Matthew and Rhonda Slaubaugh

I just got back yesterday from three days in Tulear. The purpose of the trip was to open up two new runways and reopen another one that had been closed since April. The team included Jakob, our Program Manager; Haja, our deputy Flight Ops. Manager; Michel, a representative from the ACM (the Malagasy aviation authority); myself; and Christian, a reporter from Germany who is here doing a story on German NGOs working in Madagascar.

We left at about 6:00 A.M. Tuesday morning and flew to Morombe. We planned to meet the helicopter from Helimission there and we also wanted to get some permissions there for the new airstrip in Vorehe. We met the Helicopter as planned, but we were unable to get the permission to register the airstrip. We still went and did the airstrip inspection and got everything put in place to use the airstrip, we just need to wait for all the papers to work there way through the system.

In MAF, in order to open up a new airstrip, a pilot or qualified person has to go in and inspect everything first. After that, the airplane can come in and land. This is why we needed the helicopter to help us out. Jakob, Haja, Michel and Christian would go ahead of me in the helicopter. The plan was that they would set out temporary runway markers as was required and make sure that everything was alright. They would then call me on the satellite phone and I would come in the airplane. After I landed we would set up a windsock and anything else that needed to be done to satisfy the ACM.

So I was left in Morombe for about an hour and a half while the others made the 35 mile flight to Vorehe  in the helicopter. Vorehe used to be a public use airstrip. It was closed in April along with quite a few other airports. There is a medical program and a mission program there that MAF has supported. The strip was actually in quite good shape. It’s about 1000 Meters long, pretty short grass, no real problems.

From Vorehe, the plan was for the helicopter group to proceed to Anjabetrongo, about 20 miles away. After about 45 minutes they called and said that there were a couple trees that needed to be cut down so we would save the opening until Wednesday.

They went from there to the third airstrip, Mitsinjo, about another 35 miles away. After waiting for another couple hours, they called me to say that it wasn’t perfect, but it should be good enough. After talking with Jakob, I decided to come take a look and if wasn’t good enough I would just take the airplane to Tulear for the night and see what we could do the next day. After looking it over it didn’t look to bad to me so I went ahead and landed. It was a little narrow, but it wasn’t really any problem. This is a totally new airstrip that has been built in part to support the medical program that is going on there.

From there we flew to Tulear for the night. Wednesday afternoon, Jakob, Christian and pastor Jonoro flew back to Anjabetrongo in the helicopter to make sure that the offending trees had been cut down. Everything checked out fine so I came about an hour later with the airplane. The people of the community have been working on this airstrip for about a year. Pastor Jonoro is in the process of moving to Anjabetrongo and has been behind much of the work that has gone into this project. He has already started a church and a small medical dispensary. His wife is a teacher and they are planning on starting a school as well. This is the most remote of the three communities that we were in on this trip. They are totally cut off for about four months of the year.

After I landed and we had put up the windsock, the people had a short dedication for the runway. It was really great to see how much it meant to the people for us to come. Anjabetrongo is a very difficult place to live. They have to carry water for 10 Kilometers. They have tried to dig a well, but after digging down 60 meters, they hit solid rock. We are working with another NGO to try to get a proper well digging rig to go and help them.

Well that’s a quick synopsis of what my last few weeks of work have been leading up to. I had a great time. It was amazing to see how the people reacted when I landed and they could see the results of all the work that had gone into preparing the airstrips.

I’ll try to get some pictures up ASAP.

Matthew

Well, it’s been ages, hasn’t it? Sorry for the lack of news. I did write one update that never got put up, and now I realize that it’s time for another one. (the “old” one will be below)

We are enjoying beautiful summer weather. The girls play outside a lot, and we have had a few picnics in our yard. It’s just nice to have this comfortable weather! The jacaranda trees are also blooming and they are gorgeous. I have to find some to take pictures of and then I will post them for you.

Matthew just got back from an exciting trip, but I will let him tell you about that. He has a lot of pictures, too, so I’m sure you’ll see a few of those.

Caitlyn is back in school after her holiday and learning lots of stuff. She is really picking up a lot of French and using it quite well. She is so good with imitating what she hears, and has learned to speak English with a Mauritian accent! (From the principal of her school) She learns a lot of little poems in their English class, and when she says them she uses that accent. It cracks me up. J

We are expecting to be quite busy in the next few weeks. On the 18^th, the HR director of MAF Canada is coming to visit us for about 5 days. We are looking forward to getting to know him better. Then on the 9^th of December my parents arrive. We are busy making plans for a trip or two while they are here, and thinking of all the “little” things we don’t want to forget to do! We are excited about going to the rainforest and the coast with them.

I have to tell you about a small sadness in my life. J There are mangos everywhere right now. In the supermarkets and all along the streets in small stands, mangos are there. Big mangos, small mangos, green mangos, yellow mangos, orange mangos. I love mangos. But apparently, mangos do not love me. Almost 2 months ago, I broke out in terrible hives on my face and neck. The only thing I could trace it to was mangos, but I tried not to notice that. J So, I took a long break from eating them, and yesterday I ate some. Guess what? This morning there is a red welt by the corner of my mouth! So sad. I have never had a food allergy before and I would have been happy to keep it that way!

Well, I need to head out to the grocery store, so I will end this for now. Oh yeah, we are still waiting to see written permission from the government for MAF to resume all flying…but it does look like it could be soon! Keep on praying.

Oh yeah, don’t forget to sign the guestbook. (Nag, nag, nag. J)

November 1, 2005

Hello again…

It’s been a busy day at our house. Yesterday was Aimee and Sierra’s 3^rd birthday and so today we had a party for them. (Today was a national holiday here, so it was a good day for a party.) We invited 4 of their little friends, as well as their parents, so we ended up with quite a houseful. It was a fun time…we had a “Blue’s Clues” theme (a popular preschool TV show for those of you without little kids!) and it was a big hit. There was a treasure hunt complete with paw-print clues and handy-dandy notebooks, a Blue cake and lots of pizza and sugar. J We all had a good time and once again, we are so thankful for good friends here. It makes it much easier to be away from our families when we have good friends to be with.

We began a tradition with this birthday that we hope to continue with the girls until they leave home. This evening I interviewed Aimee and Sierra about their birthday and other parts of their lives, and Matthew videotaped the conversations. It was cute and I know we will be glad to have that when they’re older.

Caitlyn is still on holiday till Thursday, but I think she’s getting ready to go back. I’ve noticed that the names of her school friends are coming up in conversation quite often. She conquered a big fear on Sunday afternoon and now rides her bike down hills.

Larissa is a little bookworm these days. She often brings us books and grunts (or screams) at us until we read to her.

We are just now finally over the cold/flu/ear infection stuff that we were fighting for the last 3 weeks! Whatever it was, it was nasty…and we are so thankful that the girls all seem to be better. There is still occasional coughing and a drippy nose here and there, but that is manageable!

On Sunday we all made it to church for the first time in ages. We had a nice lunch with our pastor and family afterwards, which we all enjoyed. I think that for about 6 months now we’ve been talking about having lunch together and it’s never worked out. Finally, we did it spur of the moment, and it was great. J That’s life, eh?

I went to SEF again and there were quite a few missionaries there from out of Tana. It was encouraging to hear about a ladies conference being planned for December (they are expecting about 3,000 ladies!), a clinic being built in a very remote village, a nursing school being started and lots of kids’ ministries.

We are hoping that all of the verbal promises MAF has heard in the last week or two turn into written permission to start flying! It would be great to have the licensing in place to help with plans like the ones mentioned in the paragraph above. Jakob has had several meetings and is very optimistic, but no one knows if it will all come to pass in a matter of days or weeks (hopefully not months!).

Well, it’s time for me to head to bed. Take care, and remember…we love to hear from you! (Here are some ideas to get you started: Do you have kids in school? Are they in public, private or home school? What fall activities are you enjoying? What prayers has God answered for you lately?)

Hello from the house of sick children…yeah, we’re still fighting coughs and runny noses. Thankfully, the ear infections seem to be under control and Sierra and Larissa seem to have escaped that part altogether. Last night they all slept all night and I think we all feel better because of it.

Caitlyn has school holidays this week and half of next week. It’s nice to have her home and I really enjoy the break from driving! (Last week one day it took me 50 minutes to go get her and bring her back for lunch…no other stops. Without any traffic each way is about an 8 minute drive.) She has a few play dates planned, so I don’t think she’ll be bored.

Sierra has officially graduated from Mommy’s School of Potty Training! She is completely out of diapers! It’s a happy time. Aimee is doing quite well during the day, and that is a good accomplishment for her. They will be 3 next week, so now we are working on limiting thumb sucking to bed time. They often catch themselves starting to suck their thumbs and say, “Thumbs are for sleeping!” Aimee told me that “little girls have sucker thumbs”.

Larissa is doing well, except for her cough and runny nose. She walks all over and tries to keep up with her sisters. Amazingly, she still hasn’t tried to climb the stairs, and that’s a good thing. J Unfortunately, she is developing quite a lot of ways to let her sisters know when she doesn’t approve of their actions. This includes hair pulling, pinching, scratching and screaming. Ah yes, we’ve entered toddlerhood once again. She also loves to kiss, and is getting quite good at puckering up. She even offered to kiss Mr. Frank yesterday…he declined.

Matthew is quite busy these days…in preparation for MAF’s registration issues being settled, the staff at the hangar has been working to get ready for more flying. Matthew is specifically involved with making a plan to divide up the island into zones that will hopefully make MAF’s flying more efficient. We are looking forward to having this all settled and seeing MAF working at full capacity.

I have just agreed to help out with some of the communication for MAF. Weekly news shares need to be sent to MAF Europe and MAF UK, and I will also be developing an “in-house” newsletter for MAF-Madagascar. I’m looking forward to doing this, and I hope that it will help me to feel more involved and connected to what MAF is doing here.

Matthew has a trip tomorrow to Mandritsara, continuing on with an overnight in Mananara, a small town on the north east coast. He was thinking of taking Caitlyn with him since it’s just one night, but we decided that since she’s just had an ear infection and cold, flying might not be the best activity for right now!

I’m looking forward to having my new kitchen cupboards delivered and installed today! Matthew worked on them a little bit on Saturday and has one more door to attach today, and then they’re ready. I’m eager to see them.

Friday afternoon I got to go out for lunch and shopping with a bunch of ladies. It was in honor of my friend Erin’s birthday, and I think we’ll be keeping close track of upcoming birthdays so we can make this a tradition. We had lunch at the same place that we celebrated my birthday…delicious!

We’ve been having great weather – sunny and warm, but not too hot! The rains haven’t started yet, so things are quite dry and dusty, but the temperatures are great. Sunday at lunch I told Matthew that I just wish I knew of a place to go for a walk. About an hour later, John and Kristina knocked on the door and asked if either of us wanted to join them for a walk! Of course I eagerly volunteered! We went about 5 minutes out of town and parked by the side of the road, crossed some rice fields, and headed up a large hill. It was so refreshing to be out in the country, enjoying the sun and breeze, seeing the incredible view as we climbed higher and higher…and realizing how out of shape I am! I did manage to keep up, but I haven’t had any exercise like that in ages! It was so much fun to challenge myself like that.

Matthew took Sierra and Caitlyn to church on Sunday morning, since they were the least sick that day! Then in the evening Caitlyn and I went to SEF. (That’s the missionary community’s weekly gathering.) It was nice that we both could get out to church in spite of having sick kids.

Well, I think I’ve rambled on long enough! Thanks to those of you who have sent us moose hunting stories…it was fun to read of your adventures.

Hello from Madagascar once again.

It’s a beautiful sunny day, after a few cloudy cool days, so the sun is a welcome sight. The three youngest girls are napping and Caitlyn is playing (and singing the Do, Re, Mi song in French) in the sandbox.

We have been having a miserable week or so…colds, ear infections, fevers, coughing and sneezing. So far, it’s been just the girls, and Matthew and I are fine. (Well, I had a fever one night.) Caitlyn got it first, and except for a little coughing and a runny nose, seems to be getting over it. Aimee is also getting better. Sierra and Larissa are still right in the middle of it. Their poor little eyes and noses are running all the time, it seems. Fortunately, the three youngest don’t seem to be bothered by their ears. Caitlyn had two nights of crying for fairly large parts of each night, because her ears hurt so badly when she laid down. Poor kid. She missed about a week of school, and is happy to be back to normal routine.

Matthew spent Monday flying, and had a bunch of office work and a meeting or two yesterday. Today he is working at finishing up the cupboards he is making for my kitchen! (I’m quite excited about that…I can’t wait to have more places to put things.) I’m very impressed that he is building these for me, and he is enjoying working on them. The guy who volunteers with MAF as a maintenance worker is helping him figure it all out. So, all that to say that he isn’t bored these days!

It was exciting to hear last week that MAF is on the verge of having the registration issues cleared up! I guess that we’ll all be even happier when we see it in writing, but we are thankful that things seem to be moving in the right direction. Please keep praying!

Last weekend (besides dealing with sick kids), we spent Saturday evening with John and Kristina. Well, something like that. John and Matthew played Empire Builder here, and Kristina and I went out to eat Chinese food. J It was fun. Sunday we didn’t go to church because of the kids, but had a relaxing day here. In the afternoon Matthew went out with a bunch of guys on motorbikes and quad bikes. Apparently they did manage to have fun. J

Our home group is slowly getting started. Last week we hosted, and although it was still just four of us, it was a good time. Studying James is quite challenging! Tonight we are meeting, and there is a good possibility that our numbers will increase.

Someone asked who our neighbours are, and do we know them. Well, I’ve now met someone from each house, so I guess I know them a little bit! Actually, there are 5 houses in our compound. The first one inside the gate is a couple and their 14-month-old daughter. They are from Mauritius and I think he works with a factory here. She came recently and from what she said, I don’t think she’s here long term. J The next house is rented by a factory (I think) and sort of seems like a revolving door! The people are always coming and going, in and out of the compound, but I also think that it’s people coming in and out of the country for work, too. The next house is also rented by MAF and right now there are two young guys living in it. They are both British and are here volunteering with MAF. We are expecting three new families to arrive next year (MAF, I mean), so one of those families will take that house. The 4^th house is rented by a Malaysian lady who manages a factory here. (Are you sensing a theme?) I hear her coming and going early in the morning and late at night. I have met her a few times, and she is a Christian lady who goes to the English Chapel. And we’re the 5^th house! We keep the compound from becoming dull. I’m sure that the guards never had such good entertainment as the little “Vahaza” (white) girls who run around watering trees with little buckets, climbing ant-covered trees, trying to slide down the neighbours’ barely sloped driveway, driving their bikes around in circles, playing in the mud puddles, running down the driveway without pants on or in pajamas, climbing the fence, getting stuck on top of the fence and of course, all of it topped off by the mother who comes out and (probably loudly) calls (or carries, as necessary) them inside and tries to make them act less like hooligans.

Well, that’s all for this time. Thanks for signing the guestbook and thanks for caring!

Hello once again…it’s a beautiful summer day here in Madagascar. It’s almost hot, but still quite nice. We are mostly enjoying the arrival of summer, but the bugs are back in full force again. Once again, we have cockroaches in our house! Matthew has been trying to keep them out, so we’ll see if he succeeds.

We had a busy weekend. On Saturday, the three oldest girls were invited to a birthday party, so I took them. There were at least 30 kids at the party, and they got to have cake, ice-cream cones, pop, juice, chips, and brought home huge balloons and loot bags with candy and hair clips. Think they’re still talking about it? ;-) Sunday we went to church and stopped to buy meat on the way home. We had a relaxing afternoon, and spent some time playing outside. Aimee is making good progress in learning how to pedal her tricycle around. Larissa thinks the tricycle is hers, and lets us know that she really doesn’t think her sisters should ride it. Hopefully, she’ll start to understand the concept of taking turns sometime soon.

Well, I can’t think of too much to say. Maybe you need to ask more questions so I know what to write about. (Meanwhile, we’ll be waiting to hear if any of you have any exciting hunting stories.) We wish all of you Canadians a happy Thanksgiving, and please enjoy a piece of pie or some turkey on our behalf!

First things first: A big apology for the lack of updates! I had written one on the 21^st, and tried several times to get it posted, but it didn’t work out. (Bad internet connections and faulty communication with my hubby!) Then life kind of got crazy…

So, we celebrated Larissa’s first birthday that Saturday with the Peters family. It was fun to see Larissa enjoy the cake and gifts and of course, the attention! She had been taking lots of steps before that, but sort of had a burst of confidence that day, and has been gradually moving away from crawling ever since. She is also picking up a lot of words. If she hears someone singing “Happy Birthday”, she says “happy, happy”. It’s really cute, of course! (Sorry you have to put up with my biases.)

That weekend my face was covered in hives and was very swollen and I was very miserable. Sunday afternoon I went to the Dr and got some medication which took care of it by about Wednesday. It seems like it was a food allergy, but I haven’t been able to figure out what caused it. It made me feel pretty useless for awhile…almost sick. Hope it doesn’t happen again!

