2007 July 23--Curve Ball

I'll use some terminology from a sport that I never appreciated until I became companions with W ( Apparently I am now a Red Sox fan. I'll have to see what that means when I get home.) Anyway, yes, I was thrown a "curve ball" this last Saturday that nailed me in the head, figuratively speaking. There is a thing called "mini transfers" that happens every so often, where only a few missionaries are affected and moved on very short notice. Usually the mini transfers are pretty predictable and affect the companions of those few missionaries who leave midway though the transfer and generally in this mission, their replacements are Malagasy. Or it often affects the people who have been in the same area for more than 4 months. SO, this mini transfer came as a surprise when throughout the transfer, district leaders on through the AP's repeatedly informed me and W that we wouldn't be affected by the mini transfer, and suddenly I get a phone call out of the blue on Saturday night just before I was about to sleep. It's the district leader, and we talk about nothing for about five minutes, and I begin to wonder why he is even calling, and then out it comes "..... ok then, so the real reason I'm calling is about mini transfers, and the only person in our district that's affected is you. So um uh.... yeah, you might want to start packing your bags, and stuff, cuz uh.. you leave Tuesday"
Pause.......(me) " um uh....... are you serious?" (him) " uh huh, yeah, basically" me again " hmmm. ok. So uh... where am I going?" Him again " oh. they don't know yet. but I gotta go so uh, good night" (click, or the cell phone equivalent at least) I didn't sleep too well that night

But I'm kind of confused and yes, frustrated. But I gotta go. but I'll tell ya more when I have more. which might be tomorrow.

Elder Draper

PS. sorry for not writing, I'll have to watch that. Yes, we were really busy all week. I'll tell ya about that later too ok.

2007 July 10--It would be good to get Letters

Well hi.

Here we are again. Another Week, and another Email.

Thanks for the email, it was nice. No, do not send me another camera. I apologize for sending an unintended message there, I'll have to be more careful in the future. You never have to "read between the lines" if you think I'm trying to ask for something. I will make it simple. In the future, if I would like something, I will make a request ( IE: Arabic week days ( thanks dad) or suggesting that you get and read " A History of Madagascar" by Mervyn Brown.) Otherwise, you can be sure that I don't really need anything. This place does have the essentials, so you don't need to worry about me all that much. The only request I can think of is more letters from all of you. I'm not saying I deserve it, or that I've ever been good at correspondence in writing (quite the contrary in fact) but I'll just put that out there for some of you to think about possibly considering maybe writing a short letter every so often if you get the chance (if it's not too much trouble or a hindrance ;).

In the mean time (or nice time--whichever) I'll see what I can do to start adjusting my schedule to accommodate more time to actually write letters to all of you (and after I find the time, I'm almost positive I will eventually use this newly acquired time (probably on Sundays) to actually write the letters :) ( I like parenthesis)

Earlier in the week, W and I were at a gas station in our area buying some bread. After we paid for the bread, a woman came in the store and bought some stuff as well, and I noticed that she spoke Malagasy with a sort of odd accent. Immediately, we suspected that she just might be an American ( I don't know why, but it's always exciting to talk to Americans here) --but how were we going to find out? I realized that it is the easiest thing in the world for me to strike up a conversation out of thin air.... with a Malagasy, but for some reason, my mind kind of goes blank when I try to talk to a stranger in English. Weird. But we were determined to find out if she was American before she left, so we needed to say something... but what do we say? So, just before she was about to leave, we kind of panicked and fumbled for something to say so she'd stay a little longer. It was kind of funny--in our minds we were thinking, "Oh no! There she goes! Say something! Quick--OK go!" "HEY!.... UM.... UH... ARE YOU AMERICAN?"...Kind of an awkward start, but it was a sigh of relief when she smiled and said, "Yeah, I'm American." After that, we had a nice conversation. Her name was Elaine, she was 26, from Florida, and was working for the Peace Corps. (There's a lot of Peace Corps here, we just don't really talk to them all that often.) She ended up being the first Black American woman we've talked to in this country. It was cool. I've known a few missionaries that have already gone home and it took them a little while before they didn't have to say, " Manahoan.... er uh, hey, how are ya?" to every black person they saw, (which doesn't happen all that often in Utah.) That's gonna be weird.

