We Were A Freak Show!

Wednesday, April 16

We took another pousse from the hotel to the Pritchards. My driver kept turning around, looking at me with a big smile, and saying something in Malagasy. I don't think I want to know what he said! I'm pretty sure I'm glad I don't understand Malagasy!

Walter wasn't feeling very well so he stayed at the Pritchards' house all day by himself.

Ja and Rachel wanted to take us out into the country for a picnic. Ja rented a van because he broke his car the day before when we went 4-wheeling (on accident, of course!). When you rent a vehicle in Madagascar you rent the driver, too. It's a package deal.

What a trip this one turned out to be! We got pulled over at least 5 times by the police. This was the only day on our entire trip that we had any dealings with the police. And we were pulled over because we were in a vehicle driven by a Malagasy. The driver had to show his paperwork to the officer and then each officer would look back into the van to see who was there. The officers always said "hello" and we would have offended him if we didn't say "hello" back. At one point in the day, we were giving a police officer a FREE ride.

The only picture I got of a police officer (the guy on the right in front of Ja). They DO NOT like you to take their picture. But he wasn't paying attention to me so I took one!

About 1 1/2 hours into the drive, we needed to stop and get gas. We stopped in a remote village. I don't think any of those people had seen a white person before! Hence the title of this here entry! WE WERE A FREAK SHOW! At least 30 people swarmed the van peering into the windows all around the van. They were smiling and laughing at us. Some of the small children were climbing on the van and putting their hands in the windows. I told them to get down. They weren't too happy about that and they called me "dumb" or "stupid" in Malagasy. What they didn't know was that Jon, Ja and Rachel's oldest son, understands Malagasy very well and heard what this kid had said.

After a few minutes of this, I was getting very uncomfortable so I decided to turn the tables on these people. I pulled out my trusty camera and started taking lots of pictures!

We saw this church while we were stopped for gas. We were puzzled by the upside down cross. We believe it to be a Satanic church because of the upside down cross. The church had no sign and the Satanic church doesn't advertise, either. If anyone knows what kind of church this is, please feel free to leave a comment.

We had gotten 3 hours into our drive and Ja got to wondering how much longer it would take to get where he wanted to go. He asked the driver and he said another 1 1/2 hours. We all decided that a 4 1/2 hour drive was too much. So we had the driver stop along the roadside at a nice area so we could enjoy our picnic.

We climbed up a small hill (but very steep). Being in a skirt and walking through almost waist high grass tends to make one's legs itchy. However, add lots of inflamed mosquito bites to the mix and you have one unhappy and miserable woman! So we get to a nice shaded area and set up our picnic. We realized a few minutes later that we ended up eating amongst cow pies! Ja and his boys cleared the area as best they could.

Eating amongst the cow pies!

Pictures of the countryside. Beautiful!

Ja went down behind some bushes and he came back with a chameleon! He brought it back to show the kids and they decided to keep it. It was put in a drawstring basket. I sat next to it. That was a BIG mistake! Anyone who knows me knows that I am probably the biggest chicken there is! That chameleon was upset and he moved around in the basket so much that at one point the basket fell towards me and I screamed very loudly! Rachel kindly moved him and I felt so much better. Imagine that! A few minutes later, it did escape from the basket and Ja caught it again.

After lunch, the boys went exploring and found another large lizard bigger than the chameleon. But they couldn't catch it. Jon ended up finding a baby chameleon. It was only a couple of inches long. We took pictures of it (I can't find the pictures I took of it) and let it go.

The Pritchard boys
L to R - Jeremiah, Jon, Jason, Joel

I had never seen so many dragonflies before. There were these blue ones, brown ones, and red ones.

The drive home was long. Drivers don't really care about driving on the correct side of the road. Nor do they care about tailgating. At one point, we were less than 1 inch behind the car in front of us! If that weren't bad enough, add all the diesel fumes pouring into the van and it makes one very uncomfortable. I reached my hand out to grab ahold of a seat or something to hold on to. I didn't say a word or make a sound (I know, Pastor's wife, amazing huh!). Ja saw me and he said, "I feel the same way, Rhonda!" He was just as nervous as I was! We were very glad to get back home and get out of that van!