This one is kinda like a book....very long!
Tuesday, April 15We ate breakfast in the hotel cafe. We were enjoying ourselves when I heard the distinct sound of a cat meowing. We had seen a couple of cats roaming around the hotel. I looked around to see the cat inside the cafe! He was a nice little cat. He came right up to us and let us pet him. When we left we noticed he had jumped up on the bar and curled up and went to sleep. That's not something you would ever see here in America!
The morning started out with the Ja taking us to see some of the family tombs in the area. I had no idea we were going up into the mountains (actually very large foothills) up above Antsirabe. The 3 of us set out in the car. I think we could have gotten there faster if we'd have walked! The roads are so bad that you could walk faster than drive in most areas.
Not sure if you can tell just how bad the roads were from the pictures but in person you would definitely know what I am talking about! The car just rocks back and forth from all the potholes.
Ja decided that enough was enough and he couldn't remember how to get there so we were heading back down the mountain. We happened to see another road and decided this would be the last road we tried. Oh my goodness! I thought the other roads were bad! This one topped all the roads in the country that we traveled on! But we eventually found the area we were looking for. Praise the Lord! I think it took us 2 hours to find the right spot. But once we got there, the view was spectacular!
This is the worst road we were on! Click on the picture to enlarge it and you'll see what I mean!
The tombs are neat to look at.
We got our pictures and headed back down the mountain. We passed through many tiny villages. You could tell the people were much poorer than in the city by the looks of their homes. The homes had straw roofs. Also notice the black soot around the door in the picture below. That means they cook on their charcoal burner inside the home. Typically, those who cook inside their homes with the charcoal burners don't live as long. I wonder why???????????? Hmmmm!!!
These homes were made out of clay bricks. Now their bricks and the bricks here in the USA are completely different. They don't use mortar when they lay the brick. They use clay in between the bricks. Then they overlay the bricks with more clay. However, it rains and rains and rains and rains for months there. So.........the houses fall apart after a few years. Enlarge the picture and you'll see the gap between the roof and the house wall.
This is a picture of men dredging the sand from the bottom of the river. Then they sell it. I took this picture on the way up the mountain.
A random picture coming down the mountain.
A random picture coming down the mountain.
We passed by this small school and the children all looked at us like they hadn't seen white people before!
The people washing their laundry in the river.
The laundry drying by the side of the river.
The people washing their laundry in the river.
The laundry drying by the side of the river.
This is one of our all time favorite pictures! It's the Malagasy equivalent to America's Lowe's delivery truck! We got such a huge laugh out of this sight! Enlarge the picture and you'll see that even the wheelbarrows are made completely out of wood. Don't see that in America these days!
After our little adventure in the mountains, we went on a lunch date with Ja and Rachel. We tried out a brand new restaurant. And the food was delicious! While we were waiting for our food, we were served bread and an assortment of condiments. We started trying them. Well.....one of them happened to be a "4 alarm" hot sauce. Both Ja and Walter tried it. Both of their faces turned red and both were coughing and needed a drink fast!
We have a man in our church (George) who loves hot sauce. We had Ja ask if we could buy a small bottle of it. The owner said yes. We were shocked! So we brought it back to the USA with us. We brought it to church with some chips. Six people from the church tried it. Three were mexican and the other three were not. The mexicans thought the sauce was good and the other three said it had no taste at all. It was just plain hot!
There was another sauce that I liked from this restaurant. Ja asked if we could have the recipe. The owner said yes again and we paid $1 for it. Ja told me the ingredients but I forgot to write them down. The recipe was written in Malagasy so I have the recipe here and I can't read it. Oh, well!
When we got back home from our adventure in the mountains, Ja and Walter noticed that the car didn't seem to be working right. Ja thought he broke the car! They had just gotten it out of the repair shop to the tune of $900 and he wasn't looking forward to getting it fixed again. We had planned to go on a picnic with the whole Pritchard family the next day but with the car broken, plans were going to change. We ended up securing the rental of a van (with the driver, too).
