Worship at Sakaraha today

For members of St James the Less  - Reverend Hery was so impressed with our singing the refrain to "How great thou art"  in Malagasy last week, that he included the hymn in today's worship!

The four people in red or teal anoraks walked 12 hours to come to Church - 8 hours on Saturday and then 4 hours on Sunday morning (and then 12 hours back, of course). That's real determination to worship!

Adjusting the road bridge before we drove over it, on the way back from Soatanana!

Photos of Lac Hotel, Sahambavy:

Tana to Fianar photos - 2 Soatanana Weaving Village

Tetradecimals

Today we visited the nature reserve operated as a cooperative of the nearby village of Antja.  This gave us our second fix of lemur viewing, as the reserve contains several families of ring-tailed lemurs.

The local people at Antja use the tetradecimal (i.e., base 14) number system.  In the familiar decimal (i.e., base ten) number system, 12 (say) represents one lot of 10 and two units.   In the hexadecimal (i.e., base 16) number system much used in computer science 12 represents one lot of sixteen and two units – a total of eighteen.   Analogously, in the tetradecimal number system, 12 represents one lot of fourteen and two units – a total of sixteen.   You get the idea.

Why do the villagers at Antja use the base fourteen number system, a practice that (as far as anyone has been able to ascertain) is unique in the entire world?   The explanation is as follows.   We use the base ten system because we can count to ten using our fingers, but then need to start over as we’ve run out of fingers.  In Antja, the villagers carry around the tails of the ring-tailed lemur.  (Presumably this was originally for talismanic reasons, though the roots of this cultural practice are now only conjectural.)  Extraordinarily enough (contrast with cats for example), every ring-tailed lemur has precisely fourteen black stripes on its tail.*  It was therefore natural for the Antja villagers to count in multiples of fourteen.

·        *  Some sources suggest that the scientific Latin name for ring-tailed lemurs (catta catta) may be a corruption of the Latin word for the number fourteen quattuodecim.  Whether that is so or not, catta catta definitely does not derive from the Malagasy name for these lemurs, which is maki, based on some of their calls.

Tana to Fianar photos - 1

Paul at the seed shop

Telma phone shop

Wood carving at Soa Guesthouse, Antsirabe

Traditional dancers at lunchtime
Hotel Artisan, Ambositra

Tana to Fianar (or, in full, Antananarivo to Fianarantsoa).

Much has happened since we last wrote in the blog.  We have not really had much internet connection, or time to write, so I’m playing catch up tonight! Photos will be added to this when I have a better connection!

Soa Guesthouse at Antsirabe lived up to its “good” name – pun fully intended here, as Soa is the Malagasy word for good.  It was beautifully decorated, with pretty plantings outside and good food too!  We lay outside on the grass looking at the stars (one of Paul’s many enthusiasms in life).  Tonight’s (Friday’s) stars at Antsirabe were even more striking as we had a wider view of the sky.  Even as the sun was setting we were able to see, Venus, Jupiter, Mercury (Paul tells us we are in the top 1% of people in this day and age, who have seen Mercury with the naked eye) Saturn and Mars, plus the southern cross and more! 

Our bungalow on stilts, in the lake at Lac Hotel, Fianarantsoa is beautiful, and there are wonderful plants growing in the gardens here, along with lettuce, herbs and cute animals which will turn into dinner (makes one think of becoming vegetarian).

We had a wonderful day, taking a 3 hour drive as a detour off the main road – indeed off anything approaching a road for the last portion -  to visit a silk weaving village called Soatanana (“Good Village”).  The occasional stop was made to reassemble the wood bridges before driving over them!

On the way we stopped to see the tapia forests, where the Malagasy silkworms live out their life cycle.  The village protects the trees so that there is food for this native silkworm, which lives only on these trees.  We were shown the preparation of the cocoons, spinning with a drop spindle, winding the skeins via a home-made umbrella swift, and warping of the threads, before we entered one of the houses to see a woman weaving.  It was like good back in time to the Middle Ages, with space downstairs for the animals at night (and storage of her bicycle!) and one room upstairs with bed, cooking pots and weaving loom.  But this was not a re-enactment – it is real life.  The whole village of women and children had turned out to show us their wares, and threads.  They work as a collective and make a small charge to visitors to pay for the upkeep of the road and so on.   We tried to buy from each family, to be as fair as possible. 

