in theory i despise facebook. but once again i resort to status updates as a blog entry because i'm too brain weary to do anything else.

Jocelyn R. Plett:

is exhausted! Asher was up all night with a start of a cold (and me too). i think i slept a total of 3 hours.

cant sleep just now because the tiling guy is bashing the kitchen counter-top tiles out.

is looking forward to a mostly brand new kitchen. woot, woot!

but hoping it wont take all week to finish it up.

was so stoked to read the 4th book in Margaret Whalen Turner's "The Theif" series, but thinks it's not nearly as good as the first three. (sorry for that spoiler for anyone else who wanted to read it).

has good intentions of a) eating rice, vegetables and fruit only this week and b) walking daily to the market to buy them.

asked my husband last night before bed where he saw himself in 10 years... only to have him answer that he had no idea... and that he hoped he'd be employed. haha. The question, unfortunately helped keep me up late into the night.

imagining myself at 50 with a teenager in house was a huge motivation toward not having planning anymore children.

thinks being re-stationed in the Congo or Afghanistan might be an effective weight loss plan. (Apparently i'm too comfortable and stree-free here and therefore have gained a significant amount of weight. alas.)

can smell malathion wafting in from my garden.

and Josh watched the first 2 episodes of Glee season... 2? 3? (the latest one) and decided it was a bit too... "current" and that we preferred the 80s music of last season.

is contemplating the dilemma of dressing a 30 year old body in clothes that dont look like their in 30-year-old-denial (aka 20 year old clothes that fit snug around a post-20-year-old-body) nor look too i've-given-style-up-as-a-lost-cause in favor of comfort/hiding less than lovely parts/thrift.

has a SUPER busy 1 year old who gets into everything, only likes playing with 'adult' things, "gabs" on the cell phone whenever he can get his hands on it, climbs up on everything, hates going to sleep, doesnt like cuddling either, and is exhibiting strong mulish characteristics when faced with any obstacle to his wishes.
 
should really go for that walk if i want to make it back in time to go out to pick up judah from school.

Our last house guests left just 2 hours ago*. Upon Josh's return from dropping them off at the airport he immediately began to clean up the garage again (he did it just pre-visitors and i suppose he felt as though it had need of another culling/sorting after it being the junk-dumping place of choice for the last month or so). We're both unashamedly thrilled to have our house back to ourselves and i am also sorting through things, moving furniture back to 'small-family' mode and putting the last vestiges of Christmas/holiday paraphernalia back in the closet.

Since the departure of our guests we are 6 pairs of underwear richer. Score! LOL. Although i did write a note to my siblings and parents to be sure to label their underwear pre-arrival it appears as though we werent as thorough as we could have been. Ah well. Their loss, our gain. haha.

The rains maybe have started up finally. It's been so dry in the last 2 months, much to the detriment of the rice fields i'm sure. We had downpours the last two nights, which have made everything hot and humid, bah. anyway, it's great for the garden and i love the sound of the rain hammering on the tin roof. They just replaced all our gutters with brand new ones and painted the soffits. Everything looks nice and new. They will begin with replacing my kitchen counter-top tiles on Monday - hurrah! (i'm hosting MAF guests twice this coming week... hopefully i can get something done in my kitchen when it's in a state of reno-chaos).

The rain hammering on the roof is also good for drowning out the wails of certain individuals who are now learning to sleep without bottles in their mouths. It was getting out of hand replenishing his bottles 4 times a night, so now that the grandparents are gone there is more opportunity to let him work it out on his own. So far i'm up 3-0 in the new sleep-war tournament. haha!

photos from Brielle's camera of the last 2 days before their departure.

Yesterday i took Brielle and Geoff to the jeweler once more to pick up some things they had ordered. WE've been there a LOT in the last month or so, much to my sisters-in-law's delight and my own. Brielle took some photos of our time there and Mme Tina also took us on a tour of her back garden and rice fields. It was a great tour for tourists to be sure! And we got to see how she cuts the stones and whanotall. it was pretty interesting.

this is Geoff, Brielle and Mme Tina the jeweler in her display room/shop.

