancy here in Madagascar is 61 years for men and 65 years for women (CIA World Factbook). So when you run into an older person who wears the rugged lines of life well on their face, it’s always a joy.
by admin | April 17, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
We recently celebrated our second daughter, Eliana’s 3rd birthday. It is during times like this that we are so incredibly thankful for modern technology and the ways that it has the capacity to bring families together who are literally on opposite sides of the...
by admin | April 10, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
So we both love photography and Madagascar is a photographer’s paradise! We’re going to start “Picture of the Week” (POTW) so that we can share some of the beauty of this country with you all. Check back every week to see a new snapshot.
by admin | April 9, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
Money is an interesting thing here in Madagascar. Though we have been paid for medical services in the form of livestock, fruit and/or vegetables before, this quite obviously is not the standard. Malagasy money has quite the history of changing on several...
by admin | April 6, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
Madagascar is behind in the times with many things though I’m happy to report not with everything. My find yesterday was a prime example. We quickly stopped into a grocery store (which in and of itself is relatively recent… within the last decade or so) and I...
by admin | March 29, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
One may think that being a tropical island in the middle of the Indian Ocean that all of Madagascar is hot. However, Madagascar is in fact the 4th largest island in the world and therefore the climate can be drastically different. Since we’re below the equator, our...
by admin | March 19, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
Our long-time good friend and main ministry partner, Josy, left his wife home with their 3 kids and made the 15 hour drive to spend a few days with us and our 3 kids. It was fantastic!! We learned something new with our time together…. kids are kids...
by admin | March 5, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
Last weekend we took a trip to the coast for a change of scenery and a little scouting trip. To get an idea of the vastness of this island… it took 6 hours to travel by car from where we live in the middle of the island to the west coast! Morondava is a bit of...
by admin | March 3, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
It didn’t take long for our first “casualties” to occur here in Madagascar. We experienced two casualties in three days a few weeks ago. The first, Jamie’s soccer cleats. Jamie and Jonathan went to play soccer late one afternoon and quickly a pick-up game began...
by admin | February 21, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
Sekoly is “school” in Malagasy and is what transpires four days a week for the three older kids on our team; Isabella (4), Oliver (3), and Eliana (2). Sekoly coincides with Malagasy language lessons for the parents, however it’s a very...
by admin | February 12, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
Cooking most always poses some kind of challenge here in Madagascar! Unfortunately, a lot of my time goes into cooking for our family. I remember this from years past and it’s still true today. There’s a variety of reasons why this is so… there are many...
by admin | February 2, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
Often referred to as the “Eighth Continent of the World”, Madagascar is quite the unique island. Around every corner there’s intriguing and sometimes not so intriguing sights and scenes. We’ll spare you from the “not so” intriguing ones…. however, we...