Last Thursday Matthew left for a trip with a group of missionaries/pastors from the Assemblies of God. They went to Manakara, where they had a series of meetings in the churches there. Matthew attended some of the meetings with them, and reported that it was very loud and very long! He also enjoyed being by the ocean and even rented a bike a few times.

The girls and I had a pretty good time while he was gone, although we always miss him a lot! Aimee especially missed him this time, and since he’s home she is very often looking at him lovingly and saying, “You’re my dad.” “I love you so much, dad.” “You are my only best dad.”

Saturday night I invited some ladies to come over after the kids were in bed, and that was fun, of course. We just sat and talked and snacked, and I enjoyed having friends to laugh with!

Matthew got home Monday morning and has taken today off, so we are enjoying having him around today. Right now he is putting out anti-cockroach powder around the outside of the house, with Aimee and Sierra giving him a lot of supervision.

Caitlyn is really in the thick of school and has lots of stories to tell after each day. Her French is improving and her ability to say it right makes Matthew and I jealous! She’s got the French “r” and “u” down pat, for those of you who’ve tried those sounds. At home she is riding her bike a lot, and even climbed a tree the other day. I think it surprised her that she was able to do it!

Sierra and Aimee are doing really well at finding things to play while Caitlyn is at school. They are enjoying the warm weather so much and the sandbox has had a lot of activity lately. They also have been playing with their dolls a lot, and playing that they are going to the bottom of the sea to find fish. It’s fun to see them learn to use their imaginations.

We are into spring for sure now. It’s fun to be warm now, and not shiver on the way to bed or in the shower! It rained a little yesterday, too, so that may be the beginning of the rainy season. It was nice to smell the rain again. My flowers are blooming and one of my little rose bushes has two buds on it. Can’t wait to find out what color it will be!

MAF has rented another house in our compound, and right now there are some short-term volunteers staying there. In 2006 we are expecting 3 new families to arrive, so one of them will take it then. (Probably another Canadian family, actually!)

We are still waiting for resolution with the registration issues for MAF. Jakob has met with many people, so hopefully a decision will come soon.

I think that’s all the news from this part of the world. We sure appreciate all the e-mails and messages in the guest book. It’s so encouraging to know you think of us. Please keep us in your prayers. Also, we love to know how to pray for you. We do pray that God will bless you for all the support we feel from you – by your words and also financial support. Thanks for caring. Have a good week!

written September 21,

Well it’s been a while since I wrote anything here. We are still playing the waiting game with the local authorities on our licensing issues. In spite of that, I did get to fly two days this week. The first trip was on Tuesday. Last December we opened an airstrip about 175 miles northwest of ‘Tana in Bekodoka. There is a group that is working on putting a small clinic there and using it as a base to reach out to the village and also the surrounding villages. We’re pretty exited about it as this is a very remote place and there is very little local church or mission work being done in this part of the country. I’ve been told, and it seems pretty accurate to me, that most of the churches and missions follow the roads. We’re trying to change that by encouraging the different missions to let us help them get into the more hard to reach areas. Anyway, back to the story. On Tuesday, I took a team of six people Bekodoka. Yesterday, I took a different evangelistic team and dropped them off in the same area (two different places, about 150 and 200 miles form ‘Tana) and then picked up the group that I had left in Bekodoka on Tuesday and returned to ‘Tana. The actual flights were fairly routine, (this is generally considered to be a good thing) but there were two really funny things that I thought I should tell you about.

The first was somewhere in the first two and a half hours of flying, someone helped themselves to most of my lunch. It wasn’t even that great of a lunch, just a few little sandwiches. I had stuck it under the seats behind me. It didn’t really hurt me much, I just thought it was pretty funny that someone would have the audacity to take my lunch out of my airplane while I was sitting right in front of them.

The second happened when we finally got to Bekodoka. The airstrip is about a 20 minute walk from the village. I flew over the village on the way in. Of course, a few minutes after we landed the kids started showing up. Nothing unusual so far. However, when they got there, they all stood in a very neat line extending out from the left main tire. It took forever for me to catch on to what was happening. It was very hot and sunny and they were just being smart and standing in the shade of the wing. Once there were too many to fit in the shadow of the wing, they started using the tail for shade. We had to wait there for about an hour before we were ready to go and the whole time I just thought it looked so funny to have all these people standing in an outline of the airplane. I have a picture that I’ll try to get put on here soon.

Hey look…it’s Monday! I’m trying to get back in the habit of updating this on Mondays. We’ll see if it works.

We had a relaxing weekend. Saturday we decided to go tricycle shopping. As we were all getting in the van, Sierra pinched her finger in the hinge-thingie of the van seat. That put a considerable damper on her day, but Matthew was sure it wasn’t broken so after she had a band-aid, we were off. We ended up buying a “Finding Nemo” tricycle (who knew it was possible?) for Aimee and Sierra to share. We wanted to buy 2, but they are hard to pedal (the thing that connects the pedal to the wheel is really short), so we decided to wait and see if they can learn to use it or not. That afternoon we played outside for quite awhile and they all rode their “bikes”. Even Larissa liked getting pushed around on the tricycle and threw quite a fit when her turn was done.

Sunday we went to church, which was worth the effort. J It’s sometimes hard for me to feel that it’s “worth” the hassles we go through between 6 and 9 AM on a Sunday morning, but I was reminded again that it is good to meet with other believers. And, the girls are growing up, so this too shall pass. Right?

Sunday afternoon the girls all napped at the same time and the peace and quiet was lovely to behold! When the girls got up we made popcorn and watched the “real” Parent Trap movie (with Hayley Mills). It was hilarious, the girls really liked watching for about 45 minutes, but all for the “wrong” reasons! At one point the dog barks and then leaves the scene…Sierra was totally engrossed, and seriously said, “I hope the lady can find the dog again!” It had almost nothing to do with the plot, and I don’t think the dog was seen again in the rest of the movie. J

This week looks pretty normal, but on the weekend we will be hosting a MAF pilot from Uganda who is coming to do check rides for Matthew and Jakob. He is Dutch, but actually is with MAF Canada, so it will be nice to meet him after seeing his name in MAF Canada “stuff” for the last year or so.

Well, the girls are asking for stories, so I will go now. Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to sign the guest book! Have a great week.

Hello from Tana, where the weather changes every hour! No, not really, but it was nice and sunny this morning when I woke up, and now it’s clouding over a little. Oh well, I think it’s gradually getting warmer, so that is nice to see. The girls have been enjoying the slightly warmer weather.

It’s been a busy time for us since I wrote last. Over the weekend I was away on the ladies’ retreat. That was a great time to get to know other ladies and since I was one of the newest arrivals in the country I learned a lot from listening to their stories. One lady has lived here for 30 years and she shared a lot of wisdom with us about how to handle the hard things that God asks us to do. It was encouraging to hear her testimony. We also spent a lot of time just sitting around chatting or playing games. Larissa was along, and did pretty good in spite of being totally messed up in the nap department. Probably the most memorable time of the weekend was when one of the vans broke down on the way home! We couldn’t have asked for better circumstances for a breakdown, so it was only a minor inconvenience! (Except for Helimission, who owns the van! L)

Matthew and the other girls had a good weekend here. They had some pretty bad power cuts, but they managed. They did lots of fun stuff and even managed to get to church! I thought that was pretty brave of Matthew.

Monday was Caitlyn’s first day back to school and she is having a great time. Because she is in “grande section” this year, they wanted her to come full time, but we weren’t comfortable with that. However, we have added another morning every week, so she is there 4 mornings a week now. We are going to try that for a month and see how it goes. Please pray for Matthew and I to have wisdom about her schooling. It is weighing on us quite heavily at this time and we want to make the right decisions.

Aimee and Sierra are getting used to playing without Caitlyn again, and doing a good job at it! They are becoming quite creative on their own, and it’s fun to listen in on their conversations.

Larissa is on the countdown to her first birthday! (the 21^st) I can’t believe it! She is picking up a lot of words these days…baby, happy and please are heard fairly often.

Matthew is gone today to Maralambo to re-open the airstrip there. That’s about all I know about that, so maybe he will write an update to explain it to you. J

Last night we hosted our newly formed home group from church. Our church is about a 35 minute drive away, so the home groups that have already been going are a bit far away for us to get to on a weekday evening. There are a few others from church who live in this neck of the woods, so last night was our second night to meet. It was small (4 of us!), but good. We are going through the book of James – very challenging!!

We had a staff meeting yesterday and as Jakob talked about all the registration issues, staff changes, and other things this program is facing, I was thankful that God knows the future! Please pray for Jakob as he leads the team here, and for all of us, that God would lead us through all the transitions and decisions ahead.

Hope all is well for all of you, and once again….we love seeing the names in the guestbook here. It’s encouraging to know you were here “visiting”. Have a great weekend!

Wow, time just won’t slow down! I am having a hard time believing that it’s September already. And really, there isn’t an excuse for lack of news here except that I’m busy with life! In some ways that makes me feel happy about how we are settling in here, but there’s also a realization that it means that we are not connected to life in Canada. It gives me mixed emotions!

This week has been filled with getting ready for the ladies’ retreat coming up this weekend. I am so excited! There are now 14 of us, plus Larissa who gets to tag along because she is still nursing. We are planning to spend a lot of time relaxing, but also are praying for it to be a time of real refreshment and strengthening. One of the “older” missionary ladies here is going to be speaking to us, and I look forward to hearing what she has to share.

Caitlyn is starting back to school on Monday. We have gone to look at the new location, and she spent one afternoon there playing with some of her friends. She will be one of the big kids this year, and only 2 of her friends from last year will be there. We are happy that she has the same teacher she did last year.

Aimee is starting a new phase…she doesn’t need a nap everyday anymore! So, she’s now learning how to have a quiet time like Caitlyn. She is also making real progress with potty training and I see a light at the end of that tunnel. She has most of Psalm 23 memorized now, and I have to say it’s pretty cute. For awhile she was saying, “your rod and your staff, they come for me.” J

Sierra is also memorizing Psalm 23 and she is also doing a great job. She is also doing really well with going potty, and I think she will be ready to stop wearing a diaper at night soon. We’ll see. She is still crazy about animals, and we are talking about getting a puppy for her.

Larissa is still keeping us all laughing and enjoying having a cuddly baby around! She is so social and loves her sisters so much. She also loves Mme Pauline and Mr Frank and loves to be in on their conversations. Her latest accomplishments are saying “nana” for banana and giving me things when I say, “Give it to Mommy.” We’ll see if the last one survives the next year! J

Jakob and Tina (our program manager) are back from their home assignment, and I think they’ve hit the ground running. Jakob has a lot to do with the different registration issues we’re working to resolve with the government.

Matthew hasn’t had much flying to do lately, which is slightly frustrating for him. He has been working on some non-flying projects which keep him busy, and are teaching him some new things like the basics of welding.

We have just discovered that we will need to buy a vehicle instead of leasing a MAF vehicle long-term. Please pray that God will show us what type of vehicle to look for and that he would bring something big enough and affordable enough for us!

I think that about wraps it up for this time! Please take a minute and sign the guestbook so we know you were visiting! J Have a good weekend!

Hello to all of you! I certainly did not intend to wait so long to update this, but our lives have been busy lately. It seems to me that when I go longer than I mean to between updates, it reflects well on our “settling” process.

I hardly know where to start. We’ve been fighting a little bit of sickness the last few weeks…we seem to take turns with colds and stomach issues! None of it is too serious, but we haven’t shaken it off yet. Because of that, Matthew, Sierra and Larissa stayed home from church last Sunday. Marjan went with the rest of us. It was fairly normal, except for the part when I picked up Aimee (during the worship time) and her shoe caught Caitlyn right in the eye. L It was traumatic. No harm done, just made a big scene!

After church we all came back here and ate the delicious pancakes that Matthew made for us. That was followed up by a lazy afternoon, and then we made brownies, which was fun! That evening when the kids were in bed I went over to visit with Marjan for a few hours…I don’t have to record the actual time that I got home! J

Monday was a holiday, so Matthew had the day off. In the afternoon Marjan came over and stayed with the girls for a few hours so that Matthew and I could go into town and do a little exploring. We walked around the little lake in the middle of Tana, which includes walking through a flower market.

Wednesday was the start of the birthday celebrations! J Thursday was my 30^th birthday, and it was celebrated quite thoroughly! Weds afternoon 3 of my friends took me out for a leisurely lunch and then we did some shopping. It was so much fun to be out with friends and the fact that it was a gorgeous day sure didn’t hurt anything.

On Thursday Matthew took the girls to the market and helped them buy me some birthday presents. It was fun to see them enjoy my birthday, too! Oh yeah, before they did that the girls and I had baked cupcakes. In the evening Marjan came over and Matthew took me out for supper. We had a nice time, of course!

Friday was a normal day…I just spent the day telling myself that being 30 really isn’t so bad. Just kidding. J

Today we went out with some friends for a picnic. One of my good friends here couldn’t come along for the lunch on Weds, so she and Matthew had planned to have a picnic today. Unfortunately, she ended up not being able to come today, either, but we still had a good time! We drove out of Tana to a wooded area and just enjoyed the sunshine, food and the good company.

Having a birthday here has made me realize that I have a lot of friends here and at home! Thanks to all of you who sent me an e-mail (or called…mom and dad!) to let me know you remembered my birthday!

The kids are doing fine…Larissa actually took a few steps yesterday! I think she took three, but not all at once. She will be eleven months old tomorrow.

The 3 oldest are enjoying the warm weather we are having! They have been much more eager to play outside. Caitlyn only has 2 weeks of holidays left, and she is getting excited about seeing her teacher and friends again. The girls have been singing together a lot lately, and I love to see them doing that! It’s pretty cute, plus it’s hard to argue while you’re singing! J Although, they can’t agree about if it’s “Joy to the World” or “Joy to the Lord”.

The other day at lunch, I said that someone needed a napkin. Sierra said, “Yeah, she needs a napnik.” Aimee said, “You mean a makin!” Then Caitlyn proceeded to lecture them on the correct way to say it, and there was general mayhem. I don’t know, but I think I’ll be a little sad when they learn to say “napkin.” (I just realized the other day that they can both say “yogurt” – Aimee used to say “logurt” and Sierra said “wogurt”.)

Well, I think I’m out of news. We just mailed out a newsletter, so you should be seeing that soon. If for some reason you are not on that mailing list, please let us know if you want to get our good-old-fashioned paper newsletters.

Hi again…well, my intentions of getting another update done while Matthew was gone didn’t exactly come to pass. L So, here I am, and I can’t believe it’s August 10 already. Amazing.

Well, we survived our last week, and there were some enjoyable times, but it was stressful! Matthew left on Weds. Thursday was “The Party.” J Caitlyn loves to spend time making elaborate plans for things, and a lot of times I have to tell her that it just won’t work. But, last week, we let one go, and we ended up with the Ultimate Playdate! We had 5 adults and 8 kids here to follow Caitlyn’s list, which went something like this: friends come, make craft (it was dough art), have snack, paint craft, play outside, friends go home. What an afternoon! It was fun, and we all had a good time. (Including Aimee and Sierra, who painted their bellies and arms instead of dough art.)

Friday we sort of laid low and just did stuff around here. Matthew was back by about 3:00 and so we just sat around enjoying being together. He left again at 7:30 Saturday morning, and the rest of us got ready to go to the lemur farm with Marjan. We had a good time there, but didn’t see as many lemurs as we hoped to. It seemed like they just weren’t feeling sociable that day!

Unfortunately, I had a nasty cold developing that day, and by Sat. night it was pretty miserable. Then that night, Caitlyn threw up twice. That was the low point, for sure! She was fine in the morning, though, and that was a relief!

We stayed home all day Sunday, since I don’t attempt church when Matthew’s out of town, not to mention that I still felt pretty bad that day.

Monday was a “normal” day…whatever that means! Matthew came home about 5:00 and we were all very happy to have him back! I do want to say that I know that God helps us through Matthew’s overnights, but it is still so great to have him back.

Yesterday Caitlyn was invited over to a new friend’s house to play, so I went along and we had lunch there. As usual, she took about 60% of the time to start playing and then was unhappy about leaving! (I’m sure I can’t imagine that she could be taking after me in that area! J)

So, that’s our life in the last few days. It’s been great to get photos from a lot of you lately…that is so much fun for us. The girls love seeing friends and family and it really helps them to remember who is who.

Larissa is changing so much lately. She has learned how to say “please” using sign language, and also tries to fold her hands when we pray. When she is really wanting something badly (usually a banana…she thinks all bananas are for her) she gets the two actions mixed up and flaps her arms all over. It’s pretty cute. She is able to stand alone for quite awhile, and walks while holding on to our hands. She hasn’t tried to take any steps yet, but it probably isn’t too far off.

