Matthew and Rhonda Slaubaugh

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Well it's nearly the end of July. Winter is here. It's cold pretty much every night and some days. Daryl and Robyn have come and gone. We had a really great time with them. Maybe we can get some pictures up from when they were here. The last month and a half has been really crazy for us. In addition to Daryl and Robyn's visit, we just had a family who we are good friends with finish their time here and move back to Canada. Also, some of our other friends are just coming back from a year long furlough. There were also two groups of MAF visitors during this time and a lot of flying.

We have an engine problem with our plane right now that requires a part that will take about a week and a half to get. Since we still only have one airplane, we ended up having to cancel a number of flights in this period. Not something we wanted to do, but we don't really have any choice. It's better to find stuff like this before it causes a problem.

Well, I know that an absence of this length deserves a long update, but I’m not sure I’m up to that right now.

 

In the last post I wrote about going to the south with a team that was looking at putting in some wells in the area. The organization is called Life Outreach International. Part of the reason they were here was to film spots to use in their fundraising for their “water for life” projects in the next year. It was interesting to watch them work, but it was hard to see the extreme needs in that area.

 

The flying for the cyclone relief has slowed to about one or two flights a week, but we are still busy overall. We also have a couple auditors here from MAF this week so that adds some business. I leave on Monday for a four day trip to the south. It’s been a while since I’ve been gone that long in a row so that might be a bit for the girls to get used to. Hopefully it will go well.

 

I’ll try to not let it get quite so long before we update this again.

Hi one and all, the past two weeks have been easily the most hectic since we’ve been here. People here have told me before, “just wait ‘till a cyclone hits, then you’ll be busy.” Well, the first two and a half cyclone seasons came and went. Madagascar was hit with glancing blows by a few cyclones. We got a flight or two for people who wanted to see if there was significant damage, but nothing significant. Then came Indlala. We already had some flooding from previous cyclones and this one hit quite hard in the north. As a result, we have been flying for about three or four different aid organizations pretty much without stopping. On top of that, our flight board was looking basically full before all this started. We should finish the month of April with about 130-140 hours of flying. Our average month is about 50 hrs.

One of the groups that we’ve been flying for has been working at cleaning wells in the northeast. What has happened is that, with the flooding, ground water has gotten into the wells and polluted them. They were working on getting about 250 wells cleaned so they could be used again. It doesn’t seem like that much until you consider that they have to go by canoe to reach many of these places since the few roads in this region are under water.

Another organization has been concentrating on emergency food distribution in the northwest. We’ve done three full flights of food rations for them and they wanted us to do another three, but we haven’t been able to yet because we’ve had prior commitments.

One of those prior commitments is this weekend. A group that I took down to the south a month or so ago is coming back to do some filming to promote the water projects that they are going to be doing in Madagascar. We are supposed to leave tomorrow and be back Monday afternoon. Trips like these are nice in that, even though there won’t be a huge amount o flying, I usually get to go out with the team at least some of the time to get a bit better feel for what they are doing and what the needs are in a certain area.

I’ll try to write more about it when I get back.

Did you know…

 …that MAF Madagascar is helping an organization called HoverAid to get started in Madagascar?

…that HoverAid operates hovercrafts as a means of relief and development?

…that we mix French and Malagasy words into our English without trying and that our English grammar is worse than it’s ever been?

…I can buy fresh pineapple all year, but the apples aren’t always so great?

…I almost never buy canned green beans because we can always buy fresh ones?

…we have Malagasy drivers’ licenses?

…that shopping for meat (even in the supermarkets) can make me nervous? I often eye it up and go home without the meat I came for?

…it gets dark here by 7:00 PM and light by 5:30 AM?

…we have people coming to our door to sell us things (firewood) or canvas for donations (Boy Scouts)?

…every day I think to myself that it’s a miracle that I didn’t hit that guy on the motorbike (or bicycle or on foot)?

…every day I think it’s a miracle that that taxi-be driver didn’t hit me?

…a taxi-be is a mini bus and a vital part of public transportation here?

…that it’s never totally quiet here? There are birds, a sawmill, frogs, crickets, a pig, cars, people talking and many other noises outside our windows, not to mention that it’s usually windy!

…I had only seen 2 horses since I got here until last week? There are dogs, chickens, zebus and cats on the road, but horses are rare.

…that 18 C can feel really chilly when your house isn’t airtight?

…that we buy cards to recharge our internet and cell-phone credit?

…I stood in line at the bank for 50 minutes in order to withdraw some money?

…there were only about 8 people in front of me at that bank?

…that the biggest bill here is 10,000 ariary or about $5-6?

…that most vendors here will not have change for that bill, and many won’t have change for 5,000 ariary, either?

…that there are seasons here, even though they aren’t as distinct as in most of North America?

…that my girls think that Canada is a place of perpetual fun?

…I can buy real Canadian maple syrup here for an almost reasonable price?

…that my girls were amazed that I had never eaten a litchi until I came to Madagascar?

…that we can buy oatmeal and Worcestershire sauce now, but can’t get corn syrup or ‘regular’ mustard?

…that we have guests in our home almost once a week who are in Madagascar on business with MAF? (Either MAF staff from another country or visitors to the programme.)

…we host our homegroup from church every Wednesday evening?

…we have lots of friends here working with other organizations?

…that we buy firewood months before we need it (or save some from the year before) so that it has a chance to dry out enough to burn?

…our church, Vision Valley, has begun construction on the auditorium? It’s projected to be finished on August 18.

…we’ve been meeting for church in a tent for about 6 months now?

…I have roses blooming in my yard?

…we are amazed at how many people care about what we’re doing?

…we are thankful for our financial supporters who are so generously making it possible for us to stay here?

…it humbles us to think that you pray for us and our needs?

…we love to hear from you, too?

…it actually makes us less homesick to have news from ‘back home’? (most of the time, anyway!)

It seems that this is my first update on this site in 2007. Ok, I’ll try to do better! Wow. Time is flying by. It’s almost the middle of March, and things just don’t slow down. It is nice to be busy instead of bored, but I don’t like the feeling of wondering where the days go. Or where my little girls are going, for that matter!

 

I’ll start with an update on the girls. Caitlyn is over halfway through grade 1, which we feel pretty good about considering that we didn’t start until November. Most days we both really love home-schooling, so it’s been quite a positive experience so far. She is fascinated by ancient Egypt and archaeology, Greek myths and a lot of other stuff that I don’t think I learned about in grade one! Her imagination is as active as ever and she is usually planning a party, a show or a dance to be performed for the rest of us.

 

Aimee is very interested in letters and numbers these days. She loves to ask me how to spell our family’s names, and now can write “Aimee” and “Mommy” from memory. I get more hugs and kisses from her than the rest of the girls put together, and she is very eager to do what’s right. She loves to draw, swing and play with her doll.

 

Sierra is getting over something that might have been chickenpox, although I am not really convinced that it wasn’t some kind of bug bites. (The other girls show no sign of getting them, 4 weeks after Sierra broke out.) She has had other skin problems lately and we are all happy to see her healing. Throughout all of that, she certainly kept her energy level up to normal, and that’s pretty high. :-)  She is our goofy kid that likes to make faces, funny sounds and mix up words. She also likes to learn about letters and is often heard pronouncing a word over and over until she figures out what letter it starts with.

 

Larissa is 2 ½ now and is daytime potty-trained!! This mommy has some mixed feelings about that, but overall we’re all pretty excited about that milestone. She is a bouncy, happy little girl and love to sing and talk, pretty much non-stop. Her bouncing has led to a few bloody lips when she misjudges distances or tries to hop into bed with a little too much enthusiasm. Poor kid had quite a fat lip last night after flopping into bed and hitting the headboard with her lip. It was still swollen this morning. :-(  She loves to colour, sing, and play with her sisters.

 

We are seeing the signs that autumn is beginning. It was only 16 C this morning when I got up, and that makes the house seem pretty chilly. It is so beautiful during the day, sunny and about 23 C. So nice!

 

I’m going to close for now and try to update on other areas of our lives soon. We’d love to hear from you!

Last week I did the Mad. Mission Run. It was a good trip, but I was super glad to be home. I left here on Wednesday and went to Mandritsara, dropped some passengers off and picked up the eye doctor team there and took them to Mananara. I dropped them there and continued on to Sambava to drop some more passengers. I spent the night in Sambava and then on Wednesday I returned to Mananara where I took 10 patients to the hospital in Mandritsara and then returned to mananara for the night as we needed to leave early the next morning.

