Locust Invasion

We were invaded by big swarms of locust coming into the city a couple of weeks ago.  Antananarivo is a city with many hills and valleys.  From just outside the office we could see brownish black clouds coming in over the hills toward our part of town.

As these clouds got closer, we could see that they were made up of many, many individual 'things'!

We had heard that they had a locust invasion down near Antsirabe last year; but it is hard to imagine what it would really be like until you experience it!

They landed all around us and were super thick everywhere.  This is the patio area just outside the office doors.

President Adams went out and took care of them for us! 

We tried to get Sister Zanirasoa, one of our local Malagasy Missionaries, to eat one; but 'No Way', she would only pretend!

In the areas where they crow crops the locust caused lots of problems, as they eat a lot!  The people here in Tana, where they really don't grow too much, thought that they were a great blessing.  It is getting to the end of the dry season, and the rains haven't started yet, so lots of the food is getting a little harder to get for some of the people here. 
Many of the people were out gathering up big bags of the locust.  They would take them home and boil them in salt water and then deep fry them in oil.  They must have had  some kind of bacon fat in the oil because the cooked ones sure smell like crispy bacon. 
Our Office Elders, Elder Rice and Elder Coleman, (yes, Joe; he is from Kanab) were invited to a members house for dinner that night.  They had rice with fried locust on top!  They sent them home with a bag of the fried locust; being the good missionaries that they are, they brought them into the office the next day to share with everyone.  Several of the missionaries tried them.  Thought it was a once in a life time opportunity; but some of us just didn't need that experience!

Elder Rice sharing a few of his deep fried locust.

Sister Johnson, from Boise, Idaho, trying a locust; she actually ate several!

Elder Delbar, a brand new missionary who had only been here a few days, tried them.

Elder Cloward, Sister Rossiter and Sister Adams all tried them.  Guess what Sister Rossiter thinks?!

President Jacqo and President Lalari both had several.  They are the counselors in the Mission Presidency.

When we got home the evening of the invasion, we had four or five of them inside our house.  Don't have a clue how they got in.  We have metal doors and shutters on the outside of all of our doors and windows; but there were lots of them and they were Everywhere!  Maybe they just needed a little 'quiet place' away from all of the crowds!  Dad's garden didn't look too bad though, it didn't look like they had eaten much of it. 

Now it is easier for us to imagine what the pioneers must have thought when the crickets hit the Salt Lake Valley all those years ago, and how thankful they were for the seagulls who came to get rid of them.

I'm buying Missionary Experiences

Dad and I are spending all of our time in the mission office and very seldom get to go interact with members and only a few times with investigators.  But we do get to see 'our missionaries' all of the time! 
I've decided that the missionaries are having all of these great missionary experiences and as Tyler says, we are being 'facilitators'.  That's okay, being a facilitator is great because we are doing something useful and we get to interact with the missionaries all of the time.  I still thought we needed a few missionary experiences - so I'm buying them!  I started with the missionaries going home a month or so ago.  If they would write me up a couple of their favorite missionary experiences, then I would give them 'travel cookies'.  They thought it was a good trade and I've got some good missionary stories. 
I want to share some of the stories.

Answers to Prayer  

When asked about charity and love during a lesson.  Our recent convert excitedly replied that she had had a recent experience with that.  We asked her to explain and she began to explain the miracle of service that had occurred in her life.  Earlier that week Elvine heard a knock on her gate late at night, she responded and found a destitute, pregnant young women hysterical at her gate.  She asked the woman what was wrong; finding out that her water had broken, and she and her husband had been in a fight and he was nowhere to be found, and she didn’t know what to do.  Elvine gave her all she had, which was 5 cups of rice for her children to eat, and about 7,000 Ar which would be enough for a taxi to get her to the hospital for the premature birth her baby.