I have been helping 2 other ladies plan a weekend retreat for the ladies of the missionary community here and that is coming up on the first weekend in September. As it comes nearer, I am getting so excited about the chance to get away with other ladies, and be encouraged and refreshed. We would appreciate your prayers for a good weekend. (I’m only taking Larissa with me…it’s going to be a real holiday! J)

We also want to ask you to keep praying for the government here to give MAF an answer about our status here. Currently we are still under a lot of restrictions regarding the type of organizations we can fly for, and there are many organizations that we have to turn away. We were supposed to have an answer by July 20^th, but we didn’t get one. Please pray that the people who make this decision will see the needs of their country and will make a decision based on the needs of others as opposed to their own agendas. It has been hard lately for the staff here to turn away flights we are unable to do, when those flights are needs because of disease outbreaks or similar things. Pray, too, that God’s will would be done. It seems to us that of course it would be better to have the restrictions lifted, but we realize that God may have other plans.

I think I will close for now…thanks for your interest in our lives! We love to hear from you all, and learn about your lives, too! (By the way, I have a new opinion…I think everyone should have a blog or website! J It’s such a great way to keep in touch! And it’s easy to do, if you’re intimidated by the idea. Check out blogger.com for instance. Okay, okay, I’ll stop. J)

Hello everyone…

It’s Monday afternoon – the three youngest are sleeping, Caitlyn is doing some “schoolwork”, and Matthew and I have been catching up with some correspondence that has been waiting for us. Overall, nothing too stressful! J Matthew took the day off because he is leaving on Wednesday for a Gideons trip that will extend over next weekend. This morning we had big plans to take the kids to the lemur farm, but happened to find out (thankfully, before we left) that they are closed on Mondays. So, to make a long story short, we went to the croc farm again. It was fun to go there again, and we had the opportunity to hold and touch a lizard! After we were done we stopped at a little restaurant for lunch, and were amazed at how cheaply we can take our family out here!

We had a good weekend, but it flew by! On Saturday we loaded everyone up and went into town for a shopping/exploring trip. We got some groceries, the kids had a ride on the merry-go-round type ride outside the store, and then we went driving through town. It was fun to see more of Tana, even though we were lost for awhile. Nothing serious and we got home alright! That evening we grilled hamburgers in the fireplace! J They were delicious!

Sunday was a “normal” Sunday. Not much to say about that. Church was a little different, I guess, since the sermon was set aside and we spent the whole time singing and praying. It was a good time, except the kids were a little squirrelly since the pastor forgot to dismiss the kids.

Hmmm, what else? Like I said, Matthew’s leaving on a big trip, so we all would appreciate your prayers. He will be gone Weds and Thurs nights and home on Friday night, and gone on Sat and Sun nights. Pray that he will have safety and that his work will be a help to the Gideons’ work. Please pray for the kids and I, too! We are trying to plan out some “extra” activities to help pass the time. Please pray especially that I will have patience and strength. Thanks!

I think I will close for now and try to update again later in the week. Have a good week!

So now a little bit about flying. If you aren’t interested in flying, this is where you might want to quit reading.

We often fly IFR here, but there are only three airports in the country that have IFR approaches. If the country was flat, I don’t think we would file IFR very often, but because of all the mountains, it’s often hard to get high enough to get over the mountains without going in cloud. The other factor is that we are usually doing legs of more than an hour. One legs of that length, it can save a lot of fuel to climb. We usually cruise between 10 and 13 thousand. However, since there are very few actual approaches, we can only descend down to our minimum sector altitude and try to find a hole to get down through. Here in ‘Tana we have an ILS here as well as VOR and GPS approaches so getting back here is not usually a problem. As well, most of the time, the airports in the west of the country are good weather. The problem is with the East and Central parts of the country. It’s somewhat similar to the Rocky mountains, but in reverse since we are in the southern hemisphere. All the moist air comes in from the east here and hits the mountains that run north-south nearly the whole length of the country. That generally makes for a lot of low clouds, mist, and rain during the winter months. It makes a nice rain forest, but it can be a pain for flying. Running down the centre of Madagascar is what’s called the high plateau. It is pretty much what the name implies. In the winter, it gets fairly cold. This can cause a lot of fog on the high plateau. Particularly in the eastern sections. ‘Tana sits about in the middle of the high plateau and is often right on the edge of the bad weather. I’ve flown into ‘Tana a number of times when the weather to the west of airport was fine and just to the east you could see the low bands of clouds and mist starting.

So that gives you a little idea of winter. I don’t have very much experience here in the summer, but I’ll try to give you a general idea of the differences. The fog and low clouds are not as big of a problem in the summer. In the summer, it’s the thunderstorms that one needs to watch out for. Since they seem to come around in fairly large numbers nearly every afternoon, we have a general policy of trying to be done flying by 3:00 P.M. during the summer. The thunderstorms often start soon after that. The biggest difference that I’ve noticed between thunderstorms here and in Northwestern Ontario is that in Northwestern Ontario you can usually find a way to get around the storms or wait for them to pass. Here they seem to be able to stay in one place for hours at a time and they don’t dissipate until well into the night. This can be a bit of a problem if one of them is sitting over where you want to go.

Well, I hope this gives you a little feel for what the flying is like here.

Hello everyone,

I have a few minutes this afternoon to write a bit, now I just need to think of what to say! J It’s a beautiful day today, and it’s actually warm out in the sun. In our house it’s still pretty chilly. Today Caitlyn and I had a “date” for lunch, and we found the van to be very hot! (Sidenote about the date: Matthew took turns taking the girls out for lunch a couple weeks ago, and so I decided that I could use some fun like that, too! J)

Last Thursday was Marjan’s birthday, so we joined her and 2 other couples and went out for dinner. The girls thought it was great to be included with the big people, and actually they behaved pretty well at the restaurant. We all came back here afterwards and had birthday cake and coffee.

Saturday Marjan and I went back to the market I mentioned a few weeks ago. We had fun looking at all of the stuff and both bought some fruits and vegetables. I also bought 3 rose bushes. (For about $1.25 Cdn!) Caitlyn spent that afternoon with Marjan and the other 3 were napping, so Matthew and I got some time alone to talk…that was nice! Then in the evening Marjan and John & Kristina came over for pizza and Empire Builders and Settlers.

Sunday morning I taught Sunday School and we had a good time. There were 9 kids, and mine were the only ones who don’t know Malagasy! J Good thing I had an interpreter again.

I’m sure it wouldn’t surprise you to know that you can’t buy tortillas here, right? So far, when we want to eat tacos, I’ve been making cornmeal soft taco shells. They’re pretty messy for the kids, though. Well, can you believe that there is a Malagasy lady who knows how to make flour tortillas, and through a series of events, is at my house this afternoon, making me some flour tortillas? J Right now, this is her only source of employment, so I was happy to help out, and I’m also looking forward to having burritos for supper! J

Matthew has had some interesting stories from his flying lately, so hopefully he will fill you in on that soon. Let me just say that we have no doubt that God is working in people here in Madagascar! Please keep praying for the government here to give MAF a decision about their status here in Madagascar, so that MAF can keep on being used to help the “frontline” people working here. Their own deadline has come and gone with no decision.

It seems that I’m out of news for now! Thanks for reading…feel free to sign the guestbook here on our site. We love to know that you’ve been here!

Today is the “deadline” for MAF-Madagascar to hear from the government about what status MAF will have here, and what kind of flying will be allowed. We are not holding our breath, because yesterday they were just organizing the meeting to discuss it! Please keep praying for a resolution to this problem, because MAF is not able to help a lot of organizations that they would like to because of these restrictions. Also, it means the plane is not being used as much as it could be, and that is frustrating especially for the pilots! Today Matthew is gone on a flight to Mahajunga and Besalampy with a Wycliffe team that is working on the Jesus film and also translating the book of Luke.

We are all doing fine, and the girls seem to have a great amount of energy these days! Too bad that Matthew and I can’t say the same! J We (the girls and I) have been spending the last few days in the house, since we had rain all day yesterday. That was unexpected, since this is called the dry season! It rained pretty steadily for about 9-10 hours, so everything looks nice and clean and green this morning.

Last week we had guests for dinner 3 nights. We were in the mood to socialize, I guess! It was fun, even though the power invariably goes out during the evening. We’re getting used to eating by candlelight! J (Can you believe we only played Settlers one time?)

Saturday we stayed home all day. We spent about equal time being industrious and lazy…a pretty good way to spend a Saturday, I think. Caitlyn went with Marjan to the croc farm for lunch and the afternoon, which of course was an event that will not quickly be forgotten! They had a great time, and Caitlyn was especially excited about having been able to take some pictures with Marjan’s camera. They got back just in time for a pizza supper, then the “big people” played Settlers after the kids went to bed.

Sunday we went to church and then spent a quiet afternoon here. For some reason, I really felt so grateful for our church on Sunday morning. I think because I’m starting to feel at home there, and feel like more than a visitor. I’m going to teach the toddler/preschooler Sunday School this coming Sunday and I look forward to that. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt settled enough to offer to do stuff like that. (Of course it helps that all 3 of mine are in that class!)

This week our power has been so bad, and then we discovered that sometimes it was just our house! Now Matthew and some of his co-workers have figured out that if we just talk to the guards at the gate of our compound, they can do something that gives us power again! It still is going off quite often for everyone.

Oh yeah, we’ve passed our 6 month “anniversary” of being here in Madagascar! Time is flying. (I didn’t use the word flying because of why we’re here, and it’s a little ironic to use that word, since the reason time is flying certainly isn’t because Matthew is overly busy with flying his airplane. Got all that?)

Well, I think I’m out of news for now. Thanks again for your interest in what we’re doing!

Hello everyone! Hope you’ve all had a good weekend. We did. Saturday was busy and fun, and Sunday was relaxing and fun. Works for me!

Last week Matthew did a bunch of flying, and had some interesting flights. Two or three were for a lady from Christian Blind Mission who came from South Africa to check on some of their projects here. A few more were for an ophthalmologist from the hospital in Mandritsara. She went to another town to do consultations and then Matthew flew her and her team back to Mandritsara, along with people who needed eye surgeries. Coincidentally, this Dr is the sister of the deputy flight ops manager and dispatcher here at MAF!

The kids are doing pretty well. Larissa is a little cranky the last while, but maybe more teeth are giving her trouble. She has one on the top now, bringing the total to 3. Aimee and Sierra are continuing to make progress with leaving the diapers behind. Some days are very encouraging, and some days are a little less encouraging. J Tuesday night Matthew was gone overnight and Sierra was having a little crisis about him not eating supper with us. She was crying and I asked what was wrong. She said, “I need my big daddy for supper!” The next day she was also asking for her “big daddy”, and it was really hard to keep from laughing! I guess it’s been awhile since he’s done any overnights and she forgot what it’s like. Aimee’s funny comment for the week was after I was telling her that when she’s grown-up she will be able to build fires. She said, “When I turn big, I will touch wood and fire will come out!”  Caitlyn is missing school, I think. I’ve been trying to help her find creative things to do around here, and in the process we sort of have ended up doing some schoolish things, too. In the last 2 days there has been quite a lot of glue and scissor use – that keeps her happy for ages.

It’s still cold here. Last week one day the “firewood man” came to see how we were doing and if he could sell us more firewood. I was reluctant to buy wood when Matthew wasn’t here. First, because I’m not a good judge of firewood, and second, I couldn’t remember how much he had paid before and I was feeling like getting ripped off was a good possibility. I tried to say that he needed to come back when Matthew was here, but he insisted it had to be that morning. Mme. Pauline was helping me talk to him (he speaks a little French, but it’s pretty bad…she speaks to him in Malagasy, translates to me in French, I reply in passable French, she translates back to Malagasy and adds her opinions…a time consuming process, to say the least). So, I asked her if she thought he was asking for too much money and she said yes. I told her to tell him that if he had to bring it that day, then he had to drop the price. She argued with him for awhile, and in the end, I paid 30,000 ariary less than Matthew had paid before! It’s great to have help in bargaining. J (For instance, the last time I bought flowers to plant in my planters by the front door, I was on my own. After I paid the guy and he walked away, I started doing the math a little more carefully…oooops…I got 9 little bundles of plants, and I paid him about what I pay Mr. Frank in 2 days! Will I ever learn?)  Oh yeah, the firewood turned out to be nice and dry! J

Saturday morning I had the experience of going to the “real” market. It was fun, and I’m sure I’ll go back often. (Well, when I have time…it’s not a quick trip!) There is just about anything you can think of there. Shoes, clothes (used and new), household items, electronics (that looked to be of doubtful quality), fruits and vegetables, meat, fabric, etc. I’m sure I’m forgetting a lot. I ended up not buying anything…don’t know why, though!

Saturday noon my hubby took me out for a lunch date! Isn’t that nice? Marjan babysat for us, which is great fun for the kids. We had a great time together, and the food was good, too. (You can really get good French food here…like my dessert: profiteroles au chocolat!!! Yum.)

Saturday late afternoon/evening we went to the Richardsons (the Peters family was there, too) and played Seafarers and ate Mexican food.

Sunday we stayed home all day! (A real day of rest! J) There is so much construction on the road going into town because apparently Jacques Chirac is coming to visit soon, so they are doing some massive road repairs to impress him. The rest of us are less than impressed since going into town (church, the big supermarkets, etc) now means hours in the van. L

Well, I think that about wraps things up for this week. Oh yeah, check out the new pictures on the home page – scroll down under our family picture. Have a good week and keep in touch!

Happy July 4^th to all of our American friends! J And of course, happy Canada Day to our fellow Canadians…just a few days late! We even celebrated Canada Day here, with our friends from British Columbia. We had a BBQ and played a game of Seafarers.

And, to anybody reading this from the extended Nisly family…I missed being with you all this past weekend! It was hard on me to miss this reunion – my first time to miss one EVER!! Hope you all had a great time, and I can’t wait to hear about it all…including what I’m sure was a memorable wedding! Congratulations to Uncle Wayne and Aunt Luella! (I bet there aren’t too many people who have inherited this much family when they got married! J)

Well, what have we been up to? Caitlyn’s school concert was Wednesday morning, and that was a hoot! She very willingly joined her class up front, and even sang and recited. However, she looked sooo nervous and suspicious the whole time, and wouldn’t help with any actions at all. The suspiciousness is what really cracked me up…she just looked like she couldn’t understand what the motive behind this sort of behavior must be. Then Friday was her last day of school, and I think she was a little sad about that. Saturday there was a little carnival at school to raise money for “improving the school”. There were some little games, cotton candy, snacks, and pop that could all be played or bought with tickets. This was a huge hit with her. The thing that really amused me was the game called “the Hamster Race”. It was a semi-circle made of bricks (2 bricks high) and inside the edge were little numbered compartments (about 14, I think). Each compartment had a few pieces of lettuce in it. Each person playing the game paid a ticket to choose a number and then when everyone was ready, a very confused little guinea pig was turned loose in the middle. (He had just spent the time since the last game under a basket, and it was a bright day, so I imagine that having that basket taken off was quite shocking!) He then wandered around the ring until he ate someone’s lettuce, or at least spent enough time by one piece of lettuce to imagine that he had eaten some. Caitlyn actually won that game! J All in all, it was a fun time, just on a pretty small scale!

We’ve had some beautiful weather lately, and it warms up to a nice temperature during the day. The nights are still pretty chilly, and we still make a fire or two in the fireplace every day. It seems that every night when I crawl into bed, I think fondly of flannel sheets and wonder why I didn’t bring any along. J

Aimee and Sierra are still in fine form, and even as I type this I hear them running and playing happily in the toy room. The problem is that it’s naptime…I’ll be back soon.

The girls have been playing outside quite a bit again lately, and the sandbox is popular again. Caitlyn rides her bike about 5 days a week, and is getting a little bit braver. Aimee and Sierra like to sit on her bike and find someone willing to push them around for awhile. I don’t think it will be too long till they try to pedal it themselves. They all 3 love when Matthew gives them rides on his motorbike when he gets home from work. The driveway in our compound is circular so he just goes around that a few times and they think it’s pretty great.

Matthew is flying more this week than he has for awhile. Today he is flying to Antsiribe for Christian Blind Mission. Tomorrow he will be gone overnight, but I can’t remember where he’s going. He’s happy to have some flights again. We’re still waiting to hear back from the government here about what the agreement for MAF’s flying here will be. The flying is so limited now, and it would be great to be able to do all that used to be done before the restrictions. The deadline for that decision is supposed to be the 20^th, so hopefully there will be a verdict soon.

We are still the only MAF international staff here, except for Marjan, who is here from MAF Europe to cover some of Jakob and Tina’s responsibilities while they are gone. It’s fun to get to know her, and our kids love her, too.

Have a great week, and remember, we like to see pictures of your families!

