Alright, where do I begin?,
This week was great. In case you were wondering, I didn't write you yesterday because every time we have a major Holiday on Monday ( which has happened a few times this(last) year) we switch our P-day to Tuesday.
Anyway, yesterday was great, we went to the office and had a really good breakfast for all the missionaries, courtesy of the senior couples here in Madagascar. The senior couples are, Elder and Sister Armour, who lived in California and knew Jack Stringham while he served a mission there speaking Cambodian ( they said he was their favorite missionary and still keep in contact with him,) Elder and Sister Wilson, who arrived here from England about 2 months after I got here. Yesterday, as all the missionaries were watching a film for New Years, Sister Wilson came in before, and announced that since we sang "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" to the orphans earlier that week, and some of us asked " what is a figgy pudding anyway?" she had actually made some figgy pudding for us to try, and asked if anyone wanted to try some, to which I replied " we won't go until we get some!" ( happily most people got it :). So we ate figgy pudding and watched a movie for new years ( I don't know if anyone wants figgy pudding ever again.) Sister Gaya (president's wife), who is an excellent French cook, also contributed greatly to the wonderful New Year's breakfast.
This last week was really fun. There is a lot more drunk people in this new area ( as I may have mentioned before) and drunk people always make a point to talk to the white guys (usually in French or English, neither of which are they usually able to speak). Often, we are invited to sit down and drink with them. We always refuse, however some of our best members were former alcoholics contacted while they were drunk because it's really easy to get an address from drunk people. And if you can read their handwriting, they give you the actual address and really tell you were they live ( Sober people often give us a false address to get rid of us, I don't know why they don't just say " I'm not interested" there would be a lot less walking.) Anyway, this week we were invited to join some people drinking, even though they knew exactly who we are, so they bought us a large bottle of Coke and asked us to explain some questions they had about English. We said we had to go, but they gave us the coke anyway, ( I never drank coke before the mission, but I recommend it after eating "questionable" meals ( even though sometimes, there's no question, i.e. cow stomach) because it kills most things in your stomach.) They gave us the Coke and insisted that we answer a question about English that was really troubling them. So we asked what the question was. He said " what mean this? ' Fuzzywuzzy was a bear. Fuzzywuzzy had no hair, Fuzzywuzzy wasn't very fuzzy, was he?' I do not understand this! Who is this Fuzzywuzzy? What is Fuzzy? Why didn't he have her? and who was she anyway?" The person asking the question was so serious about this that my companion and I couldn't help but laughing hysterically. My companion kept laughing as I feebly tried to explain. I don't think he got it. But hey, we got a free Coke.
I seem to recall that all the kids in our family have at some point been caught sleep-talking, all of them except, correct me if I'm wrong, me. I might have sleep-talked before, but either nobody told me about it, or nobody's ever heard me. Anyway, I was always kind of proud of this distinction, because usually people say the most ridiculous things when they sleep-talk, and are later made fun of for it. Well, I am now with my 5th companion on the mission, and all of them say that they have heard me sleep-talk more than a couple of times. The funny thing is, none of them have heard me sleep-talk in English. Apparently, when I sleep-talk, it's always in Malagasy. So there, you have it, the only reason I didn't sleep-talk before was because I couldn't speak Malagasy back then. And now everything makes sense again:)
Well, it's always lovely to hear from you. No, I still haven't received your package, but I'm not worried. I'm sure it will turn up some time. Oh yeah, my companion and I won the "mission's mandatory p-day pizza contest" last week. This was great because I was visibly opposed to the words " mandatory" and "p-day" being in the same sentence, but then we won, and both received snickers bars. They were good, ( and the name of the candy was appropriate;). I just thought I'd throw that in there before I closed, which I must do shortly. Ok then, happy new year again. I love you all, and I hope you are all doing well. Veloma! (pronounced veh-loom, in case you were wondering)
Elder Draper.
Elder Toby Draper's Mission Letters from Madagascar
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