Dear Mom,
What the heck? I know
you have been told not to write too many letters, but I feel like one a week
wouldn't be excessive. I love you, but I was seriously waiting every day for
one.
Love, Garrett In
my defense I wrote him one, and was working a lot, home only a few hours to
sleep.
Dear Wyatt,
Did you get my letters?
I sent you at least two. I got a letter back from you but I haven't heard from
either of the ones I sent. I mailed them both to Camp Fife and haven't heard
from you in a solid four weeks. I know you went on a date with Rebecca Waites (nope
he just got home from working scout camp three days ago so I know you have free time. Unless you are
going on a date every night and all day, in which case you're a champ and don't
worry about letters to me.
Love, Garrett
Also, no one responded
to my email this week in their letters, did you get it? Yes
we got it.
Alright now that that is
out of the way. Thank you Dad Megan and Sydnee for writing me letters this
week. I appreciate it.
Dad. The teaching experience
is pretty similar week to week here, just like everything else. Basically I
just want to get out of this place and go to Madagascar already. Less than two
weeks! In two weeks I will be on a plane actually so it depends how you look at
it. We taught Tojo (toot-zoo) yesterday and it went really well. We had a great
balance to our lesson and he said he didn't have any problem with obeying the
word of wisdom (phew!) I have been having problems teaching lessons lately
because of my lack of language skills, but it went really well yesterday so I
was pretty happy about that. We taught Claudia in TRC (a thing where we teach
volunteers who speak Malagasy) and she thought I didn't prepare because I had
no idea what about two thirds of the words were and could understand very
little of what she said. So that was comforting. Not.
Tell people I am doing
fine and can't wait to get to Madagascar to start working.
Going back to your
farming roots eh? Grant has driven tractor for his Dad, something he has not
done for years! Auto steer is a
wonderful thing. When I drove for Dan I had to coil pack so speed was an issue
and it was a double track with those two handles you pull on to turn, so that
sucked. I have no idea what anything he just said means. But it sounds like you did a good job if he
wants you to come back. Galbreath farmers don't hire crap helpers.
Thank you for the
sunrise! I haven't seen one of those in a month and a half haha but I miss
them. I guess sunrises are pretty sweet in Madagascar over the ocean but I have
only heard about them from Orem and Provo people who, according to my
observations and what they consider a sweet sunrise here, have absolutely never
seen a good sunrise. I'll believe it until I see otherwise though.
A couple things I found
out this week.
1. The mail system sucks
in Mada. It sometimes will take weeks or even months to get your mail once it
gets to Madagascar. The post office doesn't do much so it goes to the mission
home and they take it to you when they are gonna be in your area anyway. It's
not bad in the capitol but any of the provinces it's terrible. Same with
packages, so send as many letters as possible before I leave.
2. It takes about three
months Brother Sell said for some letters to get to the states around Christmas
time so you'll have to be patient then, but it stays constant to get there.
3. Every area uses a
different dialect, which is essentially a new language based on Malagasy. The
one we are learning is Merina, which is the one they learn in school and is the
"official'' dialect so everyone understands it, it's just almost
impossible to understand everyone else at first when you go to a new area.
Great! Wasn't having enough issues with one language. Please
keep praying that he will understand and communicate the language
Dad, I am technically
off notes for teaching but don't feel like I'm doing any better than you.
First, it's a real alphabet not some tiny pictures that are supposed to mean a
word. I seriously feel bad for the Asian language people. Second, my lessons
are so simple I seriously could not have taught them to the primary kids, they
would have fallen asleep. "God is our father in heaven. The Plan of
Salvation is true. If we do the plan of salvation we can live with God."
The food here is getting
progressively worse, although yesterday for lunch we had a chicken stacker,
which is basically the kfc bowls but on a plate, and chicken and sausage gumbo!
That was delicious. And, all you can drink milk every meal. I should start
weaning myself off it but I'm not going to. Wish there was a way
to send him milk when in Mada!
I guess the Coca-Cola in Madagascar makes American soda look like a chump. They
use the Vanilla form Mada, and apparently it's the best thing ever. The vanilla
ice cream blows us out of the water too, basically vanilla anything there is
amazing.
One more interesting
thing and then I have to go. Apparently if a Malagasy steals from a Malagasy
and gets caught they beat him within an inch of his life with whatever is
laying around and then take him to the police. If a Malagasy steals from a
white guy and gets caught they call them a bad boy and send them away. I don't
want to know what they would do if they caught a white guy stealing from a
Malagasy, but I don't intend to find out. Good idea.
Love you all, even
though no one wrote me letters this week. I am trying to make up
for my evil ways and have sent 2 letters and a package so far this week. I know he misses everyone which is why he is
so testy sometimes. Good thing we love
him so much.
Elder Galbreath (the fifth)
No comments:
Post a Comment