by admin | December 10, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
Aaghhh, my favorite time of year in Madagascar… OK, well not really because it’s so unbelievably hot and muggy. On average, it’s 97 degrees with an outrageous humidity level… somewhere around 80-90%. However, with this ridiculous weather comes MANGOES,...
by admin | November 30, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
Part of the goal of our work here in Madagascar is to see the health of the Malagasy people restored. Nutrition is a huge part of the restoration of health. There is a tree here in Madagascar, called felomorongo, in English, it’s the Moringa tree. It’s also known...
by admin | November 25, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
Here in Madagascar at this time of year, the air isn’t getting crisp, the leaves aren’t falling from the trees, nor are we sipping hot chocolate by the fireplace but never the less, the holidays are upon us. There are only a handful of Americans living in or around...
by admin | November 23, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
Some exciting news was released yesterday.. One Day’s Wages is partnering with Eden Reforestation Projects who is partnering with us, Jamie and Alissa Shattenberg, to plant 100,000 more trees in Madagascar! If you don’t know about One Day’s Wages… you should....
by admin | November 20, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
I have to admit, I was a little nervous as to how our kids would handle the village life of Mahabana. It’s not easy living. Hot and humid temperatures without escape, no electricity, no running water, no toilets, and only bucket showers. Granted, it’s been a long...
by admin | November 16, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
Getting to Mahabana is no easy task! Though only 120 miles from the large city of Mahajanga, there are no roads, not even the semblance of a road. In 2000, Jamie attempted to drive it once, it took 7 days, one way, and when they had driven as far as they could and...
by admin | November 14, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
Mahabana is a small yet growing fishing village 120 miles south of where we live in the large city of Mahajanga. When Jamie first went to Mahabana in 1999, the village consisted of just 100 people; today, it’s home to close to 400. After living there, Josy, a good...
by admin | November 2, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
Two weeks ago while in the capital city, Antananarivo, we saw quite the entrepreneurial spirit at work. The guy in the photo above, was making his way through the neighborhoods, weighing people for 50 Ariary, the equivalent to 2.5 cents. The crazy thing for this...
by admin | October 31, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
As I said in my last post, our family along with my parents, went to the beauty country island of Mauritius for a vacation earlier this month. One word sums up Mauritius… AMAZING! By no means is the island a first world country but it is a long ways from...
by admin | October 26, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
While my folks were visiting, we decided to forego the normal 10-hour drive to the capital city and instead take the quick 45-minute flight. It sounds a bit like a no brainer but in fact, this was the first time we’ve done this… and it was so nice! We arrived...
by admin | October 26, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
While my folks were with us, the seven of us ventured over to the neighboring island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. This was a long anticipated and planned trip, we were full of excitement for a vacation in a tropical paradise and Jamie and I were ready for a...
by admin | October 21, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
What an absolute joy all around to have my parents with us! They arrived bearing lots of love and gifts (including Christmas presents) from Santa Barbara. They also came bearing some fun items from home… a few new movies and coloring books for the kids, some...
by admin | October 14, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
The Story of their Lives… Sisters, Sissy (16) and Vanna (14) are the oldest of 5 kids. We first met Sissy and Vanna in the remote fishing village of Mahabana in 2000. At the time, they were...
by admin | October 14, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
The Story of their Lives… Cousins, Clarisse (16) and Andry (13) have experienced a dramatic turn of events in their young lives. Clarisse is the 3rd child of six. She grew up in the small town of Anjijia, a farming community in the countryside of Madagascar. ...
by admin | October 13, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
Transportation in Madagascar is as varied as the people here. For most, transportation is easy, free and God-given: their feet. However, for some, transportation is on a sarety or ox cart. For others, its by pousse pousse, bicycle or small motorcycle with the...
by admin | September 25, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
Last month, we started part I in a series entitled “Unsung Heroes”; a tribute to all the Malagasy people who work so hard, day after day, to eek out a living in order to care for their family the best they can. Just outside of Antsirabe lies a small wet valley where 7...
by admin | September 24, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
Here on the island there’s a hundred different ways to say “hello”… or at least close to a 100. Because the country is made up of 18 different tribes, all Malagasy, they each have their traditional way of saying “hey”. Some of my favorites and their...
by admin | September 21, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
We hope and pray, that one day, our 3 kids will be trilingual like their daddy. As they play with Malagasy friends they’re picking up Malagasy and as they attend French School, they’ll soon be speaking French. In the picture above, our five-year-old drew a picture of...