In other news this week, W and I had to stop a drunk person from beating his wife. We had taught a quick spiritual thought to some members. The one adult male there, as we soon realized, was very drunk( nonmember) and kept speaking unintelligible French to us. So we ended the lesson pretty quick, and left the house. Then a lady came up after us and said that the drunk guy was going crazy. So we came back to find the drunk guy outside of the house holding his wife by the arms and slamming her pretty hard against the wall. So we, of course, quickly grabbed him. W broke his watch in the process, and I almost had to break the guy's hand just so he'd let go of his wife. We dragged him into his house and threw him on his bed and told him to go to sleep. Then it was a matter of convincing the women to either leave for a few hours, or to lock him out of the house. They wouldn't do either, and kept insisting that it was "OK" and that we could go and they would be fine. This wonderful mentality led to about 4 more instances where we had to get the guy off of his wife. It was frustrating to say the least...............at this point the computer died............

Anyway, it made me realize how much I really hate alcohol. And when you mix Alcohol with an extremely poor, ignorant, uneducated, and unemployed Malagasy who has a wife and kids, then the problems start to stack up. I can only imagine the problems Jesse had to deal with in Russia as a result of alcohol. It actually makes me sick to think of the business people in some first world country who are making a profit off of these people AND think that they're doing them a favor. That is all I will say on the subject.

- the next week's E-mail -

Well, here I am again. Thank you for the E-mails. I just thought of something else you guys could send that would be great: Pictures. I would love to see some more pictures of you.

OK, where do I start? Here's something--Do you guys remember the story about the inactive member named Randry? At the beginning of my transfer with W, he was the guy who was only making about about $25 a month and then lost his job entirely. At the time, he had been inactive in the church for years. We had tried to visit him a number of times at the beginning of the transfer, but he was never home, and W had been visiting him for 4 months before that and hadn't really gone anywhere with him. So, one of the first times I saw Randry, he was in a pretty bleak situation. His wife Natalie, and his two kids, Abdala (2 yrs old) and Rosette ( new born) were eating rice with nothing else on it ( he wasn't even eating) because he couldn't afford anything else. So we set up a time for him to see the bishop to get some help. We had to reassure him that he could get help from the church, even though he was inactive. So, later on in the week, I went back to his house on splits with a member missionary to find that he had gone to see the bishop earlier that day, but the bishop had missed the appointment. Furthermore, his situation had declined because he had also lost his job AND his wife had just fallen ill. I remember feeling too inadequate and too inexperienced to give any sort of comfort, let alone council or advice, but somehow I was able to tell him exactly what he needed to do if he wanted things to improve. And the amazing thing is, it worked. I don't know why or how it did, but it worked. He was humble enough to listen to a 20-year-old white guy, which is impressive, cuz I probably wouldn't even do that. Maybe he recognized that it wasn't really from me; but here's the rest of the story. I set up another appointment with the bishop for early the next morning, along with some other "assignments" on things that he needed to figure out spiritually. Well, the bishop came though( great guy) and helped them with some food, then Randry came to church for the first time in who knows how long. Later that same Sunday, by coincidence, we ( the missionaries) were eating at a member home ( the K's, who are an American family from Arizona. They have 5 kids--newborn to 17.) The dad works for the US Embassy. Amazing food. Somewhere in the conversation, the dad mentioned that he had spent an entire Saturday trimming the hedges in his yard and hadn't made a dent. (The hedges are huge and completely surround the yard which is also huge.) Then he asked if we knew of anyone who needed work who could come and trim the hedges for him. Yes we did.

Anyway, long story short, we were able to get Randry the job, which he accepted humbly and thankfully, and he ended up doing a great job, so great in fact, that the K's decided to keep him full time, (at the Embassy's expense, which was a new and pleasant discovery of the K's, that the Embassy provides a gardener.)

I've seen a complete transformation in Randry and it's wonderful. We bought him the newly translated Triple recently and have caught him reading several times when we have "dropped by" to say, "manahoana." He comes to church every week, he has given us referrals and takes us to their houses. And most of all, his wife, Natalie, who is not a member, has begun learning the missionary lessons at Randry's insistence. She is progressing wonderfully. He comes to the little family home evenings that we set up with the members in in his neighborhood and contributes to the lessons. Once, while I was on member splits again at his house, he told me that his greatest desire was to be with his family forever and that he had lost sight of that before. He thanked us for our persistence in visiting him and said that so many missionaries had come and gone with seemingly no effect, but now his wife is learning the gospel and they've both asked about when she can be baptized.

