This Ain't Kansas, Dorothy... (Or, "Our Trip to Mandritsara")

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

We (the girls and I) just got back from parts of 3 days in Mandritsara. Matthew flew us up there on Tuesday morning in the MAF plane. We arrived there around 12:00pm, and Matthew showed us who will be taking us to the house. We were greeted by a very friendly French couple, and we tried to communicate in their minimal English and my minimal French. Not too shabby. I was pointed to a small Jeep type truck (I don’t recognize all the European models here) and told that the man inside would take us to where Daryl was. So we hopped inside, or rather squished inside for our ride. The girls were a little unsure…the roads are unlike anything I’ve ever seen. They make the dirt stretch of the Nungessor look like a beautiful highway. It was so uneven in places I didn’t wonder if we should tip right over. But part of me just trusts the driver. I mean, hey, they do this all the time, right? We pulled up to a cement-looking house surrounded by beautiful flowers and trees. Right away the girls spotted their Daddy coming to meet us! It was very good to see a familiar (and handsome!) face. We went inside where Daryl had lunch waiting. It consisted of rice and green papaya (when the papaya is green it tastes more like a vegetable than a fruit), tomato and cucumber salad, and fresh baguettes. It was more delicious than I thought possible! I think I will quickly learn here that I do not have to be FULL to stop eating. There is not an overabundance of food, and even if there is, it is not easy to run to the nearest grocery store to stock up.

After lunch we happily showed Daryl all the groceries we had brought for him. Cans of tuna, dry pasta, instant soup mixes and pasta sauce, and coffee. Also some fresh cheese to share with the staff at the hospital. Who knew these things would so quickly seem like such a treat?

Daryl had to go back to run another clinic in the afternoon, so the girls and I laid down for rest. Anna-Christina and Olivia thought it was great fun to lay under their mosquito nets on each of their beds. When we got up, we did some exploring outside. Daryl had told us there were lots of fruit trees, but there is not a lot in season right now. In their back yard, there are banana, papaya, mango and orange trees, and pineapple is in the garden, but not ripe yet. The mangoes are not in season, and the oranges are very tart! But it was lovely to see all the trees and flowers there.

Now, lest you start thinking of this as a tropical, luxurious place, let’s set things straight here. The large house is made out of plaster or cement, from what my untrained eyes can tell me. All the doors and windows have screens, but they all have small holes in them (this was a little disconcerting considering I’m not taking malaria pills!). There is running water and a flush toilet, which I was very grateful for. As for electricity, there is virtually none. They have power there, but for some reason it seems to be off most of the time. (Before we got there, Daryl said in 4 days they had about 3 hours of electricity.) The kitchen is very primitive. A propane stove sits in the corner, with a little counter/cupboard beside it. Across from that, there is a small double sink with cold running water, and another small counter beside that. I quickly noticed that there are lots of tiny little ants that come in no time to any spill or drip of food or water! The untensils, pots and pans, dishes, etc. are obviously all…well-used, shall we say? It reminded me a lot of camping, put it that way!

Now back to our day. At lunch time, the wonderful British neighbors (both teacher-nurses) stopped in to welcome us and to invite us for dinner. So when Daryl got home around 5:30, we rounded up our flashlight and candles and headed next door. This house is a tri-plex for different staff and students at the hospital that need housing. They made us a delicious dinner of mashed potatoes, zebu beef in gravy, and cooked carrots and zucchini. There was something else tasty, but I didn’t have a chance to ask what it was. It tasted kind of like stuffing, but had a texture similar to couscous. Anyway, it was good. For dessert, she served 2 kinds of Jell-O, and instant butterscotch pudding with bananas. I could tell this was a treat for them. I was so thankful that my girls ate happily and didn’t complain about anything! (What a relief.)

After supper we headed back “home” in the pitch dark, lit our candles, and got ready for bed. Hmmmm, I think we’ll skip the teeth brushing tonight. It just seems chaotic with no electricity, not to mention that I have to go get clean water from the filter if we want to brush teeth. I’ll have to plan better tomorrow night. We got the girls all in their beds…but not settled by any means. It was so pitch dark that I even found it odd. We left a candle burning in the hall for the girls so it wouldn’t seem quite as black. At about 8:30, the howling started. And this time, it wasn’t our kids. There are an amazing amount of stray dogs here. They start some kind of ritual about the same time every night. By the sound of it, you would think they were killing eachother. Yelping, howling, fighting, barking, any sound a dog is capable of making is piercing your ear drums. Thankfully, it doesn’t last too long in one spot. But soon you can hear the pack coming back, at it again throughout the night. It sounds so terrible you would not want to step out of the front door, but in the morning, the dogs are so docile they hardly look at you when you pass by.

