Jesus vir my, Jesus vir ons, Jesus vir almal.
Nuusbriewe uit Madagaskar
Yesterday morning we set off for the north of the island to go and find a suitable place to take Gabriel out of the water for some major maintenance work. Let me just backtrack a little, to put you in the picture.
Lees meer “Madagaskar: The Week 22-01-2023”
Thank you for praying for us. The storm quickly started to dissipitate once it made landfall yesterday and soon turned into a moderate tropical storm. We had less rain than expected, but strong wind that came in gusts. We were left without power after a tree fell on a power line, but that was fixed remarkably quickly.
Lees meer “Madagaskar: Update … Severe Tropical Storm ‘Cheneso’”
Saturday Rangers kicked off the year with the rope and knot competition.
Sitraka, Larice’s husband, deserves special mention…nobody could match him.
Lees meer “Madagaskar: The week 8 January 2023”
We ended 2022 and started the New Year in the same way; finishing the toilets at the school. Definitely not a glamorous way to welcome 2023. Let’s hope that it does not set the tone for the rest of the year. We only had a week to do the work while the children were on holiday. Norbert sacrificed his holiday and we also had two of PM’s workers. Dries had to put a gate on the toilets, because the people around the school seem to think that the toilets are public property. Obviously, we cannot allow this, but it does not improve relationships with the neighbours. We have to start working on a fence, as that will solve the problem. “Good fences, make good neighbours.” Let’s hope that will apply in this case.
Lees meer “Madagaskar: The Week 1/1/2023”
We want to wish you a happy and peaceful 2023. Thank you for your love and support in difficult times. We appreciate you.
Hebrews 12:1-2
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of God.”
Lees meer “Madagaskar Sendingnuus: pic of the week #6”
Royal Rangers in Nosy Be, Madagaskar
“Royal Rangers is julle gereed!”
“Altyd gereed! Gereed vir alles! Gereed om te werk, te speel, te dien, te aanbid, om gehoorsaam te wees en te leef volgens God se Woord!”
Lees meer “Madagaskar: Lynette en Dries vertel ons meer van die Royal Rangers in Madagaskar”
Happiness is….
having running water in your house. After months of battling with water pressure, broken pipes and rusted plumming, Dries managed to get it all fixed amidst all the other pressing projects. My Christmas present is to have a hot shower. I can’t tell you how wonderful that feels! I am not the only one though, Dries who usually doesn’t complain, had to admit that the hot shower was just pure luxury.
Lees meer “Madagaskar: The week 11 December 2022”
School will close in two weeks time for the Christmas two week holiday. School exams start on Tuesday and two more Ranger meetings remain.
My lesson from the book of Ezra was about praying for government and our leaders. I asked my group of boys whether they think the president sits in his office and watches football all day. This was of course meant as a joke and to get them thinking about the responsibilities of those in government. Christian promptly replied, “Yes, … and he also increases the price of the rice everyday.” I think I know the discussions of the adults in that household.
Lees meer “Madagaskar: The week 4 December 2022”
I thought that this might be a good time to bring everyone up to date with where we are the school building project and how we spent the funds that we had received. We did well in some areas, but had to spend more in others, for example, the roof cost more in the end and was the most stressful assignment, but also the most satisfying as the rainy season is at hand. We never allocated any money for toilets when we did the original budget. Oops! Maybe we have lived too long in Madagascar where toilets are not exactly a priority.
Lees meer “Madagaskar: School building update”
| Nov 27 |
If anything, I learned one lesson this week; don’t let your bias of a culture cause you to become so suspicious that you don’t expect positive behaviour from people. Euphrasie and I were convinced on Thursday that the teachers at Ampamata school were sincere and totally innocent in this situation with the French man. Why he twisted the truth or embellished certain facts, I don’t know. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and put it down to ignorance. We are very thankful to him for the good quality stationery which he donated to the school and will save us a lot of money. I trust that there will be a way for us to work together, so I’ll keep you posted. Thank you for your prayers in this regard and all the encouraging messages.
Lees meer “Madagaskar : THE WEEK – 20/11/2022”
Bake-off shows have cake week, tart week etc, but I can describe last week as meltdown week. I suppose of the kind where something goes wrong in a nuclear reactor and the fuel overheats and melts everything. Let me start with the worst one.