It's nice to see someone who was so discouraged and sad before be so happy now. The whole family has been affected. They laugh, they smile, they talk. It was so dark and quiet before. You can't see something like that happen and say that missionary work is a waste of time.

I like this place.

I could go off on something else I'm sure, but it would take me a long time to adequately elaborate on it before I felt satisfied with the result. I sort of envy the missionaries that can ramble on about any and everything in their letters home and type pages and pages of, "I ate rice this morning, it was good. Then we went working. We taught the word of wisdom. He drinks coffee, but he says he'll stop soon.......blah blah blah.." I just can't write like that, so I apologize if my letters seem a little short sometimes. (This one is a little longer yes, but really only because it's a combination of two letters.)

Alright then, requests again: Pictures and Letters from you guys. A Camera? NO. (I kind of feel guilty about having you send me a camera before only to have it stolen, to be honest.) Other than that, I'm good. My companion's great. I've made lots of great friends here, both missionary and Malagasy. I'm excited to meet up with some of these guys after the mission. We'll see. I actually just got an E-mail from a missionary who's been home for months now, thanking me for introducing him to Elliott Smith and other good music via guitar. I miss Elliott Smith,*sigh* but it's a comforting thought that this whole "Approved" music thing is for a time only :-)

OK Love ya, Veloma! ( pronounced "Veh LOOM ah" in case you were wondering.)

Elder Draper

2007 June 27--Independence!

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!

Elder Draper (or Jean Pierre, if you live in Madagascar and can't pronounce "Draper")

2007 June 19--Keep on Truck'n

Well hi,

Yes, the time has come again for transfers, the new guys will be here Wednesday and my companion on Thursday will be.......Elder W. Yeah, and we're both really happy about it. Amazing. This would also put him in this area for 8 months if he's not moved 1/2 way through.

So things are looking good. We're both excited to keep on working together because we feel like we've got a lot of good things happening in this area that we've both worked hard for, and now have the chance to keep that going a little longer. This area is now one of the most successful in Tana where as before it was one of the slowest. I'm hoping that I can inspire W's replacement, whoever it may be, to keep this area going before I have to leave it too.

This last Sunday ( Happy Father's Day Dad), we had 2 baptisms. We had extended the baptismal date to the couple (Njarasoa and Naina) at the beginning of the transfer, and kind used the date to mark the end of the transfer and W's inevitable departure. It was to be a bittersweet experience, but ended up just being sweet, because W still didn't have to say goodbye yet after all.

....... You'll have to forgive me for the sparsity of contents in this letter, because for some reason when I type what I think I want to say, I have to wait about 20 seconds before this computer shows me what I've written ( and how many typographical errors I've made in the process), that, and it's really starting to bother me how slow this is going and I don't know how more of this I can take...........

Anyway, I'm happy, this area is going great, and I look forward to the future with hope (Whereas before I may not have been as optimistic to be perfectly honest.) It's possible in the future I could get another companion like S, but I don't dread it because I think I have an edge now that I didn't have before when it comes to coping with difficult people. Furthermore, I think it's more likely that I'll be able to keep on working with someone I get along with, as most of the people in this mission are my friends.

I'm just gonna have to give you some of the highlights this week and send you guys some pictures or something cuz this computer's really driving me nuts, or Adala be mihitsy as they say here.