Most Canadians, as i explained to Mme Tina, are used to buying jewelry ready-made at the store. One of the attractions for visitors here is the opportunity to visit a jeweler where you can purchase un-set stones that come from all over the country. Mme Tina is the aunt of one of our MAF staff and has proven herself to be trustworthy in her dealings. that is, we can trust that she wont sell us fake stones or give us ridiculous prices. She also does good work in setting them. So anyway, my mom, sisters in law and i visited her a few times to take a look at her wares, choose some stones and had them set into pendants, rings, etc. For what the stones/jewelry is worth in Canada the price here is quite a bit lower because of the proximity of the stone locations and the lower cost of labour.

This time around Brielle asked to see how they made the stones/jewelry. This is the machine they use to shape the stones by hand. This is a family run business and they do their work in the same 'compound' where they work and farm.

Tina told us that this was the more professional machine to cut the precious stones. It cost them 1,500$ approx. to purchase, which she indicated was an astronomical amount for them. She also indicated that since the political crisis she has lost many of her clients. It's a difficult time for her as it is for many Malagasy these days.

She took us on a tour of her land. It was full of fruit trees and vegetables. This fruit, which Geoff is putting his hand on to provide scale, is a fruit we didnt recognize and our hosts couldnt remember the french name for. Anyone know what it is?

Their rice fields.

their tortoise.

Brielle and Geoff (... and Brielle's glasses. ) in the backyard.

* portions of this blog are cut/pasted from an email to a friend, i confess.

We're now half the people in the house that we used to be. Eric and Lara left the night after my parents (which made for another late night for the rest of us, yawn!) and now we're down to the Pletts and Geoff&Brielle. It's therefore a lot less busy and hectic around here. The meals are a lot more simple, the grocery cart a lot less full, the itinerary quite a bit less packed. This week Judah and Josh are both back at school/work and routine will almost be back. I cant say i'm disappointed. 3.5 weeks of holidaying with 6 extra adults has taken its toll and i confess that i'm tired and ready for some quiet(er) time.

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Below is our year in review. A lot of little things that made for a quick but emotionally-draining year.

- January - Leaving Canada after an eight month furlough (for Judah and Jocelyn at least), packed up with all our Christmas-in-Canada schwag, things off our shopping list we'd made while still in Mada knowing we couldnt do without them , full financial support, and a 2 month old baby. Prepared to return to Mada for our second 4-year term in a place we already called home...

- only to return to Mada where everything was different: an almost entirely new MAF team to work with, the loss of our closest friends over the next 2-3 months... bah. you've read enough of that crappy season, so i wont say anything else.

-        -   Made Paska buns for Easter for the first time ever and they didn’t suck! We hosted an Easter gathering with friends.

      April 19, 2010 we celebrated our 4 year anniversary of our arrival in Madagascar.   Most of the rest of the world is not celebrating the volcanic ash that fell over Europe and surrounding area. Many tourists are stranded in Madagascar due to canceled flights back to Paris.

-          Found it amusing to periodically post photos of the boys at the same age in the same outfits with the same backdrop to see if readers could tell who was who. Their drastically different eye colours tends to be a dead giveaway.

-          Josh goes to South Africa for a week to complete his Check Pilot course.

-          Josh’s 32^nd birthday May 14 is celebrated at one of the new great restaurant/cafes on our side of town! (La Combava) There are a few nicer places popping up closer to us, which is super thrilling for those who don’t get out much.

-          Early May - There’s shooting downtown again – the political crisis in slow-simmer boils over now and again.

-          After a few months of come-and-go illness we seem to be getting stronger. Jocelyn gloats about domestic bliss: homemade teething biscuits and baby food, quilting, and pre-school craft projects. 

-          Josh and our SA friend Reinier play a weekly game of Cricket on Friday afternoons. Josh acquires a Cricket injury thereby ending his Cricket career.

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- June 26 Madagascar celebrates 50 years of independence. Rhonda and Matthew host a big Independence Day celebration at their house. Josh and Matthew had to give free airplane rides to children during the day…

-          We all go along with Josh on a trip to Fianarantsoa. 

-          Judah begins summer/winter holidays and we thus begin a ‘activity of the day’ campaign . We celebrate Canada day for the last time with the Slaubaughs (at least, in Madagascar), Josh’s favourite GAP pants are stolen off our laundry line in the back yard.

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- Hosted the new MAF pastoral couple who, in their last presentation, equipped us with tools to face the continuing transition we were facing.