Most of the patients that we take to Mandritsara on these trips are elderly people who are going there for cataract surgery. However, on this flight, I was able to take a 3 year old girl who had club feet. They will be able to correct them in Mandritsara.

That night there was a large thunderstorm with a great lightning show. The lightning was made even more impressive by the fact that the power was out. This wasn’t a great thing overall though as it was incredibly hot and there was no fan or anything. I don’t think I’ve ever been so hot. At about 4:00 I opened the unscreened window just to get a bit of air moving around. I had a decent mosquito net so it wasn’t a huge deal.

Friday morning I returned to ‘Tana early as there was a second flight planned. As the weather radar and stormscope weren’t working I tried to stay VFR. The closer I got to ‘Tana, the harder this was becoming. I had nothing to lose, so I tried the stormscope and what do you know, it worked. I was able to get an IFR clearance and come in that way. It was good that the stormscope chose that day to start working again as I don’t think I would have made it back to ‘Tana after the second trip VFR.

Last weekend we didn’t really do anything special. It’s been raining a lot recently so we haven’t been going out a lot just for fun. Next month we are planning to take a long weekend to go to Montasoa with another MAF family. We’ve gone before by ourselves and it’s just a nice place to go to relax for a few days.

The month of January is often a bit of a slow month for MAF here in Madagascar. People are still recovering from the holiday season and many organisations that we work with use the time to plan what they want to do in the coming year. This year was a bit that way, but things seem to be starting to pick up to normal pace again. Last Tuesday, I did a flight to Bekodoka to drop off a mission / doctor team. From there, I went to Maintirano. The plan was to fill a couple drums of fuel for Helimission and take them to Bekodoka on the return. However, when I got to Maintirano, there were four people who wanted to come back to ‘Tana with me. Three of them were supposed to go with Air Madagascar, but A.M. doesn’t have any seats out of Maintirano until March. So since we can’t take fuel with passengers, the fuel had to wait for another day. It wasn’t crucial to get it there that day anyway. Yesterday I was talking to one of the people who was leading the group. The project was started just over two years ago and there has been a lot of discouraging times. However, there are now a core group of about 12 people who claim to be Christian. With the help of the missionaries, they are going to try to start a church over the next couple of months. This is one of the most inaccessible and unreached areas of Madagascar so this was really great to hear.

We are in the process of meeting with as many of our partners as possible right now to look at what they are involved in right now and how we can best work together. So Wednesday morning I went with Haja (our dep. ops. manager) and we met with three different groups. I’ve done a number of these meetings and while I can’t say that it’s one of my favourite things to do, it is good to get to know more of what different ones of our partners are involved in.

Thursday I went to Anjabetrongo to take the pastor and his family back there. After that we carried on to Toliar for the night. There are two people here from MAF-UK right now. They are here to get stories that will appear in various publications over the next year or so. They went with me and on Friday morning we went back to Anjabetrongo so they could go into the village and take some pictures as well as talk to the pastor about the work he and his family are doing there. From there we went to Berohoroha (sp?, I can fly there, but I can’t spell it) to open a new airstrip there. We had tried to open this airstrip twice before and it didn’t work out so it was nice that it worked to do it while the MAF-UK people were here.

Flying wise, there were a couple interesting things about this trip. The first was that on Wednesday, while Jacob was flying, the weather radar decided that it had worked to hard over the past year and needed a rest. So it will be out of commission for a couple weeks or so. Seeing as this is thunderstorm season it will be sorely missed. However, we still have our stormscope to keep us out of trouble. (a little description for those of you who wouldn’t otherwise know, the weather radar “sees” thunderstorms by showing heavy precipitation and a stormscope “sees” thunderstorms by detecting electrical activity.) Well, as I was flying down to Anjabetrongo on Thursday, the little men in the stormscope decided to go on strike. This is now quite serious because we need at least one or the other to allow us to fly IFR.(in clouds) Hopefully it will be fixed sooner rather than later, but it can be quite difficult to get parts like that here. The other “interesting” thing was how soft all the airstrips are in the southwest right now. There has been a lot of rain recently and it has really affected the airstrips. I had never been to Anjabetrongo in the rainy season and it is very different. I was making three to four inch ruts with the main wheels. I was a little heavier on Friday than on Thursday and when I left on Friday, it took full power to get the airplane to move. We accelerated very slowly, but the airstrip is about 3000 feet long so we had enough room to get airborne.

 

Well, here it is almost to Christmas. The girls had a Christmas program at their school this morning. They enjoyed some of it and cried through some of it. Now they’re out of school for a while. We are going to try to go into the city tomorrow and let the kids go on a ride or something. The main street gets turned into a sort of carnival over Christmas.

This year we don’t have any big plans for our Christmas celebrations. We have some friends coming over for a Christmas dinner on Monday, but I think it will be fairly small. That’s alright, small doesn’t mean bad.

Things have been steady at work. I’ve been having some sinus problems so I haven’t been doing a lot of flying. Because most of our flights require fairly large altitude changes, the last two couple times I did flights, I had a hard time hearing after I got on the ground. That’s not a lot of fun. Hopefully it will clear up soon.

There’s a cyclone in the north right now so there might be some flying for that in the next few months. We’ll see. Right now it doesn’t look like there will be a lot of damage from it.

That’s all for now. Have a merry Christmas.

Today we had a Christmas party with our MAF and Helimission friends. A few months ago Caitlyn had outlined a party that included a Christmas-themed talent show and food. We went with it, and had a lovely afternoon with about 25 people here. There were songs, a few stories and a poem shared. After the ‘formal’ part, we enjoyed food and the good company. The last people left around 5:00, and as they left I felt the contentment that comes after a good time with good friends.

 

As we were cleaning up tonight, we were listening to Christmas music. A few days ago we were listening to “Home for the Holidays”, which says, “Home for the holidays…it’s so good to be here with those that I hold dear…home for the holidays…it wouldn’t be Christmas if I was away…” Matthew pointed out that if that were true, we’re in sad shape for the season. Tonight I heard Steven Curtis Chapman singing, “Christmas is all in the heart…even if no light snow falls, that’s alright because the joy can still be found wherever you are, ‘cause Christmas is all in the heart.” Whew, that feels better!

 

I’m so thankful this year that we have a ‘portable’ reason for celebrating Christmas. If it all depended on the things we’re used to – family, snow, turkey and much more – we would be much more homesick at this time of year. I thank God for His presence with us, as well as His blessing of good friends.

Hello from hot and sunny Tana. It’s a beautiful day after a stormy, rainy night. That’s becoming quite common now that we’re almost to December, and with the rain at night and the heat during the day everything seems nice and green. The rice fields are a gorgeous shade of green. The jacarandas are still blooming a beautiful purple, and I have roses, lilies, and petunias blooming in the yard. Watermelon, apricots and mangos are in the shops and by the side of the road now. It’s lovely, but makes it hard for these Canadians to remember it’s almost Christmas time!

 

Matthew was away from Saturday till Tuesday, and we are all glad he’s back! I think the girls and I have to readjust to that part of life here. He had a safe trip, but didn’t get to do much of the flying he was supposed to do because of weather. Today he has the day off and is enjoying a little relaxation.

 

Caitlyn and I are getting into a good routine for homeschooling. So far it’s going well most days and we both enjoy most parts of it. Aimee and Sierra occasionally listen in, and enjoy the stories we read. They are in school 3 mornings a week, and are settling in better all the time. Larissa is the queen of play-doh right now. She will spend at least an hour at a time playing with play-doh, which is worth a lot to me!

 

I think it’s time for some new pictures on here, so keep an eye out for a new batch. Hopefully it won’t take too long to get that done.

 

Today Jakob is flying to Marolambo (the shortest airstrip that MAF flies to) with a Dutch videographer. This man is taping footage that will be shown on Dutch TV on December 24^th as a fundraiser for the airstrip at Marolambo. The airstrip is eroding and the best option seems to be a sort of plasticization process that actually puts a thin layer of plastic over it all. Hopefully this fundraiser will cover the cost of that project.

 

Our Christmas newsletters should be mailed soon, so you will see them in your mailboxes before too long. As well, Madagascar is featured in MAF Canada’s newsletter, Lifelink. (Dec issue) You may see a pilot you recognise.

