Madagascar, Land of Rice Paddies and Lemurs

On December 3rd we went to Antananarivo, Madagascar to train  new Humanitarian missionaries, Ron and Martha Tanner.  They are replacing Elder and Sister Asay.  The Tanners, from Alberta Canada, have previously served an MLS mission in Ethiopia so their adjustment to Madagascar hasn't been as hard as for other couples.  They knew what they were getting themselves into.  Karl and Margaret Blake went with us to observe and see how we train the new couples.

Madagascar used to be a French colony and French is still an official language although almost all of the people speak Malagasy.

Antananarivo, the capital, looks a lot more European than any city we've seen so far in Africa.  Since Madagascar achieved its independence in 1960 however, the buildings and infrastructure have really deteriorated.

Looking out over "Tana" from the mission office

The LDS Church is growing very rapidly in Madagascar.  There are now 2 stakes and 2 districts there.  There is one particularly large chapel there that's as big as a temple.  Lots of people have stories of how that building came to be, but we understand there is a lot of Church leadership that is not at all happy with it.

This large and spacious building seen from our hotel window is an LDS chapel

 We flew to "Tana" on Tuesday and stayed at the Carlton Hotel, which was a pretty nice hotel.  There were really not a lot of choices when it came to hotels we could stay in.

WORKING IN THE TANNERS' OFFICE

Our new missionary training is pretty intensive and takes at least 2 1/2 days.  We go through with the new couple, all the documents in their training manual, discussing with them, how to choose projects, how to manage them and how to take care of paying the bills for them.  We talk about hiring and paying their temporary employees such as translators, Site Monitors, etc.  

We also help them organize their office making sure they have all the supplies they need and that they know where to find all their project files, etc.  We also go over their computer, again making sure they have loaded, and know where to find everything on it they'll need. 

New missionary, Ron Tanner was a contractor and worked with water projects before he came.  He is outgoing and has a fun personality and will  make a lot of friends.  He spent 6 months learning Malagasy before entering the MTC, besides knowing French from a mission to France many years ago.  He likes to do magic tricks and likes to stop and play with the kids that we would pass on the sidewalk.

        

THE TANNER'S CHAPEL, MISSION HOME AND OFFICE

We have always scheduled our training trips for a bare minimum of 4 days because by the time we got back to the office, the work had piled up so badly that it took several 14-hour days to try to catch up, besides the inconvenience to our couples who were waiting for us to get things done.

A big load being pulled down the middle of the street.

Last month though, Walt had an epiphany.  He reasoned that we would probably never see most of these countries ever again.  Therefore we should take an extra 1 day to see and do something while we were there.

We therefore, scheduled a fifth day to be in Madagascar (Tuesday-Saturday).  And it was worth it!

This little boy was begging at my window until I showed him my camera

We decided to go to the Madagascar rain forest to see the lemurs.  Lemurs are small primates similar to monkeys but are not related to them.  Madagascar is the only place in the world where lemurs can be found.  There are many species of lemurs ranging from less than 1 pound up to 20 pounds.

Running through the capital, missionaries call this the 'Poo River' for a very good reason

  Stan and Rosalee Nance are also serving in Madagascar as Public Affairs missionaries.  Fifty years ago Stan and Walt were companions for a short time in the city of Charleroi, Belgium. They knew of a great place to go and made reservations for us six, at a beautiful place called Vakona Forest Lodge.

We left "Tana" on Thursday afternoon for a one-day outing in the Madagascar Rain Forest.

It was laundry day everywhere we went.  Clothes were washed in the river and laid out to dry.

The rain forest is about a three hour drive from Tana.  The traffic getting out of Tana was crazy and the roads leading to the rain forest were narrow and winding, forcing us to constantly pass large trucks in uncomfortable places.

This is a "Push Push" and they were everywhere in the outlying small towns

Stan Nance drove and was very good at getting through all of the traffic

The entrance to the grounds at Vakona Forest Lodge

  

We all had small private bungalows in this beautiful setting in the Madagascar Rain Forest

THE VAKONA FOREST LODGE

We all stayed in little bungalows in the middle of a beautiful forest

The plants, flowers and trees all around the Vakona Lodge were incredible; lots of things we had never seen before.