Even though Elvine knew she would have no food for the next few days by doing so, she saw someone she knew in need and gave everything she had.  She prayed and then trusted that Heavenly Father would bless her for her good deed. And that’s what happened.  The next afternoon a distant relative from Mahajanga stopped by randomly, knocked, greeted Elvine saying, ‘ hey we were in town so we thought we'd stop by and pay you back your 100,000 Ar from that old debt a few years back’.  Elvine said it had been so long she'd forgotten about it, but was blown away at the uncoincidental answer to her prayer. She jokingly said she would trade 7,000Ar for 100,000Ar any day. 

God for sure answers our prayers when we personally become the answer for someone else's prayer. There is no such thing as a coincidence...

Elvine and her son

It's been a little crazy here for a while!

Well, it took me a few days, but I got over my frustration of writing an email twice and having it disappear before I could send it.  Adam told me that I must have timed out before I could get it sent!  Thanks Adam, at least I know I’m not totally crazy!  Now I've given up on email! 

I was trying to tell you about the last few weeks over here.  I’m sure you’ve all heard about our missionary who died, Elder Palmer.  He had been having  headaches, but then they got really bad and when he started having double vision he called Sister Rossiter, our new nurse who just got here the very end of April and this was the end of May.  Elder Palmer was training a new missionary down in Amboistra, about 2 hours south of Antsirabe, which is about 3 ½ hours south of Antananarivo.  That Saturday Sister Rossiter and President Adams decided that they needed to get him to a doctor as soon as possible, so President sent Elder and Sister Todd from Antsirabe to Amboistra to pick up Elder Palmer and his companion and get them to the doctor in Antsirabe.  They did what they could for him there at their little hospital, at least they could give him some pain medication and check out some possibilities for his headaches.  They kept eliminating causes for his headaches and double vision.  On Monday they brought him to Tana.  When they got here he was laying down in the seat of the truck with two different IVs going.  As soon as they got here, they took him immediately into the doctor that we use here and within a couple of hours he was having a CT scan.  (They really do have ‘some’ medical equipment here).  As soon as they saw that he had a bleed in his head they knew they were going to have to get him to South Africa.

They had hoped to fly him to Johannesburg Monday night, but before the air ambulance could get here the fog rolled in and they couldn’t get here until Tuesday morning.  The idea of a night in the hospital in Madagascar is a little scary.  The Rossiters had to talk like crazy to get to stay in the room with him.  It’s a good thing they were there as no one checked on him very often; when Sister Rossiter thought he needed something they had to go track down a nurse.  They don’t have a ‘nurses station’ like in US hospitals, they just had to roam the hospital until they found someone to help them.  The APs went back to their apartment and brought four mattresses to the hospital for them and the Rossiters to sleep on.  The Rossiters were in the room with him and the APs were just outside the door in the hall.  Sister Rossiter sat and held his hand all night, as he wasn’t doing much sleeping; she talked to him all night just trying to keep his mind off his headache.  He wasn’t able to open his eyes because of the double vision and the brightness of any light.  At one point he said to her, “You have been so good to me, and I don’t even know what you look like.”  (He had been down in Amboistra since they had arrived and they had never met).  She said, “Honey, you’re not missing anything!”  You will all love the Rossiters!

Tuesday morning they got him in an ambulance and took him out to the airport to meet the air ambulance from Johannesburg.  President Adams was a little worried about ‘red tape’, so he had called the US Embassy to see if they could help with getting the plane in and Elder Palmer loaded and headed to South Africa as quickly as possible.  When they got to the airport there were 4 or 5 people from the Embassy there.  We’ve heard that they were amazing!  Without them helping it would have taken several hours to get that plane turned around.  They really made things move quickly and efficiently; quick and efficient are not Malagasy words!!!  Even President Adams driver, Marcellin, said, “It kind of makes you wish to be an American;  they take such good care of their people!”