 

Well, I will close for now. If you’re thinking of writing to us, but don’t know what to say, I’d love to hear what you do to convey the importance of Christmas to your children. :)

We are back in Madagascar alive and mostly well. We arrived late Sunday night after leaving Winnipeg around noon on Friday. We spent about 24 hours in Paris. We were curious how it would be to break the trip like that. After doing it, I wouldn’t choose to do it again. One thing was that I got enough sleep in Paris that I stayed awake the whole flight from there to ‘Tana. All eleven hours of it. It was a fine flight, just really, really long.

Monday was a bit of a rest day, although we did start on our unpacking. In addition to the things that we brought back, we had put a lot of our books and things in storage while we were gone so that our living room could be repainted. We still haven’t got nearly everything back where it belongs.

Tuesday I started back at MAF. I thought I was going to have an audit that day, but it turns out that it was pretty much done. That was kind of a nice surprise. I’ve been pretty busy the last couple days just catching up with what’s going on. A lot has happened since we left. Hoveraid is now operating a hovercraft on a river in the southwest of Madagascar serving the villages along the river. They want to set up a base in one of the larger villages along the river and part of that is reopening a long neglected airstrip. MAF has a team of guys down there helping out with that right now. They should be close to done by the end of this week.

Matthew

 

So, we’re back, and getting into the swing of things again. It seems like a lot has happened while we were gone, but it’s good to be back. Jet-lag is winding down already, so that feels good. Today I went out to get groceries, and was happy to know I can still drive here without disastrous results. Another big event today was that Caitlyn and I started her first grade studies. Yesterday she said she wanted to wait 99 years to start grade one, but while we were working at it today she said, “I don’t ever want to stop doing this schoolwork!” That made me feel good!

Please pray for us as we put Aimee and Sierra back into school. We would love for them to make friends and learn French there, but we don’t want to pressure them too much as they are only 4. We want to be sensitive to them and take them out if it’s too much. I think that Sierra will do fine, since she is naturally more courageous. I won’t be surprised if Aimee stays home this year, and that is fine with us if that happens. Today she listened in on almost all of Caitlyn’s schoolwork!

Larissa is enjoying being at home and was so happy to see Mme. Pauline again. The weather here is warm (30ish degrees C.) and she is loving being outside. We had a play structure built for the girls while we were in Canada and it has been seeing a lot of use so far!

I also want to say thanks to all of you who helped to make our time in Canada a good experience. Thanks especially to my parents for letting us take over their house for a whole month! We sure appreciated it.

Now go sign the guestbook and let us know you’re out there. :)

Rhonda

Hi Everyone. Well, our time in Canada is about to come to an end. We haven't done a very good job of keeping this up to date while we've been here. Sorry. We've had a really good time. When we arivved in September, the weather was really nice and we were able to take the girls on some small hikes in the bush. They even got to go on canoe and boat rides. Around the second week of October, we got enough snow that we were able to go sliding and do some winter things. As I write this, it's snowing like crazy outside. I went for a little walk and I think we must have got about 8-9 inches of snow in the last 4 hours.

We leave Red Lake on Wednesday to drive to Winnipeg. We fly out of Winnipeg on Friday. Our route is Winnipeg-Toronto-Paris-'Tana. We'll spend one night in Paris so we don't arrive in 'Tana until Sunday evening.

We'll try to get some pictures up once we get back.

Last time I wrote, I was just getting ready to go for two nights in Bekodoka. Lots has happened since then. I did go to Bekodoka for two nights and enjoyed it. It was the first time I had stayed in a village. There isn’t a church there and both of the nights I was there, the group that I was with had a service outside the house we were staying in. There were 80-90 people there on both nights. We also were able to give out anti-worm medicine for children. We gave to 125 children and then ran out of medicine. It was kind of sad to see the ones that had to be turned away, but the team is planning on taking more medicine with them next time they go.

Last weekend I had a three day trip down to the South of Madagascar. I had 8 passengers that were doing a survey of the national parks in that area. It was really nice to be able to do a bit of a different type of flying than we normally do. We flew over some very interesting and beautiful areas.

Yesterday, Jakob and I were able to open up an airstrip in the south west of Madagascar. The airstrip is in the small village of Ambatolahy. Yesterday we were able to combine a flight we had to Anjabetrongo, one of the strips that we opened last November, with the flight to open the new airstrip. It was a long day, but everything went really well. The people in Ambatolahy had actually made the airstrip 100 metres longer than we had asked them to. There are missionaries that have been using a helicopter to visit this village. Hopefully we will be able to help them reach Ambatolahy more efficiently with the airstrip there now.

The next couple weeks are going to continue to be quite busy for me. We have a check pilot here to do our checkrides this week and we have an audit coming up next week. It should make for a full couple weeks.

Hello from Tana, where spring is in the air. Well, it certainly is nice and warm here, and I am just enjoying not being cold all the time. The sun feels so great. Lately the girls and I have been doing lots of playing outside to soak it up. I dug out a bunch of summer clothes for the kids yesterday, which they enjoyed.

We are counting down to our trip to Canada! Only a bit more than 3 weeks left, and we are getting excited. It does seem very overwhelming at times, but we are eager to catch up with friends and family. We’ve had e-mails from several people lately, trying to arrange times to visit, and we appreciate that.

It’s hard to believe that school starts again on Friday! That will be Aimee and Sierra’s first day of ‘real’ school. I think they’re a little nervous to think of going without Caitlyn, but I’m sure they’ll do fine.

Last week the 3 oldest girls went to a kids’ Bible club that my friend Erin held at her house. They got to go every morning, Monday to Friday, and they loved it! There were 6-7 kids there each day between the ages of 3-7. Erin had a VBS curriculum from Adventures in Odyssey about the armour of God. It was a real blessing for me to see my kids enjoy something like that, since they haven’t ever been involved in something like VBS. I love hearing them sing the songs they’ve learned about the armour. They also made a helmet, a shield and a belt as crafts. Different toys and shoes fill in for the sword and shoes.

Matthew is going in to a very busy period at work. This weekend he will be gone for a 3-day/2-night trip, then on Monday a training captain is coming from MAF to do some check rides and training for Matthew, Jakob and Josh. After that 2 men from MAF are coming to do an audit that Matthew will be involved with. (I’m not sure what it’s for, exactly!) And soon after that it will be time to leave on our trip. So I’m sure he would appreciate your prayers during the next few weeks.

Thank you again for your prayer support! We are growing more and more aware of how much we need it, especially as a family. Satan would love to see us fighting against each other instead of working together as a team.

Take care, and don’t forget to sign the guestbook!

I need to tell you all about another funny experience I had a couple weeks ago. Again, it’s in relation to getting my motorcycle licence. I was told last when I went to do the oral exam that it would be fine to drive my bike to the practical exam. This was the first time I had ventured into the downtown area on my bike. I don’t really enjoy driving there in the first place and it’s especially scary on a motorcycle. However, I managed to get there in one piece. I scared myself a few times, but didn’t have any real problems.

After waiting for the obligatory 45 minutes with about 50 other applicants, we were divided into groups of 4 to 7 people and told to wait for our examiner. I really didn’t know what to expect for the exam. I was told that it would just be in the parking lot and that I wouldn’t go out onto the road, but that was all I knew. Finally, an examiner came to our group. The first thing he did was ask if there was anyone there for a motorcycle licence. I was the only one. He told me to get my bike and drive to the end of the parking lot (about 100 metres long and as wide as a two lane road) and turn around and drive back. When I got back, he motioned for me to stop and he started walking away. I was a bit confused as to what was going on so I asked a driving instructor who was standing there if that was all. He said that it was, but I couldn’t quite believe it so I asked the examiner, who was half way across the parking lot by now, if that was all. He just asked me if I wanted to do more and then turned around and got into a car to do someone else’s exam. I still could hardly believe that was it, but no one tried to stop me when I went to leave and I found out the next day that I had passed. Let’s just say that the quality of the exam gave me some insight into why there might be a lot of accidents in this country.

On another note, I got to go camping for the first time in Madagascar. Last Friday morning I dropped two MAF guys of in Sahakevo to do some smoothing work on the airstrip. I had another flight to do and then joined them in the afternoon. We worked on the strip until about five in the evening and then spent the night camping there. Saturday, we worked on the ‘strip until about 10:00 A.M. and then went to see a nearby waterfall. We left at about noon and I was home by 2:30 P.M. It was good to go and do some work alongside the local people who are trying to better the airstrip. We were able to get quite a bit done and show them what they need to keep working on.

