Flowers and Zebu

It's been a busy past couple of days. Yesterday, we had our first art session with the kids from two local churches. We weren't really sure how many of them would attend, but there turned out to be about 200! It was a really great experience, and I'm excited for next week. The kids loved to draw so much that some of them drew up to 10 pictures. The most popular things that were drawn were flowers and cattle (zebu).  Some of the kids didn't even know how to hold a pencil. It felt so great to know that we were impacting a child's life in a good way. I've had a little bit of trouble trying to adjust to this type of poverty, but this was an activity that I enjoyed and felt that I could really connect with.

On Friday, we drove to a village about an hour away from where we are staying. There, we had a healing service and then showed the Jesus Film to the people in the village. It was really cold outside, so we sat in the truck for most of the film. There were no lights in the village so you could look up and see the stars so clearly. It was very beautiful. The church where we prayed for people had no roof too, so it gave the service an interesting effect. When my mom and I looked up in the church, we saw that the Southern Cross was right above us. There is a completely different sky in the southern hemisphere than in the north.  It seems that everything in the sky is intensified down here. For example, the sun and the stars seem much brighter.

Last night we went to a pizza place in town, and I think that they have some of the best pizza I've ever had! When you are there, it's hard to believe that you are in Madagascar, but then you are reminded of it when you see the guards by the door and a wall around the restaurant. Afterwards, we got gelato and it tasted so good. I'm enjoying myself, but I have to say that I'm exhausted. I'm looking forward to the adventures that we have planned for the next few days!

Abbie