Lots of unusual trees and beautiful flowers

A whole tree-full of these gorgeous flowers

Bridge across a small stream to our Bungalow

A place of our own

This is the most wicked plant I've ever seen

This is called "Crown of Thorns"

This is called a "Traveler's Palm" because you can cut the fronds and get water

It was so peaceful and quiet there

  

Karl and Margaret Blake,  Stan and Rosalee Nance with Susan

 
Before getting to the rain forest, we stopped on the side of the road and bought two big bunches of bananas to give to the lemurs.  The two, 10 or 12 year old girls selling them, started out by asking $1.50 per bunch (over 100, very small bananas in each bunch).  When we gave them the full $3.00 "asking" price, the girls got huge smiles on their faces because they had scored so big from the silly white people.  Walt then gave them another couple of dollars and you would have thought they had died and gone to heaven.

LOTS OF BANANAS IN ONE BIG BUNCH

We cut the bananas off the stem and divided them up into plastic bags for each couple to carry.

  Different species of lemurs are found on little islands in this beautiful and lush forest. We rented canoes and a guide for a few hours to take us up a small river to the different islands where the lemurs are found.  Lemurs do not like the water, so even though the river is not very wide, the different species of lemurs do not cross the river and mix.  Consequently, each of the islands had only one or two species.

Up a lazy but incredibly beautiful river, in search of lemurs

Stan and Rosalee

At one of the islands there were signs posted saying:  "Careful, They Bite."  We were told not to stop there, but to take pictures and keep on moving.

THE GOLDEN LEMUR

On one of the islands we saw Golden Lemurs.  These are the largest lemurs found in this forest.  They were more shy than the others and we had a hard time enticing them to come near to us.

GOLDEN LEMUR JUMPING OUT OF A TREE, AFTER A BANANA

It doesn't get much prettier than this

This is also crocodile country

When we got to some of the islands we were told not to get out of the canoes but we could stop and take pictures.

A Ring-Tailed Lemur

On this island we found these "Ring Tailed Lemurs."  They were very friendly also and we stopped here but didn't get off the boats.

For some reason they liked the front of our canoe

These guys are so cute

At another one of the islands we got out of the canoes and "visited" with the lemurs.  These were unbelievably friendly and cuddly and would eat the bananas out of your hands.

Friendly little guys

SURROUNDED BY LEMURS

Ron Tanner bent over to take a picture and found a new friend

These two large black and white lemurs liked to hang upside-down while asking for a treat.

These lemurs will do anything for a banana

 Susan told everyone that she wasn’t going to carry any bananas because she didn’t want lemurs crawling all over her.  Ron Tanner was taking lots of pictures because he was making a slide show of our adventure together.  After we had been standing there for a few minutes and lemurs were crawling over everyone else, all of a sudden one of them jumped on Susan's back.  She let out a blood curdling scream that Ron did not get on video.  But within another minute he got his chance when another one jumped on her. 

Susan does NOT like little animals crawling on her.  She blames it on her children because of terrible things they did to her many years ago.  One day, as she was bent over in the refrigerator, Michael came in the back door and put a big rat on her back. While she was screaming, the rat crawled all over her before Michael took it off.  Another time Walt took the kids skiing and they came home with a vole (looks like a mouse).  They thought they should scare mom, and as they came in the house, they saw she was sitting in a rocking chair holding baby Rick.  Without saying a word, they placed it on her chest.  No words can describe!

As we were paddling around the islands, Margaret Blake dropped her little red camera into the river.  Not seeing any crocodiles nearby, she jumped in after it.  The camera never worked again after that, but at least she rescued her photo card and that's what really mattered.

A BRAVE MARGARET

Back at the Visitors' Center we saw lots of cool displays including this skin from a 20 foot Croc.

NOW THAT WAS ONE BIG CROCODILE!

We drove back to Antantanarivo ("Tana") Friday afternoon and did some more training with E/S Tanner.

All the rice is planted by hand

Working in the rice paddies

The countryside in Madagascar is beautiful

In several places we saw these huge piles of hand-made bricks.  The people know just how to stack them so they can be "fired."

These stacks are made with "built-in" chambers for wood so the bricks can be fired.  

                    If the bricks are not fired, they will disintegrate after a while from the rain water.

The wood goes here when they build a fire.

Once again we had a delightful time in another country.  We have loved learning about and visiting the countries in Africa.  We are very grateful to be on this mission and help the people here.