Tonight I’m getting together with some guys to try to have a hockey night. One of the Canadians that’s living here was on furlough during the playoffs and brought some games back on video. There will probably be three Canadians, one Australian, and a New Zealander. I don’t think the non-Canadians care so much about the hockey, except possibly to try to figure out why in the world we think it’s fun and to try and learn a new sport.

Next week I have a two night overnight trip staying out in the bush. I’m not sure exactly what it will be like, but I think it will be different than what I’ve experienced so far. It’s a place that I’ve been to a few times already, but I’ve never stayed more than a couple hours. I’ll try to let you know how it was.

Do you ever wonder what my life is like? Here’s a little snapshot of what this week is like! I can't believe it's Wednesday already! This week is flying by, just like last week did. Monday I just had a regular Monday, whatever that means. Tuesday I made cookies with the kids, one of C's friends came to play, I hosted the ladies' prayer group, etc. Today I dropped A and S off for a playdate, spent an hour at the hangar doing news stuff, picked up A and S, baked banana bread, served, fed and refereed lunch, and then we went off for a fun afternoon of go-karting. All of the MAF international staff that are here right now went, as well as most of the Helimission staff. It was lots of fun to drive, but just as much fun to enjoy the sunshine with friends. Tonight we hosted homegroup here, and now it's bedtime. Just wanted to let you know we're still alive and well. Tomorrow seems like it could be normal-ish, and Friday will be preparations for the MAF BBQ we are hosting on Saturday, as well as a birthday party in the evening for the programme manager for Helimission, and oh yeah, Matthew's going away all day Friday, is gone overnight and comes back Saturday, hopefully before the BBQ! Long sentence, eh? :) Well, this week I've been challenged to keep my priorities straight, so this should be a good test of that!

This past week we were able to do a flight for the HVM hospital in Mandritsara. This flight took an eye doctor team from Mandritsara to the small town of Mananara. We arrived in Mananara at about 12:00 on Tuesday. The team went to the hospital straightaway to see if everything was ready to start right after lunch. After lunch, the medical team started seeing patients at about 2:00 P.M. They were kept busy with patients until about 7:00 that evening.

The next day began with breakfast at the motel followed by more eye patients starting at 8:30 A.M. There was a line up of people waiting to see the doctors. First, the people went into one room to have some basic eye tests and see the ophthalmologist. After this, if it was determined that they could be helped by having glasses, they were went to another room to be tested further and fitted for glasses. There were three different types of glasses offered. The cheapest were used glasses that have been donated. There were also two or three different levels of new glasses available.

The ophthalmologist was also screening people to see who could benefit from eye surgery, generally cataract removal. In order to have the surgery, the people would need to come to Mandritsara. I’m not sure of the exact number, but there were a number of people who could have benefited, but didn’t have the money to go to Mandritsara. In the end, five patients were found who would benefit from the surgery and had the money to go. Each of the patients had a family member to go with them, so I was able to make an extra trip from Mananara to Mandritsara on the return with a full load of patients.

On Wednesday, the electricity was cut off at the hospital at 6:00 P.M. so the team had to stop. Thursday morning, I was airborne with the load of patients for Mandritsara at 8:30 A.M. while the doctor team finished things up. I returned and picked up the doctor team at around 11:00, took them back to Mandritsara, and returned to ‘Tana with four people.

All in all, the team was able to see just over 100 people in Mananara, fitted about 60 with glasses, and took five back to Mandritsara for eye surgery.

It seems like I just updated, but time flies and this is overdue again. We aren’t busy with anything out of the ordinary, but that seems to be enough.

Caitlyn was sad when her holidays began and would have preferred to stay in school. I discovered that the school has activities 3 mornings a week and Caitlyn was very excited about that. Aimee and Sierra have been going, too. Their first day was a bit rough, but they are enjoying it a lot now. They have been going once or twice a week for the morning. They do a lot of playing outside and arts/crafts things. Larissa misses them a lot while they’re gone and is quite jealous of their “pack-packs”.

The weather is still quite cool, but when the sun is shining the days are warm. We can’t complain too much since we are still buying outdoor plants and we don’t even have to cover them or bring them inside at night! Yesterday we bought a banana tree, but the lady said it will take 1-2 years for it to bear fruit. We’ll see.

Our washing machine called it quits last Tuesday, and after a long and somewhat frustrating search it has been replaced. It’s amazing how much laundry piled up in the meantime! I’m very thankful for a good washing machine for our family!

Matthew flew this morning and got to go to both Marolambo and Sahakevo. He said it was a fun and challenging trip, as both of those airstrips are not really ‘normal’. He’ll be happy to tell you all about it someday. It’s really great to see the airstrip at Sahakevo being used already.

Hope all is well with you and that you are enjoying whatever summer holds for you. We’d love to hear from you, either in the guestbook or by e-mail!

After a bit of a lull for me, the past few days have seemed like a bit of a blur. Last Friday I was able to do the first trip with passengers into Sahakevo. We got the official registration for the airstrip just the week before. It was the first time that any of us had been back there since the big opening ceremony about a month ago. Since that part of the country gets a lot of rain this time of year, I wasn’t sure what condition the airstrip would be in. I was pleasantly surprised. It was still quite bumpy, but it had actually dried out enough that I was able to use the full 650 metre length. When we were there before we were limited to 500 metres. There were three people to go there to check on the progress of an agricultural program that is being run by a Malagasy NGO. I’m supposed to go back and pick them up this Saturday.

 

Yesterday our washing machine decided that it had had enough of washing 10 or more loads of laundry a week. (it’s a pretty small washer) Today I had a guy from MAF, who knows much more than I do about such things, check it out. His verdict was that the electric motor was burnt out. He said that I can probably get it fixed, but it will cost about the same as buying a new one. So tomorrow morning, Rhonda and I are going shopping for a new washing machine. Not exactly what we had planned for this week, but what are you going to do?

 

Rhonda thinks that I should tell you the following story, but it involves a bit of a confession. You see, I’ve been riding my motorcycle for about the past year without a motorcycle license. I’ve been meaning to get it done, but it was just one of those things that I always put off ‘till later. So, after my little accident, I (and Rhonda) thought I should probably do it sooner rather than later. So this morning I had to do an oral exam. Assuming I pass, (I think I did, but I’ll find out tomorrow) I’ll have to do a practical exam. However, the place where I need to go for this is about a 45 minute drive through the centre of the city. After I was done the exam today, I asked the examiner how I’m supposed to do get my motorcycle to the place where they do the exam. They don’t give you a learner’s permit or anything until you pass the practical. He told me just to drive it there. I must have looked a bit shocked because he asked me if I already drove it in town. I kind of sheepishly said I did and he just kind of said something to the effect of “Oh, you shouldn’t have any problem then”. I guess it’s not as big of a deal as I thought it was.

 

Time for another update! Life moves along quickly and before I know it, it’s been a long time since the last update.

 

Rachel has been gone a week already, and I can’t believe how quickly her visit went. The day she left was Madagascar’s Independence Day, and the night before we got together with our MAF colleagues. We ate, of course, and then walked down the street with the kids carrying their paper lanterns. Then we waited for ages for the fireworks to start. They were pretty good fireworks, and the kids sure enjoyed them! (They are very easy to please!) It was a fun evening, and I will try to post pictures of the lanterns soon.

 

Caitlyn had her last week of school and had her last school program on Saturday morning. Her class sang a few songs, recited 2 poems, and danced 3 Malagasy dances. She really enjoyed it, and is sad that it’s ‘all’ over. The plan is that she will be able to go back to school a little bit every week next year, so that she can maintain (and hopefully improve) her French. Aimee and Sierra enjoyed watching the dances, and are talking about when they turn 4, go to school and learn dances.

 

Matthew told me today that there are quite a few flight requests for the coming week, so that is good to hear. With 3 pilots, it’s nice to have a busy flight schedule. Hopefully Matthew will update soon about the MAF side of life!

 

The weather has been quite chilly lately, and it’s hard to believe that most of you are enjoying warm/hot weather! I don’t think the highs have been over about 18* C. So, we try to get out in the sun to warm up when we can. When the sun doesn’t come out, it feels even cooler, so we do appreciate sunny days. (I also have roses, azaleas, and other flowers blooming right now, so I’ll try not to complain too much. Although, while those flowers are beautiful, they don’t keep me warm…)

 

Unfortunately, most of us now have colds/coughs, but at least we are over the stomach problems! I’d rather deal with runny noses then some other things! Larissa seems to have it the worst, but she is fairly cheerful in spite of it all.

