beautiful memories

So my 1st blog entry didn't come up on the blog for some reason. Sorry to start off my blog with such a sad picture.  The Malagasy people here are beautiful people both in aperance and spirit.  Here is a little story that should bring a smile to your face.  This happened last Sunday.

8/15/10

Went to Tana City Church today. Left at 8:30 to get to the church by 10:00. It's only about 5 miles from our house. It's a 2 mile (about) walk to reach the taxi-be. Then the fight begins! Especially around 8:00-9:00am. You usually can't get on the first several taxi-bes due to all the people runnign to get on them. So even though it only takes 5 minutes to get to the church from the bus stop you sometimes can't get onto a bus for 10-20 minutes! There are so many people fighting to get on. And I literally mean FIGHTINHG! I told Randy to follow me that this “faza” means business! I came hear to learn Malagasy so I was going to get a taxi-be like a Malagasy! I ran up to the taxi-be and another woman came right beside me and gave me the ol' hip action to push me out of the way. “Oh, no she didn't” I thought to myself. “Ok lady, you're going to see how a 'faza' who means business gets on a taxi-be!” I “hipped” her right back and pulled randy and the boys on. We got somewhat separated and the drivers helper wasn't going to let randy and Cole on. I shook my head at him with a “Not today buddy, my husband's coming on with me” and I was so far up front by that time ( pushed by the sea of people in the taxi-be) that the driver's helper gave in and let Randy and Cole stand in the back! Ahhhh, VICTORY IS MINE!!!

We arrived at the church early as it didn't take as long to get a taxi-be as we thought this morning. It was a nice service. It was in English, which is very helpful:). The worship was that of worship in a “hilsong” style-standard mega-church contemporary worship. The boys and I dismissed after singing to attend the children's church. They were quite nervous at first but ended up talking and singing with the other children. After church a few of the short termers came back to our house for lunch. We stopped at the grocery story and open market 1^st to buy some food then came back to the house and cooked together. It was lovely. Spent the afternoon playing baseball and soccer with the neighborhood children. We had a great time with them!