Life here in Manakara really is about building
relationships. There’s no time schedule here. Stores and restaurants don’t have
set hours; they open and close whenever they feel like it. In fact, most
everything is shutdown from noon to 3:00 or 3:30, sometimes 4:00.
This is a foreign concept to Americans. We need to have a
set schedule, laid out hour by hour. We know that Publix is always open
7am-10pm and that Chick-fil-A is closed on Sundays. We live a go-go-go
lifestyle. And when it comes to relationships with others we’ll pencil them in and
meet for coffee for an hour or grab lunch. It’s quite difficult to find time in
our busy schedules to hang out with friends and just chat and ponder about life
without setting a time limit.
Today we spent lots of time just hanging out with new
friends and there was lots of coffee involved and it was awesome. Following up
on Dannielle’s post yesterday, we met Fonja at Om Snack to learn how to make
Malagasy kafe. When we got there, she asked us to give her a couple minutes. A
few minutes later, she motioned for us to follow her through the kitchen and
out back. Out back she had green coffee beans in a pan over a fire…we were
going to roast the coffee. As a coffee connoisseur, I thought I had died and went
to heaven. We took turns roasting the coffee. After they were roasted, Fonjy
poured a cup of sugar over them and caramelized the beans. Dannielle and I believe this is the magic
ingredient. We truly appreciate a great cup of coffee and this coffee is unlike
any coffee we’ve ever tasted. This coffee will make converts. After the beans
were caramelized, they were transferred to a huge mortar and we all took turns
grinding them with a pestle. The smell was a perfect blend of smoky and sweet.
Once we finished grinding the coffee, we took the grounds inside and we all sat
around a table in the kitchen. Fonja took a little basket lined with linen,
poured the grounds in and said “Here, we make coffee.” Wait…what?!? She held
that basket over a bowl and poured boiling water into the basket. Done. It’s
that simple. She gave us each a cup filled with sweetened condensed milk and
poured the coffee over it. HEAVEN. We all “oohed” and “aahed.” And what came
next was the sweetest part: “discussion” as Fonja and Pela (Fonja’s co-worker)
put it. We went back and forth in French, Malagasy, and English. Communication
is a beautiful thing. We were helping them with their English and they were
helping us with our Malagasy. We shared a lot of laughs. It was such a special
moment.
It’s so awesome how something as simple as coffee can bring
people together. I could tell God was working in that moment. Fonja looked at
us and said, “In December, you speak lots of Malagasy.” I could just sense her
excitement at knowing that we will speak Malagasy really well by the time
December rolls around. We invited Fonja, Pela, and the rest of the staff to
church on Sunday and told them we would come by to get them. As we were getting
ready to leave, we wanted to pay Fonja for the coffee and she said, “No, this
is my present to you.”
After we left, we met Mika and went to his house to spend
time with him and his sweet family. Hary (his wife) was making mofo akondro
(fried bananas) and kafe. We all sat around on the floor and helped Hary peel the
bananas and then we started playing Heads Up, a team favorite. Mika was the
bomb at it! He loved playing it. We had such a fun time together!
God is working in the hearts and lives of the people around
us and it’s so exciting to see. Please be praying for our new friends Fonja and
Pela.
grinding the beans
the "coffee maker"
the finished product
it is so great to see God working in all of this! thanks for sharing such a special time!
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