Back to…

Posted by on September 24, 2012 in Blog, Uncategorized | 1 comment

We landed back in Madagascar just about 3 weeks ago.  Time goes fast. The first few days back hit me hard.  Not like being rushed and tackled by a 300-pound 6.5-foot linebacker with a grudge…. but more innocently– like being rushed and tackled by our giggling two-year old.

 

Here’s a few of the things that hit me:

…back to crazy driving– dodging people, cars, rickshaws, chickens, ox-carts, cows and goats… amongst other things

…back to bleaching fruits and vegetables so as to prevent specific non-pleasant food-bourne illnesses that cause retching and heaving and puking and malodorous smells… need I say more?

…back to filtering water for said reason above

…back to bringing our own TP wherever we go because you never know if it will be available.  And on these same lines, we really should bring our own toilet seat as well because this is often missing too

…back to unclear communication and the constant wondering, “did I say that right?”,  “did I understand that right?”

…back to a cash society where nearly everything is payed for in cash and the largest bill is the equivalent to a whopping $4.50

…back to the land of seeing on average 1,238 men a day peeing on the side of the road… oh, if only I had a 1,238 rocks to throw!

…back to notoriously dirty children… I’m speaking of our own 3 kiddos!

…back to the land of bad body odor… this time I’m not speaking of our own family

…back to ants, flies, blood-thirsty mosquitos, hissing cockroaches, shrews, and rats

…back to the land of extreme poverty

 

As I was pondering all these things, it dawned on me that worldly-speaking, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to leave the “good life” of cleanliness, fun parks, english-speaking conversations, credit cards, access to excess, obeyed rules of the road, toilet paper and toilet seats and yet for us… it feels so right to be back here.  To be in our beloved Madagascar.  God is good that way, isn’t He?  He meets us exactly where we are, He sustains us, His grace makes us HAPPY to be back on the Red Island of Madagascar.  This is life for us.

 

1 Comment

  1. I concur and you are so right about the grace of allowing us to enjoy life where placed

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