Between the dogs, the heat with no fans, and Adrienne tossing and turning between us, it was not a very restful night.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

At about 4:30 am, the roosters started crowing, and by 5:30 the dogs, people, and roosters were all in full force! We pulled ourselves out of bed at 6:00, and made oatmeal that I had brought along for the girls. Daryl had some long life milk on hand, so we opened that and drank as much as we could, since we didn't know if we would be able to refrigerate it or not. (It’s like a juice box; it doesn’t have to be refrigerated until it’s opened)

Daryl headed off to the hospital for morning clinic, and the girls and I wondered around a bit. I didn’t want to go out until the sun was completely up, since I had seen mosquitoes lurking by the door. So we hung out and read books, drew and coloured, etc. After Adrienne had a cat-nap, we headed outside to see what we could see! It’s funny to see the people walking by – they stare and stare at our white kids. Most people here are so friendly. We said “Bonjour!” but most of them only speak Malagasy, and I had forgotten to ask the word for “hello”. We were checking out all the different plants and trees and suddenly Anna-Christina said, “Mom! There’s a chameleon!” Sure enough, there he was, slowly creeping up the bush. It was fun to watch him. I didn’t realize how slowly they walk. We tried to scare him a bit to get him onto the green grass (we wanted to see if he would change colour) but he just headed for another brown branch.

We went inside for lunch, since Daryl was late and we were all so very hungry. This time it was boiled potatoes and cucumber and tomato salad, and baguettes again (I’ve never eaten so much white bread in my life!). After lunch, it was a nice surprise to see the lights come on suddenly! I quickly put the milk from the refrigerator to the freezer compartment to get it to chill thoroughly. Daryl came home for a quick bite, and we knew we had to go back with him if we wanted to see the hospital. We couldn’t walk there by ourselves, since we didn’t know the way and it’s quite a distance. Unfortunately, I had opted not to bring the baby trekker along! It was a hot 30 minute walk, but the girls did well. It was fun to walk along the dusty, dirty, uneven streets and see the culture of the Malagasy people first hand. We passed several zebu carts, sometimes driven by children, many stray dogs, kids that followed us shouting, “Saloma!” (what I know now is “hello” in Malagasy), small vendors with their wares set up in a shack, many friendly women with babies, and countless chickens! When we got to the hospital, Daryl was late for his clinic, and there was a long line of people waiting to be seen. Thankfully this week he has a translator to help him out.

So the girls and I found a quiet spot to spend some time. They were quite upset that he had to go back to work so quickly. The hospital grounds are basically shady courtyards with rooms (inpatient wards, offices, etc.) going off to the sides. I soon realized there were mosquitoes out there, so we went inside to the library. As soon as we sat down, I saw Little House on the Prarie sitting there, so we read a few chapters out of that. Well, that soon got old and the kids were already restless. So we played 20 Questions (or 50 questions, if you like), and thankfully I found some leftover snacks in the bottom of my backpack. We looked at a textbook for midwives, and the girls made up some games. Yes, we passed 2 ½ hours sitting in a small, medical library! I was grateful there was a bathroom across the hall for the girls. I think they went there more than necessary just to get out!

Daryl came back at around 4:30, and we were very glad to see him! We were planning to walk home again, stopping at the market to see the town a bit. Well, our plans were changed a little because he had just been informed that there was a Bible study that they wanted us to come to so they could introduce us to the hospital staff. So after 2 ½ hours of sitting in the library, we went to this Bible study and made the girls sit quietly again! I was glad a lady came over and so nicely translated the message for me (it was in Malagasy). I kept watching outside, partly because it was quickly getting dark, and we didn’t have any flashlights along. I’m also paranoid of the dark because I was told to stay inside after about 4:00 since I’m not taking anti-malarials. Not to mention that all the doors and windows were wide open…

Finally the Bible study was over. That sounds terrible, but being in another language, and having to make 3 kids sit through it, I was quite ready to leave. Everyone was so friendly though, and it was fun to practise our French a bit. Of course the people that speak English enjoy practising that too. One man wanted to talk to the kids because he said he really wanted to hear them speaking English, he was so fascinated by it!

Mier (the British lady who took good care of us) found us after the service and insisted we would not be walking home in the dark. Thank you God. So we all loaded up into the back of a Land Rover and made the trek home.