Thursday was cool, we were stopped on the street by a guy with dread-locks and he said he had learned from the missionaries way back in the day in French. Somehow, he brought it up that he and his brothers were in band and that he had a bunch of instruments at his house and invited us over. We figured since all of our other appointments had fallen through that it would be fine. And I'll be honest, I was curious about what instruments this "Band" of brothers had. I was able to play an electric guitar for the first time in over a year. And everyone there was blown away and amazed at how good I was (while I was blown away and amazed at how terrible I've gotten since I've been here. Sigh. oh well.) Anyway, it was awesome. I taught them a bunch of Beatles songs and a few Muse and Radiohead songs, and we also played Weezer ( we also played some Bob Marley but they already knew how to play him pretty good.) We had a good time and I think they really appreciated having more songs to play. It was cool. There was 5 of them and they were all from the west coastal city of Morandava. They were also all from the Sakalava tribe (which means "tall cat" ) specifically from the southern tribe of Sakalava, the Menabe (or "Big Red" having something to do with royalty) which is definitely the most African influenced out of all of Madagascar. I enjoyed jamming and talking with them for a little bit. They speak a different dialect than Merina which is similar but not always, so sometimes they would go off and I'd be lost, but they've lived here in Tana for quite a while now so speaking Merina wasn't a problem for them as long as they didn't get carried away. We invited them to come to church for English and guitar lessons and well, for church. They didn't come, but I think we'll see them again. Nice guys though. ( and those miniature square guitars you saw on the documentary are called "kabaosy" and they're everywhere)

Well, I'm done. If you get the chance, read that book ( a History of Madagascar) and see what you think. Also I never got an answer on the Arabic days of the week or numbers, and just wondering, did you guys get the pictures I sent last week? Hope so. I'll be sending more after this email ( and I might destroy this Computer after that)

I love you all. I"ll be praying for Gr Draper and everyone else. Again, Happy Father's day Dad! and that's all for now. Veloma!

Elder Draper ( my name has evolved from "jappear" to "Jean Pierre" since I've been here)

2007 June 12--Reflections

Alright then.

Here I am once again, and once again, I don't know where to start. As always, it's good to hear from you, it sounds like you guys have a ton of stuff going on. Cool. I like to see that.

Anyway, another great week has come and gone. I'm not sure we've gotten home before 9:30 once this week because we've been teaching so much. We've actually had to set aside 2 days out of the week to go on member splits so we can get to all of our investigators. This last Saturday
I got to go on splits with our bishop, Vincent Du Paul, who is taking vacation time from work to help the missionaries and visit members, less active members, and investigators. Amazing guy.

Last Friday, Elder W and I woke up early to travel a little outside of Tana and have a planning session in a place called " Ambohimanga" which is apparently the most sacred of 3 holy villages in Madagascar and where another "Rova"( one of the old kings castles) is located. It was beautiful there, and we would have gone inside the Rova but for the price . We were told by some investigators that it only costs 200 Ariary to get in, but then we got there we found out that if you were white, the price was 7000 Ariary. I know that none of those numbers mean anything to you really, but suffice it to say, we weren't willing to pay ( partially because we didn't have the money, but even if we did....) But the place was really nicely situated on top a mountain covered in a semitropical forest ( or a rather a regular forest with the occasional palm tree or bamboo and other weird plants that seemed really out of place. Even so, the place was beautiful).

We've definitely been keeping ourselves busy though, and this transfer is already coming to an end. We're still wondering where all the time went. W actually put in a request to the president for us to stay together for another transfer. I think that would be awesome, but we would understand if that didn't happen, ( W's already been in this area for 6 months, after which most missionaries would be begging the president to be transferred). But we'll see I guess. Either way, I think it's a happy contrast between this transfer and my experience last transfer with S, which transfer I will now name, " the transfer of unfortunate events."

By the way, my opinion of S has improved somewhat in retrospect. True, he is the only person thus far in the mission, or elsewhere in life, that I have ever sincerely felt like shouting " Go to Hell!" at. (Don't worry, I never did). But looking back on the past, which is a safer vantage point I think, I learned a lot about myself and life in general, and in the end, I don't think S's a bad guy (we'll see if my opinion improves with time, and frankly, distance). Furthermore, I think allot of the conflicts we had would not have surfaced had we been under more ideal circumstances ( i.e. if our house wasn't broken into, or if only my stuff was stolen, or something...) Ironically, I suppose life never really offers you "ideal" anything, especially on a mission it seems, but I'm more and more convinced that this is one grand of the purposes of life, just to let you " get to know yourself a little better" or something. I'm still figuring it out. Anyway, I'm happy to say that I don't "hate" S or anyone else for that matter, which to me is a comforting realization.

I was talking to S's current companion, Elder V, who is having kind of a difficult time as well. Apparently, this transfer has not gone as fast for him as it has for me. He informed me that S doesn't have the highest opinion of me either, but Elder V also said that he ( V) would love to be companions with me if he ever got the chance.

