We are the Babbs family. Sue, Simon & Matthew visited Madagascar in July 2014. We fell in love with the country, people and wildlife, and keep returning!
To end our busy week in Amboasary, the team from St James the Less, Northfield (Simon & Sue Babbs & Josh Langhoff), with friends from France (Paul & Maggie Simmons) had a relaxing day. We invited the local church leaders and their families to join us at Berenty Reserve. We enjoyed time with the radiated tortoises (named for the patterns on their shells) and the lemurs! We even spottied a rare blue-eyed ringtail lemur, and watched zebu being driven through the forest to the River Mandrare for a drink.
Since Covid, Sue had been knitting and crocheting hats, with donated yarn. She had brought them all to Madagascar, but not known to whom they were to be given. On our last night in Berenty, she gave hats to the 2 staff members who were serving us. One asked if she could have one for her sister too. Then they asked if we could give some to the cooks, and we offered them for the night guards. By breakfast the following morning, all staff members had a new winter uniform!! It was clear this lifted all their spirits! Thanks be to God, for allowing us to care for them!
It rained overnight, which meant we had to ford several deep puddles to get to Ambovombe airfield, and our second vehicle overheated and had to stop to cool down. Thankfully we arrived at the same time as the Mission Aviation Fellowship plane.
Sue was delighted to be invited to sit in the co-pilot's seat, beside MAF pilot, Wouter. We had a quite fascinating conversation while flying, which may lead to the women in Toliara being able to sell the reusable sanitary kits, which they make, to hospitals in Antananarivo. Please pray for this to be possible.
We were also able to shop at the local supermarket and eat team lunches here, as it had a 6 seater dining table! This was really important as the restaurant service was too slow to enable us to get food in the allotted time for a lunch break.
Having worked on everything together as a team in Amboasary, it was now time for us to separate and work in different areas from each other:
Josh to lead the music conference, with Bishop Samy, Alfred, Revs Zafy and Victor
Paul to work with Ialy (Diocesan Economic Development Coordinator) on water filter distributions, and also with Ialy, Emily Nell Lagerquist (another Friends of Toliara Leader) and local mangrove association leaders to help with mangrove conservation and preservation.
Sue & Maggie were joined by Jacky Lowe (also a Friends of Toliara Leader) to work with the women on sewing projects.
Simon to work with Mme Lalaina (the Diocesan accountant), Norbert (the external auditor) and Bishop Samy.
Norbert is encouraged with the progress of the diocesan procedures. When he asked if there is a system to track whether donations are used for the purposes set by the donors, Simon was very happy to answer "yes" — auditors always like that! It is a system Simon developed several years ago, combining information about donations in several countries and currencies, allowing for currency conversion costs, and is then compared with expenditure by the diocese project by project. M Norbert approved (phew!).
For the remaining time, Simon continued working with the diocesan accountant on the nitty gritty details, with a local teacher acting as translator.
Jacky had borrowed Tiny Mouser to deal with the mice in the Women's Center, and cat therapy was included for the team at no extra charge!
A rainbow, a symbol of God's faithfulness, over the cathedral closed out a very special day!
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