We were invited upstairs to join Debby (a laboratory technician) and the others for supper at 7:00. So I decided to take a quick (candle-lit!) shower before going over there. I went into the bathroom with my candles and just as I pulled the shower curtain back I saw something scurry down the other side of it. I jumped back and it went somewhere, but I wasn’t sure where. I called Daryl, who was trying to keep the kids happy with bread until dinner time. He came in and said he couldn’t see anything, and just then I stepped on something that squished. Ew! I almost screamed, and told him I stepped on something. He says, “Probably just a chunk of Adrienne’s bread”. I think not! Now remember we’re doing all of this in semi-darkness, with a couple of candles and a dimming flashlight! I shone the light down and saw that I had stepped on a huge cockroach with my BARE foot. It still sends shivers up down my spine. It’s guts were still on the bottom of my foot and I wasn’t sure what to do next. I worked up enough courage to go back into the bathroom, and when I pulled back the shower curtain a second time, shaking it out well, I saw another huge cockroach and a fat centipede scurrying away in the bottom of the shower. This time I ran out and told Daryl that I will just have a wash in the bathroom sink and that will be good enough for tonight! Being the kind husband that he is, he went into the bathroom, killed both creatures, picked up the dead one, bleached the shower for me, and started running the hot water. I think that was one of the quickest showers I’ve ever had. But it did feel great, I must say.

After that little fiasco, we went upstairs to join the others for another candle-lit dinner. This time it was some type of shepherd’s pie, cooked carrots, and for dessert there was fresh pineapple and banana fruit salad. I had brought a fresh loaf of French bread from the city, and everyone thought that was a great treat.

Thankfully our girls were very hungry and they ate well again. By the time dinner was over, it was way past bedtime. So we made the dark journey to our beds. Just as we were getting the kids settled, John popped his head in the door and said he was going to run the generator for a bit. Yea!!! It was wonderful to have lights for an hour or so. I was much less scared of stepping on another cockroach in the light! And we even had a fan for a bit. Believe me, tonight I was glad for mosquito nets over our beds for more than keeping mosquitoes off!

Either the dogs were not as loud tonight, or I was so exhausted I didn’t notice them as much. Either way, we slept much better.

Thursday, June 15, 2007

Once again, we are awakened to the sound of human voices, many roosters, and dogs barking. Laying in bed at 5:45 am, I can tell the town is buzzing with activity. I got up around 6:00, since I hadn’t packed up anything in the dark the night before, and I wanted to be sure and not miss our ride to the airport at 7:45. We made oatmeal again for breakfast, and since the electricity was on for so long yesterday, the milk was still cool.

Around 8:00, we all went outside to wait for our ride. Apparently the people that we were flying out with had one last meeting and we were waiting for it to adjourn. So it was rather nice that they were late. Daryl had given notice at the hospital that he would be late, so we all hung out outside and enjoyed a bit more time together.

Finally around 9:00, we heard that the plane was late. We all piled in the Land Rover again and left for the airstrip. (Notice I didn’t say “airport”. The airstrip consists of a dirt/grass runway and a small shed for fuel.) As soon as you could hear the plane overhead, there were about 100+ people around the runway.

We were all happy to see “Uncle Matthew” flying the plane, since we had heard it would probably not be him. And we were thankful that the driver of our ride had insisted Daryl come to the airport with us. I will admit, we had a tearful good-bye when it was time to get on the plane. I was so glad we came to visit, and so was Daryl. But it felt like it was very short, and we didn’t have any “family time”, which we had been hoping for. I think it was hard on Daryl to have to say good-bye after feeling like he hadn’t seen us much, because of being at work, etc. And as much as he is enjoying his work, he is a bit overwhelmed with the language barrier. But it was better than nothing, and we were so glad to see where he is working for the next couple of weeks.

On the flight back, Uncle Matthew invited Anna-Christina up front to sit with him and wear the headphones. Once she got comfortable up there, I could see them talking away, and I wished I could hear all her many questions! She was full of information about the plane, and had a great time flying.

Landing in ‘Tana was like entering civilization again! As much as I was sad to say good-bye to Daryl and know I wouldn’t see him for 2 more weeks, it felt good to land and be greeted by Rhonda and taken “home”.

In retrospect, we had a good time in Mandritsara, and I wouldn’t trade the experience (well, maybe just the part about the cockroach). It is so nice to picture in my mind’s eye where Daryl is. I love seeing other cultures, and it was so good to be pretty much immersed in the Malagasy culture. Though I won’t be doing it again anytime soon, when our kids are this small! But my kids, my husband and I have now been to Africa, and it is an experience we shall never forget!