Hello everyone,

Well, Matthew was speedy and already wrote about why June 26 is significant! I certainly don’t mind having that happen – it’s good to have another perspective on here sometimes. It was fun to see the part of the celebrations that we did. The lanterns that he mentioned are kind of interesting. They are multi-colored paper globes, with candles inside! It seemed a little risky to us, but on Sunday night we got together with some friends and went for a little walk so the kids could have a chance to carry the lanterns. They had a great time, of course, and we even managed to avoid seeing any lanterns go up in flames. I think this was Aimee and Sierra’s first time to see fireworks, and they were suitably impressed. Maybe if we had been closer they wouldn’t have liked the noise, but as it was that sure wasn’t an issue! J The traffic was absolutely nuts, so it was nice that our kids didn’t need to be up close to the fireworks to enjoy them. One nice by-product of the holiday was that we had more reliable power for the weekend! That was nice, except for the fact that someone somewhere not too far away, played loud music from about 8:00 Saturday night until about 4:00 Sunday morning! J

Several weeks ago I mentioned that I really was ready for Larissa to start sleeping through the night. Well, she does now! We moved Caitlyn out of their room for a few nights, expecting that we would have several brutal nights of listening to her cry. I’m happy to say it was very easy, and now she sleeps from about 7:30 or 8 till 6 or 6:30 the next morning. She is, kind of unfortunately, a real honest-to-goodness morning person. This morning she was in our bed at about 6:20, jabbering away! In other news, she has just started trying to stand by herself, and can usually manage for about 5-10 seconds. Caitlyn is very excited about this, since she has been trying to get her to do that for weeks.

Aimee and Sierra are progressing with potty training quite nicely, although Aimee is less dedicated to the whole idea. J But, she’s not going to school in diapers yet, so there’s still hope.

Caitlyn is in her last week of school before the “summer” holidays. She has all of July and August off. Tomorrow morning she will participate in her first ever school concert. J My video camera is standing by.

Well, I should go run some errands. It’s always nice to get out of this cold house and into the sun a little! Yesterday it actually got hot in the van! (So different than Canada, eh? Who would want to run errands to get warm in January? J)

Have a good week, and feel free to try out your “What I Did This Summer” essays on us.

P.S. Dad was the only one who answered my trivia question last week, but unfortunately he didn’t read the fine print which clearly states that the sizeable cash prize must be collected in person on 1 July 2005. If not collected on the aforementioned day, it will be forfeited and becomes null and void, not to mention commencing ceasing and desisting, yea, even unto expiring.

Last Thursday I was able to do a trip for a group that’s affiliated with the Vision Valley church, which is the church we attend. The church is a mission church started by a group from South Africa. One of the things our church is doing is pairing up Malagasy churches with established churches in South Africa. The South African church then sends different teams here to give training and encouragement to the Malagasy church. The training is usually a mix of things practical and spiritual. From what I’ve seen, it seems to be a good program. So far they have concentrated on ‘Tana and places that are easily road accessible. However, in talking with our pastor, he said they are looking to start getting into some different places. We talked very briefly about a month ago about how we (MAF and Vision Valley church) might be able to work together in this. I’m not sure what will come of it, but I’m hoping that we will be able to do more for this program in the future.

Hello one and all,

I really don’t have much to say, but old habits die hard! J We are all doing fine and life is mostly “normal” or something like it. Matthew’s been a little busier at work, since he’s the only full-time international staff member here right now! He also flew up to Ambilobe on Thursday and then yesterday he flew to Mandritsara and on to Ambilobe to pick up the same people again.

For ages Caitlyn has been asking me to bring popcorn to her class, so on Friday I finally got it done. I made Cinnamon Crunch Popcorn (I told you…we really like it!) and took it in for their snack. When I came to pick up Caitlyn for lunch, the teacher told me she’s never seen her kids act like they were when they ate it! What’s more, they all applauded when I came in, said “Merci, Madame!” in unison, and presented me with a picture that one of the girls had drawn and all of them had signed! It really cracked me up! (New readers may refer back to my entry on April 23^rd to see the recipe…)

Friday night we had the Richardsons over for supper and a Seafarers game. Of course we had a good time, in spite of the normal power cut.

Power cuts…well, it’s settled down to a sort of predictable schedule, which is nice. It’s usually off from about 4:30 or 5:00 AM to 8:00 AM, and then it’s off again for about an hour or so in the evening. Once in awhile it’s off twice in the evenings, but not very often. So, we can live with that, it’s just a little annoying in the evening when we’re trying to get the kids ready for bed or have an evening with friends.

Caitlyn wants me to write “Tom and Jerry”. Her first blog entry, I guess. J

We had an offer for babysitting for this evening, so we are going to go out for dinner! It works out alright because restaurants around here open about the same time our kids are ready for bed. J Well, Caitlyn will probably get to stay up a little later. This is only the second time we have had a date (on our own) since we’re here…we did go out with the MAF staff once, but that’s not quite the same.

Well, it’s now Thursday, and I started this on Tuesday….sorry that all the news will be stale by the time this is posted. It really would be nice to have internet connection here at the house. I would have let Matthew take this and post it this morning, but I forgot. Now he’s gone all day because he has a trip right after lunch. So, the earliest that it will be taken to the hangar is tomorrow morning. Ah well, I guess I shouldn’t complain about a delay of a few days…at least we don’t have to rely on the postal service! J

Here’s a question for you all: Do you know (or can you guess) why June 26 is significant to the people of Madagascar? You can send me your guesses, and I’ll answer next week, after I see it for myself! J (What this really is: a plot for how to get more e-mail…J)

Hi everyone, I was told last week, by someone who shall remain unnamed, that I should write more about what I’m doing. One thing that’s for sure is that things haven’t been quite like I expected them to be. I guess that’s life. I actually haven’t done that much flying since we got here. We are in the middle of applying for a license that should allow us much more freedom in how we operate. We have been very limited since last October as to what we are allowed to do. We are only allowed to fly churches and missions and because of some other restrictions, we are quite limited in what local groups we can work with. Because of this, most of my flights have been for the larger mission organizations such as Wycliffe and the Gideons. We are supposed to have a resolution to the license application by about the middle of July.

All that has meant more time for me in the office. In some ways this has been a good thing. Since I arrived here, we have gone through the process of updating all of our manuals. This was a major job that involved many people. I’ve also been designated as flight operations manager, crew training manager and safety officer for flight operations. A lot of my time has been spent trying to figure out what’s required of me in these different roles. Just like any other position, there are things that I like and things that I don’t. One of the things that I enjoy is helping the dispatcher organize flights. It is good for me in that it helps me learn where places are. As well, it’s sometimes a challenge to try to make the flights work together as well as possible and benefit the most people.

Another project that I’ve been involved in is the purchase of a mini-excavator for the program. One of the big projects that we are doing is trying to open up new parts of the country by helping villages build airstrips. The mini-excavator will be a big help in this. It’s small enough to be flown in the Caravan to the nearest airstrip and can be taken from there to the new airstrip by helicopter. We are in the process of ordering the machine now and it should be here by the end of the year.

That’s a bit of my life.

I’m going to keep this short this week. To be honest, I’m feeling a little burnt out and “idealess” when it comes to writing these updates. So for a few weeks I’m going to just update as I feel like it, and maybe that means you will notice a change, or maybe you won’t. We’ll see. To those of you who are faithful readers, don’t panic. I’ll be back. I just need a break.

This morning Matthew and I taught the preschool Sunday School class…that means that all of our kids were in it. It was kind of fun, and I even had an interpreter! That adds a new twist to teaching 11 wiggly kids. Actually, they did well.

What else have we been doing? Friday night Caitlyn went to a babysitting evening put on by 2 teenagers who are trying to raise money for a trip to a wedding (in Europe?). A bunch of Caitlyn’s friends were there, so she had a good time. Larissa and I went to a Ladies’ Movie Night at the Richardsons. (Her husband’s out of town.) Matthew, Aimee and Sierra stayed here and 2 guys came over to play Empire Builder with Matthew. Big social night, eh? J

It’s cold. We are making fires quite often now that we have firewood. Some of you will be properly alarmed when you hear that I’m once again on the loose with a hatchet, matches, and my fire-building pride. J So far, no new scars to report. Just a lot of really frustrating fire building sessions, because the wood is damp. (okay, wet) We did break down today and bought some fire starter blocks made of who-knows-what. They work. J

Well, I think that’s it. Matthew’s got an update in progress, so you may hear from him soon! Have a great week everyone.

Hello from Madagascar! It’s a beautiful clear, cool Sunday morning, and I’m enjoying the peace and quiet. Matthew took the 3 oldest to church, and I am here with Larissa because she has a fever. Poor kid is very unhappy, and not acting like herself. I don’t know if it’s teeth or not, but it isn’t fun.

Well, just as I write “peace and quiet”, Larissa is waking up and not sounding any happier than when she went to bed. So, I’ll be back later!

Tuesday afternoon now – certainly later than I intended when I wrote that I would be back later! Larissa has had a fever until this morning, so needless to say, I haven’t been getting a lot done. I ended up spending a lot of yesterday morning taking her to the Dr, because I was a little afraid that she could have picked up malaria when we were in Nosy Be. According to the Dr, she probably has the flu. I’m not sure about that, but I do feel more confident that it’s not malaria. She’s getting into things again, and eating normally, and pulling her sisters’ hair…so I think she’s on the mend.

So, what did we do last week? Matthew went back to work on Wednesday, and Caitlyn went back to school. Matthew was quite busy at work with a lot of meetings. MAF Europe is sending a lady to help out with administration here while our program manager is away on furlough, and so she came for a visit last week to learn about MAF Madagascar. Thursday night she was here for dinner and we all enjoyed getting to know her, and look forward to having her here for a few months. (She’ll be here most of July and August.)

Friday night we actually got a babysitter and went out for dinner with the MAF staff. There has been a Swiss volunteer here, and he left yesterday, so this was a farewell dinner for him. It was fun to go out without the kids, although it makes a late night! (We didn’t leave the house till 7:30, and restaurants here do not equate speedy service with good service.)

Saturday noon we went to another birthday party, this time for a one-year-old. Of course, I’m sure the rest of us had as much or more fun than she did! She is the daughter of the Canadian couple with Helimission.

Oh my, how could I forget…Saturday morning Caitlyn and Matthew went shopping and got her a new bike! This is her first bike, and she thinks it’s all pretty great. So far she’s doing pretty good. The funniest thing is that our driveway has a knack of getting her hung up on her training wheels, and about half the time she just sits there happily pedaling away – going nowhere!

Sunday morning Matthew took the 3 oldest and went to church. In the afternoon he went with some friends to watch a rugby game that one of them was playing in. In the evening, I went to SEF by myself. It was an encouraging time, since several people reported about work they have been involved in here. There are several exciting things happening on the island. One was the story of a couple who were the only Christians in their village, and really have taken a stand for the Lord – even changing their names so that they have no more connection to the past (involving a witch doctor). Another story was about people who walked for 2 days to find someone to come and teach them about God. Please pray that the people who are doing the “frontline” stuff like this will be strengthened and helped in their work. Pray too, that MAF will be able to keep on helping make this kind of work possible for other missions.

Tomorrow Jakob leaves for furlough, but instead of going to Germany the “normal” way, he will be taking the Viator since it needs to be flown to Germany to the person who has bought it from MAF. If I have the facts straight, he will fly over 15 countries in 4 days to do this flight. A MAF pilot/engineer who used to live here (and knows the airplane) has come to fly with him. Please pray for their flight…for safety and for favor with all 15 countries!

Well, we have company coming for dinner tonight, so I should keep moving. That reminds me of one more bit of information. Our electricity is really bad these days. We are having about 3-4 cuts a day, and they last from 20-90 minutes. It’s getting really annoying, but I know it could be worse! We are going through batteries and candles like crazy!

Thanks again to all of you who write e-mails. It’s encouraging!

Here I am again. Last night I decided that I want to tell you about my flower buying experience on the way home from the lake. On our way up on Friday I noticed about 4 or 5 different little stands selling potted plants, and told Matthew I’d like to stop on our way home. (I’m working on getting flower beds filled in around the back yard.) So, yesterday we stopped at one, and I bought 2 plants from a guy. Nothing there really made an impression on me, except that I wondered if he would have any other customers that day. It’s kind of sobering to realize that you might provide someone’s income for the day by buying 2 plants from them.

We went on, and soon we came to another “stand” that seemed to have different plants so I wanted to see what they had. There was a little shack that seemed to be someone’s house a little ways back from the road, and the plants were all right by the road. When we stopped a very pregnant lady came out to talk to me, and poverty slapped me in the face. She couldn’t have been more than 16 or 17, I guessed. Her clothes were too small, too dirty and old, and almost certainly not warm enough. She had nothing on her feet. As I struggled to concentrate on plants and prices, it was hard not to stare. She was almost desperate as she talked about the plants, waiting for me to agree to buy something, and I could only think about being pregnant in those circumstances. As we talked, four little kids came up carrying water. They were about 7, 5, 4 and 2, (are they her children? her siblings?) and they were carrying water in the kind of containers that motor oil or antifreeze comes in. Could that be their drinking water? They were dirty, crusty, stinky….and cute. They smiled at me and so politely, said, “Bonjour, Madame.” As soon as I chose the 4 plants I wanted, the 3 biggest ones each picked up a plant and carried it to the van for me. The lady grabbed the 4^th one, and I went to get my purse. As I realized how much I owed her for the plants, it occurred to me that I was paying about $10 Cdn for 3 flowering shrubs and a small tree. What a bargain. Some things are so cheap here. Another slap in the face to realize that she is probably going to make this money last for a week. A lot of people around here do that. Suddenly I felt sick. And wealthy. And then I leaned down to take the plants, and my eyes met the serious gaze of the smallest child. Oh Lord, why is life so unfair? My healthy, well-fed and well-dressed kids and husband were waiting, so I thanked them and left. I could only cry as we drove away, and pray that my money would help them.

I am telling you this story as a way of helping me process my feelings, and to ask you to pray for the people here. Also pray for us that we would use our resources wisely to help when we can. Obviously it’s impossible to help every needy person we see, but I pray that God will help us to see where we can make a difference.

Hello, here we are, it’s Monday again!

We just got back from our weekend at the lake a few hours ago. I think things are pretty well unpacked and put away, and we’re just taking it easy for awhile. I’ll write more about the weekend in a bit.

Last \week was pretty normal. Normal, but kind of busy. We were getting ready to go away for the weekend, and that is rather a lot of work. On Wednesday afternoon, Caitlyn and I went to a birthday party for a little girl that Caitlyn had met once or twice before. (Her parents are Assemblies of God missionaries, and have 4 girls, too. Their girls are 12, 8, 6 and 4, though.) There were other kids there that she knows, but the whole thing was pretty overwhelming to her. The loot bags, party hat, and horn-thing-that-you-blow-in-and-the-paper-thing-unrolls (do those things have a name?) were a big hit. I don’t think she’s been to a party before where she got all of that. Fun stuff. Then Thursday night we were invited out to dinner with another Assemblies of God mission family. They have a 12 yr old and a 9 yr old. We had a good time with them, and enjoyed hearing their “how we got to Madagascar” story.

Friday morning was the start of our little holiday! We spent the morning gathering up all the odds and ends that we require when leaving the house for more than 24 hours, and actually left at about 1:30. I’ll spare you all the details of the traffic jam that we ended up in, and just say that we had a much nicer drive after we got out of Tana. We drove on a paved road for about an hour, and then we left that for a dirt/gravel/odd stretch of pavement/lots of bumps and holes/where’s my chiropractor kind of road. Now, I bet you never guessed that Madagascar had a “cottage country”, did you? We drove through the normal rice paddies and little villages, but we also drove through honest-to-goodness bush! It was beautiful! I’ll ‘fess up and tell you that it was so much like home that when we came around a corner and saw the first bit of real lake…I cried! It was so nice to see a blue lake! And there really are cottages and hotels up there. It’s quite nice. So, we had arranged to stay at a camp run by Scripture Union. The camp is on the side of a hill that ends up in the lake, and there are lots of trees. It reminded me of Stormer Lake in some ways. (Well, I don’t remember seeing any cows grazing down by the lake, or geese and chickens coming by my cabin at Stormer!)

We had a little 2 bedroom cabin, with a teeny tiny kitchen and a small living/dining area. It was nothing fancy, but it was clean and it was kind of fun to be all jammed together in a little house instead of all rattling around a big one like we usually do. J We got there just in time to unload before it got dark. Sierra was following the dogs and chickens around before we even got everything inside! She loved it.

I won’t give a play-by-play report of the whole weekend, but it was all very relaxing in spite of some “inconveniences” like no hot water and only one burner to cook on. We went for walks, played on the playground stuff (playgrounds are Very Rare in Madagascar…), watched movies, read books, colored pictures, chased the dogs (the kids, at least), ate and napped. It was nice. We had good weather except for Saturday morning when it was misty and foggy, but even then we went for a walk and it was okay.

