A Quick Update

I have very little time right now, so I've got to keep it short. Sorry it has been so long since we've updated anything on here; we still don't have internet in our home, so our opportunities to be online these days are few. We are getting settled into our home in Antsirabe now, and it's kind of funny to me that our house here is at least two times larger than our seminary apartment in Fort Worth.

We have now been in Mada for almost two weeks now, and our days typically consist of homeschool for the girls, running errands, lunch, language school, supper, then a little hang out time before we go to bed. We are over jetlag now, but we have been thrown off by how inconceivably early the sun rises here and by how early it sets. Our internal clocks are still out of whack because of this, which just means our days start earlier and end earlier. (Just to give you an idea, 6am feels very much like 8am, and 8pm feels every bit like 10pm.) It's weird to us, but we're getting used to it.

For the next five months we will be in language school learning Malagasy. Our schedule for school is Monday-Thursday from 1pm-5pm. We had our first three days last week, and so far we have learned over 100 vocabulary words, so we feel like we've got a pretty good pace going. As you can probably imagine, the language serves as a strong and sometimes intimidating barrier between us and the Malagasy people. We attempt to talk with our night guards and others as we go into the markets and stores, but we still know so very little of this language. It can be frustrating and extremely tiring (we definitely need more sleep here than we did in the U.S.), but it is also a great motivator for learning.

The other major point of interest is the driving here in Mada. There really is no U.S. comparison that I know of. The streets are filled with people, almost all of them not in cars. Most of the people walk, ride a bicycle, or take a pous-pous (rickshaw), and most of them stay on the street, not sidewalks. Getting from point-A to point-B is now a secondary goal; primary is not hitting anyone.

Okay, I'm way out of time now, gotta run. Hopefully I'll be able to upload some videos soon which will give you a view of Mada and the rules of engagement for driving here.

Mandra pihaona (See you)

Adam