In other news, as of yesterday, I remain the 6 time undefeated champion of board/card games reluctantly participated in. Starting with Risk, Phase ten (twice), Monopoly, and Settler's of Catan (also twice). I am anticipating a loss sometime soon if I decide to play again ( the victories are not as enjoyable when everybody wants you to lose).

I've got to wrap this up. For your information, I have photos to send of the circumcision last week if you are interested. Also, I forgot to say; they did NOT use anesthesia in the circumcision (ouch) and the "doctor" used a pocket knife. Also the kid, Lario is absolutely terrified of us now. Sad. And, I have a Book that I would love for you to get ( and read) it's called " A history of Madagascar" by Mervyn Brown. Elder W has a copy of it, but it's a really good book which I think I would have enjoyed even before I got here. It's got lots of cool information about Madagascar's history and culture that I haven't found anywhere else, and it's made me more familiar with Malagasy history than most Malagasys I've met. Cool stuff. I've used examples from it in lessons to relate to people and to illustrate points. For instance, the story of the evil queen Ranavalona I, the crazy lady who was queen when the church was restored. She executed thousands of Christians while she was Queen of Madagascar and it's estimated that over 1 million people were killed while she ruled. It is a good illustration to people here why the church was restored when and where it was restored. Look it up.

OK then. I love you all. I pray for you all, and will be saying a special prayer for Grandpa Draper . Until next week Tiako Ianareo Veloma.

Elder Draper

2007 June 5--Traditions

Well hi,

This week was nuts. Thanks for the letters and the picture.The beard looks good Dad! Everyone's looking good! I'll be sure to tell you as soon as I get the new card.

Ok, where do I start? Yesterday. We started the day off playing soccer. The night before, My companion and I invited our "former-New-Caledonia-Professional-Soccer-player" Mission President Gaya to come play with us. He was happy to come. At 64, he's older than the majority of mission presidents, but I feel pretty confident in saying that he's probably in better shape than most of them. He can still play better than a lot of missionaries. I only knocked him over once ( very unintentionally mind you, and he got right back up). I think he had a lot of fun, and afterwards thanked me and my companion for inviting him. Oh yeah, and before President got there, we were challenged to a game of soccer by a bunch of cocky Malagasy college students, who thought they'd have an easy win. Yeah, we kicked their trash. 3 - 0. The game was fun though. Then at the last game against President, we dominated again 3 - 1 my companion scoring 2 goals and me scoring the other one. Later that day, we went and had lunch at the Talatamaty house ( my first Area almost exactly a year since I first was there). Then somehow I was persuaded to play "Settlers of Catan" even though I wasn't really interested, but it ended up being a lot of fun. That, and for some reason I won again. So now, thus far I am undefeated in games I have reluctantly decided to participate in. Weird.

As for the rest of the week, it was crazy, or adala be mihitsy, as they say. I don't know how much you know on the subject, probably very little if any, about two of the weirdest cultural phenomenons of Madagascar; the Fahamadian'ny Maty and the Didipoatra. The Fahamadian' ny Maty, or Turning of the Dead, is something Malagasys do every 5 to 7 years depending on how wealthy they are. In the Turning of the Dead, a family and all of their extended relatives they can find, go and visit the tombs of their ancestors ( the tombs here are everywhere, often right next to someone's house). But here's the difference between our Memorial day observance and the Fahamadiana - instead of simply gathering around the grave ( or tomb in this case), they go right in and pick up the wrapped-remains of their uncle Rakotomalala who may have died as recently as 7 years ago, and put him on their shoulders and parade and dance around with him. I'm not kidding. There is also the fragile remains of relatives dead for more than 100 years, these they simply carry in some kind of container. Before they return the body to the tomb, they re wrap it in a special kind of fabric, and then go and party. So far, I haven't been to one of these personally, but I have seen pictures, and had members and investigators describe it to me. I intend to see one for myself before the end of the mission.