Other highlights of the trip so far:

•           finding a road-side stall and buying 16 packets of vegetable seeds for a hoped-for garden in Toliara, ready for Glen Tracy’s visit next February.  Now we need to find / make good soil.  Maybe Paul can teach Pierre how to turn the pig manure into good compost ready for Glen’s visit.
•           buying a Malagasy phone and plan for 30 days for around $30.  We couldn’t have done this without the help of Maggie and Paul and their fluent French – let alone Paul’s cell phone knowledge from his days developing cell phones!
•           having lunch in Antsirabe while watching the traditional dancers
•           being thankful for electricity at home – such a privilege!  It was challenging getting washed, dressed and packed by small flashlight before dawn.  (The generator at Hotel Artisan is switched off between midnight and 6am.)
•          seeing our first two lemurs of the trip on a small island just outside Paul & Maggie’s bungalow.
•          discovering it was worth bringing silk long-johns to survive the chill of Ambositra, and that wearing a t-shirt, collared shirt and both fleeces to eat dinner may be undignified but makes the unheated restaurant much pleasanter!
•          having fascinating conversations with several young people from the lycee (secondary school) near Lac Hotel.  They had heard us speaking in English and came to practice their language skills, which were very impressive (especially considering they had all only just finished first grade). 
•          a small heater in the room at Lac Hotel, which has made writing this manageable.  It is luxurious after the last few cold nights.
•          further gratitude for hot water, and a consistent supply of it.  Cries of “no, shower, no!” emanated from it this morning as the water turned cold part way through! Argh!

Quote of the trip (so far) from Paul:  “I am very interested in carrots”!  (He meant to say “stars”!)

Tomorrow (Saturday) we will visit Madagascar’s only tea plantation and see more ring-tailed lemurs (“maki”) as we travel on to Isalo.  Sunday we will worship at Holy Trinity (Trinite Masina) at Sakaraha church.  

Sue

Pity there's no snow!

Some of you may merely have glanced at the title of this post and concluded that I must be alright as I'm in a typically whimsical mode.

If you have so concluded, you would be correct.   28 hours of air travel passed better than expected, and we arrived safely at Antananarivo airport.  The altitude reading on the plane when we landed read 1268 metres (about 3800 feet) above sea level, which is higher than many Austrian ski villages.  The Malagasy capital is 18th highest in the world.  No wonder, then, that although it's in the tropics, it's a bit chilly in the middle of the southern hemisphere winter.

Now what if there were snow in Madagascar?   Skiing and lemurs would be an awesome combination.  I think I might be tempted to come live here!

Simon

At Manga Guesthouse. Thanks be to God!

Hurrah! Everything went very smoothly with all three flights, including our friends (Maggie and Paul) arriving just as we started to board in Paris.  All our baggage arrived and we got to Manga around 2 a.m.

Breakfast soon, and then we set off for the drive to Antsirabe.  The sun is fighting with the clouds, and might win!  

Extraordinarily, while we were having juice in Paris airport, we heard "Hello, Babbs!" and there were Bruce, Shay and Abigail Mason, on their return from Tana.  It was lovely for both sleep-deprived families to have time to catch up on each other's news, and to keep each other awake for our next flights!  We had seen Avery on Sunday at St James the Less, with his grandparents,  We had been sad not to be able to be here at the same time as the Mason family this year, so it was great to catch up in these ways! 

Even the smallest details!

Late last week, I received an email from Miriam at the Church of the Annunciation, Gurnee, Illinois, saying they would like to help doing something for Toliara again in the future.  I had no idea what that might be.  

Then on Sunday morning several large bags of fabric arrived. Miriam stopped by to collect them today, and once again the Church of the Annunciation members will be washing and ironing fabric ready for stitching, in the fall, to make bags for more Days for Girls kits. 

Thanks to Carol for donating the fabric, Val for transporting it, and for the willingness of Miriam and members of Church of the Annunciation to do more laundry!

Before the fabric arrived on Sunday morning, I was given around 50 reading glasses, some with cases but mostly without them.  Lo and behold, the bags of fabric contained some pieces of ready-quilted fabric, which have now been serged into simple glasses cases! 

Thanks be to God, for great timing and once again for His careful planning of even the smallest details!

 

Jehovah Jireh! The Lord who Provides!!

Once again God has provided waaaay beyond my expectations!  Many of you know the need for a translator for the Days for Girls classes and distribution, and have been praying with me since January.  We didn't feel that it was right to use our previous translator for these classes, as he is male. This could cause embarrassment on both sides, and inhibit conversation and discussion

We knew we wanted a female, and someone who could cope with translating all the biological and medical terms, but there was no-one we could think of in Toliara that fitted that bill.  God had bigger plans than I dreamt of!  We have Dr Zoe coming from Antananarivo to be our translator and provide more advice than I ever could on the subject of women's health!  She is a Malagasy woman who trained in Hawaii so will easily be able to act as translator!

Thanks be to God!

Tippy Taps in Paris!