Jakob and Tina (our program managers) were also up at the lake, in a different place, so we drove over to see them on Saturday afternoon and spent a few hours there. They rent a house up there with a few other families, and take turns using it. Their yard goes right down to the (really gravelly) beach, so the girls had a lot of fun throwing stones in the lake. (You have no idea…they did that for at least 45 minutes, and we still had to drag them away!)

This morning we left about 10:30, and here we are!

I wrote this in kind of a hurry so if I think of more, I’ll add it in a few days.

Hope you all have a good week.

(May 24 - I wrote this yesterday, but the internet was down...sorry for the delay!)

Hello everyone,

Take it for granted that every Monday I want to spend the first paragraph of this update exclaiming about how the week has flown by. Now that you know that, we can save some time every week! J

So, what have we been up to? Normal stuff, I guess! Matthew goes to work, Caitlyn goes to school, and I try to keep up with everyone’s activity and appetite. (At what stage will I accept the fact that we are going through huge amounts of food at every meal? I actually miss having leftovers to serve for lunch the next day!)

On Thursday afternoon, the 3 oldest girls were invited to their friend Ben’s 3^rd birthday party. I had to wake Aimee and Sierra up from their naps to get them ready to go, and so that was a bad start right there. J Each of them had 2 time-outs while we were getting ready, and Caitlyn had one and was one move away from another one. Right as we were getting ready to go out the door, I put Aimee in the guest bedroom (by the way, in daily conversation, we still call that room “Auntie Kim’s room”…it will probably be a long time till it’s called something else!) for another time-out. I was busy helping Sierra and Caitlyn with their shoes and I heard Aimee saying, “I play diaper cream!” Oh man…she was coated in Penaten diaper cream. I confess I didn’t see any humor in the situation at that point, and immediately sentenced her to missing the party. Lucky Matthew got to stay here with her and give her a bath. Caitlyn, Sierra and I went and had a good time, although we had to wait 30 minutes (I am not exaggerating) while Sierra ate her cake -  enjoying every, single, little, tiny crumb. It was the most thorough cake eating experience I’ve ever observed!

Friday night we all went to a picnic/birthday party for Jakob, the MAF-Madagascar program manager. There must have been about 50-60 people there, so we saw a lot of people and had a lot of fun. There was a big bonfire, and we were introduced to a European (German?) campfire treat called stickbread. There were several large bowls of bread dough, and the idea was to take a snaky piece of dough and wrap it around a stick and then roast it. It was the kind of thing that was really hard not to get black on the outside and raw in the middle, but still pretty tasty. (Reminded us of bannock a little bit.)

Matthew flew a bit last week, but I confess that I can’t remember what all he did! Today he is flying up to Mandritsara and then on to Sambava, where he will spend the night. Tomorrow morning there are two trips for him to do moving people from Sambava to somewhere…maybe Diego? (Last week I mentioned Diego, and then said that you could find it on the Encarta map…well, it’s called Antseranana on that map. I think Diego is sort of an outdated name.) He’ll be back here tomorrow afternoon.

Larissa was 8 months old on Saturday, and she is now walking around furniture. I realized again the other day that she really does not know any other life than this, when she wouldn’t wave bye-bye when I said “bye-bye”. However, when I said “Velooma”, the Malagasy word for good-bye, she got a big grin and waved like crazy! Most of the people that she says good-bye to are Malagasy, so I guess that’s what she knows! She also has learned to play peek-a-boo, and to clap when we say the pat-a-cake rhyme. I love this stage!

I do have one prayer request about Larissa and I, though. She is eight months old, and still wants to get up two times every night to eat! That is getting so old, but I’m not sure how to break the habit. Please pray that either God will just help her to sleep all night, or else that He would give me wisdom to know what to do about it! Thanks.

Oh yeah, I’m willing to talk about potty training this week! J Sierra is wearing underwear about 80% of the time, and although I still have to ask her if she has to go, she’s giving me very accurate answers! There is hope, after all! Now, Aimee’s another story, but she is starting to come running when Sierra is going, and asks to go, too. I hope that’s a positive use for peer pressure. J By the way, thanks to everyone who wrote and encouraged me to keep trying! I needed that.

Well, I think I’m about out of news. My feet are freezing, if that’s interesting to anyone. J

I also wanted to mention that we love to hear about your daily lives, as well! What are your kids doing? What kind of plans do you have for the summer? What prayer requests do you have? What’s the last thing that made you laugh till you cried?

Have a good week!

Good morning everyone! We are back from our weekend trip, and it’s time to update this page. I might quit doing this soon, because it makes the time go by too quickly! Mondays just keep coming around so fast. Alright, I’m just kidding. I must say though, that I do this as much for myself as for all of you, because I don’t keep any other journal of our activities. Knowing you like to read it is good motivation to take the time to keep track of what we do.

So, last week wasn’t too unusual. Matthew was supposed to come back from South Africa on Tuesday, but didn’t until Wednesday because of some delay in the repair. It is so great to have him back. My desire is to enjoy the times he’s here, and not always be dreading when he leaves again! Unfortunately, our digital camera was either stolen or misplaced the night he got back from South Africa! Big bummer, but a good reminder that it’s just a temporary thing. Speaking of things, the girls and I are always interested to see what he brings back. The highlight for the girls this time around is fuzzy pink slippers for each of them! They are a useful gift, since our floors are now quite chilly, and I often can feel a cool breeze coming in under the doors!

On Thursday I had my first French lesson with the lady who runs Caitlyn’s school. Matthew’s been going twice a week, and now that I decided I’m ready to fit that into my week, we’re each going to go once a week. It reminded me that I do want to keep learning more French and not just struggling along with what I have!

Friday night the girls had a hard time getting to sleep…they were so excited about going with Matthew on Saturday! We left the house at about 8:40, but I don’t think we took off till about 10. We had a flight of about 90 minutes up to Mandritsara, where we dropped off 2 passengers and some freight for the hospital there. On that flight, I discovered that Aimee does not enjoy flying. I was trying to distract her by looking out of the window and pointing out houses, roads, animals, etc. Then I discovered that she doesn’t like heights, either! She kept saying, “Take the a-plane down!” in a panicky little voice! Poor kid, I must say I have sympathy for her. (If humans were meant to fly, don’t you think God would have given us wings? Just kidding…and please don’t think that I don’t support Matthew’s interest in flying! I just don’t enjoy it myself.) Finally we just prayed, sang, and focused on things inside the airplane, and when she forgot how high we were, she was fine. Sierra and Caitlyn thought it was great, except for a few times their ears hurt a little bit. Larissa slept a lot! When Aimee saw that we were not staying in Mandritsara, she told me that she was staying there if we were going up in the air again!

Okay, after we left Mandritsara (if that name sounds familiar, that’s where the plane was when the Air Mad plane ran into it!) we had a 50 minute flight to Sambava. There we picked up 4 Wycliffe people, and took them to Ambilobe, about 45 minutes away. Caitlyn was sitting with them, and I think she talked non-stop the whole flight. They were very kind to her, and she was sorry to see them go. After Ambilobe, we were headed for the beach! J We had a short flight to Nosy Be, maybe about 25 minutes. Ah, the ocean was blue and the island is green, and the beaches were everywhere….what beautiful scenery to fly over!

We were met at the airport by a lady from the hotel, and we loaded up into a taxi for a 30 minute drive to the hotel. The island of Nosy Be is beautiful. It’s all so green and then occasionally we could see bits of the ocean between the mountains. We passed sugar cane fields and groves of short trees that we were told are grown for their flowers to make perfume. On the way, Matthew was asking the girls if they liked the flying, and Aimee just said, “We came down!”

When we arrived at the hotel, we were taken into a lobby…without walls! We were surrounded by tropical plants and flowers, and I could hear the ocean. While Matthew checked in, we all were given glasses of orange juice! We were shown our “villa” which was down a path through all the trees and past other rooms and villas. There were a few things which made us remember we weren’t in a perfect place! J It was hot! And, the power was out! So, we’re used to power outages, right? Well, it was about 5:00, and they told us it would be on at 8. Okay. We had made sure to get a place with air conditioning, but as it was, we didn’t even have fans! Also, we had no water without the power! So we couldn’t shower, or even flush the toilet! The girls were eager to see the ocean, so we took a walk and waded in the warm Indian Ocean. It was beautiful…the moon and stars were coming out, and the breeze felt lovely. After we played for a little bit, we went back so that Larissa could nap before supper. (At hotels here, the meals are served between certain hours, and dinner usually begins at 7.) Poor baby couldn’t go to sleep because it was so hot in her room. There is a malaria risk there, so we didn’t want to have windows open at dusk. L We finally went to have our dinner in the dark. It was good food, but we couldn’t really see what we were eating very well! J I had some fresh fish, which was good.

Got the kids in bed, but they were so hot! It was also darker than they’re used to, because we only had candles for light, and we didn’t think leaving candles in their rooms was a real great idea! J Finally they went to sleep, but Matthew and I had a hard time going to sleep. I was just dozing off (about 10:00) and Matthew sat up and said the power was on! So we cranked on the A/C and the fans, and then we had a decent night. It was still plenty warm, so Matthew thought he would take a shower. Well, we still didn’t have water! We never did get any water! Before breakfast the next morning, Matthew went to talk to the hotel people about it all, and they said the power would be going off at 8:00 AM and staying off all day! They were understanding, and helped us look for a different place to stay. To make a long story short, we ended up switching hotels after breakfast!

Before I go on to tell you about the “new” hotel, I want to say that Saturday night we were pretty discouraged, because we had planned to have a really relaxing family weekend. Not only that, but we had decided to splurge a bit on the accommodations to get the A/C. Before we went to sleep we just felt like nothing was going right, and that everything we had planned was just not working out. We prayed about it, and again, to make a long story short, I felt like God wanted us to have the gift of a nice weekend with our kids, and Satan wanted to steal that from us. We prayed against that, and asked God to protect and honor our desire to have fun with the kids, and to be refreshed. So, with that background…

Everything that was nice about hotel #1 was great at hotel #2! (well, okay, their beach wasn’t as nice…) We got nice rooms that had balconies overlooking the beautiful gardens and beyond that was the ocean. We had showers and toilets that worked, not to mention the air conditioning. There were nice pools,  including a shallow wading pool for the kids. There were so many flowering trees and shrubs that the air just smelled sweet. Oh yeah, they gave us juice when we arrived, too…and it was colder and more delicious! You probably think I was just imagining it all being better, but I think God was giving us a good gift, and when he wants to do something good, it’s really good!

Sunday was just a fun day. Matthew ended up being able to stay there all day, and we played all day. We played in the pool for awhile, and then when Larissa needed a nap Caitlyn and I took her back to our room. Matthew took Aimee and Sierra and went for lunch. When they came back for naps, Caitlyn and I had our turn to go get lunch. I had the same kind of fish I had eaten the night before, but it was done differently. We had a nice leisurely time, and the highlight for Caitlyn was the strawberry ice cream! Caitlyn had a nap too, and Matthew and I sat out on the balcony just soaking up the beauty of Nosy Be.

When the kids woke up, we went down to the beach and collected seashells, built a sand castle and waded in the ocean. We all had fun, but Aimee and Sierra especially just played hard. Larissa probably liked it least of all…maybe eating sand isn’t all she hoped it would be! J Caitlyn had waited all week to build a sand castle, so that was fun for her. She collected seashells to decorate the castle with.

After we walked back up to our rooms we had to put everyone right in the shower, since it seems we had brought back most of the beach with us! Dinner wasn’t going to be served for awhile, so we were just sitting around relaxing when…the power went out! Can you believe it? After it went off and on about 5 times, Matthew went to ask for some candles and find out what was going on. The city generators were out of fuel (!), and the hotel generators were being worked on. He was told that the power would be back on by 8:30. So, once again, we went to dinner in the dark! We had two choices for dinner so we ordered some of both and shared. One was fish that was wrapped up like a present in banana leaves. It was delicious! The other was a rice dish that had chicken and a few kinds of seafood in it, and it was a little spicy,  but pretty good. There was some musicians playing and they had some guys with them who were dancing with some of the songs. They were quite interesting to watch, and some of it reminded me of watching gymnastics. Caitlyn was a little taken aback when one of them did a flip towards our table! And…the power came back on, even before it was supposed to!

The next morning I think we were all awake by 6. Larissa and I went out on the balcony for awhile and enjoyed watching the birds and listening to the ocean. I could hardly get enough of the view from that balcony! Breakfast was a buffet of fresh fruits, rolls, croissants, crepes and cheese. Our kids definitely got their money’s worth! J It was all very delicious.

At every meal at hotel #2, we had freshly made juice. We all enjoyed it so much. I think we tried papaya, orange and pineapple. It can’t be compared to juice in a can or a box!

After breakfast, Matthew took the 3 oldest and went back to the pool. I put Larissa to bed, packed up our stuff, and then took my last chance to sit on that balcony! I could hear Matthew and the girls laughing and having fun in the pool, and see and smell the flowers and the ocean…what could be more relaxing?

We left the hotel about noon, and headed back to the airport. The 3 oldest kids slept all the way there! J They had played so hard! Matthew got the plane ready, and we took off for Ambilobe. There we picked up the Wycliffe team again, and headed for Diego, where we dropped them off. Caitlyn chatted with them the whole way, and as they left the plane she was making arrangements with them to come visit us at our house! J (Two of them do live in Tana.)

The next flight was Diego to Tana…two and a half hours! Wow, that seemed like a very long flight! I must also make a bad mommy confession. I hadn’t planned ahead very well for snacks or meals, and we ended up eating crackers, cookies and Larissa’s Cheerios (we had some pop and water, too) on the way back for our lunch! My poor kids were so hungry! (well, so were we) We didn’t land in Tana till about 5:30, so till the airplane was put away, and we loaded up all our kids and stuff, it was after 7:00 till we were eating supper!

Oh yeah, on the last flight Aimee got to wear a headset and talk to Matthew. That was a big boost to her opinion of daddy’s airplane! For awhile I had a headset too and we were all 3 talking.

Now we’re back to real life (that means cleaning up and catching up from a weekend of playing!), and winter in Tana. I can’t complain, because it still is nice and sunny outside, and I just bought a bunch of shrubs and flowers to plant in our backyard. But, I do have to tell you that the houses here cool off at night, and do not warm up very much during the day. It’s the opposite of Canada’s winter for the reason that here you dress warmly for inside, and when you go out you take off your sweatshirt! That takes some getting used to! I’m now writing this at 2:00, and I can see it’s sunny and warm outside, but in here I’m wearing my moccasins, track pants and a sweatshirt, and I’m still cold!

This next week Matthew has a few flights, but isn’t too busy because now that the MAF plane is repaired Jakob will help fly, too. There’s always plenty of other stuff for him to do, though.

This is a lot longer than I intended! If you skimmed over it or even skipped entire paragraphs, I’m not offended! As soon as I get pictures developed, I will try to scan some and put them on here. It will take a few days, though. (Another reason I’m already missing our digital camera!!!) Also, if you have Microsoft Encarta on your computer, the map of Madagascar shows most of the places we mention, if you are interested in seeing where they are.

I want to just close with a quote from my almost 4 year old niece, who was praying for Matthew.   "...and help Matthew to get a job and get something to do...and not just sit around all day". Do we have to tell her about the weekend? J

Have a great week, everyone!

Hello everyone,

Rhonda is in the process of writing a proper update that should be on the web by tomorrow at the latest. While you all wait for that, I thought I’d write a little about my flights to South Africa and back last week.

Obviously to get to South Africa from Madagascar, one must cross the Mozambique Channel. At the shortest point it’s about 400 miles across, but that would be a long ways out of the way. Where we went across it was 600 statute miles of open water.

We left Antananarivo at about 6:00 A.M. for a nearly five hour flight to Vilanculos, Mozambique. As soon as we left land, we had to call “‘tana information” every half hour on the HF radio. “Information” is kind of like “centre” except it’s in uncontrolled airspace and it’s for both IFR and VFR traffic. As well, numerous “informations” use the same HF frequency. We often hear aircraft contacting Bombay or Nairobi information. Anyway, back to the story at hand. There’s nothing quite like seeing the last bit of land disappear under you and the GPS saying that you still have 600 statute miles to go. We had prepared as well as we could. We had an inflatable life raft, life jackets and quite a bit of food and water. The problem is that if we had to ditch, it would probably be at least two days before anyone would be able to get to us. Thankfully, everything went fine.

Vilanculos is right on the Mozambique side of the channel. We landed there to get more fuel. I was quite impressed with their service. We didn’t have to clear customs since we only had crew on board so we were only on the ground for about twenty minutes or so. Next was the “short” flight to Lanseria, South Africa (just outside of Johannesburg). Only about three and a half hours. I was glad I had a guy from South Africa with me for that leg. There are a lot of frequencies for South Africa that are not on the charts. In a perfect world, one controller is just supposed to hand you over to the next and give you the right frequency. However, where we crossed from Mozambique into South Africa, we were to low (11,000) to make contact with our assigned frequency. I was glad that the other pilot was familiar with the area and new what frequency would most likely be in use.

