Village Life According to a 5-year old

Posted by Jamie and Alissa on November 20, 2011 in Blog, Uncategorized | 0 comments

I have to admit, I was a little nervous as to how our kids would handle the village life of Mahabana. It’s not easy living. Hot and humid temperatures without escape, no electricity, no running water, no toilets, and only bucket showers. Granted, it’s been a long time since I was 5 years old… but I should’ve remembered. To our kids, once the excitement factor of our arrival vanished and the village kids weren’t so enthralled in the white skin and blond hair, life was a never-ending playdate in a giant sandbox for three days. Our oldest, Isabella, didn’t want to leave Mahabana. The night we arrived home, we had a dialogue that went a little something like this…

Me: “Isabella, did you like Mahabana?”

Isabella: “oh my goodness mommy, I LOVED Mahabana!”

Me: “Why did you LOVE Mahabana?”

Isabella: “Because it’s village life and do you know why village life is better than city life?”

Me: “No, why is village life better?”

Isabella: “Because villages are smaller than cities and there’s lots of people to play with, and you don’t have to go shopping at the market everyday, and because you can go swimming in the ocean because the beach is really close by.”

Me: “Is there anything else?”

Isabella: “oh yes! because it’s like, more funner, and you get to eat Malagasy food and you get to eat outside three times a day”.

So that my friends, sums up our village life in Mahabana according to our five-year old.

Initial greeting upon our arrival… I had forgotten that for some, this would have been the first time to ever see a caucasian kid… or perhaps their second if they were around in 2006 when we came with Isabella when she was just 6 months old.