Chickens....run for your lives!

I can't believe we've been here 3 weeks already! It doesn't seem possible! I'm trying so hard to be fully pressent every moment so that I don't end up coming back home in 1 year wishing I would have done things differently. I had a really encouraging week this week. Monday we took a taxi-be to Tana City with a friend. We stopped by Jumbo Score, which is a huge supermarket/walmart type of store, to pick up some of the things on the boys list of supplies needed for this school year.

Tuesday turned out to be an interesting day. The boys and I went for a walk into Talatamaty (about 2 kilo. away). I bumped into a missionary with YWAM. The boys were chasing chicks earlier and the same gaggle came down the road and headed towards some shacks behind a fence. I had seen that there were a bunch of children playing behind the gate (which was wide open) so I figured the boys would just go and play with them. I was quite pleased when they disappeared behind the fence. They miss playing with their cousins so I thought this would encourage them. So she and I talked for about 5 minutes. I said, “I better go check on the boys”. She said, “I'd be more worried about the chicks if I were you!” So I said goodbye and walked behind the gate. As I walked I heard the boys laughing and shrieking in delight. “Oh good, I hope they feel encouraged playing with the neighborhood children” I thought. As I rounded the corner, much to my suprise and slight horror, I saw the boys chasing that poor gaggle of chicks with all the malagasy adults and children stepping out of their shacks just staring in complete shock …..and what appeared to be frustration. I quickly grabbed their arms and looked at the adults and said, “so sorry” in malagasy and waved at them and they just continued to glare at me. So slowly I turned around pulling the boys away from the chickens with my head hung low, red creaping up on my cheeks. Needless to say we had a very important talk about how chickens are expensive property for the people here and that when chickens are scared, and running for their lives from little boys, they are less likely to lay eggs the next day. Lesson learned. Needless to say when we've walked past that place again this week I smiled largely ….. and held tightly to the boys hands!