We went to the "good" hospital to visit one of the church members. She had just had a "radical" hysterectomy that morning. I learned to be incredibly thankful for the hospitals and staff we have here in America. When you stay in the hospital in Antsirabe you have to provide everything for yourself. If you want to eat, you better make sure someone brings you food from home. No cafeteria in the hospital. If you want to go to the bathroom, you better make sure you have someone looking after you (family member, friend, etc.) because the nurses won't come in and help you. If you are cold and need more blankets, you better have someone bring them from home because they aren't provided for you at the hospital. The nurses are only there to make sure you have enough medication. That's it. Nothing else!
After we were done at the hospital we needed to stop by the market to pick up some food (vegetables, grains, etc.). Time was getting short as we had to be back for the final night of Walter's creation class. We had to get home quickly because the person watching the children was ready to leave in a few minutes. Walter and I each took a pousse and headed home.
I looked at both the pousse drivers. I asked Walter which one he wanted me to ride in. Walter ended up being pulled by the older driver. I almost asked him if he wanted to change pousses but decided not to. So we're on our way and we passed by a group of pousse drivers with no work at the moment. They proceeded to make fun of the guy pulling Walter. We headed up a small hill. The poor guy! He couldn't hardly pull the pousse! It was too heavy for him. Walter jumped out of the pousse and pushed it to the top of the hill and then got back in it for the rest of the ride. Well, the joke ended up being on the other pousse drivers because Walter paid the guy 2 1/2 times (about $1 equivalent) what he originally charged! And the other pousse drivers missed out on that opportunity!
After our little adventure in the mountains, we went on a lunch date with Ja and Rachel. We tried out a brand new restaurant. And the food was delicious! While we were waiting for our food, we were served bread and an assortment of condiments. We started trying them. Well.....one of them happened to be a "4 alarm" hot sauce. Both Ja and Walter tried it. Both of their faces turned red and both were coughing and needed a drink fast!
We have a man in our church (George) who loves hot sauce. We had Ja ask if we could buy a small bottle of it. The owner said yes. We were shocked! So we brought it back to the USA with us. We brought it to church with some chips. Six people from the church tried it. Three were mexican and the other three were not. The mexicans thought the sauce was good and the other three said it had no taste at all. It was just plain hot!
There was another sauce that I liked from this restaurant. Ja asked if we could have the recipe. The owner said yes again and we paid $1 for it. Ja told me the ingredients but I forgot to write them down. The recipe was written in Malagasy so I have the recipe here and I can't read it. Oh, well!
When we got back home from our adventure in the mountains, Ja and Walter noticed that the car didn't seem to be working right. Ja thought he broke the car! They had just gotten it out of the repair shop to the tune of $900 and he wasn't looking forward to getting it fixed again. We had planned to go on a picnic with the whole Pritchard family the next day but with the car broken, plans were going to change. We ended up securing the rental of a van (with the driver, too).
We went to the "good" hospital to visit one of the church members. She had just had a "radical" hysterectomy that morning. I learned to be incredibly thankful for the hospitals and staff we have here in America. When you stay in the hospital in Antsirabe you have to provide everything for yourself. If you want to eat, you better make sure someone brings you food from home. No cafeteria in the hospital. If you want to go to the bathroom, you better make sure you have someone looking after you (family member, friend, etc.) because the nurses won't come in and help you. If you are cold and need more blankets, you better have someone bring them from home because they aren't provided for you at the hospital. The nurses are only there to make sure you have enough medication. That's it. Nothing else!
After we were done at the hospital we needed to stop by the market to pick up some food (vegetables, grains, etc.). Time was getting short as we had to be back for the final night of Walter's creation class. We had to get home quickly because the person watching the children was ready to leave in a few minutes. Walter and I each took a pousse and headed home.
I looked at both the pousse drivers. I asked Walter which one he wanted me to ride in. Walter ended up being pulled by the older driver. I almost asked him if he wanted to change pousses but decided not to. So we're on our way and we passed by a group of pousse drivers with no work at the moment. They proceeded to make fun of the guy pulling Walter. We headed up a small hill. The poor guy! He couldn't hardly pull the pousse! It was too heavy for him. Walter jumped out of the pousse and pushed it to the top of the hill and then got back in it for the rest of the ride. Well, the joke ended up being on the other pousse drivers because Walter paid the guy 2 1/2 times (about $1 equivalent) what he originally charged! And the other pousse drivers missed out on that opportunity!
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