I was on my own for the way home. The MAF South Africa guys were nice enough to help me figure out the best route out of Jo’burg’s airspace and get a flight plan filed. None of it was terribly difficult, it’s just different than what I’ve been used to.

The flight home was pretty uneventful other than having headwinds the whole way. I broke my personal record with a 5:08 leg. Our total time in the air was eight and a half hours with only one stop. That was a little hard for someone who’s used to doing 40 minute legs to Deer Lake and North Spirit.

One thing that I have to mention about my time in South Africa is that we (our mechanic and I) found a mall in Jo’burg that has a skating rink. Real ice and everything. Of course I left my skates at home, but they rent skates there. They were some of the worst skates I’ve ever used, but I still had a blast.

Bye for now,

Matthew

May 8, 2005

Hello to one and all…

This is Sunday morning, and I’m sitting here trying to remember what all I wanted to write to you! Matthew left early this morning…I think about 4:00, but I didn’t really check the time. This is the trip to take the leased plane back. I’ve been doing the flight following this morning, and they just landed in Mozambique to refuel. (I will confess it makes me quite happy to know they’re safely across the channel!) I think they are over halfway to Johannesburg now.

Friday and Saturday they went to Majunga with some people from the Presbyterian church. There was lots of time to kill, so they went to the beach and hung out with some MAF guys who were there to pick up some vehicles that had been shipped to the port there.

Thursday was a holiday here, so Matthew had the day off. It was a beautiful day and we spent the morning at the Croc Farm near here. It really is a croc farm, but they also have a little bit of a zoo with turtles, lemurs, lizards, frogs, snakes, donkeys, ostriches, and two little animals that I can’t remember the names of. (They are kind of weaselly things, native to Madagascar.) We had a really nice time there. Again, I just enjoyed watching the kids soak it all in. Sierra especially is fascinated with animals, and she loved it all. We ate lunch in the restaurant there, and Matthew ordered crocodile kebobs. I personally didn’t care for it, it was like a tough cross between chicken and fish.

Caitlyn’s holidays are done, so she’ll be back to school tomorrow. She’s looking forward to that. I think she’s been a little bored in just the last 3-4 days. I’m sure Aimee and Sierra will miss her, though.

This morning we didn’t go to church, since I’m just not brave or crazy enough to try that when Matthew’s gone. So, I was showing the girls a map and explaining where Matthew is today. (This was on our computer’s encyclopedia) After awhile we got started listening to bird and animal sounds that are featured in the encyclopedia, and then we branched out. I decided it was time to expose my kids to some different kinds of music, so we were listening to jazz, gospel, Irish jigs, etc. Then I saw Vivaldi’s Four Seasons…I love that. So, I started the clip, and after a few seconds I asked Caitlyn what she thought. She smiled, while nodding in time to the music, and said, “I like it a lot.” In the next two seconds I was congratulating myself on raising a kid with such good taste. Then she said, “It sounds like Tom and Jerry music!” Back to earth for the mom.

I refuse to discuss potty training this week.

In the past week I decided to buy some fruit that we’re not used to, and see if we like it. It turned out to be papayas and guavas…I would have tried them long ago, if I had recognized them. The guavas were not popular, except with me. I really like them. C, A and S would only eat the papaya mixed in something (like fruit salad), but Larissa and I made up for that. J Yum. (Sierra loves to say “papaya” and will work it into any conversation that she can.) My favorite breakfast here is coconut yogurt with some granola and fruit in it. So far the incredible pineapple here is my favorite, but the papaya was a close second. We’ve also been eating less exciting fruits like apples, oranges and bananas. I think mangoes were just finished when we got here in January, so I’m looking forward to that coming back around. There are still a few mysterious fruits that I’ve seen here and haven’t tried, but I want to ask a few questions about them before I spend money on them! (No, I’m not a big risk taker…)

Next weekend Matthew has a 2-night trip up to the Northern end of the island. It’s a trip for Wycliffe and they want to do some survey work in several places up there. The exciting part about this (for us, at least!) is that the girls and I get to go along! We will fly up on Saturday, dropping the Wycliffe people off somewhere between here and there. We have reservations at a hotel on the island of Nosy Be, and we will be able to hang out there till Monday. On Sunday Matthew will have to leave for a few hours to move them to a different town, and then we pick them up on our way back to Tana. I’m pretty excited about this as I haven’t been out of Tana since we got here in January! So, we need to dig out our bathing suits and malaria meds, and we’re good to go.

I’m right out of news…once again, if you have questions, please ask! Sometimes I feel clueless about what might be interesting to you all. Oh yeah, someone mentioned that we could maybe send out e-mail reminders to you all so you know when we update this page. I guess we’re going to pass on that idea…it sort of defeats the reason we set up the website. I really try to update it at least once a week, so just get a poster board and a bold black magic marker, and make a subtle reminder for yourself. J

Thanks for reading my ramblings and caring about what we’re doing. It amazes me that you do.

Rhonda

Hello all!

First of all…today is the seventh anniversary of me being married to my wonderful husband! He’s really great, if you didn’t know. There’s nothing like being in a life of adventure with the person you love best. So many times since we’ve been here I have thanked God for letting us do this as a team!

So, what did we do all last week? Caitlyn was home most of the week. Her school is running some morning activities during their holidays, so she went on Thursday morning. Each morning has a different theme…we chose Thursday because it was arts and crafts. She had a good time, of course. Part of her snack disappeared rather mysteriously, and we and the teacher concluded that it was stolen. For some reason Caitlyn is in complete denial about that. She becomes very indignant when we suggest that, and insists that it just got lost. J

I’ve narrowed down the potty training to Sierra. Even that’s a stretch. But, you don’t come here to read about potty training, so I’ll leave it at that.

Friday night we had 10 adults and 5 kids (plus the 6 of us) here for a late birthday party for Matthew. It was a great evening. We got pizza, and I had made some salads, and we were just getting started with it all when…the power went out! There were about 5 minutes of sheer chaos, and then we found candles and flashlights and things settled down to the proverbial dull roar. I had found a recipe for something called “Chocolate Lasagna” and thought it seemed like it would be an easy way to an impressive dessert. In hindsight, any recipe that asks you to split a 9x13 cake into thirds horizontally must be a bad idea. It did turn out to be a massive cake (I doubled the recipe and stacked it all up together), and it tasted good, but it wouldn’t win any prizes for it’s appearance. So, after we attacked that, we put the babies to bed, the kids in front of the TV, and settled down to play games. We had Seafarers and Empire Builders both going, and both Matthew and I thought it was the most fun we’ve had in about 3 months. J I think we both just enjoyed having friends to laugh with again. We didn’t get to bed till after 1:00. For us that is ridiculously late. It was funny…by the time the games were done, 2 of our bedrooms had people sleeping in them, and both the couch and loveseat had someone sleeping on them! J It was starting to feel like a slumber party!

Saturday Matthew had 2 trips, and so he was gone almost all day. I got to do the flight following, which means that they called me about every 30 minutes all day to report position, number of passengers, and other information. It was fun for me to be able to keep up with what they were doing, and also made it all seem more real. Matthew had taken the digital camera, too, so when he got home I was able to see where they had been and put it all together in my mind.

Sunday was the celebration of Vision Valley’s 5^th “birthday”. The service included a lot of information about their history and ministries, and we both appreciated learning more about that. There was tea after the service, as normal, but with about 5 times the amount of cake and cookies! I came down to see my girls mingling and grazing like pros. J

Last night we just stayed home, and for various reasons (lack of naps, for starters) the girls were all in bed by 7:30, I think. Very relaxing!

Today Matthew is in at the hangar for awhile this morning, but he’s taking me out for lunch and then taking the afternoon off. We are invited out for supper and games again tonight, but we all agreed that we’re going to be sensible tonight and get the kids home at a decent time. J

Caitlyn still has holidays this week. Matthew has a pretty laid back week until Friday. He leaves then and goes up to Majunga for one night. He’s back here on Saturday night, and leaves early Sunday morning to take the leased Caravan back to South Africa. Next Tuesday they bring back the repaired MAF Caravan!!! Finally!

Some of you may be interested in knowing that Larissa’s two bottom teeth are through! It makes her look far too grown up. She also is having a good time standing up by the coffee table or couch or really, anything that’s handy. The new trick is to let go with one hand and wave it around till she falls down.

I wish there would be a way to tell you some of the cute things Aimee and Sierra have done lately, but most of them just can’t be written out very well. For instance, I can’t really write out Aimee’s song that she composed yesterday on the way to church about how much she loves her dad. It was so cute.

Well, I think that wraps things up for this week. Oh yeah, one more thing…we plugged in the space heaters in the girls’ rooms for during the nights. And we closed our bedroom window now. So, I keep wondering, is this winter? If there’s no snow, how will we know when it arrives? J

Thanks to those of you who have signed the guestbook or written an e-mail! We sure appreciate that. Have a great week, everyone!

Rhonda for the Slaubaugh bunch

Hi, this is Matthew giving a summary of my last week. From last Tuesday until Saturday I was gone to four places in the southern part of Madagascar. The purpose of the trip was to take the head of the Gideons in Madagascar to visit and give training to different Gideon “camps”.

Tuesday started quite oddly. When we went to file a flight plan to our first destination, Betroka, we were told that we couldn’t go there. Apparently the local aviation authorities have decided that there are a number of airstrips in Madagascar that are so remote and rarely used that they cannot guarantee that they are in good condition. Therefore, to avoid liability, they have closed those airstrips. Unfortunately, no one had told us and Betroka is one that they have closed. However, they told us, after a couple phone calls, that we could file our flight plan to a nearby airport and change it after we were in the air. We did that, but it sure wasn’t without some hassle trying to communicate this on HF radio to a very confused and somewhat non-cooperative controller. Eventually, they let us do it.

Betroka is quite a small, remote village. No phones, but some people have the local French satellite television. G. (my co-captain) and I had a four wheeler to get around. That was nice since the airstrip is about five kms. from the town and we had to go back and forth about five times. We had our most basic accommodations there, but we had come prepared to camp in the airplane so would have been alright if there wouldn’t have been anywhere for us to stay.

Our days fell into a routine of leaving one village or town around 2:00 in the afternoon. After we would get to the next place we would have to (with help from our English speaking passenger) hire a guard or two for the airplane. Usually a motel had been arranged for us, although one night we chose to find one on our own since there were a number of choices.

After Betroka we had about a 35 minute flight to Ihosy. Ihosy is a little larger town much more on the beaten path. At Ihosy, in addition to the training, the Gideons also did a Bible distribution at the high school. It would have been nice to have been able to go along for that, but we didn’t know they were going to do it until after the fact. We didn’t have a lot of desire to attend the regular training as it was all in Malagasy and lasted about six hours or so.

From Ihosy we went to the town of Morondava. Morondava is on the southwestern coast. It is enough of a tourist town that there were even some motels available with air conditioning. We managed to find a quite reasonably priced room at a motel on the beach. It was a really nice break for me. I’m not sure how to describe what I was feeling. I had enjoyed seeing the villages and towns we had visited, but by the third night I needed something that I could identify with a little bit. This morning I was talking to one guy at the office who used to be involved in doing a lot of four and five day trips to show the Jesus film. He told me that he considers anything over three nights in the bush to be a long trip and that he could very much identify with what I was feeling in Morondava.

The fourth town, Miandrivazo, is one of the two hottest places in Madagascar. We were lucky in that it isn’t the hottest part of the year right now. It was a little bit of a disappointment as the local Gideon people didn’t receive the message that we were coming and so the president and secretary of the local camp were out of town along with all but two of the members. There are no phones there so people have to rely on telegrams and letters. It ended up that we wouldn’t have had to stay there, but by the time we figured that out it was too late to get back to Antananarivo before dark. We are allowed to fly at night, but it costs $180.00 U.S. to use the runway lights. It was cheaper for five of us to stay overnight than to use the runway lights. Kind of strange.

All in all it was a good trip. I learned a lot and experienced some different things. Things like how to hire a guard for your airplane and / or four wheeler. By the time we were done, I was very ready to get home, but it was good to be able to see first hand how MAF can make a difference here in Madagascar. In talking with our passengers, we were told that a trip like we did could have probably been done by car, but only because we are coming into the dry season. Even then it would take just over fifty hours of driving time.

I’ll try to get some pictures from the trip on our website soon.

Hello all…

It’s Saturday night, and the power is out…again! For awhile we had gone weeks without a power cut of any length, but this is the second one this week. I’m really thankful for the fairly reliable power we have. I just recently read about an MAF family in Uganda that has daily power cuts. One day is something like 8am to 4pm, and alternating days are something like 12 noon to 8 pm. Amazing, eh?

So, Matthew got home this morning about 10. It’s great to have him back of course. He had a pretty good trip – maybe he’ll write about it sometime soon. I think he took over 100 pictures, too, so I’m sure some of them will end up on the website soon.

My best news is not that Matthew came home. Can you believe that? This morning I had the honor of helping Caitlyn pray and ask Jesus to live in her heart! Just yesterday I really felt like I needed to talk to her more about salvation, but the time never presented itself. This morning she was in my bed and at 6:15 we were having a discussion about sin and heaven and our inability to be good on our own…deep stuff for me at that time of the morning. (Most of you probably know that I’m really, really not a morning person.) But God guided our discussion, and she asked me to help her pray! Wow. This is an amazing end to a week that was quite a challenge for me as a mother! I felt like God was saying, “It really is worth it…keep on going!”

About the last week…it went by fairly quickly, considering that Matthew was gone for most of it. I actually find that I’m out of the house a lot more when he’s gone, because of being the only one to take Caitlyn to school or pick up groceries, etc. Mostly I like that, but by the time he gets home I’m ready to stay in a little.

It’s Monday now, and this still isn’t done! L For some reason I’m having a hard time gathering my thoughts and making them make sense.

We had a good weekend. On Friday night (while Matthew was still gone) I had a few ladies over and we played Settlers…sans enfants! (How’s your French?) Of course, my kids were here, but they were in bed. With a good game, adult conversation, some snacks and a lot of laughing, how can you go wrong? J (Well, okay, it would have been fun to win at least one of the two games we played! J)

Saturday we just hung out here, and Matthew told us about his trip. We didn’t do anything too eventful, but it was a nice day.

Yesterday we went to church at Vision Valley. It’s nice to be starting to feel “at home” there. The kids did really well going to Sunday School…even Aimee went! In the afternoon the kids napped and we relaxed. I made a weak attempt at scrapbooking for awhile, with Caitlyn “helping”. J In the evening Larissa and I caught a ride to SEF. That was fun. I find each time I/we get to that, it’s so nice to meet more of the missionary community here. It’s also interesting to me to meet some of the people who use MAF to help their ministries.

Now it’s Monday morning. Caitlyn’s school has holidays this week and next, so she’s at home today. Matthew’s back to work. I’m tackling a bunch of “desk-y” jobs…writing this, making menus and grocery lists, etc.

 I’ve been trying to think of things that you might find interesting about life here. Some things are becoming normal to us already, and we forget that they were shocking at first. Here’s one I thought of…did you know we have to carry our passports with us at all times? The (very motivating) reason is that if the police decide that they would like to see it, and you don’t have it, they can (and apparently will) invite you to spend the night in jail! This is not just about foreigners…Malagasy people have an identity card they need to carry. So far, we have never seen a checkpoint, but a few weeks ago we heard that one of the teachers at one of the Christian schools here actually did spend the night in jail. As I said, it’s highly motivational, and causes one to rarely forget one’s passport. J

Last time I wrote I asked for a recipe…this time I’m going to give you one. Have you heard of Cinnamon Crunch Popcorn? This is probably our family’s favorite snack, and I think everyone we’ve served it to has asked how to make it. I think you may need either a stovetop popper or possibly a stir-crazy. We use a stovetop popper. Here it is:

Mix together: 1 Tblsp sugar, 2 tsp cinnamon, ¼ tsp salt and set aside. In popper put 4 Tblsp each: oil, popcorn and sugar. Pop as normal. When popping stops, open lid and pour the cinnamon sugar mixture over the hot popcorn. Close the lid and stir till coated. Dump it into a big bowl, and try hard to wait for it to cool off so you can eat it without burning your fingers! J Making and eating this yummy snack creates a lot of teachable moments for talking about sharing and thinking of others…but remember, it’s humbling to hear that kind of stuff from your kids.

Have a great week!

Just a quick update this time…

Matthew called tonight, and he said the trip is going well. He is feeling a little bit overwhelmed by the newness of everything, but tonight they are staying in a nicer place by the ocean and he said it was refreshing. They won’t be back until Saturday afternoon, so please keep praying for them as they finish up the trip. (Did you know that yesterday was his 29^th birthday?)

