Welcome Home

The Madagascar YAGM program just completed our first in country retreat- a time for us to get together, worship God, appreciate some of the beauty of Mada, and to speak English with native speakers again. It was a glorious week. 

On Tuesday, our MadYAGMs started filtering into Antananarivo for Thanksgiving and the Tana dwellers began planning our feast. Then two of our YAGM family were with us, then all 9 of us were together again. We cooked dinner (and I made a pie!) and hung out. We travelled to Andasibe and spent four days hiking in the rainforest, chasing down lemurs, holding ginormous bright green roly-poly bugs, planting treelings, and listening to the constant indri symphony. We had Sunday devotions under a lean-to as the lemurs played on top of our roof, we swam in yet another waterfall, and I even tried slack lining (with a lot of help from Nicholas and Ryan). At the end of our retreat, I sang Holden evening prayer for us and Kirsten treated us to pizza; we all slept at her place in a tangle of limbs on the hardwood floor. 

I traveled back to Tanjombato on Wednesday on a packed taxibe, having aggressively used my American-sized-bulk to push on the bus amidst the familiar throng of Malagasy at my usual bus stop. Walking the familiar winding brick road back to my house, my favorite heckler yelled at me from her fruit stand- "Bonjour, Clara! Clara!" Nono (the sweetest man who looks after the animals at our house) was at a hotely halfway between home and the bus, and gave me a handshake and a "tonga soa" as I passed. My host parents brought me into their room and fussed over my excessive mosquito bites (Moka be! Marary ve ianao?), gave me a bag of lychees, told me they missed me, and informed me that there was a surprise waiting for me in my room- a new nightstand/side table. My little host brother Arona burst into laughter when he saw me at dinner, and spent the entire meal waving at me and clapping when I imitated his movements. Mimi the kitten was deemed old enough to be let off her tether in the kitchen while I was away and now has free range of the grounds, so I spent the majority of my night with the cat on my shoulder like a familiar. 

Thursday was laundry day, like it always has been. I washed three entire loads of laundry, and felt ridiculously proud when my host momma said, "Tsy raraka? Mahery be ianao!" She was probably humoring me (after all, it still took me almost six hours), but I was proud nonetheless. And teaching on Friday, my level 2 students asked me to tell them the story of Romeo and Juliet- I got way into it with strange voices, they got way into it with over the top reactions to my strange voices. We discussed potions and witches and ombiasa (in great detail, with labelled pictures of witches dancing on tombs and apparently, "riding their victims like horses"...) 6 of them walked me home to my front gate and I got hugs from each and every one of them, after I repeatedly promised that I would be back again tomorrow to teach. Tanjona (one of my favorites- he's smart as a whip with fantastic English and a sense of humor) defended my honor as a vazaha on the way home- "Aaahhhnnnnn, tsy vazaha!! Malagasy izy! Tsy vazaha!" *heart melt* 

Welcome home, indeed.

I didn't realize how much I had considered Tanjombato to be home already, until I returned to it. 

My most recent musical obsession has been the song 'Welcome Home' by Radical Face. It's beautifully haunting and oh-so-catchy. It's been on repeat for the past two or three weeks now. And while it's been providing the background music for the past month, it's never been more fitting than these past days:

Sleep don't visit, so I choke on sun

and the days blur into one 

and the backs of my eyes 

hum with things I've never done

Sheets are swaying 

from an old clothesline 

like a row of captured ghosts 

over old dead grass was never much 

but we've made the most 

welcome home

All of us together again! Working to put our Thanksgiving feast together :) 

Ryan made us two amazing turkeys... 

Hannah made a mango sorbet and pumpkin casserole that were to die for... 

And I made a voaroy (tayberry-esque), strawberry, lime, and mango pie. Yummmmmm! We were so stuffed.

We saw a double rainbow on our way to Andasibe, a sure sign that our retreat was going to be blessed. 

Soarina kely! On a night hike our first day in Andasibe... 

Tanana! 

What kind of centipede is red?! 

Our guides' answer: centipede mena. 

Thanks, bro. 

Rainforest!! 

We were in search of lemurs, of course! And wow, did we find them... Over six different species! 

My favorite was this guy, the indri, the largest living lemurs and also one of the loudest mammals. 

I called them the land whales, both for their size and for their song.

Fairytale illustration? No, that's just Madagascar rainforest, no big. 

*jaw. drop.* 

Definitely worth the millions of stairs we had to climb to get this view. 

Ginormous green roly-poly bugs... Who knew? 

The SECOND waterfall we've swam in here in Madagascar... I dunno if I'll ever be able to return to just plain lakes now. 

Ryan holding a boa, and Dipsy making sure Ryan doesn't get killed by the boa. 

Believe it or not, there is a gecko in this picture. 

It took us 10 minutes to find this guy... Dipsy saw it as he was walking by. 

I'll give you a hint- it's on the tree trunk. Still don't see it? Right above the big knot in the bottom of the picture. Look for his eyes.

Doing our part to plant some treelings- gotta help combat deforestation!

Cheers!