 

A new Dutch family has arrived to join the MAF team here. They have 2 boys – one is just a few days younger than Caitlyn and one is almost 3. This means that our program is now fully staffed, so that is a blessing. We had a BBQ to welcome them and the size of the group has sure changed in the last few months! If we are all there, we have 12 adults and 7 kids. It’s fun.

 

Well, I will close for now…don’t forget to sign the guestbook! Have a good week!

 

Hello from Madagascar…it’s finally quiet here, so I thought I will add a little to what Matthew wrote yesterday. He is gone now until Thursday, and Rachel and the kids and I have spent a relaxing day here. I think the girls are all on the road to recovery, which is relaxing in itself!

 

We had a nice weekend, and enjoyed seeing a new part of Madagascar. We got to see a beautiful 20 metre waterfall, some small (cold water) geysers and drive up to lookout over a big lake. It was fun to be out of the city and enjoying the countryside. It was quite warm there and we were all ‘sweaty hot’, as Aimee would say. Unfortunately, I didn’t know that there was a pool at our hotel, so we didn’t have bathing suits along. L Maybe next time!

 

Caitlyn only has this week and next week left before her “summer” holidays. I am a little sad that she is ending her time there. Lately, I have been realizing what a blessing her teacher has been in helping her adjust to life here.

 

It is fun to have Rachel here. Aimee and Sierra always ask, “Is Auntie Rachel going to still be here tomorrow?” They will be sad when she’s not. Larissa has warmed up to her, except now that she’s been sick, she’s a little harder to please. I think that Rachel and I are going to the souvenir market tomorrow, so that will be an adventure, I’m sure.

 

Oh, I have to add this little story about Larissa. We had to walk through a little village on the way to see the waterfall, and we passed several zebu carts. When she saw the zebus, she clung to me and said, “Moose, detch you.” (Moose get you.) I don’t know exactly why she thought they were moose, but I thought it was kind of funny considering that she’s never seen a moose except in a book.

 

Well, I don’t feel very wordy tonight, so I will say good night for now!

Wow, a lot has happened since we last updated. One week ago today was the official opening of the airstrip in Sahakevo. The weather was great and it was really amazing. Since we aren’t yet allowed to take passengers there, one load of people went in the helimission helicopter from ‘Tana, and I took another load of people in the airplane to Marolambo. (only about 10 minutes away by air) The helicopter then came and picked them up and took them ahead of me to Sahakevo. Then Josh (one of our other pilots) and I brought the airplane in and landed. We estimated that there were at least two thousand people from the surrounding villages waiting for us on the ground. I couldn’t believe it. You have to realize that this was nearly everyone from all the villages within a two hour walk. Of course, I had to pick this time to get stuck in one of the soft spots while I was trying to turn around after landing. After a bit of digging and pulling, everything was fine. There was a ceremony that lasted about one hour. I’m not sure exactly how to describe the day, but it was great to be able to actually bring the airplane in after the people there had put so much time and effort into helping build the airstrip. After the ceremony we did the reverse trip with the helicopter ferrying one load of people to Marolambo and us taking them the rest of the way.

 

Wednesday we were supposed to go with Rachel to the rainforest. When we woke up Wednesday morning, Larissa had a fever of over 103°. Rhonda wasn’t comfortable with the idea of taking her like that so Rachel, Caitlyn, Sierra, and I went to the rainforest. It was fun, but it would have been nice if the others could have been there. We just stayed one night and came back Thursday.

 

Friday we all went to a new place for us. It’s about two and a half hours drive west of ‘Tana. Since Rhonda was along, I let her fill you in on more of the details of that trip.

 

We got back yesterday afternoon and by about 10:00 P.M. it was clear that Larissa was not over her sickness. I’ll spare you the details, but lets just say that Rhonda and I had to wake her up, give her a bath, and change all her bedding. So we finally got to sleep at around 11:00, (kind of late for us) only to be awakened at 12:30 by Sierra. She was now sick as well so we bathed her and changed her bedding. About 30 minutes later, we changed it again. After that, we were up with her about every two hours for the rest of the night. They both seem to be doing some better by now, but they aren’t back to normal yet.

 

So because of all this I was almost a half hour late leaving for work this morning. If you don’t know, we live about 4 Km. from the airport and I have a little Honda motorbike that I use to go back and forth. I was not quite half way there when someone decided to make a U turn and pulled out right in front of me. I couldn’t miss him and I couldn’t quite stop. I hit the car at about the front tire and went over the corner of the hood. I then landed just in time to get slightly smushed by my bike which had so faithfully followed me over the car. After everything had come to a stop, I had the wind knocked out of me, but I was somewhat surprised at how much of me didn’t seem to be broken. After a minute or so, I was able to get up and off the road. A few minutes later, I was feeling good enough to pick my bike up and get it off the road. I called one of our Malagasy staff and he came after about ten minutes or so and helped me get everything sorted out with the other driver and with the police. The car was actually damaged as much or more than my bike. It was definitely the other drivers fault, but I didn’t have the heart to make him pay for getting my bike fixed. MAF has a vehicle garage here and they should be able to do most of the work so it probably won’t cost me much. I was able to drive it the rest of the way to work, but it’s kind of bent. As for me, I ended up with about a nickel sized scraping away of my skin on my left leg and some scratches on my right. My left heel and my chest are also sore. I think I’ll really feel it tomorrow. I’m supposed to go flying tomorrow. If I really can’t do it, the other pilot has said he will, but I think I’ll be alright.

 

I really want to acknowledge God’s protection in all this. I’m sure I’ll be sore for a while and it’s inconvenient to not have my bike, but it really could have been much worse.

Hello to you all. It’s a beautiful day here today, although it is cool. Last night it got down to 12* C. The sun is shining now and it feels good.

 

Matthew is gone to Sahakevo for the airstrip opening there. I’m looking forward to hearing his report.

 

Of course we are enjoying Rachel’s visit. The girls love the extra attention, and talk to her almost non-stop. (Very unlike Rachel and I, you know. J) We are planning on going to the rainforest tomorrow for one night, and then on Friday we will go out to Ampefy to see the waterfalls and geysers there. (Ampefy is near the town I was in with the group from church a few weeks ago.) So we’re having fun. Yesterday we went to church and then went out to eat with friends. Saturday Rachel and I had a fact-finding trip to the souvenir market so that she could see what all is there.

 

I don’t have much more to say, but I wanted to let you know that we are all fine! I’m sure we’ll have a lot to say in a few days…between Matthew’s trip today to open the airstrip and our trips out of town…maybe next week you’ll hear from us!

 

Have a great week. (And don’t forget the guestbook!)

Hi everyone. Yesterday was a momentous day. We were able to open the airstrip at Sahakevo. Sahakevo is a village in the rainforest just to the south of Marolambo. We have had a team working there for the last four weeks trying to build an airstrip. We had originally thought that it would take about two weeks to get done, but as with most jobs, it ended up taking longer than anticipated. There were two holes that needed to be filled in along with a lot of clearing and leveling. We had figured about right for the two holes, but we didn’t think the rest of the work would take as long as it did. We also didn’t count on having rain for almost all of the last week. Finally, last Friday, we went by helicopter and pulled all the equipment and our people out. That was a new experience for me. The helicopter had to make 4 sling loads to get all the stuff out. We put in a fairly hard but good days work getting everything cleaned up and out of there. The airstrip is 650 metres long and is in a valley. This isn’t a problem except that because of the rain, the last 150 metres or so aren’t usable. It should dry out, but right now it’s like a sponge.

 

So that was Friday. Saturday, Jacob and I flew there. Jacob did the first landing and takeoff and then I did a landing and takeoff as well. It’s a very interesting approach and landing. Basically, you have to follow the valley floor for about the last 400 feet of the decent. That allows you about a 20° turn to final at about 100 feet. The nice thing is that you can go around at any point up to the runway threshold. The airstrip is still quite rough, but is usable. The problem is that until the last 150 metres dries out, we don’t have enough runway length to take much of a load in or out. We would be limited to 2 passengers on most days. Tomorrow we will be having a ceremony to officially open the airstrip. However, we have to wait for the government paperwork to go through and for the airstrip to dry out before we will really be able to start using it.

