I hear with windchill, it has dropped close to -40C at home. It's hard to imagine that it is almost Christmas when I am dripping in sweat sitting next to the Indian Ocean eating lychees and mangoes. The only hint of Christmas I've seen was hanging on the wall of of a little Malagasy Indian restaurant that I went to for lunch. I have to say that a fat white rosy-cheeked Santa looks rather out of place in this setting. But hey, it may be also be a bit bizarre that I was eating Chinese soup in an Indian restaurant in Madagascar with an American and a Brit.
On the weekend, I moved into a new and wonderful one room house. The Malagasy family who I am renting from have been amazing and have given me dishes and furniture to use, and even put a brand new (and bedbug free, I might add) bed in the place. I have my own verandah and a coconut tree to provide shade. In many ways it is idyllic, although there are distinct reminders that I am living in a third world country. The electricity rather unreliable, and recently, city wide power outages seem pretty standard around 7pm for varying amounts of time. After about 7am, there is a high demand for water and there isn't enough water pressure to reach the higher parts of the city. So I have buckets of water scattered around the house for showering, cooking, and washing dishes when the water refuses to flow. There is no waste management system in Fort Dauphin. Garbage is generally dumped along streets or off cliffs next to the ocean. I have a hole dug in my yard for this purpose. It really makes a person realize just how much we take for granted (as well as how much waste we produce) in the Western world.
Last night I was forced to laugh at myself when I got into a fight with a very large and very hairy spider sitting on the wall next to my bed. I am happy to announce that I won the battle at the cost of only a broom handle that I had as my weapon of choice. I'll take monster spiders and cockroaches over bedbugs any day!
English teaching is finished for the Christmas break. Yesterday I taught my class the 12 Days of Christmas. Highly entertaining. Who knew that partridge was such a difficult word to pronounce. After class, three of my students walked around the market with me to help find a find string and nails to hang my mosquito net. They also graciously offered to help hang it, which ended up in an equally as hilarious Malagasy debate that I wish I understood more of. But as you can see from the photo above, it seems to have worked out quite well.
I wish everyone a very merry Christmas!
God Bless
