Hi All
I’m writing this while on the plane flying over Addis Ababa, thinking of
all the quilts that have been made at St James the Less, now on the beds of the
orphans getting ready to go sleep there.
I expect that by the time we get to Manga, I will be too tired to write,
but might manage to hit send! So, if you get this we have arrived safely, and
are going to have a few hours sleep before driving on to Antsirabe. We met Jacky
Lowe from Florida at Paris airport. She had missed her flight from Fort
Lauderdale to Atlanta, and begged people on the standby flight until she found
one lady willing to give up her seat to Jacky! How gracious!
We met a family from Cleveland boarding the plane – how could three English
people resist talking to a young man wearing a Manchester United shirt? The
family were bringing a tall young Malagasy man back to Madagascar, to his roots
for the first time in 15 years since he was adopted. They are also part of a
medical and water providing mission. They will be staying at a Jesuit house in
Antananarivo and visiting the orphanage he came from.
Food on Air France is still very good – even here in economy class. We got
our two seats together and didn’t have to sit in a row of three – and there were
only 16 of the 400 or so seats in that configuration!
Later that night:
The younger son of the family from Cleveland was stellar! He got to the front of the baggage collecting line at the conveyor belt and offered to pass out our 50lb bags, as well as theirs (and they had 5 apiece! This helped us enormously, and speeded up our leaving the airport a lot, as he passed the bags to me, Simon then took them through the crowd to Jacky who was waiting with the carts
3 am Wednesday July 1 – we arrived safely – with all our bags and nearly a
million ariary each! Unfortunately there was no internet connection available
at Manga (not the first time we’ve experienced that there) but it was good to
see them all again (this is now our 4th stay there). So we couldn’t send this
message immediately.
We are now at our second night’s hotel, and one guest at a time can connect
to the internet after 5pm only! It is beautiful – with lovely gardens, and 2 cute dogs. Our
driver arrived in good time this morning, and we managed to fit 4 suitcases into
the vehicle he is driving us in. Alain from the Diocese is going to return to
Toliara on Saturday by taxi brousse taking the other 4 bags. Please pray that
they get there safely, as almost all our supplies are in them.
Or he may drive Todd, Patsy and the Mason family down instead! We’ll find
out more on Saturday, if they all get to the same hotel, prior to the service at
Sakaraha on Sunday. Please pray for Rev Hery – the priest at Sakaraha who is in
hospital after a motor-bike accident. He may be released today. Bruce tells us
Todd is planning to do a confirmation service at Sakaraha on Sunday as we were
going to be there. We’ll see what happens. Todd and Patsy are due at Manga
guesthouse tonight. Bruce and family seem to be having a great time with the
street children’s ministry.
Thank you all for your prayer support
Sue
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