Now for the other one, the Didipoatra, or Circumcision. After this week I can say that I have personally attended a Malagasy circumcision celebration. The Didipoatra is a huge tradition in Madagascar. The poor kids here don't get circumcised right when they're born, no, they have to wait a few years. Most kids are about 2 or 3 years old when they do it to them, however some kids are 7 or 8 when it happens ( but not very often, thank goodness). There's actually a pretty elaborate ritual involved in the whole process. Again, as many relatives as possible are invited, and basically they throw a big party. Apparently back in the day, the father of the son to be circumcised would have to leave the village in the middle of the night and get a bucket of cold water for the circumcision ( this was back before anesthesia,,,,ouch) to come back, he would need to get past a group Malagasy men trying to prevent him from entering the village with the water. So basically, the water carrier has to play rugby and get back into the village without spilling the water, if he does spill the water, he has to go back and do it again. At the end of the circumcision, the boy is now considered ( more or less)" a man". Also for some reason, the Father, or another relative has to eat the foreskin, usually with a banana. Again, I'm not kidding.

Anyway, it's a pretty big deal here, and they more or less try to duplicate the old tradition ( except now they hire a doctor to perform the circumcision). Afterwards, depending on how wealthy the family is, they give the kid a bike or something, it's kind of like a very traumatizing birthday party.

So, I think I mentioned last week that we have become good friends with some of our investigators. And as a result of that, we were invited as honored guests to the didipoatra of their little 2year old. Unfortunately, this kid's dad is kind of a bumb who lives pretty far away,so we were further honored as being the ones they wanted to hold the kid down while he was circumcised. This is kind of a long story which I don't have time to tell. So, long story short, we went, and Wangsgard, my companion held on to the kid while the whole thing happened, I opted out because I happened to see it happen to the kid before and Wangsgard didn't, so I took pictures instead. It happened in a very loud and very crowded room, and it was absolutely crazy. After the ordeal, everyone insisted that my companion eat the foreskin, so he got out of the room pretty quick as you can imagine. So somebody else ate it.

It was probably the weirdest party I've ever been to, and not just because I was one of two white people surrounded by lots black people ( that happens all the time here). But it was amazing how much respect everyone gave us, and how happy everyone was to have us there. Afterwards we went up stairs and presented the screaming child with a bike. I don't know how much he appreciated it just then to be completely honest. I may or may not send you those pictures. Probably not.

In other news this week, we taught about 600 kids at a school about how to brush their teeth, and how to brush their teeth with a stick and charcoal if they couldn't afford a tooth brush. We used puppets and everything. Now whenever we walk down the street, half the kids shout, "Vazaha!" at us, and the other half shout " hey! look at my Teeth!". ( some shout both). cool.

I almost positive there's more, but I'm out of time. So, I love you all, I hope this E-mail doesn't weird you guys out too bad, because I don't even know what's normal anymore. Until next week, Veloma!

Elder Draper

2007 May 30--This place is Awesome

Hey.

Monday was a national Holiday, celebrating the Pentecost, which actually was on Sunday, but carried through to Monday to give everyone an excuse to take the day off, and consequently denied the missionaries their "day off" because everything we need to do on P-day was closed. So P-day, was moved, this week only, to Tuesday, which also happened to be my companion's birthday. Elder W is now 22. We tried E-mailing yesterday amid all of things jam-packed into our schedule, but the Internet cafe was ridiculously slow and we couldn't switch the keyboards from the French to the English setup.

Basically, thus far in the mission, this area just might be my favorite. We've been doing, I think, the best and most satisfying work of my mission in that all of our investigators are progressing, and consider us friends of the family. I feel much more a part of the community here. The families here are great. They invite us to family get-togethers, birthday parties, they invite us over for dinner or lunch on a regular basis. What's more, they give us referrals to more family members and friends. This however, and happily, fills our work day to the brim, and we get home every night at or past 9:30 very tired. This also interferes with writing letters and getting the other things done that we plan on doing. So we E-mail whenever we can, which is usually during our lunch hour during the week.

My companion is awesome, we get along great. I think he had a good birthday yesterday. We went to a really nice "expensive" restaurant (high quality steak and sauteed potatoes for about 5$. Our perception of money and what is expensive has changed a little bit since we've been here). Really good food though. We also took a bus to the top of a place called hautville which is a large hill/ small mountain in the middle of Antananarivo from which you can see the entire city ( and every area in the mission, the two outlying provinces excepted). This large hill/ small mountain is absolutely covered with houses,churches , trees, and winding roads. At the top is the Rova, or king's palace which was burned down about 20 years ago, and is slowly being rebuilt. There is also the queen's palace nearby and a large Catholic-looking church apparently "built in remembrance of the Martyrs". It is a beautiful place, I'd even say it was "breathtaking" to watch the sunset from there. From there the Hill, the whole city, has an almost fairytale-like quality. It was cool. I really like this place.

