Summer/Rainy Season

During the summer in Madagascar, it is also the rainy season.  This year has been one of the worst rainy seasons in a long time.  There was more water "dropped" in Feb. than in all of last year's rainy season.  We still have all of March to go and it even lasts in to April.  When it rains, it does not sprinkle - it downpours!  And not just for an hour or two but for 10 hours!  We have been caught a few times and you get instanly soaked - your shoes are filled with water and your clothes are soaked through to your skin!  In Feb. we had times where it rained 10-14 days straight.  We would get so excited if it didn't rain because we worried so much about the people - houses were sliding off of hills, people dieing, people being forced from their homes, and many crops ruined - leaving many starving people.  When it would start to rain again, our hearts would ache for what the people were going through.  Then in a small part of the south of Madagascar, there is a drought!  The crops have all been destroyed and people are litterally starving!  It began in Nov. or Dec. and when they finally received some rain in Feb., it was too late to help anything.  Hundreds of children between 2-3 are wasting away.  We are anxious to meet with General Charles again tomorrow (March 19) and see where and how we can be the most help.  (The good news, we have had 4 straight days of no rain or very little rain!)

This is outside our mission office.  It just started raining and it's so heavy there are puddles instantly!

The trees are on land, as you can see the water has covered the land and is totally covering most of the trunks.

As you can see, the water is about even with the road.  These are rice fields and the house on the left is sitting in water.

People get to their by boats made from trees.

The blue material marks a place where a house has slid from the hill (the father of this family died in the mudslid).

The cattle are usually fully visiable here, but now they sink up to their bodies!

Many people are being put up in tents while they wait to rebuild, if they can, or to have their house dry out enough to return.

They are wading back to their house and carrying their bike

It has been a very difficult summer for many here!  They are resourceful and patient.  They will start agin when the time is right.  At church they talk of trials making them stronger.  They love Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and are grateful for their many blessings.  I, too, am so grateful for my many blessings!  I hope I will never gripe again.  I hope I will remember all I have seen and all I have learned.  I love them all and am grateful for their examples.  Being here is a blessing.