Tiffany-Influence

October 6^th, the population of Manakara was normal….well what we have become used to. October 7^th, however, the population doubled, if not tripled.  School has officially started.

Today started with a nice leisurely walk with Laura to the beach. I was hoping that we would find some late arriving students, but we didn’t. So, we walked back to our house, stopping by the market for some lunch items. It was only 8:15am, but the market was teeming with people. We weren’t really in a hurry, but we kind of were. We said hello to our usual vendors, using what little Malagasy we have retained after not using it the past few weeks, and went home. We were expecting a guest!

One of our favorite restaurants here in Manakara, is a little place called Kameleon. Yes, that is not how you spell chameleon, but they serve THE BEST pizza this side of the island. We have befriended its owner, Leticia! She is from Benin, married to a French man, and has 3 children under the age of 11. She came to our house today to “hang out.” We didn’t really know what to do with her, since there isn’t much in Manakara we haven’t already done, so we decided to teach her how to make banana chocolate chip cookies! She was definitely excited and loved helping us make the tasty treats! While the cookies were baking, she asked us questions about America, what our parents think about us being in Madagascar, and if we had boyfriends back home (which has become a favorite question of our new Malagasy friends). We talked about things we miss most about America, one being peanut butter. We asked her if she had heard of it, she said yes, but had never tried it! So, we had some off brand Madagascar peanut butter (which is fairly good, but can't be bought in Manakara) and let her try some! She LOVED it!

After she went home, we decided to hit up the beach. A while ago, I asked you to pray for our ministry at the beach. Today, our ministry there officially started.  Jeremy, our supervisor, had told us that he had met some students yesterday afternoon in Manakara Be. This area is just the beach area where there are a lot of government offices and nice bungalows. On this particular strip of beach road, there is a school. It is a yellow building with blue windows. All the students wear “smocks” over their clothes, which signify which school they attend. We met, probably 15-20 students today! They were no older than 17 and no younger than 14. They were who we have been looking for.

I was so excited to meet these students. We all have such great ideas about how to reach the students here and are itching to get the ball rolling. Tomorrow, the girls and I head back to Manakara Be to meet up with the students we met today! I cannot wait to talk with them and learn more about their lives here!

Please pray for us as we continue our ministry here and build relationships with the students. These students are the future of Madagascar, and how cool that we were placed here “for such a time as this” to minister to them in their most influential years!