Well hi.
Monday was P-day and Tuesday was Madagascar's Independence Day. ( June 26. This place was French-ruled up until 1960.) Both days ended up being pretty packed ( with things to do, and people.) Independence Day is actually the biggest Holiday here--bigger than Christmas, New Years or Easter--so we had quite the cultural experience. Monday and Tuesday were essentially one big Holiday. We had a mission BBQ on Tuesday and will have one again this Saturday for our Independence day, and on Wed., we will be singing the National Anthem for the American Embassy party, (and there will be more food.) Elder S, my favorite British companion from the MTC, will accompany us on the piano, while I sing standing next to Elder P of Southern France, another of my favorite MTC friends. Neither of them even knew the tune before, but we three hummed it perfectly yesterday. I think they've got it down ( I also think they're going for the food:)
Independence Day here was fun. Monday night, 9 other missionaries and I went to see the fireworks. It was a good show. The streets were absolutely crowded with people and carnival stands. In fact, I'd say that the whole city was kind of like a giant carnival. People were selling crazy masks, most of the kids were carrying these cool little Chinese paper lanterns and WAY too many people had laser pointers. Seriously, at the end of the night, I wanted to send hate-mail to the guy who invented the laser pointer AND made it available to Malagasys. Maybe I'll just send him the bill for the eye-surgery I'm going to need as a result. (When at least 20 different Malagasys with laser pointers spot a white guy all at the same time, it's bad news. I should have worn sunglasses ;) ) It was to be expected, but I don't think I've been flipped-off more in my entire life. (I wore a jacket with the words, "Italia" on it--which I think helped a bit-- as if to say, "I'm not that kind of white guy.") Even so, we had lots of English shouted at us as well. (And the words shouted in English are evidence that missionaries aren't the only people teaching English in Madagascar ;) ) One elder got his camera stolen, ( I was immune,) we all had a few fire crackers thrown at us, and only one guy tried to fight us. (I'd say he was about 17 years old, and 5' 2" maybe. Very intimidating.) But all in all, we had a really good time. Most of the people harassing us were obnoxious teenagers trying to be like the black people they'd seen on BET or something. I think everyone else there were kind of embarrassed for them to be honest. Most everyone else seemed happy to have us there, and didn't bother us.
situation when he was an investigator in New Caledonia. President was a goalie on the New As far as the mission work goes, things are going great. Last Saturday, we went on splits: I went with a member from the ward, and W went with President Gaya. One of our investigators, Rouda, is a professional soccer player. He is about 28 years old, is married and has two kids. He is very diligent in reading the Book of Mormon, and loves when we come over--he's even given spiritual thoughts to some of his team-mates from the Book of Mormon--but of course, he can't come to church because he has to play on Sunday. This is a strange parallel to President Gaya'sCaledonian soccer team when he was investigating the church. He said that giving up drinking was the easiest decision in the process, because he knew it was true, however having to quit playing soccer on Sundays was a lot harder. So we invited President Gaya to come and teach Rouda with us. I ended not being there for the appointment, but W said it went really well. Rouda and President seemed to connect with each other wonderfully. W said there were other people there so it got kind of ridiculous with how many languages were being spoken, and translated into the other--French, Malagasy, with English as the "in between." I'm sorry I missed it, but my appointments went well. At the end of the night, we had 8 appointments between the 2 of us.
I am once again pressed for time so I will probably have to cut it off here. It's wonderful to hear how everyone's doing. There are some interesting developments coming up in this next little while, I can feel it. I'll keep you posted. 4 new Elders got here this week and 10 more will be here in 2 months. Elder Peterson is one of the newly arrived.
Anyway, I love you all. enjoy yourselves. Have a nice day. "Arabahina Tratra nyNitsingerintoana fahadimy amiby fitopolo ny Nahaterahanao Ianao Renibeko Knell!" ("Happy 75th birthday Grandma Knell!" in Malagasy. You can try to sing that if you want, but the candles would probably melt before you finished the song ;) ) OK, then. Love ya! Veloma!
No comments:
Post a Comment