The kids and I are doing alright. Each day has it’s ups and downs, but I know that God is taking care of us. Larissa has a cold, but she doesn’t seem too bothered by it. The 3 oldest are showing the normal signs of missing daddy. We’ve done several little special things (visiting friends, drinking orange pop at lunch, watching videos of when they were babies, etc) and they like all that stuff!

I have a request. I’m really hungry for tapioca pudding, but I need a recipe. (Vicki and Robyn, I know you’re out there…you recipe gurus! J) The other day I found tapioca at the store, and I don’t think it’s going to be minute tapioca but it really isn’t labeled very well. The stuff I’m hungry for is the vanilla pudding type, that’s good with bananas, vanilla wafers and whipped cream. (My mouth is watering.) So, if you have a tried and true recipe, could you please send it to me? (slaubaugh5@yahoo.ca) Thanks a lot. J

It’s time to sleep…the kids are all peacefully sleeping, so I should be, too!

This day marks 3 months in Madagascar for us! Time is flying. This last week has been full of activity.

Aimee and Sierra are starting to think about beginning to be potty trained. I must say that they are making an effort, in some small way, but it’s going to be a long road I think. It takes an enormous amount of little underwear to keep up with all the accidents! J In other news, they have probably had one of their happier weeks since we came. One day after their naps, they just got up and started playing without getting into trouble first, or fighting, or stealing each other’s toys…it was a bright ray of hope in my week! J

Caitlyn had a busy week at school. Monday was normal. Wednesday she didn’t want to come with me when I picked her up! They had started a video before I got there, and she also figured out that her friends were staying to eat lunch at school. Peer pressure kicked in, and she very sweetly whispered to me that she really, really wanted to stay because, “My friends are going to…” I did let her, and it was so nice to see her enjoying her new friends. Friday was a field trip to the zoo. I didn’t know if Caitlyn would even be interested in going on something like that if I couldn’t come, but she was eager to try it! It helped that 2 moms were going along that she knows from other settings (missionary stuff). She had a long, great day and came home full of stories. It was probably more of an adventure for Matthew and I to decide to let her go than for her to be brave enough to go! J The kid can eat so much these days…I had packed her a lunch for the zoo, and she ate that all, and also ate the school lunch that I hadn’t signed her up for!

Larissa’s still going strong. She actually is pulling up on things, and last night she pulled herself up by Caitlyn’s bed and got Caitlyn’s alarm clock. Stinker. She’s also been eating pretty much as much solid food as I give her, so all of her activity is not really thinning her out! J She’s a chubby, cuddly girl. Matthew hung up her jolly jumper yesterday, and she’s been having a great time in it. It’s perfect for her because she can get some exercise without getting into trouble.

Friday morning Matthew took some time off and he and I went shopping in the souvenir market. It was his first time there. We had a good time and it was nice to just be together…almost a date! I was kind of amused, because for all his talk about not enjoying shopping that much, he bought more than I did. J

Friday night we were invited out for supper (a BBQ) and we had a great time. The Richardsons have a 9 yr old daughter and a 7 yr old son. Their daughter is quite the little babysitter! She kept our kids occupied the whole evening. Caitlyn especially liked following her around and I think she got some new ideas for things to play with dolls. We played Seafarers there…well, I did. Matthew very generously took care of Larissa so I could. (For those of you who care about stuff like this…it was my first time playing Seafarers, and I won! It was lots of fun…I haven’t had a good Settlers game in ages.)

Saturday night we went out to John and Kristina’s for dinner. They both have birthdays this month, and invited quite a few people over to celebrate with them. It was a BBQ again, but who complains about that? J Matthew brought the kids and I home when it was their bedtime, and went back to visit some more. I watched Princess Diaries 2. Cheesy. J

This morning we opted out of going to church, and instead we spent the morning having “Sunday School” with the kids. It was fun. We sang, read some Bible stories about Noah, and then made mosaic rainbows with torn bits of construction paper. Tonight we’re planning on going to the Sunday Evening Fellowship.

Now it’s about 2:00, the 3 youngest are napping. Caitlyn’s doing gluey, crafty things, and Matthew’s waiting to take this to the hangar. (This week Caitlyn “wrote” a letter to her cousin, and said, “Do you know what a hangar is? It’s a place where you check e-mail.” I could hardly keep typing…maybe it’s time for more flying!)

Matthew has a busy week coming up. He leaves Tuesday morning and will be gone till Saturday. This is a trip for the Gideons, so it’s exciting to be involved in something like this. Please pray for safety for them, and for a good week for the kids and I.

Have a great week! Rhonda

Hello one and all…

It’s Monday afternoon and I’m hiding in my bedroom! J It’s not quite as odd as it sounds. The 3 youngest girls are sleeping and Caitlyn is watching a video with Matthew and 2 of his pilot buddies. The video that they are watching is about bush flying in NW Ontario, so I expect he’ll be homesick afterwards! J

Life here is getting back to normal as far as our health is concerned. Caitlyn is still suffering from random attacks of diarrhea, but nobody is puking or running a fever. Thanks for praying for us! It was a rough time, but we survived.

Saturday we spent the day (thoroughly) cleaning out bedrooms and restocking the fridge for normal appetites again. It was a rainy day, so it wasn’t too painful to spend it doing chores. By the way, it’s amazing to me that we haven’t even been here 3 months and we don’t get junk mail here, and STILL there were piles of papers and stuff that needed to be taken care of. Does that stuff multiply on its own?

Sunday we went to Vision Valley for church and had a great time. We finally had a chance to talk to Gavin and Rhoda (the pastoral couple) about attending there. Actually, it was good timing, because they just announced that they want to run a session of their class for new people, “Becoming a Piece of the Puzzle”.

After church we went to John and Kristina’s house for a nice lunch of salads and sandwiches. It’s always fun to be with them, and actually this was the first time we’ve been to their house! I guess it’s because they usually come here when the kids are heading to bed. The girls love being with them...it kind of feels like an uncle and aunt relationship.

Matthew went flying on Sunday afternoon so that the pilot that came with the leased plane could do the company training for Matthew and the other MAF pilot that is here from South Africa. (If you can follow that sentence, you’re doing well. That’s sort of how I feel about keeping track of the whole situation!) This plane has to be flown with 2 crew, so there is a volunteer pilot from MAF SA here along with his wife and 8 month old daughter. (These two guys are the guys watching the video with Matthew)

Sunday evening, as soon as Matthew got back, we went to the Sunday Evening Fellowship. (That’s the weekly missionary thing.) It was fun even though I missed it all because the girls wouldn’t stay where the kids were playing without me. I got to visit with the other moms in the same boat! J

Caitlyn went to school this morning and had a great time. I didn’t know how she would do because of missing all last week while she was sick. They did a fun craft, and that’s always a highlight for her.

Aimee and Sierra are well enough to be back to all their old tricks. They are also eating us out of house and home, trying to make up for lost time, I guess! The last few days they are pretending to be wolves, and they crawl around with their noses up in the air while howling quite un-frighteningly.

Larissa is perfecting her crawling, and we constantly have to keep babyproofing things! I can’t believe how quickly I’ve forgotten what all is tempting to a newly mobile baby. She is also working at pulling herself up on things.

Well, I need to wrap this up. Keep in touch!

Love, Rhonda

The airplane is here! It got yesterday late afternoon and all is well. This Sunday or Monday I will do my company training that is required and we should be all set. Unfortunately, because of all the uncertainty around when we were going to get an airplane, our flights for next week were canceled. However, the following week we have a four or five day trip for the Gideons. I’m looking forward to finally getting to do some of what we were sent here to do.

I have some pictures of the damage to our airplane that I’ll try to get on the website in the next couple days.

Bye for now, Matthew

I thought that since Rhonda has been writing about such cheery things in her last few letters, I’d try to write about something besides sick kids. 

I think we are finally getting an airplane today! Of course, this could still change, but it is supposed to come today. Our caravan was ferried to Johannesburg yesterday where a permanent repair will be done on the wing and the prop overhauled. I think best case scenario would have it being finished in about a month, but that’s probably quite optimistic. The South African caravan is going to be here for at least one month. According to the company’s operations manual, we have to fly it two crew. There is a MAF South Africa volunteer pilot coming with his family on Saturday to be one crew member and I will be the other. This is why I needed to get my South African license validation last week.

It was one of those rare times that nearly everything went according to plan. I arrived in Jo’burg Tuesday evening and was met by Mark Laprini from MAF South Africa. This was very good, since it took quite a while for him to explain to me everywhere I would be going and how to get there. This was also the first time since 1997 that I’ve had to drive a right hand drive vehicle. I think I only got yelled at two or three times for driving on the wrong side of the road. Wednesday morning I went to a flight school for a few hours for a ground briefing on what I would need to know to pass the written test. I had been studying on my own for a week or so, but I still had some questions about a few things that are different there than what I’m used to. I did the written that afternoon. It consisted of about 50 questions on South African air law and instrument procedures. I managed to pass which meant that I could take the flight test. I was a little nervous about it since I had never flown in South Africa and I would be doing the test in a Cessna 177RG which I had never flown before. I went up with an instructor for about an hour and a half in the morning and he said that I would be okay to do the test. The test itself was somewhat anticlimactic. For validations, the examiner has a lot of leeway in what he can require you to do or not do. The examiner was a Christian guy who knew some of what MAF does. He was pretty laid back about the whole thing. We talked for about a half hour and then went flying. He even brought his five year old daughter along. All we did was a normal take off; intercept a VOR radial outbound for about 15 miles, a steep turn, a stall, and a DME arc Localizer approach back to the airport. He even did about half of the radio work for me. All in all, it was pretty basic.

Hello faithful readers,

I am so blown away by the number of hits this website gets!!! (How many times a day are you here Robyn? J ) It’s actually a big source of encouragement for us to hear your responses through e-mail and the guestbook here. By the way, please do sign the guestbook if you haven’t already!

So, after my last letter I had resolved not to be so detailed about sicknesses. Well, let me say that this resolve leaves me with precious little to report to you at this time. Sigh. All of us but Matthew have had some lovely combination of symptoms that have caused the laundry hampers to overflow as never before. So far Aimee and Sierra are on antibiotics after being diagnosed with bacterial infections in their stomachs. Caitlyn started in with identical symptoms today, so I’m guessing we’ll skip the wait and go straight to the Dr tomorrow. I won’t start any comparisons between the healthcare systems in Madagascar and Canada, but I will say that waiting times are considerably shorter here, and that’s a good thing. J

Matthew got back from South Africa on Saturday night. Things went well for him and he passed the necessary tests to get his license there. Of course it’s great to have him back. Too bad he had to come home to all the sickness. He brought back lots of nice things like oatmeal (or as Sierra calls it, “oatenmeal”), corn syrup, pancake syrup, baby wipes and a digital camera. So, don’t hold your breath, but we should be able to add pictures more often now.

Alright, I think I’m pretty much out of news. Matthew says he will write soon and update you on the whole airplane situation.

Please keep praying for us…we are a little homesick and a little overwhelmed with life at this point. I suspect it’s all quite normal, but it’s also a little discouraging! Thanks.

Have a great week! Rhonda

I know, I know, it’s not a Sunday or a Monday…just had a few things I wanted to say.

First off, Matthew told me that I may have been a little detailed in my last update, and that some of you might not have been interested in all of the gory details of our sicknesses, etc. I am truly sorry if I made anyone queasy. When that is what I’m experiencing in life, I tend to forget that it’s not the best topic of conversation! J

Second thing…remember that Caitlyn’s school has a family of guinea pigs? Well, apparently Sierra has been listening to Caitlyn’s stories about them. Today she informed me that she’s a “skinny pig.” J I love finding out what’s going on in those little heads!

Third item: Matthew is now in South Africa, and so far we are all surviving. Notice I didn’t say we’re enjoying every minute…but we are surviving, and most of the time I haven’t even been too stressed out. Thanks for praying for us. Matthew gets back on Saturday evening. I talked to him last night and he had passed his written test.

Alright, I think that’s all for now. I’ll write a proper update by Monday or so.

Velooma!

Rhonda

Hello folks,

It’s Saturday evening, and Matthew has the kids in the bathtub. I’m sitting here letting my pizza digest. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned before that we have a pizza place just up the hill from our house. It’s a very handy thing, and we have fallen into a “pizza on either Friday or Saturday night” routine. There’s another pizza place on the way to the airport, and we’ve been eyeing it for some time now. Tonight Matthew went there and got us our supper….hmmm, very interesting! Actually, it was pretty similar to “our” pizza place, except for one thing. There was an egg on one of our pizzas. A fried egg. I didn’t like it. I’m not the biggest fan of eggs to begin with, and I must say that I now feel rather strongly about them not belonging on pizza. I think we may just go back to our friendly neighbourhood pizza place.

Well, that was a tangent I hadn’t really planned on! I really ought to plan these letters out before I start, so I don’t get carried away with topics like pizza.

This week has been very busy and it went by very quickly. Caitlyn has started school, and so far she really likes it. By Friday her teacher told Matthew that if Caitlyn knows the French word for the situation, she uses it! We were quite pleased about that, since at the beginning of the week the teacher asked us to explain to her that the other kids cannot speak English! She loves the writing, painting, drawing kind of stuff. Learning to follow a schedule is a little bit of an adjustment for her, though. She is also really having fun taking her snack in her backpack everyday. The school has a family of guinea pigs, and Caitlyn is very impressed with them. The thing that really amazed her about them is that the mommy is bigger than the daddy! She is properly shocked! J

Aimee and Sierra’s current entertainment has been playing in the sandbox and drawing on the sidewalks with chalk. The sandbox has been a big hit. I think that they play in it for at least an hour everyday.

Sunday afternoon now – We went to church at Vision Valley this morning. There was a visiting team from South Africa (3 couples in their 60s) and one of the men praught. (I know that most of you don’t know that praught is a word, but once you start using it, you just can’t go back to “preached”. Thank you, Robyn.) Caitlyn and Sierra went to Sunday School, but Sierra came back up with a load in her diaper…poor kid. She must have some kind of stomach bug since she’s thrown up a few times over the last few days and now has the runs. There was communion after the sermon, but unfortunately Sierra’s diaper had not quite done it’s duty, and her dress was, um, not so fresh. So we left.

When we got home, Matthew hid some KinderSurprise eggs for the girls, and then they ate them and played with the little toys while I got lunch ready. We had meatballs in mushroom gravy, mashed potatoes, scalloped corn and buttered carrots. Yesterday when I was planning and cooking all of it, I asked Matthew what kind of dessert he was hungry for and he said apple pie. Well, there isn’t any Crisco or shortening to be found here, so I just made apple pie without the crust. It was pretty good, if I do say so myself. Aimee and Caitlyn actually skipped that in favor of strawberry ice-cream. Sierra didn’t get dessert, but that’s another story.

Well, if you are following the ongoing “where is our plane” saga, you will be interested in knowing that we are not getting a plane tomorrow as was originally thought. We might get one on the 7^th, but even that is up in the air. (No pun intended.) Matthew is going ahead with getting his South African license, and leaves Tuesday afternoon to do that. He will be gone till Saturday night, and we would all appreciate your prayers. Please pray that everything would go well for Matthew…he is doing a written test, a flight test, and a medical. Please pray for the girls and I…it will be the first time that I am on my own with all 4 of them for that long.

My little Larissa is growing up…last night she crawled about 6 feet to get to a toy! She’s still pretty wobbly, but she’s determined. I can’t believe she’s doing this at 6 months! Hopefully she’ll be one these kids that enjoys crawling so much that she won’t be in a hurry to walk. More likely, she’ll be in a big hurry to follow her sisters around.

One more story, and then I am going to quit. Early Saturday morning Sierra woke up puking, so I raced into her room and thought I would quickly take her into the bathroom so as not to soil her sheets any farther. Well, I guess I shouldn’t try early morning sprints, because I totally wiped out and so there we were, lying on the floor…poor Sierra was crying and gagging and probably wondering what in the world had come over her mother. I was so scared I had dropped Sierra on her head when we fell, and also in a lot of pain since most of the skin is now gone from my knees. It wasn’t a pretty picture, but by Saturday noon it hit me really funny. The un-funny part is that my knees are so sore now…

I hope you all have had a good Easter!

Love, Rhonda and the gang

Well, I finally have something positive to report about our airplane situation.  As most of you know, (for those of you that don’t, look at the news from February 28) we have been without an airplane for a little over 3 weeks now.  We, along with MAF-Europe have been trying during that time to arrange some type of interim help, but everything has fallen through for one reason or another. 