After that, we walked down the to Lova's, a member who actually lives at the bottom of this hill/mountain and had a " fety kely" ( little party) for Elder Wangsgard. We've made so many good friends on this little mission of ours. Lova has been a member for quite a while now, and she served a mission in South Africa, and is a good friend to all the missionaries. At one point in the party, someone asked to see her journal/photo album ( these people love pictures) of the missionaries she's made friends with since she's been a member. It was funny when she showed me the first page and says " this one's my cousin" and then I turn to the next page and see Sister Nibley, and say " that's funny, 'cuz this one's mine!". Cool. Anyway it was nice, we sang " joyeux anniversaire" to Elder W while I played the Valia ( a really weird stringed instrument they have here) and gave him a cake. Then I sang " Arabahina, Tratra ny Nitsingerintaona ny Nahaterahanao Ianao Wangsgard!" as fast as I could. It was rough, but I did it.

Well, I've got many more stories to tell. I'm writing them down in my journal. I really love this place. I really love these people. And I'm beginning to be more and more fascinated by the history and culture of this place which I am convinced very few people know about. I'm beginning to recognize the differences between the tribes here in people's accents and even how they look. I even have two favorite tribes out of the 18 here, because of their history and their more friendly disposition in general. These are the Bestileo, and the Bestimisaraka. I'm excited to tell you more about everything in detail when I get home. But because of what I'm learning about the history and culture of this place, the more respect I have for it, and more and more I am relating to the people, or rather more and more I am becoming a Malagasy ( sort of). People are amazed when I guess what tribe they are from and gain an instant respect for me. It's nice. Sometimes they joke and ask me what tribe I'm from, to which technically I could reply, "Cambell, or Mclarin", or even "Scandinavian and British Isles", but I like to say this " I'm half Betsimisaraka, and half Betsileo" - they seem to get a kick out of that.

Anyway, I'm enjoying myself. Madagascar is cool. Oh yeah- dad, for curiosity's sake, and if you can; what are the days of the week in Arabic and what do the numbers sound like? ( up to 10), I don't know if you could anglicise it or something like that. just wondering. I've heard so many different theory's and ideas about what Malagasy is. There is apparently (from greatest to least amount, round about, from all that I've read) Indonesian, Malaysian, Bantu, Swahili, Arabic, Sanskrit as well as some French and English in the mix. I don't know about any of them except the English and the French ( which words are few and far in between). Apparently, the first form of written of Malagasy was written in a manipulated form of Arabic. There is only two examples of it left found on some ancient paper which is locked up and nobody is allowed to see it.

Alright then. I'm out of time. I love you all. Happy 50th anniversary Grandma and Grandpa Draper. I hope everyone's doing well. I pray for you all, and I'm positive you're doing the same for me. So thanks. OK Veloma

Elder Draper

2007 May 27--Led by the Spirit

Well hi,

This place is wonderful. Elder W and I have definitely been keeping ourselves busy. Once again, p-day was jam-packed with stuff. We planned on taking up yesterday's lunch hour to E-mail, but ended up working through it. So now we're taking up today's lunch hour. Anyway, it's always nice to hear from you guys, and knowing kind of what you're up to these days.

These past few weeks have been pretty eventful. I was finally bitten by a dog - luckily it only ended up tearing my pants at the knee , but even so, it was alarming because the dogs here run away the second you turn around. It's been fun to just walk around in this area and stop every five to ten minutes just to talk to somebody we know or be stopped by somebody asking " what are you white guys doing here anyway?" Everybody's really nice and pleasant here. Some missionaries have this theory that the farther away from the inner city ( IE: 67ha my last area aka: "the slums") you get, the nicer the people get. It might be true, however, some of my favorite people live in 67ha, so I don't really know. Anyway, I like how I'm becoming apart of this new area. I like how I can walk down the street on the opposite side of the world, and recognize allot of the people I pass, and more often than not stop and talk to them. " Hey how ya doin' Kiky!, it's nice to see you, how are the wife and kids? hows that job search going?....." It's a little bit weird to think about sometimes.