Lees meer “Madagaskar : Meltdown week!”
| lynettemadanewsNov 20 |
The team worked until 7 o’ clock every night and the final corrugated sheet was laid down on Friday evening. I cannot describe the relief and above all the thankfulness we felt. No matter the unplastered walls and two classrooms with mud floors, it feels like a functioning school for the first time.
Lees meer “Madagaskar:November update”
After two weeks of non-stop work, I can finally show evidence of the new roof. Only two classrooms so far, which means that we shall need another week to finish and therfore we are a week over the designated time. There is nothing to do about that. At least, following popular culture, we can put the blame on the fact that the owner probably measured and levelled nothing at the time of construction.
Lees meer “Madagaskar: Lynette weeklikse nuusflits: Die WEEK – 6/11/2022”
I have no pictures of a shiny roof to show you yet as the work is progressing really slow due to the bad state of the current walls. We are so thankful that PM lent us one of his workers, Zachary, who with the help of two extra guys are doing a proper job and they seem to never get tired.
Lees meer “Madagaskar: The week 30 October 2022”
So tomorrow it will be off with the old roof and on with a new one! I am saying this with a lot of gusto and positivity, simply because the vision of the shiny new roof will get us through the next two weeks. There are a lot of challenges; the existing walls are not straight at all, not the same height, built with different kinds of bricks and the wooden beams are rotten. So that means, not a straight forward job then. Not that that seems to deter Dries as nothing is ever just simple and “normal” here. What should have been a weekend of rest, was not to be as the Land Rover’s clutch broke and Dries had to search for parts, because without the Land Rover, there will be no new roof.
Lees meer “Madagaskar: Nuusflits vanaf Lynette: Die WEEK – 23/10/2022”
The roof on our house has been replaced. That makes one out of three, the school’s roof next in line and then the toilets. Exactly one day after the finishing touches were made, we had strong wind and heavy rain that night. Some parts of the house were wet as the wind pushed the water through the front windows and door, but no leaks from the roof. I cannot describe the relief, as the rainy season is almost upon us.
Lees meer “Madagaskar: Lynette’s Weekly newsletter: the Week 9 October 2022”
‘Dust to dust…bite the dust….let the dust settle‘, I forgot that there were so many ‘dust’ metaphors and we are experiencing all of them at the moment. We are surrounded by the literal variety mostly. The one that settles everywhere. The red dust at school is blown into every nook and cranny of the building. Bookcases are covered in plastic for protection, but unfortunately we cannot walk around in plastic bags and at the end of every day we are left with the fine, red powder even between our teeth.
Lees meer “Madagaskar: Lynette’s Newsletter: Dust…”
“You will not believe what happened!”
That is a standing joke between Dries and me, after which I would reply, “Of course I’ll believe it.” After so many years in Madagascar, nothing surprises me. This time though, it was Euphrasie saying it and I thought that this one might surprise me. Apparently Ledesy, one of the teachers at Lovako school in Ampamata brought his brother to come and live there with him after the holiday. So it turns out that Ledesy often goes fishing and then his brother covers for him at school. Well, this is of course unacceptable and I have to address the matter when we see him next week.
Lees meer “Madagaskar: THE WEEK – 18/09/2022”
The question everybody asked was of course whether the school opened for the new school year. The answer is a definite ‘yes’, but not without issues and concerns though. The first hitch, being the fact that the toilets were unfinished and they had to make do with low walls and no doors. Many of our desks were damaged beyond repair by the move and after years of service, so not enough place to sit. There was no running water yet and we are dependant on the goodwill of the neighbours to draw water from their well until Jirama connects us to the municipal water. Keeping the goodwill seemed easier said than done as it turns out that as soon as even a bucket or a tool was left outside, it would disappear only to show up at the neighbours. We don’t have storage and at the end of the working day all the tools and material gets locked up in the classrooms and this goes for bricks too.
Lees meer “Madagaskar: THE WEEK – 11/09/2022”
I am writing this edition of the week from our balcony, the view of the ocean in front of me, the lemurs frolicking in the mango trees in the garden and the familiar and comforting sounds of the village below. Yes, I am home.
Lees meer “Madagaskar: Lynette Mada news The week 4 September 2022”