by admin | September 16, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
As I’ve said before, cooking in Madagascar is no easy feat at times. Though it has drastically improved with the number of items we can get for which I’m so incredibly thankful! There are however, still a number of ingredients we can’t get or we need to improvise...
by admin | September 16, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
The kids just completed their second week at the French School here in Mahajanga. Isabella entered Grande Section, the French equivalent to kindergarten and attends 5 days a week. Eliana started Petite Section, or preschool and attends 3 mornings a week. Now brace...
by admin | September 9, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
There isn’t an overabundance of fun activities for kids here in Madagascar. Thankfully though, we live on the northwest coast of the island where the days are hot and the beach is close. As a mom of young kids, this lack of activities is definitely an unwelcome...
by admin | September 6, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
A few weeks ago we went for a little fishing adventure. In the past we’ve always done this sort of thing in a Malagasy lakana or outrigger canoe. Kids have a funny way of changing things though … and this time we went in a small motorboat where the risk...
by admin | August 27, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
We decided to start a little “Unsung Heroes” series… a tribute to all the Malagasy people who work so hard, day after day, to eek out a living in order to care for their family the best they can. The stories are unique and they are endless. Our goal is...
by admin | August 27, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
On the northwest coast of Madagascar fishing is a way of life. On any given day, one can see the coastline dotted with sails of outrigger canoes (lakana in Malagasy), a sign of the Malayo-Polynesian heritage of the people here.
by admin | August 20, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
Last month I celebrated my birthday… I won’t tell you what exact year… just that I’m one year closer to 40! Ohh! My birthday was a little of “this and that” this year. We celebrated the day before with a birthday lunch and on the actual day, made the 10...
by admin | August 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 wherever...
by admin | August 15, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
Though Malagasy religious beliefs mostly comprise of indigenous animistic worship (52%) and Christian (41%), 7% of the population claim Islam. As such, Ramadan is celebrated in Madagascar. August 1st marked the first day of Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic...
by admin | August 15, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
I could not wait to see what nearly four years of new growth would do to a devastated section of a mangrove forest. My eyes leapt with excitement as we approached a wall of fresh green over 8 feet tall. As we stepped off our canoes onto a piece of land that was once...
by admin | August 9, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
One of the great benefits of living in Antsirabe was the close proximity to a Swiss missionary who had milking cows and as a result, twice a week, we received fresh milk delivered to our house as well as thick blocks of cheese. Since our move to Mahajanga, we’ve had...
by admin | August 6, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
As one can imagine, there are a number of things that we miss about life in Santa Barbara…. family and friends of course, church, our home culture, paved roads, … and FIESTA! For those non-Santa Barbara folk, Fiesta is a 75+ year tradition of celebrating...
by admin | July 20, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
Traveling in Madagascar is never dull. The roads in the city are congested with cars, bikes, rickshaws, people, pushcarts, oxcarts, broken down vehicles, and a whole host of livestock. The only difference between the cities and the countryside is it’s less...
by admin | July 16, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
Two weeks ago, Jamie wrapped up Sekoly (preschool) with the kids, Isabella (5), Eliana (3), and Oliver (3). We celebrated this milestone for all of them with a little graduation ceremony. They sang their favorite songs, showed us how they know their letters and the...
by admin | June 28, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
Ony has become a favorite friend for Gavin (right) and his little buddy, Alex (left). She’s a sweet woman who watches the boys while we’re in formal language study. She has the magic touch and these boys LOVE her just as much as we do! We’ll certainly miss her when...
by admin | June 26, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
Two weeks ago, over Pentecost, we had a long holiday weekend… after all, doesn’t everybody have Pentecost Monday as a national holiday? Along with our guests, we went to a lush rainforest, Ranomafana (literally translated as Hot Water because of the natural hot...
by admin | June 24, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
It’s still hard to believe that last Sunday we celebrated Gavin’s 1st birthday! He’s a sweet, fun-loving, quiet little guy, his eyes twinkle and he brings smiles to all he meets! He loves to stand on chairs, open and close the dryer, take all the tupperware out of...
by admin | June 15, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
Last week we received our first guests from the States… friends, Nolan and Elizabeth Hunt. For the year or so before we left, they also lived in Santa Barbara, attended the same church, we were in Bible study together and they often babysat for us. How...
by admin | June 9, 2011 | Blog, Uncategorized
There’s a lot of “only in Africa”-type of things our kids get to do… one such thing… we get to let our kids pretend to be airplanes on a working airstrip…. after all, planes only land here once every few days. ...
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...
