Thank you, Grandpa!

If you check our blog regularly, it may seem to be "under contruction" at times. This is because our blog is a collaboration of our efforts here (with limited internet access) as well as those of my Grandpa Harold Hedrick back in the USA. He posts photos that I email to him (for some reason the internet connection allows us to email photos but we cannot upload them to the blog). So after he posts the photos, I will add the captions. So a big thank you to my grandpa for keeping you "visually" connected with us here in Mada! : )

Our Garden

This photo was taken on our front porch with our garden behind us. Daniel has been doing a lot more gardening lately with the help of our Malagasy gardener/guard, Tiana. You can grow almost anything in Madagascar! We now have papaya and coffee trees along with all sorts of flowers.

Akany Avoko

Akany Avoko Children's Home is just a 15-20 minute bus ride from our home. There are 100 troubled and orphaned children who live here. They have their own school and a training program for teens which teaches them skills (sewing, handicrafts, etc) so that they can enter Malagasy society at age 18. It's a wonderful place to visit and they are eager to have volunteers. I (Sarah) and one of my Malagasy colleagues from school may start volunteering there soon. Right now there are 14 babies living here. Can you imagine? That's 14 cribs in one room. They are so adorable, but I'm glad I'm not on staff in that room during the night. For more information, you should check out www.akanyavoko.com.

Miantsena aho.

As I've mentioned before, buying and selling is the way of life here in Madagascar. The subject of this post means, "I am going to market." Yes, there is actually a verb for going to the market in Malagasy. In this photo, I am standing on the steep stone steps overlooking Analakely, the largest marketplace in Madagascar. There are also sellers lining the stairs behind me with their wares. Even on the rural streets near our home, there are many vegetable sellers. It's hard to find a place in the city where there isn't someone selling something. I am wearing a Malagasy-made hat and carrying a Malagasy-made market bag. In this case, I was actually on my way to the post office to pick up a package but we do use these market bags for fruits and veggies, too!

Lemurs

At Christmastime, we visited the nearby Lemurs' Park and saw many of the various types of lemurs which live throughout the island. As you can see, they are quite tame in the park and very accustomed to visitors. While we don't see lemurs in the trees around our house, you can see them in some of the rural areas and in most of the national parks. We hope to visit as many of these parks as we can to enjoy all the unique creatures and scenery God placed on this island that are so unique from the rest of the world.

Happy Birthday, Daniel!

Daniel celebrated his birthday with brownie pudding cake and Classiko Cola (better than Coke, in our opinion, and made by the President of Madagascar's company!). Unfortunately, I didn't let the cake cool long enough before putting the candle in it so we had some blue wax along with our cake--yum!

Update on the Political Situation

The following is an excerpt from our January prayer letter, sent January 29, 2009:

We waited in line for four hours this week to gas up the car we are borrowing. Because
of the current political situation, the people are afraid there will be a shortage of fuel,
especially if the road to the port is cut off. As we waited, we realized how blessed we
are not to have experienced anything of this kind in the past. The price of cooking oil
has doubled this week to more than $8 per liter. The prices of rice, sugar, flour, and
other basic necessities will also rise. Dairy products are becoming scarce as the president’s
company is the main supplier of these items but is no longer producing due to
the turmoil. The Malagasy are very sad about what is happening so we try to empathize
with them but furthermore these experiences enable us to sympathize with those
in much worse circumstances around the world.

The mayor of Antananarivo and the president of Madagascar come from opposing political
parties. The mayor disagrees with some of the recent decisions the president has
made so has begun calling for his dismissal from office and replacement with an interim
government until the end of his term in 2011. The international community is calling
for the two to hold talks with an intermediary but so far the mayor has declined. Unfortunately,
some people have taken advantage of this situation by rioting and looting. However, we are quite safe where we live so please do not worry BUT PRAY! We will keep you informed.

Here is an update:
Yesterday (Saturday) at a rally in downtown Antananarivo, the mayor declared himself to be the president of Madagascar beginning on Monday. The president has called this ludicrous, stating that there are many mayors in the country but none has the right to declare himself president as he is an elected official. The mayor is calling for people to not go to work (especially government officials) until he has formally resumed his role as the new president. The president, on the other hand, has called the people to ignore this request and return to their normal routine, for the good of the country. There is a possibility for a protest or riot to emerge tomorrow (Monday) but as of right now, the country is completely at peace. We went to the city for church today and it appeared to be a typical Sunday, people quietly going to church, children playing soccer, some stores open, buses running. But we don't know what tomorrow will hold! Hopefully the mayor will agree to talk with the president about the disagreements and not continue with his ploy to overthrow the government. We will keep you posted. Please continue to pray.