Digging!

   At our last visit to the Gathering Place before we left Toliara, we found great progress on the well; electrical power now available and being used in the construction; progress on the septic tanks; and additional sand, etc. for concrete. Parishioners were very excited about progress on the well, which has been dug by hand. The person digging the well is hammering out coral at the well's bottom. Water and rock are taken out with a bucket from above as he continues to work. Ascension's generosity is being felt in the finishing of the Gathering Place.

Looking forward to seeing you soon!

Fr. Howard and Peg

Lemurs!

   We arrived yesterday afternoon at Vacona, a forest lodge located in a reserve next to a national park that we will visit tomorrow. This morning we took a walk and canoe ride in the reserve, and as you can see, saw several kinds of very friendly lemurs! They are "habituated" (used to people) and let us feed them bananas and got in the canoe with us.  We will be here for three more nights and are looking forward to seeing more of the rainforest and lemurs. 

Love,

Fr. Howard and Peg

The Children

 

   The many children we met on Sunday in the bush conveyed excitement at the arrival of the Bishop, Patsy, and the guests that arrived with them for the service. Many children joined enthusiastically in the singing and were quiet and very attentive during the service. But the effects of the living conditions were hauntingly present in the children's eyes and expressions.

A child watching the delivery of water to her village Sunday morning.

                                                                                    Meeting us as we arrived ..

 Walking by the church into the village prior to the service ...

                                      Watching through a church window while waiting for the service to begin . . . 

                                                  Waiting together. The younger girl is dressed for her baptism

                          Children pressed to watch the baptisms through the front door of the crowded church.

T       he children sitting behind Peg. The girl in green knew the words to every verse of every song and of the liturgy.

Her sticker, a gift from the guests, seemed apt.

                                                                           Children in the congregation singing.

                                                                  Many children did not smile at the camera . . . 

Please hold them and their parents in your hearts.

Peg and Fr. Howard

22 Baptized and 31 Confirmed!

   On Sunday September 26th we left Toliara at 6:30 am and traveled to a church in the bush where Bishop Todd McGregor baptized 22 children and adults and confirmed 31, with Fr. Howard assisting him. The church is located in an area severely affected by drought. Another church nearby has closed as the villagers were forced to re-locate to live with family members and friends as they could no longer survive in their village. We delivered water to another village, located about 2 miles from the church. Villagers, including many parishioners, had had no water for more than three days for drinking or for cooking rice, which the Malagasy eat three times a day. Crops burned by the sun filled some fields; other fields stood prepared and ready for planting should rain come. The rich soil filled the windy air.

We were greeted by many parishioners at the church, and families continued to arrive for some time, many walking several miles for the service. 

 Prior to the beginning of the service, Bishop Todd and Fr. Howard prayed with each of the 31 confirmands in the church while others waited outside. 

                             Those baptized included adults who were also being confirmed as well as infants and children. 

                                  Fr. Howard preached, with Aubin by his side translating

                                    The confirmands stood expectantly prior to being confirmed by the Bishop.

                    Following confirmation, the group sang a special song together for the Bishop and the congregation.

Each person who was confirmed received a Bible, inscribed with his or her name, the date and place of the service, and the Bishop's signature.

                                                            
                                                         We were welcomed warmly during the announcements.

                     The congregation welcomed Bishop Todd and Patsy with the highly valued gift of a live chicken. 

                                             Everyone gathered for a picture to commemorate this important day. 

It was a privilege for us to experience the warmth, commitment, excitement, and generosity of this community. We were very moved to see first-hand the effects of the drought on the land and on the people. Despite their daily struggles to meet their physical needs, the parishioners conveyed in many different ways their love for each other and for Bishop Todd and Patsy, their joy in worshipping together, and their hopefulness. 

Fr. Howard and Peg

A Peaceful Week

Dear all,

   A little over a week ago we Monday we went back to Ifaty, a small seacoast village about 16 miles (an hour's drive) from Toliara. The area around Ifaty has several hotels strung along a beautiful beach. We stayed through Friday afternoon and thoroughly enjoyed the stunning beauty and peacefulness. You may recall that when we visited Ifaty previously we went whale watching, but only saw waves. When we arrived for our second visit, the hotel owner offered to send us whale watching Tuesday morning for free because of our unsuccessful first trip. This time we saw eight whales and followed them for about an hour!  Three whales totally jumped up into the air, which took our breath away! Most of Peg's pictures were of splashes after the whales submerged, but she did get a few good shots.

             Several of the nights we were there the moon was either full or almost full. 

                                                                    From Tuesday morning's whale watching!

                          Their flukes different, ranging from pure white with what looked like a bite out of it, to dark black.

 When the tide was very low, people from the village nearby walked the beach looking for some kind of seafood -- mussels maybe.