One of our plans while in Madagascar is to build two Tippy Taps outside the Cathedral latrines for hand-washing purposes.

Paul and Simon are going to work on this project with some of the Malagasy people.  They will also train the local people in how and why to use them, and encourage everyone to wash their hands to reduce illnesses due to the spreading of germs on unwashed hands.

Yesterday, I sent instructions to Paul so that he could to teach the Malagasy to make Tippy Taps.  With great enthusiasm they have already built one in their garden. Here's Maggie trying it out.  I think the neighbors in Paris may find it puzzling to see them washing their hands in the garden!!

Next step of the journey for the bags!

The bags containing supplies for the women to work with have arrived safely in Joe's classroom in Atlanta, Georgia, ready to travel with the high school team next month to Toliara, Madagascar. 

The people from Indak, who transported them, made sure they were all safely in two cages in the semi, with nothing else in the cages.  Huge thanks to Laine & Martin Cobb and their drivers and staff for taking such good care of these supplies. 

U.S. Embassy visitors to the Diocese

The Diocese of Toliara / People Reaching People has applied to the U.S. and Australian embassies for grants to cover costs of equipping the Women's Center and employing the women for the first year. 

Today, two visitors came from the U.S. Embassy, Carla Classic and Mr Mamisoa.  Please pray that the Embassy will approve the grant for this project. 

Walking from The Gathering Place to view the Women's work

U.S. Embassy staff member,  Carla Classic, views one of the Days for Girls' kits

Reception  in The Gathering Place

The bags leave Northfield!

The 18 duffel bags (of assorted sizes) and 2 boxes of plastic containers in which to store the supplies in Madagascar have left our house - which now looks more like a home and less like a warehouse!

First stop - the garage!

This morning, Laine (NSNG member) came and collected them and loaded them into her van.

Tomorrow, Martin (Laine's husband) will take them to his business, from where they will travel on the weekly semi from Illinois to Georgia.  Next week they will make the remaining journey, in a box truck, to Joe & Corbi's home in Atlanta. 

Joe & Corbi are Bishop Todd & Rev. Patsy's son-in-law and daughter.  Joe is leading a high school team from Pace Academy to Madagascar in June, and they will be taking all these supplies on Air France with them.  We wish them and the bags safe travels!

The bags are packed and blessed!

In the services on Mother's Day at St James the Less, Northfield, we blessed and prayed over the bags containing Days for Girls' kits, and supplies for the women to make more kits and more Fair Trade products.  What an appropriate day to bless kits for girls and women!

The five bags and a basket in the above photo represent the 18 bags and 2 boxes which will soon be on their way to Atlanta, Georgia, from where a high school team will take them to the Diocese of Toliara, Madagascar - ready for our short-term mission trip in the summer. 

I was so glad when I packed the last bag, and everything fit in!  There is a very small amount of space  left in the penultimate one, which has a dodgy zip, and would not survive being stuffed to the gills!

God is good! Exactly the right number of bags filled! I had been a little worried that we might get: "A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, " (Luke 6:38) and I wouldn't know what to do with the overflow, but thankfully our God of Abundance did stop the donations at just the right time. Perfect!

Wonder Women!

Here are some of the amazing members of North Suburban NeedleArts Guild​  who donated (money, fabric, notions, thread, panties, washcloths, Ziploc bags etc) &/or washed and ironed fabric &/or stitched shields, liners, bags so that we can make life easier for the women of southern Madagascar (via People Reaching People).

Between us we made 201 Days for Girls​ regular kits and 25 post partum kits.

These will make a huge difference to the lives of girls who miss school one week a month, and women who can't go to work during that time.

We have also gathered huge amount of supplies to take out so that the women can make more kits to sell locally. This will be one of the projects which Sue and the women will work on this summer, in the (hopefully) newly completed Women's Center in the Diocese of Toliara.

Priestly transportation in Madagascar!

This is how Rev. Hery gets to one of the 9 Churches he looks after. He says the farthest is Ankiliarivo, then Mihavatse.  He reaches Besavoa, Ankilitelo, Amboraka and Soatanimbary on foot.  Sakaraha, Mahaboboka and Ankazoaba can be reached by car. 

We plan to visit Holy Trinity, Sakaraha again this summer when we drive from the capital to Toliara.

Days for Girls Kits underway!

The women of the North Suburban NeedleArts Guild are working really hard on making kits for Days for Girls for women and girls in Toliara, Madagascar - and even enjoying themselves doing so!

Our first completed shields:

So far we have 41 complete sets of shields and liners:

Quality control assures me that the liners are very soft!