I had an experience this last week that sticks out to me as one of the small defining moments in life, if I can put that way. I was on splits with one of the ward missionaries and none of our set appointments went through. I decided to visit a less active member, Randry, as a back up plan. Randry has been an inactive member for a couple of years now, and is very poor. He lives in a one-room mud brick house with a grass roof. He makes a little less than 25$ a month, but it cost a dollar a day to feed nothing but rice to his wife and two kids. He told us all of this the week before last. We told him to talk to the bishop to which he reluctantly agreed - I suspect that he either thought that because he was inactive, the church would not help him, or maybe that it was too good to be true that the bishop would do something for him.

Anyway, all of this had happened the week before with Elder W, but that night while I was on splits it was a weird experience to be the only white guy in sight, and the youngest and the worst at the language in the room. That night, I found out that Randry had actually gone to see the bishop earlier that day, but the bishop wasn't there. Furthermore, his predicament had worsened still, as the French guy he was working for suddenly left the country without paying any of his workers, "laying them off" at the same time. I don't know quite how to describe my feelings of inadequacy as Randry, his wife and kids, and Haja, my temporary companion, looked at me expectantly waiting for my response that hopefully would bring some sort of comfort , and peace of mind. I was thinking , "I'm 20 years old. I still feel like a kid. I've never been married, I don't have any kids. Furthermore, I'm a white guy from America, I've only just begun to speak your language, and understand your culture, I don't know anything really. what are all of you looking at me for?" I was silent for a little bit. All of their faces were dimly lit by the single candle in this small room, everything else in the room was dark and black. Randry's two year old kid, Abdala, played with my watch as I thought of something to say. Then it came to me. I told him to not be discouraged, and that everything would work out, ( I don't know if I believed what I was saying.) I shared a few scriptures with him that seemed to back up what I was saying. Then I said, " I know you felt very let down when you went to see the bishop as your last resort, and he wasn't there, but you still need to talk to him, now more than ever. And I'm going to call him up later and set up an appointment for you..... in fact, I'll do it right now." I then picked up my cell phone and right then and there called the bishop, whom I had never really spoken to, and set up a special appointment for early the next morning. Then I gave Randry some instructions of things that he needed to do if he wanted this to work.

Now, looking back, I didn't do anything really spectacular at all. It was so simple. It was the difference between giving him a spiritual-thought a scripture and saying, "well, good luck with that, I'll be praying for you. Good night!" and actually doing something about it. It was the difference between calling the bishop later, or calling him right at the moment just to show Randry that I was seriously trying to help him, and showing him what he needed to do. I don't know if I could have done even that small thing and the beginning of the mission, and I don't think I was suddenly capable of doing it at that precise moment in time either. Rather, I feel like that night was just a small illustration of how much this mission is changing me, little by little.

That Sunday, Randry came to church for the first time in I don't know how long. Then, later that evening, he introduced us to one of his friends to teach. We also found some job opportunities that he could look into.

Anyway, I still feel like a kid trying to behave like an adult. I'm still kicking myself from time to time for all of the stupid things I can't seem to stop doing, and all of the good things I can't seem to start. However, this transfer is going to be good. We're getting a lot of work done. I'm looking forward to the future. I love you all and I'm out of time.

Talk to ya next week. Veloma!

Elder Draper

2007 May 18--Even Less Time to Write

Good news, Elder W and I are taking, I think, better pictures than these. but these are still good. I'd just thought I'd send some pictures during lunch today to make up for no e-mail this week - our email place was closed for some reason.

2007 May 14--Got No Time to Write

Well hi there, I really don't have time to write a proper letter right now. Consolation: I'll be able to talk to you tonight. Also, I will be sending some more pictures tomorrow during lunch. The Internet place is conveniently located right next to our house, unfortunately, our house is inconveniently located far away from everything else we do on P-day. Hence, finding time to E-mail in this area is a bit difficult ( it is probably more particularly difficult with this companionship, because Elder W loves to start off the morning with sports and then jam-pack his P-days with lots of stuff - he's great though and we're enjoying ourselves). But that's all for now. Veloma Elder Draper

Reply Forward