The Waiting Game

The political situation seems to be at a stand-still. The former president would still like to return home to Madagascar and continues to try to rally support from the international community. Continued efforts have been made to try to resolve the situation with help from the African Union, the European Union, and the United Nations (perhaps there are others involved as well), but as of yet, no dialogues have truly been successful. The new elections are currently set for October 2010 though the aforementioned groups are pushing for elections much sooner rather than later. Please pray that there would be successful and productive dialogues and that elections would be held as soon as possible so that the Malagasy people can have a voice in their government once again!

For the most part, life continues as normal for us here. There was a shortage on margarine for awhile as the former president’s company, Tiko (the only supplier of butter and margarine in the country!), was forced out of business by the transitional leader. We now have margarine imported from South Africa for almost half the original price of the Tiko products (go figure!). Yet this is a minor inconvenience compared with the rising price of oil and flour (the Malagasy don’t use that much margarine anyway!) and the declining foreign aid. Please pray for the poor who just keep getting poorer that there might be more jobs available and that the cost of living would not increase too much!

If you are interested in following the political situation more closely, I recommend checking the BBC website or searching for “Madagascar News” on Yahoo. Then you can get the most recent articles in English! If you are really into political hearsay or just want to hear the former president speak English (ha!), you might also check YouTube and search for Madagascar, Rajoelina, or Ravalomanana.

Sunday is Global Prayer Day and thousands of Malagasy will gather at the stadium in the center of the city to pray for their country and the world. They are thankful for your prayers as well!