 

This has been a long project for MAF and for the villages around Sahakevo. We were using the story of how the people in these villages wanted airstrips in our presentations before we left to come here so it was great to be able to be involved in seeing it get done.

I’ll try to put up some pics soon.

 

Hello! Once again, it’s been awhile since we’ve given you any news…life just gets busy and we procrastinate. So, today we decided that Matthew will write an update about MAF/flying stuff and I will write a bit about family news.

 

Overall, we are all fine. Today a few of us are fighting colds and coughs again, complete with runny noses. (Yuck.) It’s nothing serious, though, and as the mother I can say that I am grateful for the recent stretch of fairly good health we’ve had. (By that I mean no one has had bad stomach illnesses or fevers, etc.)

 

Caitlyn is still enjoying school a lot. Last week she learned how to ride her bike without training wheels and so she has been riding bike every spare minute. She really loves the feeling of not having those training wheels on!

 

Aimee is still the hugging/kissing/cuddling one of the bunch, and it sure brightens my day when she comes to me just to tell me that she loves me. She is very good at riding her tricycle now, and likes to follow Caitlyn around while she’s riding her bike.

 

Sierra is always moving if she’s awake, and when she’s sleeping, she’s really out! She sees life in a very innocent way. Yesterday the three oldest were invited to a birthday party, and when they came home they told me that they had played a game similar to “Pin the tail on the donkey”. I asked Sierra if she had to wear a blindfold and she very innocently said, “Well, I just couldn’t see when I had that thing on. So I had to take it off!”

 

Larissa is talking more all the time. This afternoon when Matthew brought her downstairs after her nap, she came to me and said, “Daddy. Carry. Bed. Sleeping. Blanket. Daddy. Nap. Bed. Stairs.” So, she gets her point across! She loves to sing, and it’s cute to see her enthusiasm.

 

The girls continue to ask questions about our trip to Canada in September. They have so many questions. I think that they are expecting snow and relatives. J  Matthew and I are also thinking ahead and making many lists about what all will need to be done/bought/seen/etc while we’re there. I admit it’s overwhelming to think of it all, but I know that we’ll be so glad to see everyone that we won’t mind the busyness too much! We are working on booking tickets and are very grateful for the good price that we found. It looks like we’ll be gone from September 21 to November 5.

 

We’ve been having a lot of guests lately for meals, etc. I think we had guests everyday this last week except Monday. It’s fun, and it’s a lot less stressful for me since I have Mr Frank to help me with other household chores. Of course the girls find it all very exciting. J

 

The weather is beautiful these days, although the nights are chilly. Sometimes it feels a little bit like we’re camping, since we have to dress quite warmly for the nights (it’s been getting down to about 13* C.) and then the days warm up so nicely. Today we had a picnic lunch and it was just perfect in the sun. We’ve been having a fire some evenings, and that is nice. The girls love to get dressed in front of the fire after baths.

 

Maybe Matthew will write more about the work on the Sahakevo airstrip, but I just have to say that I got to go along on the helicopter that took in more supplies and crew. It was a very exciting day – my first helicopter trip, good progress on the airstrip by a very enthusiastic team, a day with my husband and beautiful scenery. Very nice! I’ll try to get some pictures posted soon.

 

Lately I have been feeling discouraged about motherhood, and wondering if I’ll ever begin to feel more confident. Sometimes it just is very frustrating to be the one that all four girls want…at the exact same time! Yesterday I read a quote that made me feel more optimistic: “There is not one way to be a perfect mother, but there are a million ways to be a good one.” (Unfortunately, I don’t know who to credit that to.) I pray that God will give me wisdom to see the ‘little’ ways to be a good mother and help me to relax my expectations of being the perfect mother.

 

Thanks to all of you who have signed the guestbook! (I won’t do this very often, but I have to say a special thanks to Twila and Carolyn for signing. I’ve been missing some of my “Red Lake aunts” and it made my day to see your messages! Thanks!)

 

 

 

I (Matthew) will try to fill you in on a bit of the flying and other stuff that I’ve been up to.
As Rhonda mentioned, the airstrip work in Sahakevo has been one of the major things for about the last two weeks. Just over two weeks ago, about six people from MAF drove two trucks, a trailer, and a car about 5 or 6 hours south so they could get as close as possible to Sahakevo. The next day, Helimission did about 8 trips with the helicopter to get four guys, two four wheelers, one mini-excavator, two four wheeler trailers, a bunch of fuel, and enough camping gear and food to last a minimum of two weeks into Sahakevo. Yesterday was our initial target date to try to pull everyone and everything out, but when Rhonda and I went in about a week ago, it didn’t look like everything was going to be done by then so we are now planning for next Thursday. Last Thursday I was able to fly over the airstrip and it looks like the work is progressing well enough to make that possible.

 

Because of having to fly, I haven’t been terribly involved in the hands on work, most of what I’ve been doing is related to getting all the paper work in order so that we will be able to use the airstrip after it’s ready.

 

The flight schedule seems to go in swells. About a month ago, we were very busy. We didn’t have to turn very many people away, but we had to work pretty hard to find ways to accomplish all the flying. However, the last two weeks have been a lot quieter. Last week we had flights on Thursday and Friday. So far, we have flights Monday, Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday of this coming week. Our new pilot, Josh, is now able to fly on his own so I might not get to fly quite as much for the next month or so.

 

Right now we have three pilots for one airplane. However, Jakob will be gone for the month of August and I will be gone for almost seven weeks starting the end of September we should have a second Caravan here sometime around the end of the year.

 

Bye for now.

You may download our August 2005 newsletter in page format. The file requires Adobe Acrobat reader--which is probably already on your computer. The file size is 290kb, and will take a few minutes if you are using a dial-up connection. You may click here to view and/or print it: slaubaugh.pdf

 

For a look at the entire library of Latest News entries, click on http://www.freewebs.com/matthewrhonda/archiveslatestnews.htm

Good morning! It’s a cold, sort of gray morning and I’m tempted to make a fire. Last night it was down to about 13* C, which felt a little chilly, I must say. I guess winter is really here. Hopefully the sun will come out soon and warm us up a little.

 

Besides trying to stay warm, we are keeping busy with life here. Matthew was quite busy with flying last week, but this week hasn’t had any trips. The airplane is undergoing an inspection, so it’s out of service this week. He will be flying on Saturday, if all goes as planned.

 

(The cat just came and curled up on my lap…I guess he’s cold, too.)

 

MAF-Madagascar is involved with airstrip construction and development, and this week is the beginning of a long-awaited project in a community called Sahakevo. You probably don’t remember, but we actually used this village in our support-raising presentation. About the time that we started raising support, the leader of this village walked out to ask if MAF would build an airstrip in Sahakevo. There is a community near by that MAF flies to on a regular basis, called Marolambo. (You may remember that airstrip…so far the most challenging one for MAF-Mad pilots…it’s on a slope and curves around a bit, too.) The people of Sahakevo can walk to Marolambo in 2 days, but if they had an airstrip it would be a 10 minute flight! Amazing, eh? I understand that they often have supplies sent to Marolambo and then carry them to their village. Now, after much preparation, a team of men (MAF staff, both local and international) is leaving Tana with more than 2 tons of equipment and supplies and driving down as far as they have good road. Tomorrow the Helimission helicopter will ferry the team and their supplies into Sahakevo. They will work for one week, and then the helicopter will bring in food, fuel and other supplies for them, as well as replace some of the team. It’s an exciting project and they hope that with help from the people of Sahakevo the airstrip will be functional at the end of two weeks. Please pray for the health and strength of the team, as well as for good working relationships with the villagers. I know they all would appreciate your prayers.

 

In family news, Caitlyn is back in school and enjoying it a lot. She goes until the end of June and then she is ready for Grade 1. Hard for me to believe! I think we may wait to begin her school work for next year until after our trip to Canada. Aimee and Sierra are looking forward to our trip already and often ask if we’re going ‘tomorrow’. I think it’s very difficult for them to comprehend how long it is yet. They are also looking forward to Auntie Rachel’s visit (well, we all are!) and even that seems so far away to them. Larissa is talking more and more, and also becoming more and more independent. She is still quite agreeable for the most part and often answers us with a little “Sure!” or “O-tay!” Of course, she is a toddler and we hear, “NO!” and “Stop it!” quite often, too.

