Today we began our first session of the Malagasy language. The team has a wonderful teacher named Mika (but we call him Mik for short) who actually attends our Baptist church here in Manakara. I think I can speak for the group when I say......THIS LANGUAGE IS EXTREMELY DIFFICULT! When Mary Poppins came up with the word supercalifragilisticexpialidocious I'm positive she was listening to some Malagasy speakers. Their words seem to be far more complicated than they need to be. And when they want to say a phrase or sentence, they just mush all of the words together, drop a few sounds here or there, and consider it good. But...no matter how frustrating the process is or how complicated the words may be, we are all starting to pick up the language!
Today was not only the start of our language sessions, but it was also the beginning of our team bonding in Manakara through the chaos at the market and the 6 chefs we have in the kitchen. Since we are all craving home cooked foods from America, we decided to make a cultural favorite....American made stir fry. We purchased freshly picked vegetables from the market for what some may call a steal...a whole 2 dollars! 2 dollars bought us around 4 pounds of green beans, carrots, onions, garlic, cabbage, and peppers! We are spoiled in this aspect to say the least. The meal went swimmingly and the team burnt off the excess calories through an impromptu dance party. Tomorrow starts another day of the horrid language training, but soon enough it will start to become easy as we assimilate into the Malagasy culture.
In him,
Matt
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