This is missionary Duncan Macharia in Toliara, Madagascar. It is now 19 days since I landed in this country from Kenya. That in itself was a miracle since I had never flown before and on 1st May, I flew in two planes from Kenya via South Africa. In the second flight I even ate a snail!...and enjoyed it. For the first week, Victor and I stayed with our host (Bishop Todd) in the capital Antananarivo because there was a conference taking place there of which, the Bishop was a facilitator. We shopped in the city and there were many hawkers we expected to find Kikuyus there but there was none SHOCK! In fact except for one Kenyan who was in the mission team and has already left, there is only one other Kenyan (an English teacher), that we have met so far.
Newspapers here, are either in French or in Malagasy, and in radio, you only get BBC inEnglish but in Toliara where I am presently, even BBC is not available. So to a great degree, I do not know what is happening in Kenya except bits and pieces through the internet. In Antananarivo, two things stood out to me: one, that I am black because most people here are light-skinned thus they stared at us often and two, that English is dreaded here, since most do not know it. So clearly, without a local guide things would have been even more comical. Sign language helped a lot. Enough about my experiences, I am now trying to settle in Toliara. I have made significant progress towards getting a long- term visa without which, we will be back in Kenya by the end ofAugust. By next week, my application form will be with the ministry of interior, who holds the key as to how long I will be here, so pray that he responds positively. Getting a house is proving to be tricky for the houses are either too expensive or we find somebody has moved in by the time we go to check the house. So pray that God provides a house as soon as possible. This week on Thursday, we plan on learning Malagasy. This will be done five days a week until we master the language reasonably. I had my first opportunity to preach last Saturday in an English service and am working on my ministry goals for the next four months. Pray that God guides me on this. Peace.