 

Matthew and I had our 8^th anniversary on the 2^nd, and we had a chance to go out for dinner on Monday night. A friend of ours agreed to watch the girls and away we went. We had a great time…we went to the Hilton, which is fairly upscale. We ate hamburgers and fries. Classy, eh? Well, I haven’t had a hamburger since we got here, and Matthew’s had a few but they didn’t really taste like he expected them to taste. These were SO good! I think I smiled all through mine. Small pleasures, I guess. As we were eating our dessert, our babysitter (who is also a midwife) sent us a text saying that she had to go…one of her clients was in labour! She called another friend to come and stay with the girls, and left. J It was all fine, just an interesting twist to the evening!

 

I would like to wish all the moms who are reading this a very happy Mother’s Day! May God give you the wisdom, strength, love and patience that you need to be the mother He wants you to be!

Well, everyone survived the weekend. Actually, my side of things went quite well. It was the first time I had all four of the girls for any extended period by myself. We all drove together to go drop Rhonda off at the church where everyone was meeting. Larissa didn’t like it to much when she realized that Rhonda wasn’t coming home with us, but she got over it quickly. Sierra had a bit of a hard time as well on the drive home, but once we got home everyone seemed to accept that this was just the way it was going to be for a few days.

 

Rhonda had a really good weekend, but I’ll let her fill you in on that. Most of the people stayed until Monday, but she came home Sunday evening on a taxi-brousse.

 

Today is labour day here so most people are off work. I went in to the office for a couple hours this morning to tie up a few loose ends that needed doing. I’m leaving Tomorrow morning for a two night three day trip to the south. It’s one of our Mad Mission Runs so the passengers are a mixture from the local church, one or two missions, and an NGO. If anyone wants to take the time to look up the these places on the map: we will go from ‘Tana to Farafangana to Ambovombe tomorrow. On Thursday we will go from Ambovombe to Ft. Dauphin to Vangaindrano to Farafangana to Mananjary to ‘Tana.

 

 

 

Hello everyone…

 

I can safely say that I’ve had few weekends that were more memorable than the past weekend! We left Tana on Friday evening and had about a 2.5 hour drive to Analovory. We got to drive through some really beautiful scenery, but it was dark when we got there. That night is a bit foggy in my memory, since we sorted out hotel rooms, unloaded the vehicles, ordered supper, waited for supper, met the local pastor and his wife, ate supper, talked about our expectations for the weekend, etc. It was almost 11 till I got to bed, and I left the restaurant right after dessert! I was exhausted.

 

Saturday we were divided into 4 smaller groups and people from the local church guided us through the town to hand out tracts, invite people to church and give presentations with the EvangiCube. (if you google Evangicube, you will be able to see what that is.) It was so fun to share the Gospel with people who were at the very least polite, and often very interested. We walked around all morning doing that, and I would have been sunburned to a crisp (because I hadn’t thought to bring sunscreen or a hat) except that one of the ladies who guided us was so thoughtful and held her umbrella so I could share it with her.

 

We took a break and then went to the church for an afternoon meeting. There were sessions for the ladies and the youth. (The men met in the evening.) When we arrived, there were lots of children there, so about 4 of us were quickly recruited to do a children’s session. Yikes. I had 2 coloring books and 36 colored pencils, and there were about 45 kids. We quickly decided that we could tell the story of creation using some pictures we found in the coloring books. We then talked about how man sinned, creating separation between God and man and the need for payment for sin. Then we used the EvangiCube again and spent quite a lot of time making sure they understood it. The other groups were not nearly done, so we quickly decided that the kids could color pictures. There were some kids who had their own pencil, but some kids had to share one, and they were so patient. It was amazing. I don’t think you could find kids in North America who would be so easily entertained. Eventually one of the guys from our team ran out to get a pencil sharpener and he bought more colored pencils. They quickly ran out, even though we tried to make sure that each child just had one. About then we did a recount, and there were at least 80 kids there! Amazing. It was fun, but exhausting. Two of our guys eventually just stood in the middle of the room sharpening pencils. We also got to give each one a small candy and that was a pleasure. They were so grateful.

 

That night I had dinner with one of the ladies while her husband was at the men’s meeting. When the men came back we had a quick meeting to recap the day and plan for Sunday and then I fell into bed!

 

Sunday morning I got up at 5:00 because we were supposed to leave at 6:00. The plan was for one small team to stay there and preach at the local church. The second team walked for 2.5 hours (!) to a small village and had a church service. Our team took a taxi-brousse (bush taxi – a 15 passenger van that holds anywhere from15-26 people) for an hour and then walked for 1 hour over a mountain to a little village. The morning started out so cool that I could see my breath, but it quickly warmed up to ‘hot’. We were advised that it would be culturally appropriate to wear skirts for the weekend, so I was wearing a skirt. Also, I had not known that we would be hiking up mountains, so I had only taken my Birkenstocks. Yikes. Hiking up a mountain in a skirt and Birks is not reassuring. Also, there were steep, deep drop-offs beside the path and I am not fond of heights. We also had to cross 2 rivers, one that we could sort of jump across and one that we waded across. But, I was determined to go, and by the time I was concerned about the wisdom of the plan, I was too far to go back! We did make it and it was very worthwhile! The village is made up of an elderly couple, their married children (8 sons and 1 daughter) and their grandchildren. We had a service in the home of the grandparents and all 5 of us (4 of us from our team plus the pastor from Analavory) shared a testimony or short sermon. It was so encouraging to see how hungry they were for God’s word. Also, I was amazed by how what we shared fit together, even though we had not discussed what we would say. After we left, the pastor from Analavory told us that he would have thought that we knew the background of that village as we planned what to say! Wow. After church they fed us lunch, which I’m sure was a sacrifice on their part. We had rice, pork and some type of greens, a salad, bread and bananas. I was so touched by their generosity. They kept telling us how honored and encouraged they were.

 

Then we rolled down the mountain and went home. J Well, not really. It was still a long, hot hike to get down to the bottom again. Then we caught a taxi-brousse back to Analavory. On the way back I noticed that I had cellphone coverage so I called Matthew and we decided that it would be better if I came home that night. (The rest of the team was staying to do sightseeing today since it’s a holiday.) One of the guys on the team had to work today, so he was traveling back as well. I was glad to have someone to travel with since I had never taken a taxi-brousse before that morning. We had a good trip back until about 2 or 3 kms before our destination here in Tana. Then we had a flat tire! So, I called Matthew to see where he was waiting, and Nate (the guy I was traveling with) and I just walked the rest of the way. Needless to say, I am in some discomfort today, since I am not in shape for that sort of activity!

 

Overall, it was a really rewarding weekend, even though it was full of stretching experiences. I’m hoping to be able to go back again someday. Oh, and don’t I have a great husband? I’m so impressed that he encouraged me to go, and willingly stayed here with the kids. J

 Hello again! It’s another beautiful day in Tana, and I’m enjoying some peace and quiet while the girls have naps and/or quiet times. We are really have nice weather lately and I love it! Sunny, but not too hot. I’m hoping this hangs around for awhile before it gets cold.

 

We’ve had a busy week or two, and I don’t see signs of it slowing down soon. J Here’s a quick look at life lately.

 

We have new neighbours, from Canada! J It’s been fun getting to know them, and we hope they are feeling at home.

 

Matthew turned 30, and we had a small party for him with our fellow MAF staff.

 

Matthew had to fly Sunday, but he took most of Tuesday off, so that was really nice.

 

Caitlyn is enjoying her holidays, and I’m totally loving the more laid back morning routine!! I don’t miss the commute at all!

 

The kids are mostly well, but Aimee is still fighting a nasty cough. Larissa also has a little cough and really runny nose. (Didn’t you come here to find that out? J)

 

I’m leaving on Friday afternoon to go on a weekend missions trip through our church. We are going west to a small, poor village and helping out in the church and community there. It’s all very unknown to me, so I’m nervous and excited! It will be great to get to see ‘real’ Malagasy life. Matthew is totally behind me in this, and the fact that he will be home with all four kids all weekend is real proof! Pray for us all, please!

 

Well, I think I’ll leave it at that for now. Have a good weekend!

Hello once again…it’s a quiet Tuesday evening. The kids are all in bed, I think that Matthew is headed that way and I’m going to take a few minutes to keep this site from becoming too outdated.