                                                               The beach was rocky, with a spiny forest up above.

                                   Each night, the view of the sunset from our room was different over the Indian Ocean.

When Peg taught the photography class, she finally learned to use her own camera's self-timer, so here we are in front of our room. 

Villagers also fished constantly in dug-out canoes, 

and put up sails to get out to the reef when the wind came up.

  

                                                                             Needless to say, we loved it.

   Since we got back Friday, we went with the mission team from Florida to St. Augustine, a small ocean-front town about an hour south of Toliara. This past Sunday we went to church in the bush, where there were 22 baptisms by Bishop Todd with Howard assisting, and 33 confirmed (pictures will be arriving on the website soon). We then drove to Isalo National Park Sunday afternoon, getting back to Tuesday night (September 28th). Isalo features sandstone rocks cut by deep canyons and eroded into weird shapes. The Bara ethnic group has used the caves in the canyon walls as burial sites for hundreds of years. Monday we hiked through rice paddies (the Malagasy eat rice three meals a day), across a dry plain, and into a cool leafy canyon where we saw ring-tail lemurs.

   On Tuesday morning, Howard toured a sapphire mine with the majority of the group, while Peg and a small group again hiked through the rice paddies, plains, and across several streams into another canyon, looking for sifikas at the canyon entrance. Our guide had stated we might not be able to see the lemurs as the local villagers were re-burying the bones of a deceased member of the former tribal king very high up on the canyon wall at the location of the king's tomb. The noise of the villagers did in fact scare away the lemurs and they were nowhere to be found. But Peg and the others were able to see the villagers carrying the bones high on the canyon wall (we will send pictures!). Peg has taken SOOOOO many pictures in the past week and some will be heading to the website this week.

   After we returned to Toliara Tuesday night, the mission team began its journey back to Florida. The team members will soon have pictures from their time in Madagascar on their website, and we will forward the web address.

   This coming Monday evening we fly to the capital and then head to the rain forest east of the capital -- Andasibe-Mantadia National Park. The guidebooks and Malagasy people say if you only visit one national park in Madagascar, it should be this one. While there we will be able to see a wide variety of endemic plants and some of the eleven species of lemurs found there. We will then spend five days at St. Paul's Seminary, which is north of the capital,  prior to our trip home. Howard is looking forward to teaching a course on the theology of C.S. Lewis for seminarians there.

We miss you and love you,

Fr. Howard and Peg

This Too Is Madagascar

    This week's new experiences included a trip 15 miles north of Toliara. Bishop Todd drove their 4-wheel drive truck along the main road northeast. In a second set of pictures from this trip you will see some of the scenes along the road as we returned to Toliara. We stayed at a peaceful resort by the ocean that has incredible views and great fresh seafood. While there, we took a tour in an cart pulled by two zebu into the "spiny forest" to see all sorts of cacti and baobob trees. 

    The forest is very old and has a number of baobobs that are quite old -- the oldest we saw was 800 years old. The one below is unusual as it has four trunks. 

We miss you!

Fr. Howard and Peg

 The "spiny forest" is thick with large cacti called octopus cacti because they look like huge octopuses waving their spiny arms. Some of the arms had very green spikes, new growth. Others looked dead and fragile, but apparently remain on the cacti for a very long time. 

The baobob, according to our guide, is distinguished by its fruit (large balls on tree) that are somewhat like peaches. This one seemed quite stable despite its very distinct leaning. 

The baobab below is the one believed to be 800 years old. We felt very insignificant next to its trunk. The aloe plant to the right had bright red blossoms.

The next morning a butterfly that was as large as a bird stopped to rest and permitted us to take its picture. The hand next to it clarifies how very large it was. 

Later the same day, we went whale watching. However, most of the "watching" involved watching the two guides up above us who constantly scanned the horizon for signs of whales and marveling at how the captain managed to steer the boat only periodically with his foot while remaining above us. Although disappointed not to see the migrating whales, the trip out into the ocean was beautiful and the views as crossed the reef on our return were dazzling. 

The shallow area between the reef and the shore.

On the way back from our trip 15 miles north, a world and more than an hour by 4-wheel drive truck away from Toliara, I rode in the back of the truck so I could have a panoramic view of the countryside. The spaciousness of the desert and rural villages are a stark contrast to the urban Toliara, where space is a luxury and litter, mostly plastic bags, moves from place to place on the breeze. 

We stopped in a village where the road was blocked by an ox cart accident. This mother and her child were walking by

The main highway northeast is traveled by foot, bicycle, motorcycle, oxcart, and trucks. People travel for long distances for water and food.  

The space around the houses in this village and the peacefulness are hard to come by for Malagasy living in crowded Toliara.