3 Days in Antananarivo

Well, I have officially been in Madagascar for one week! I am writing this sitting in the Africa Mercy dining room eating breakfast on Saturday morning. It has been an exhausting but exhilarating week of meeting new people, seeing new places, trying not to get lost in this giant metal box and setting up the hospital to be ready for surgeries next week! As much as I would love to tell you all about the last few days on this ship, I cannot do that until I write about the exciting things that happened in Antananarivo (Tana) while I was there waiting.

I had found out a few days prior to leaving that the ship was delayed a few days, but no one knew what they would be doing with us who were waiting in the meantime. Once we arrived, the staff here let us know we would be staying in Tana at this house until Monday when we all take buses down to Tamatave where the ship would be docked.  Since we had some time and not many scheduled activities, the group of us here decided to make the most of our 3 days. Tana is the capital city of Madagascar and the largest. As I learned over the several days driving around there, it is very widespread and differs a lot from place to place. Our guest house was in a “suburb” a little ways outside the city. We were surrounded by lots of homes and farmland, and we could walk about 15 minutes to a busy street area with shops and restaurants.

View from the deck of Chez Jeanne guest house overlooking mostly rice fields with some tomatoes, peppers and other vegetables mixed in.

On Friday morning, our first day in Tana, we met up with some other Mercy Shippers who had been in the country for a few weeks already. (The arrival of the ship was delayed about 2 weeks due to a mechanical problem on the ship before it left South Africa. Many people could change their flights to the new arrival date, but some kept their original flight and came to Madagascar to wait for the ship a few weeks early).  They knew their way around so we walked to town with them to visit some shops and exchange money at the bank. Later that night, all the Mercy Shippers in town (about 60 of us) were invited to a local house for dinner. The ladies who live in the house were from South Africa and are in Mada working with an organization that trains locals in occupational therapy. 

Saturday we spontaneously decided to hire a bus to take us about an hour outside the city to the local Lemur Park. Yes, Lemurs! I mean, you can’t come to Madagascar and not see some lemurs! There is another park closer to where the ship is in port that also has lemurs that I plan to go to eventually, but we figured you can never have too many of these intriguing little monkey/sloth-like animals. The park was great; pretty small, but with a variety of lemurs and a few other animals. It also has some examples of plants from all over Madagascar.

These guys came up near us while we were waiting for our tour guide before we even entered the park!

Hello there, Mr. Lemur! They looked so fluffy and soft, but we weren't allowed to touch them at this park.

Certain species of lemurs make up a group called "dancing lemurs" because the get around on the ground using this dance-like hopping motion that is pretty entertaining. The other types rarely touch the ground and stay hanging in trees.

Lemur fact of the day: they are afraid of water!
This river runs along the border of the Lemur Park to act as a natural barrier.

A view of some of the plants that are native to the South of Madagascar (desert region)

Ravinala (Traveler's Palm), popular emblem of Madagascar

We went to church Sunday morning at a local church also run by some South Africans. They had a Malagasy (the language of Madagascar) service and an English service. It was a great sermon by a visiting youth pastor who was here running a camp, but I was partial to the music as my favorite part. They had a really good worship band and I just love being able to worship with so many people from all around the world, who are here to love Jesus and share His love with this nation! It reminds me of this verse from Psalm 57:9-11 that says, “I will praise you, Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples.  For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth.” It was truly inspiring and a great start to our time here in Mada.

Group from our guest house at Tana City Church

Later that day, I was able to Skype for the first time with my parents; then spent the afternoon relaxing and preparing for our journey to the ship on Monday. That trip was pretty epic and deserves its own post so look for that to come soon!