We also have 53 shields, about 200 liners  and a fair number of Ziploc bags, still waiting to be packed.  With members to be made are  around 100 liners, 70 bags, a lot of washcloths to be reinforced, and much fabric to be washed.  We will need more hotel soap and panties (Hanes brand, girls sizes 6-12, in dark colours) - and more duffle bags to pack them all in to get them to Madagascar!

This is such an exciting project to work on together – and so worthwhile!

Sue

Thank you to Annunciation in Gurnee

Many thanks to the people of the Church of the Annunciation of Our Lady, in Gurnee, Illinois, who have washed, ironed and speedily returned a mountain of flannel (nearly 200 yards of it)!

Extra thanks go to Miriam Berry for driving it to and fro and organizing the washing so that the flannel is ready to be used to make liners for Days for Girls in Madagascar.

Kneeler for the Bishop's Chair at the new Cathedral in Toliara

Back in July 2014, towards the end of our first trip to Madagascar, when we were wandering through Mantadia rainforest in search of lemurs, Bishop Todd asked me if I would consider making a kneeler for his chair at the still-to-be-built Cathedral in Toliara.

Bishop Todd’s chair (cathedra), seen in this photo on the right, is to be moved from
St Lioka’s, Ankilifaly to Santa Patrika Katedraly

Many emails went to and fro between Todd, Patsy and myself as I worked on the design of this kneeler.  Then we had a company in England (Jacksons of Hebden Bridge) transfer it to canvas ready for stitching. Around St Patrick's Day last year, I appealed to the congregation for someone to stitch it, and was surprised when one of the men, Chip Herndon, approached me asking to do it.

Chip stitched the kneeler while travelling on many airplanes for business reasons.  It has already been admired by many flight attendants, who were also surprised to find him stitching it!  He made a great job, and it looks beautiful.

The Cathedral will be dedicated on 13th March 2016 (closest Sunday to St Patrick's day) and the  kneeler is now complete and was blessed at St James the Less, Northfield, yesterday.  It will be taken out by the team from Florida who are going to the service.

Abundant Fabric!

Simon and I are busy planning our next trip to Madagascar.  We are excited to be joined this year, by two friends from our college days, Maggie & Paul, who live in Paris.  We have not seen them since 2006, when they came to Chicago to visit their eldest daughter who was studying at the University of Chicago. 

This year, Maggie and my main focus will be on setting up a Days for Girls Enterprise in Toliara, so that the women can receive, make and sell sanitary napkin kits at an affordable price.  Currently many girls miss one week of school a month, and the women are unable to work, which means no income and possibly no food for the family. Imagine using dirty rags, corn husks, newspaper, sand, leaves or sitting on cardboard for the week, and the resultant scarring and infections, and you’ll soon realise why I got involved in trying to help find a solution. 

The North Suburban NeedleArts Guild (NSNG) have really taken to the Days for Girls project in a big way.  They wanted to run with the idea as soon as I mentioned it, so I’ve had to scramble hard and fast to get it all underway, but there are people washing fabric, people cutting fabric, people serging liners, people making bags, people buying washcloths, people promising their entire bead collection, and so on.  We’re glad we haven’t down-sized our house yet and have space to store all this!

On Saturday we had a quilting day at church, where we make quilts for Ethiopian orphans (Addis Ababa is at high altitude & therefore cold at night).  Two of us recalled a lady who had said she would donate rolls of fabric, so we phoned her and she explained that she was liquidating her design business and if we came on Sunday or Monday, she’d give us lots of fabric. 

Sunday was overwhelming when we came back with three car loads of assorted fabrics. We kept 1/3 for Mada and 1/3 for Quilts Beyond Borders and gave away 1/3 which weren’t usable by either project.

Simon’s car has the fabric we couldn’t use but the donor insisted we took all or none.  Thankfully NSNG members took all of that, plus the car load of fabric sample books.  (A teacher had been going to ask her students to get fabric sample books, so took all that no-one else wanted; another woman is making Biblical costumes for her church and took a lot of neutral fabric).

I am in a much better place today, now that I have got rid of 1/3 of the fabric.  So we only have 2/3 in our house still, plus 94 yards of flannel which arrived on Monday, four large carrier bags of beads, 60 yards of PUL (Polyurethane Laminate, a waterproof fabric), and a partridge in a pear tree (or so it feels!!)

Then last night I got a call from a Guild member, whose husband has a business in Georgia, and they have promised a semi-truck to drive on to Atlanta (another 90 minutes) to deliver all the bags from here to there.  It can take many more than the 8 bags which I had arranged transportation for already, and now the high school group have said they can take 20- bags rather than 6 or 8, which was what they originally said.

So I think day 1 in Toliara will be unpacking!!!!!!

This is all very exciting.  Thanks be to our God who provides more than we can imagine was even needed!