Finally, it looks like we’re going to be leasing a grand caravan for two months from a South African company.  It should be here on the Monday after Easter.  One of the reasons MAF wanted a caravan was so that I can get some experience in Madagascar before Jakob leaves for three months in June.  The company that owns the airplane has agreed to train me as one of their crew and let me fly their aircraft.  This is definitely a good thing, but it means that I need to get a South African license.  Basically, this will involve writing the air law portion of their commercial pilot written exam and taking a flight test.  I started studying for it on Friday.  It’s quite interesting how things are written differently in different countries.  Many of the air regs, but not near all, are similar to what I’m used to, but they are written in such a different way that it sometimes takes me a while to figure out exactly what they mean.  I will probably go to Johannesburg next Tuesday and return on Saturday.  Assuming I can pass both of these exams, this will give me some type of pilots’ license in Canada, The United States, Tanzania, Madagascar, and South Africa.  However, all of them are based on my Canadian license and if I would for some reason lose that, all the others would be null and void.

On another note, I had a near death experience today.  I built a sandbox for the kids on Saturday and went to buy sand for it today.  I should explain that to buy sand here, you just stop your vehicle at one of the many places beside the road where people are selling sand and tell them how much you want.  Since I didn’t know how much I should pay or what the procedure was, I took a Malagasy guy with me to do the bartering.  Everything went fine and I was driving him back to the hanger when I noticed (with some amount of anxiety) that there were two vehicles coming at us side by side at an alarming rate of speed.  Luckily, there was a shoulder there (unpaved and quite bumpy) and I commenced driving on it, also at an alarming rate of speed.  We missed the oncoming vehicles and that’s about the end of the story except that my passenger had been talking and looking at me when this all started happening.  He didn’t see the oncoming vehicles and told me after that his first reaction when I started driving on the shoulder was to grab the wheel and get us back onto the road.  Thankfully, he had the sense to look at what was going on before he tried it. 

On another driving note, three times I’ve experienced why the side mirrors housings (is that really what they’re called?) are able to be pushed flat against the vehicle.  It sure makes an awfully loud CRACK though when you hit another vehicle’s side mirror.  The roads here are quite narrow and shared by everything from transport trucks to bicycles to people walking to cows and chickens so I guess stuff like that’s just going to happen on occasion. 

I guess that’s all for now.  I’ll let you now how it went in South Africa or if there are changes. 

Matthew

 Hello one and all,

Let me state, for the record, I miss Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup, cheddar cheese, honey nut Cheerios, milk that doesn’t taste like a dairy barn and good crunchy celery. There, now I feel better! Thanks for listening. J

So, here we are, it’s another Sunday afternoon again. Naps are all taken (well, Larissa’s still sleeping) and girls are all playing. Matthew’s gone to the hangar to check e-mail.

We had a positively negative experience at church this morning. The girls have not behaved so badly in church in ages…maybe never. L (One funny occurrence…Sierra announced rather loudly, “My armpit hurts!”) On the bright side, we really like going to the Vision Valley church, and are considering making it “our” church. The people there are quite friendly and make us feel welcome.

The weather here is now almost chilly. It reminds me of August at home…one day is sunny and hot and the next day you think winter is around the corner. It’s kind of nice, actually. We just have to start thinking of other clothes besides shorts and t-shirts.

The big excitement the last few days is that Caitlyn is getting ready to go to school! Gulp. I can’t believe I just wrote that. Time for a reality check…my baby’s not a baby, and not even a toddler anymore…she’s a little girl. I went to the school on Wednesday and had a look around and then on Friday, Matthew, Caitlyn and I all went to check it out. She (and we) was impressed and wanted to stay that day! Two kids in the school are also MKs that she’s met in other settings, so that was appealing. We got all her school supplies yesterday, and they are in her backpack (the pink backpack that Auntie Jenni bought her for our trip here) ready to go. For now she will be going 3 times a week for 3 hours each time. She insists that I will not have to stay with her when I take her Monday morning, but we’ll see! The school is really laid back, and probably compares with a daycare in Canada. They do sit at tables and do “schoolwork”, but it doesn’t seem too intense. Her teacher seems like a sweet lady, and speaks a little English. Please pray for Caitlyn as she starts this adventure! Pray too for Matthew and I…we feel we will need wisdom as we evaluate if this is beneficial for her. If we feel that it’s not, we will not hesitate to take her out, and we pray that God will show us that.

Yesterday Matthew built a sandbox! Hooray! (I think I am more excited than the kids are…no more playing in the dirt pile!) It actually doesn’t have sand in it yet, but maybe tomorrow it will. The buckets and shovels are standing by. Matthew borrowed some sort of power saw (I’m sure it has a more specific name…) and the girls were watching him use it. None of them were too impressed with the noise, and Caitlyn told me, “I kind of wish God just hadn’t even given me ears!”

Madame Pauline came last week as planned, and so far, so good. I have actually only gone away once while she’s here, but it was completely uneventful as far as the girls’ reactions. This week I hope to go out to get groceries and see if things continue to go well. She is good with them all, but clearly has a soft spot for Larissa! I think she would prefer just taking care of her all the time! J Larissa loves the attention, of course!

MAF is still working on getting a replacement plane for “us”. There is still no flying happening, but we are praying that a new option will work out. This one would come from South Africa, I believe, and Matthew would be able to go along and become familiar with the country. That’s important because Jakob (the other pilot) is leaving for furlough the beginning of June, and Matthew may be the only pilot for awhile. Even before the plane was out of service, we felt he had a short time to learn the ropes, and now it’s been cut a lot shorter. So please keep praying with us about this! There are so many needs that could be met if there was a plane here…the Gideons, a Bible translation team, and others are going to have to be turned away if we don’t get a plane!

On Friday night (technically, I guess it was early Saturday) Aimee woke up puking. Ugh. She carried on long enough to go through 4 sets of pajamas, a few changes of bedding, 2 baths and almost wore out one set of parents. I was starting to think of ideas like having her sleep in the bathtub. J We eventually got a little sleep before everyone else was awake. Then she got the runs. I will not say anymore, except that the laundry pile grew. Amazingly, she was full of energy and got into way more trouble yesterday than should be possible under those conditions! I was exhausted, and I wasn’t sick! J

Well, what else would you like to know? I saw the biggest spider I’ve ever seen inside a house this morning. Matthew was kind enough to take care of it for me. I shiver every time I think of it.

It’s been fun to see your responses to our website. We’ve also been enjoying looking at some of yours…if you have a site or a blog that you’d like to share, please do! I think it’s a great way to keep in touch!

Have a great week! Love, the Slaubaughs

We have been spoiled over the last 2 years with having Matthew at home so much. For those of you who haven’t seen him in action, he is a first-class daddy. I am very blessed to have a husband who’s not afraid of messy diapers and that kind of stuff. He will even make peanut butter sandwiches, in spite of hating peanut butter! J The girls are having some adjustments as he is going to work "normal" hours now. So, it makes a day like today very enjoyable.

Well, this last week hasn’t been the most exciting one since we’re here. The kids and I were here at the house from Sunday evening till Thursday afternoon. That was a little much. I felt pretty homesick after that! But, things are improving, and we are coming up with a strategy to avoid cabin fever. J

This last week has been exciting for Larissa, I guess! She has learned how to sit up, although I still make sure she’s got a blanket or something around her in case she falls. Also, (and actually this accomplishment came first) she has started getting up on her hands and knees! What a kid. She’s not even 6 months old! I’ve been lecturing her about not getting ahead of the program. J I’m a little nervous about her being mobile too soon since this house is not "padded"…not much carpet and lots of tile and hardwood and brick fireplaces. Caitlyn did walk at 11.5 months, and Aimee and Sierra did at 10.5 months…

Last night we invited John and Kristina over for pizza and a game of Settlers. There are distinct advantages to the kids going to bed at 7:30! J It was so great to be with friends and just have fun together.

Oh yeah, I wanted to say that we really don’t mind sending out e-mails to those of you who find it much more convenient, it’s just not quite as handy for us! J

Have a great week, and remember that we like the news coming this way, too! J

It’s a lazy Sunday afternoon, which is the best kind of Sunday afternoon! We went to church at the English Chapel this morning. I missed most of it because Aimee and Sierra wouldn’t stay in Sunday school without me. Matthew says I missed an excellent sermon about perseverance. I have to say I had an entertaining time in Sunday School. Sierra "won" a game similar to musical chairs because she figured out that if she didn’t move, no one could take her place! J It amused me that she came up with that strategy, but without any meanness towards the other kids! (And fortunately, none of them were offended by it!) It was just an efficiency thing, I think!

Matthew’s been working at the hangar, since he has no airplane to fly right now. There are a lot of manuals that need to be reviewed and then translated into French by the end of this month, so he’s helping to review them before they’re handed over to the translators. It’s all about flying stuff that I don’t really understand, so if anyone wants to know what it is exactly, you’ll have to ask him. All I know is that he’s ready to get back in an airplane! J He thinks that’s a lot better than sitting at a desk all day!

The kids are doing alright, just being normal kids! There have been a few times in the last week that I’m tempted to put Aimee and Sierra in a room, close the door and let them have it out. Something tells me that’s not the way to sort it out! I have to say that they can be the sweetest little girls or they can really give me fits. I guess that’s typical for 2 year olds, eh? Today Aimee saw Matthew and I hugging, and she said, "Your guys are hugging?" Before we could say anything she said, "That’s nice" in the same tone of voice we would use if we would see her hugging Sierra! J

It was great to get an e-mail from Kim yesterday saying she’s safely in  Winnipeg. Caitlyn thinks it’s amazing that she’s there "already." J

Well, I’m thinking that I’m running out of interesting things to say. Oh yeah, here is some information that may or may not be interesting to you. 1) We are cutting back to one e-mail address…please do NOT use mrcslau@nwconx.net , effective immediately. Please DO use slaubaugh5@yahoo.ca as often as you like! J 2) We have decided to stop sending this update out as an e-mail. It is now available on our website www.freewebs.com/matthewrhonda and I hope to update it on Mondays. However, that is a goal, not a promise, so check in often in case a flash of inspiration would strike on a Wednesday or something radical like that. 3) If for some reason, you really need to keep getting an e-mail instead of going to our website, just let us know and we will try to be accommodating! J 

On Wednesday, Matthew took the day off and we all went to a lemur farm. It’s really more of a park or something like that, and you walk through it with a guide. We had a terrific time there. The scenery is really great and it was nice to be out in the "bush". Okay, it wasn’t bush exactly, but it wasn’t city. I actually hadn’t thought about being tired of being in a city, but it sure was refreshing to be out in the fresh air! We saw lots of lemurs, which the kids loved. For those of you who know the TV show "Zaboomafoo", we saw lemurs just like Zaboo! Sierra was so incredibly excited about the whole thing. She just kept exclaiming, "Zaboomafoo!" She even got to touch one, and see them leaping. (Sidenote: she does an amazing leaping lemur impression!) Did you know that "Zaboo" lemurs leap sideways, standing on their back legs? Then our guide found a little lizard that she got right up close to, and they also have some tortoises there in the park that she got to touch! The girl was having more fun than she knew what to do with! I think she may be our upcoming zoologist! J We ended the morning by having fries and pop on the little patio by their gift shop. It was fun.

That afternoon Kim and I went back to the souvenir market to finish up her shopping. It was the first time I’ve bartered in French, and I think we did okay. I guess if we got ripped off, we are blissfully ignorant! J We were happy to pay what we did, so I guess it’s all okay!

So, Matthew was home for the weekend. It was nice for us, but too bad it’s because he has no airplane to fly! L On Saturday night Kim, Kristina and I had a little "ladies’ night out". We went out for a nice dinner in a French restaurant close by our place. It was so nice. We sat outside and yakked and yakked. The food was great and they have a really nice garden that makes a neat atmosphere. (For the record: I did something there I always said I would never do…I answered my cell phone while in a restaurant. That’s your fault, dad! J)

Kim, Matthew and I played a game of Hearts to pass the time. (I won’t mention who won…but Kim and Matthew had some bitterness issues going by the end of the game.) We had a very powerful thunderstorm and it woke Aimee up. I asked her why she got up, because usually the kids sleep through thunderstorms that make me nervous. She said, "I had enough night." 

Alright, time to face the day…the kids have had breakfast while I’m typing this, now I need to go change, dress and comb. J Oh yeah, feed Larissa, too. That child has amazing patience and rarely asks to be fed. (She does make an exception to that rule at about 5 AM….) A little story: Aimee was fussing about breakfast not meeting her expectations (she didn’t use those words!) and Sierra told her, "Don’t cry, Aimee. Relax a little!" I wanted to say, "Practice what you preach, sister!" J

The weekend flew by for me! Saturday morning Kim and I went with Kristina to the souvenir market so that Kim could make her purchases. It was fun, but hot and overwhelming! She found a lot of nice things, and I even found some stuff. There are baskets there in almost any shape, size and color, so that’s tempting! J As soon as we got back from that, Matthew and Kim left for the airport. He flew Kim, Jakob and Tina (the MAF program manager here) and  Paul and Lois (the MAF maintenance guy) up to Sainte Marie. (You can find that on your map, about 2/3 u! p the east coast, it’s an island) Herman (the MAF training captain from Tanzania, who did all of Matthew’s training there) is here now to ride with Matthew and went along of course. Also, a Malagasy man who’s worked for MAF and wants to learn to fly was along. Matthew said that the island is beautiful and he didn’t think Kim would really mind being there! Think of the stereotypical tropical island…nice beaches, palm trees, the whole works.

Saturday evening we had John and Kristina (he’s the logistics manager for MAF) over to play Settlers. I ended up in the bathroom most of the evening, but we still had a nice time with them. He’s from England, but has lived in New Zealand quite a bit. She’s from New Zealand, but her parents are missionaries in Thailand, so she’s kind of from there, too. We stayed up till almost 11, which is ridiculously late here. J (Nine is considered "Missionary Midnight" J ) Actually, it gets dark here about 6:30 or 7, I think, and things pretty much shut down then. In the morning, it gets light about 5 or 5:30, and things start up again. The girls were waking up at 6 or 6:30 every morning (that’s very unusual for our kids, they used to sleep till 8 every morning) so we started putting them to bed about 7:30. It works out pretty well.

Sunday we went to church with John and Kristina (left the house at 8:15…who knew it was possible?). They go to Vision Valley Church, which is an English speaking church. However, there is a large percentage of Malagasy people there, and the service was led completely by them. It was a little more lively (or energetic or charismatic or something…you know!) than the church I had gone to while Matthew was gone. There were also more kids, which was an attractive feature! J Caitlyn, Aimee and Sierra went to Junior Church, and had a good time. They also really liked the tea and cookie time after the service! Getting their own cups of hot tea with milk and sugar was a big thing, except for the fact that it was just too hot for Aimee and Sierra…which led to a huge meltdown. Sigh. Aimee was farther melted down by the friendly dog hanging around outside. The poor kid was actually just terrified. Maybe it’s time to get a pet of some sort!

Hello everyone, I thought that even though my wife does a great job of writing, I’d try to give you a little more detail on what I’ve been up to.  After being in Madagascar for 12 days, I was off to Tanzania (via South Africa).  One thing that is taking me a little bit to get used to is how long it can take to travel in Africa.  There is no direct flight (that I know of) between Madagascar and Tanzania. This means you must go through South Africa or Kenya and then on to Tanzania.  Unfortunately, the flights don’t match up to allow a one day trip.  So I spent most one night in Johannesburg on the way there and one the way back. 

     Once I got to Tanzania, the first thing I had to do Monday morning was get a Tanzanian medical and student pilot’s license.  The medical was one of the funniest things that I’ve experienced in my short life.  I went into the Dr. office and filled out about a 10 question form that basically asked if I was healthy or not.  When I was done with that, the Dr. asked me what I was doing in Tanzania and when my last medical was done in Canada?  He then proceeded to fill out the rest of the form without so much as taking my blood pressure.  I then paid him the equivalent of $50.00 U.S. and he certified that I am fit to fly. 

     That I had to do in the capital (Dar Es Salaam).  On Tuesday I had to take a 5 hour bus ride to the city of Dodoma where the main base for MAF in Tanzania is located.  I stayed there for about a week doing training in MAF  procedures and such and than we (the instructor and I) went up to the Kilimanjaro area for two days.  It was kind of cool to see mount Kilimanjaro, but we didn’t really have time to do any sight seeing.  The training went pretty well and at the end of the two weeks I completed the two check rides that MAF requires.  This allows me to fly as pilot in command in order to complete my Malagasy pilot license. 

     This is where I am at the moment.  I have been given a short briefing on weather here in Madagascar and have also done a short test on the local air regs.  All that’s left now is to do a flight test to get my instrument rating.  That is scheduled for tomorrow morning.  What that means is the first flight I do here will be my check ride.  I’m not sure how that will go, but I’ve been assured that everything will be just fine.  I’m not to worried about the procedures, but it’s very difficult for me to understand the controllers here.  Oh well, I guess I’ll give it my best shot and see what happens. 

     Assuming I pass the check ride, I’ll have to do 15 – 20 hours of line indoc. (MAF calls it supervised flying)  before I do any flights on my own.  This should take about a week and a half if everything goes as planned.

     That’s all from me for now.  Thanks for all your e-mails, we enjoy hearing from you.