The Island of Madagascar

 When we moved to Zambia, fifteen months ago, we knew four people on the entire continent.  I find it incredible that for the past nine weeks we have been hosted by eleven families, one of which we knew prior to arriving on the African continent.  To further put this in context we have stayed in fifteen hostels/hotels since leaving Zambia meaning that over forty percent of the time we were being hosted people we had never met before.  I told the Dimmocks who live in Lesotho that we may never be able to return their hospitality, but will show the generosity they showed to us to those we host in the future. 

The Asukile family hosted us while in Madagascar and once again we were humbled by incredible hospitality.  The Asukiles are Zambians working for Christian World Mission, formerly known as the London Mission Society.  Hilda teaches English in various settings, leads Bible studies, occasionally preaches and is one of those people who exudes the joy of Christ in a way that makes you want to be around her all the time.  Her equally wonderful husband, Jeff, works for the Church of Jesus Christ of Madagascar (FJKM), in their disaster relief department helping communities recover post cyclone.  With the Asukiles, we visited the FJKM headquarters, met others from around the world working with the Madagascar church and overall gained an understanding of what God is doing in this beautiful country. 

We spent our first few days in Antananarivo, the capital city of Madagascar, and found the city to be quite enjoyable.  Although Madagascar is a part of the African continent its culture is very different from other African countries we have visited.  In fact, if someone were to have blindfolded and flown me to Madagascar when the blindfold was removed I would not have guessed I was in Africa, but rather somewhere in Indonesia.  We wound our way through the narrow streets, sampled local Malagasy fare, perused a few museums and bought our fair share of beautiful Malagasy baskets.

Madagascar, the fourth largest island in the world, has flora and fauna indigenous only to Madagascar.  Perhaps the most famous is the lemur; a primate that to me looks like a cross between a koala bear and monkey.  We visited a zoo in Antananarivo and saw some of these fascinating animals; however the highlight was trekking through the rainforest in Andisabe National Park spotting the lemurs in their natural habitat as they jumped, or in some cases flew, from tree to tree.  A definite highlight of our travels thus far!

The last four days of our time in Madagascar were spent on Ile Aux Nattes.  Off the coast of Madagascar rests the island of Saint Marie with the smaller island, Ile Aux Nattes, lying about 150 yards to the south accessible only by pirogue; a small, hand dug out canoe.  Picture untouched white sandy beaches lined with palm and coconut trees giving way to sparkling clear blue water, and you’ll get a small picture of where we soaked up the sun for a few days.  Upon arrival, I ordered a pina colada.  The bartender subsequently said, “It will be a short wait.  I have to get a coconut and squeeze the milk from it in order to make your drink.”  I said, “NO PROBLEM!!!”   The gracious owner of the hotel was a South African man named Ockie who looked like a pirate and was a devote Christian.  We had some great theological discussions with him and were entertained by him feeding the three lemurs who always hung around the hotel.  While I was sleeping in our room I almost had a close encounter with a lemur as it jumped on to the window sill and was about to leap into our room.  Brent was watching this happen and was torn between scaring the lemur away and wanting to get a picture, thankfully (for his sake), he managed both.

We are currently in Cairo, Egypt with our good friends Ben and Emily Robinson.  Ben is an associate pastor at an Anglican Church and Emily is a nurse at the U.S. embassy.  We have seen their life and ministry here and visited most of the great sites in Cairo.  Tomorrow we head to the Sinai Peninsula to climb Mt. Sinai, take in St. Catherine’s Monastery, and spend a night on the southern tip of the Sinai Penninsula.  We will have much more on Egypt in our next post and on Monday, November 15^th, we return home after fifteen months on the beautiful, paradoxical, diverse continent that we have come to love.  

Ring Tailed Lemurs in Antananaravio Madagascar

An Indri Lemur in Adasibe Natioinal Park

Downtown Antananaravio

FJKM Church in Antanaravio

Downtown Antanaravio

With Jeff, Ipyana, and Hilda at their church

Hilda preaching at a JFKM in Antananaravio

Laundry day in Antananaravio

Woolie Lemur and babie in Andasibe National Park

Ockie feeding the lemurs

Feeding time

This was the lemur about to get into our room, a sleeping Erin would have been suprised.

5 O'clock somewhere

The beach on Ile Aux Nattes

The amazing water on Ile Aux Nattes

Sunset on Ile Aux Nattes