When they got to the hospital in Johannesburg everyone was really encouraged because the bleed in his brain had quit bleeding and they were quite optimistic.  Things just went up and down for him, some days a little better and other days not so good.  Our whole mission had a special fast for him, and I can’t even imagine how many prayers were said for him all day every day.  Sometimes the answers to our prayers are not what we want them to be!  He was there for two or three weeks when his parents were finally able to get passports and get to South Africa.  He was able to squeeze their hands and he knew they were there, and they knew that he knew it. 

He was an amazing missionary.  When they decided he needed to come north from Amboistra for some medical help, he was more concerned about the missionary that he was training and what was going to happen with him.  He had had ‘quite a mission’ as he said.  In the MTC he got his nose broken playing basketball and had to have surgery.  When he got here he stepped in a hole (there are holes and hazards everywhere, no such thing as a smooth surface to walk on), twisted his ankle pretty bad and had to hobble on crutches for several weeks.  One P-day he and a few other Elders were at a lemur park and a ‘crazy’ lemur bit three of them; they had to have rabies shots because they couldn’t find the lemur that bit them.  Even with all the difficulties that he’d had he had a great attitude and wanted to be the best missionary he could possibly be. 

He was an organ donor.  Somewhere I read that even after he died, he helped up to 80 people in Africa.  He played the piano, he’d had a few lessons but he mostly played by ear.  He made some CDs before his mission that are pretty amazing.  He could even play upside down, laying on the floor. 

The day before the Memorial Service the Todd’s left to go home.  I was already a bit of an emotional wreck after reading all of the missionaries letters to the Palmers (some of them needed a little spell check!) and getting everything ready for the Memorial Service.  Besides the Todd’s were going home to MY neighborhood!!!  I was a real ‘mess’ when they left. 

We had a Memorial Service for Elder Palmer here.  Most of the missionaries here in Madagascar wrote letters to his family and sent pictures that they had with him.  He came out in the same group as Elder Babb (Colton).  During the Service we had a slide show with these pictures and his piano music in the background – it was way good!  His trainee, Elder Herrin, talked; his trainer, Elder Fisher, talked; a group of missionaries sang a song; then Sister Rossiter and President Adams both talked.  There were quite a few Malagasies there, several that he had taught.  It was an amazing service, really helped everyone get through it.

That afternoon the new Humanitarian couple arrived – so life moved on!  We also had to get going as we had 8 missionaries going home the next week, a group of new missionaries coming in, and all of the transfers that go with transfer week.  Transfer week is always really CRAZY and fun and a little sad.  Sad to see the old missionaries go home – it’s kind of like sending your own kids off on their missions again; we get really attached to some of them, especially the ones who have been APs and Office Elders.  But you are also excited for them to go home and see their families and get on with their life.  It’s fun to see the new missionaries come in, especially the ‘shell-shocked’ look on their faces when they arrive at  the office.  The ride in from the airport is always really ‘interesting’!  The Crazy part is all of the missionaries coming through going to other parts of the mission and to be trainers.  It’s kind of like a big party at the office for two or three days!

Ambohimanga Rova

We went out to Ambohimanga Rova with President and Sister Adams, and Elder and Sister Richards on Saturday morning a couple of weeks ago.  It is about an hour north and east of Tana.  This is where the old-time kings and queens had their summer palace on top of one of the hills.  There is an awesome view of the surrounding area, clear back to Antananarivo. 

There is a little town at the bottom, where the path and steps go up to the palace, where we parked. Once you leave the village and go up the steps, there are three levels.   

 When we got up to the first level of the grounds there was a group of young boys and girls with long sticks and round shields.  

 

 There were some men instructing them and they were practicing defensive gestures and then running around in different formations.  It was fun to watch.

  Around in the back was an area made up of big boulders with great views of the surrounding valley and you could see a really long ways.  We could even see the tall building that is being built by the ‘Big Jumbo’s’ back in Tana.  There was a sign up there that said “A rock which affords panoramic view over the sacred forest, over the surroundings: eastern, western and southern parts of the Capital included in the plain of Betsimitatatra. Its name originated from King Andrianampoinimerina’s wish.  He gathered on the summit the inhabitants of the twelve sacred-hills of Imerina.”  There isn’t a ‘forest’ any more, because most of the trees in Madagascar have been cut down to make charcoal for cooking.