 

We had a good Easter weekend, although it seemed busy. Saturday was mostly a normal Saturday…grocery shopping, cleaning, etc. Sunday morning we went to church, of course, and so did a whole lot of other people. J It was full, but it was a good service with a focus on grace. Afterwards, we came home where I slaved away to make a full-course meal of tuna sandwiches. J Not a traditional Easter dinner, perhaps, but we had a big meal planned for the evening. Actually, our kids are always happy to eat tuna sandwiches. It’s probably Larissa’s favorite meal. Sunday evening our fellow Canadians, Kevin and Erin and their kids, joined us for a big dinner of spaghetti, etc. Once again, not exactly traditional, but we still enjoyed making it a special occasion with friends. After dinner, the guys played guitar and sang together while the kids watched a video and played and the women talked.

 

Easter Monday is a big holiday here, so after we had done some bedroom cleaning and other necessary chores, we packed up and went out to have a picnic. We went out to the same place that you see on the “Family Photos” page, and ate a lunch of cold spaghetti and garlic bread. J (Yes, another non-traditional meal…but you should have seen the amount of leftover spaghetti we had…there’s still enough for one more meal in the freezer!) It was a gorgeous day and we enjoyed getting out of town. On the way there, we passed literally thousands of people walking out of town for picnics. It was amazing. There were vehicles, too, but the vast majority were walking. Picnics are a big deal here on holidays, and this was no exception. There were vendors set up along the roads to sell food, drinks, toys, hats and other things to the picnic goers. Quite a sight!

 

This week I am helping to get the other MAF house in our compound ready for the new family. They arrive tomorrow night. Josh was here a few weeks ago to do his training, so we are now looking forward to meeting his wife, Jocelyn and their baby, Judah.

 

Caitlyn has school this week and then she has two weeks of holidays. Aimee and Sierra are as busy as ever. They both are still fighting colds and coughs (actually almost all of us are), but it doesn’t really seem to slow them down. Larissa is on a mission to be in charge of us all. J Her favorite words seem to have changed to “Don’t!” and “Stop it!” Is it possible that she’s getting a head start on being 2? J She loves the cat, and is often seen carrying it around. Since the cat is still growing, I’m not sure how long she will be able to keep that up. Poor Tiger.

 

Our weather seems to be changing. This morning when I got up, it was only 17 degrees Celsius. (Now I know a lot of you are snickering and thinking that I’m getting a little soft, but consider that we don’t have heat in our rooms…) It feels a little cool. The days are still fairly warm, but today the house didn’t really warm up very well.

 

Oh! How could I forget? We were happy to get the news that Jose proposed to my sister Kim and she accepted! Congratulations Jose and Kim! This means that we are now planning a trip to Canada around the 3^rd week of September, and we will be gone for 6 weeks. We are looking forward to it, although it sort of makes our heads spin to think of all that we will need to accomplish in that time! (We do look forward to finally meeting Jose, though!)

 

In upcoming events, someone here at our house is preparing to turn 30, and I'll give you a hint: It's not me! :-) Happy birthday, Matthew!

 

Well, I think I should get to bed. Mornings seem to come fairly quickly these days! Have a good day, and please sign the guestbook so that we know you were here. Thanks!

 

P.S. I know I owe a lot of people personal letters, but don’t hold your breath for them this week. I’ll try to catch up soon…

Just to let you know, on Monday I did get to see the President of Madagascar. He was going to be visiting some sites where UNICEF has been doing famine relief work. I had flown a delegation from UNICEF down to the small town where they were supposed to be meeting at 10:00 A.M. Unfortunately the President didn’t show up until almost 2:00 in the afternoon. We had to leave at 3:00 to come back to ‘Tana so there wasn’t much time. There was a little program with some speeches. It was really hot so I wasn’t disappointed when it ended. It was kind of fun to see him though. It was the first time I’d seen the head of state of any country.

Happy Birthday Caleb and Alicia!

 

Hello to you all on this Monday afternoon. It is a really gorgeous day here in Tana…sunny and warm! We have been having really nice weather and I’m trying to soak up the warmth before the cool season starts in a month or so.

 

Well, this last week has gone by very quickly, as usual. Matthew did the Mad Mission Run from Tuesday to Thursday. He was delayed a few hours because of all aircraft in Madagascar (except for a few of the more major airlines that fly in from out of country) being grounded! Eventually he got permission to fly and made it home around 8:00 that evening. Part of the flying he did was for the Wycliffe work that is done here. They are translating the book of Luke into different dialects right now, I believe.

 

On Saturday we ‘loaned’ the girls out to friends (except for Larissa) and went to the Grand Braderie with Adam and Naomi. The Grand Braderie is held 3 or 4 times a year and vendors set up booths to display their wares. Clothing is probably the most common item, but we also saw shoes, backpacks, toys, kitchen things, rugs, fabric, and food. It was hot and busy, but we enjoyed it. I managed to get some clothes for the girls and I, so that was good. We ended up eating lunch with the family that Caitlyn had been with, so that was a nice time with them. We had a pretty low-key afternoon.

 

Sunday afternoon we went out hiking for awhile and had a really good time. It’s not hard to get out of the city for awhile and we always enjoy it so much, so I’m not sure why we don’t do it more often! J The kids are already planning to go again soon, and think that we must take a picnic along next time. I’ll try to get some pictures posted sometime soon.

 

Last night after the kids were in bed, I soundly beat Matthew in a game of Settlers.

 

Today Matthew is flying someone (UNICEF?) to Vangaindrano. He got up at 4:00 this morning, so I didn’t ask too many questions. J He took the camera along because he heard that the president of Madagascar will be there…we’ll see!

 

 

Wow, it’s the end of March already! Amazing. Life just doesn’t seem to slow down. Matthew has been busy at work with paperwork and other responsibilities that were slightly neglected while he was busy with flying. He hasn’t been flying much the last two weeks while the plane was used for training, so it’s been catch up time. Josh’s training is done now, but the plane is in for maintenance today. Tomorrow Matthew leaves on a trip till Thursday, down to Vangaindrano. (That’s a Mad Mission Run trip.) Josh will return with his family around the 18^th of April, I think.

 

Things are fine here at home, except for some coughing. Nothing too serious, though, and I think we’re almost done with it. Caitlyn just got her first report card, and is doing very well at school. Her only struggle is simply not having the French vocabulary that she needs. It is coming along, but that just takes time! Aimee and Sierra are doing well. They like to play Baby Jesus (with the cat playing the role of the baby) and Mary. Interestingly, this game usually includes a 3^rd character: King Herod. Cheery, eh? They also play a lot of things from different videos they have, like Little Bear or Bambi. Larissa is changing all the time. She loves to ask, “Where?” and say, “Oh.” Yesterday she also asked, “Why?” and I sort of cringed. J I tried to tell her that 18 months old is too young to be asking why, but I think that getting her to stop copying her sisters will be almost impossible! J She also says, “My turn.” And she means it!

 

What else can I tell you? I thought the weather was cooling off, until last night. It was still 23* C when we went to bed at almost 10:00. I haven’t looked at the temperature this morning, but it’s a pleasant day today. Sunny and not too hot. We are still enjoying BBQs and probably won’t let the cool weather stop that! We’ve figured out which steaks and marinade goes together…delicious! I promise, if you come over, we’ll fix it for you! J

 

Friday night we went out for dinner with the MAF team. I wasn’t planning on going because we hadn’t found a babysitter, and also Sierra and Larissa had vaccinations that day and they were a little cranky. Ten minutes before Matthew was supposed to go, my friend Erin called and insisted that I should go, too! I never knew I could wash my hair, change my clothes and get out the door that quickly! We had a fun time, and it was good to be out with adults! We didn’t get home till 11:00…yawn.

 

Saturday morning I went to a ladies’ breakfast at church. It was nice to see the ladies in a different setting, and have fun together. We were challenged to let God into each area of our lives to do what he needs to, in order to make us who he wants us to be.

 

Tonight Josh is coming over for dinner and a Settlers game. It’s been good to get to know him, and we look forward to meeting the rest of his family!

 

Have a good week, and don’t forget…we love to hear your news, too!

Things I’ve seen being sold by people walking between moving lanes of traffic:

 

Phone and internet cards*

Newspapers*

Towels

Blenders
Toilet plungers

Flashlights**

Oranges, apples, grapes, litchis, strawberries, mangos

Mesh laundry baskets

Flowers

Mobile phone accessories

 

 

 

*These are the most commonly seen. We buy the cards in order to use our mobile phones and the internet connection at our house.

**One guy shone one of those LED flashlights right in Matthew’s eyes as we were stuck in a traffic jam. Matthew was less than impressed, to say the least. We didn’t buy the flashlight.