- enjoyed another winter at the coast on Ile aux Nattes with great friends, going whale watching, playing in the sand and just "getting outta Dodge" as it were.

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-          July 28 – Mme Irene is robbed of all her household items. Indicative of the instability in the country.

- August 7 my baby brother got married. I was very sad to have missed the wedding and had wrestled for months previous about whether or not to fly back to Canada for the event.

- the trees and branches of the pine trees around our house finally came down!   Sunlight streams into our garden. Plants start to grow!! Plant grass in the front for the 4th time in our time here at this house which, by December, is lush and green for the first time ever!!

-          Asher starts weaning from mommy’s milk to formula milk.

-          Josh takes over Operations at the MAF Hangar.

- September 11 - our closest neighbours and friends in Madagascar leave after 6 years living and working here. They were the last of our closest 'family' to leave us for this year. 

-          September 11 Asher takes his first steps .

- God sends new friends for Jocelyn and Judah to bring heart-healing in a time when it feels like we're living in a new country where we know almost no one!

- Jocelyn begins Malagasy lessons 

-          - September 25 Jocelyn celebrates her 33rd birthday with a wonderful husband and great girlfriends!!

-         - October  Hosted our American friends for Canadian Thanksgiving. Made Pumpkin pie that was awesome!

-          Jocelyn attends (for the first time ever) the Madagascar Women’s Retreat at Lake Mantasoa. leaving boys behind with Josh. Woot, woot!

-          Nov 17 Madagascar has a referendum… which turns into a mini political coup just down the road/up the hill from our house.

-          November 22 Asher turns 1! 

-          December 3 Judah turns 5, but is sick that week so we postpone his party to after...

-          December 5 when his grandparents arrive to visit for the month. 

-          December continues on with the arrival of Jocelyn’s two brothers and their wives, visits to Andasibe and the rainforest, Ile aux Nattes on the east coast, a Hot Christmas on the deck and the eventual departure of family again.

-          New Years eve found us celebrating sister in law Brielle’s birthday and going to bed nice and early again. Yes!

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One of the things i appreciate about having guests from overseas is their new eyes to what we see every day and have grown accustomed to. The photos in this entry are taken from my middle brother Eric and and his wife Lara's photo files.

this is a public toilet at the rainforest.

New eyes is one reason why i would have loved to have had more blogging by our visitors of their observations of life in Madagascar not only for our readers' benefit, but for our own - that we might see anew the world around us with the eyes of a true foreigner. But i suppose our time together this last month was so hectic that none of us had the opportunity to sit quiet for a while and process what we were experiencing.

I'm starting to think, however, that we may have done such a good job hosting and sheltering our visitors from the 'real Madagascar' that they may have left thinking that this is paradise on earth and all we've ever mentioned to the negative about our experience living here is just due to weak character...

public transportation

I'm also trying to tell myself that their inability to experience 'real life' here (just as we no longer have the ability to experience 'real life' in Canada) shouldn't disqualify our experiences of challenge and difficulty. After all, visitors come for a short time, always with the knowledge that they are returning to their comfortable life back in Canada. Most people can endure something different for a short time if they know that they have an imminent out.

We did have a wonderful time together as a family and i enjoyed getting to know my new sisters-in-law better. These 3+ weeks we've spent together: eating meals together on a daily basis, sleeping in the same house, doing activities together, etc. have been the most intensive time we've spent together as a family since... well, i think since i moved out of the house to go to college in 1999!  I realized, however, that since that time we've all gone in very different directions and geography does strange things to relationships.

Uncle Eric and Asher at Ile aux Nattes

our ride in the bus back to the airport at Ste.Marie. Check out the mini-movie screen mounted on the rear view mirror. high society!! haha

I suppose after this idyllic family vacation we've had i've been left with the bittersweet knowledge that despite being where we know we should be and learning contentment for where God has brought us, we've sacrificed the close relationships with family that we would have had had we decided to settle in the small town we both grew up in. When the Word tells us that "those who [have] left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife^[a] or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much" (Mt 19:29) it doesn't mention the challenges and inner conflict that this leaving will bring, or the differences in world view that this kind of separation will engender. Having family conversations over that divide is at times a discouraging and difficult thing. And yet, we are thankful for the knowledge that no matter what differences each of us has in our lives, we are bound together by blood and will forever be a family who loves and supports each other to the best of our abilities.