 We went up some more stairs to to the middle level where there were some garden areas with lots of poinsettia trees and flowers.

The highest level has the actual palaces, one for the King and one for the Queen,  up some more stone stairs to the top of the hill.  There was an observation gazebo or look out area on the one side.  On the other side were the two buildings for the King and Queen.  The Queen definitely had the more comfortable accommodations.  At the back on this level are little buildings, mausoleums, where they have the bodies of the former Kings of Madagascar – and maybe the Queens. 

When we started up the steps to the palace level, we noticed a big, old, dead tree that had grown on a little patch of grass that was about half way up to the palace level.  We noticed it because there were several cow skulls with horns, attached to the tree.  The base of the tree was pretty big around, so it must have been a massive tree; part of the base was hollowed out.  

As we got done looking at the palace level, we heard drums and singing coming from down below somewhere.  We looked down from the battlement walls and saw a big group of people down on the lower level and some up on the level where the base of the big old tree was.  As we watched it looked like the people up by the base of the tree were bringing different fruits and leaving them there, then they would light a candle or incense and leave them inside and around the base of the tree.  

 
 

 Pretty soon all the people were down on the lower level and the men in the white robes with the red stripes down the front took turns talking.  When they got done talking, they would take a two liter bottle of some liquid, spill a little into their hands and throw it onto the people gathered around them; walking all through the crowd until it was gone.  When the men were done talking and ‘sprinkling’ the people, quite a few men in pink shirts got a rope out and were doing something up close to the wall under the tree.  We couldn’t see what was happening, so we went down all those stairs to get a better look.

When I got down where I could see that they had a cow all tied up on the ground (just like they do at the rodeo with all four legs tied together).   I guessed what was coming next, so I just hurried and went all the way over to the far side of the grounds so I wouldn’t have to see them kill the cow.  Dad stayed real close so that he could see what was going on.

Pretty soon after that three of the pink shirted guys took a gourd full of blood up to the base of the tree, another group of three took a gourd up to the palace level, and another group of three took a gourd down the steps and through the village, but we couldn’t tell where. 

On Sunday and Monday we were asking some of the Malagasy people we know if they knew what was going on out there.  The consensus was that they were asking their ancestors to bless them.  Several of them had heard about this ceremony, but no one had ever seen it.  It wasn’t like anything else We had ever seen either!  They told us that we were really lucky to get to watch it.

We recently bought a big tablecloth

We recently bought a ‘huge’ table cloth and napkins, big enough for our dining room table at home! 

There is a guy in one of the Wards here in Tana who embroiders table cloths and sells them.  One day he and his two sons came by the Mission Office to see if they could sell something.  He had several things that he had made with him, and he does was really nice work, so we ordered a Big table cloth with 18 napkins from him.  We paid him half so that he could go and buy the supplies, and he said that he would bring it back, all done, in two weeks.  It has lots of little Malagasy people on it, it turned out really nice.  He does all of the work, himself, and it is all “hand” embroidery.  

This guy's legs don’t work at all and he gets around in a wheelchair.  He has rigged him up a wheelchair like some of the para-olympians use.  He ‘peddles’ with his arms.   

 

We have since found out that he lives a long ways from the Mission Office, about five miles,  but his two sons came with him to help push up the hills,  as they help him get around.  Tana is built on lots of hills, so everything is either up or down, with very little flat ground.  I can’t even imagine what it took for him to get to the office.  When he got to the office he would get out of his chair, sit on the ground and drag his bottom and legs into the office by pulling and walking with his hands.

A month or two later we saw him and his family at Stake Conference.  He certainly doesn’t let his handicap slow him down.  And he always has a big smile on his face.  This is a man that is not going to let his handicap keep him from feeding and taking care of his family.  Another pretty outstanding person here in Madagascar.