More Manja!

A long time ago, I went to Manja! It feels like forever has happened since!

Let me remind you. Manja is a town somewhere in the Central south-western region of Madagascar. In the Toliara province, to be more precise.

Glauco, one of our previous students is now working there. I went to visit him to see what country life is like. It was vvVERYyy HOT!!!!! I melted away in the ridiculous heat!

Manja is usually cut of from the outside world! And especially now that it has been raining. The roads are wet and impassable. When I visited there, they were dry and I think it should be illegal to travel on those roads, unless you are in a helicopter!

Anyway, Glauco called me a while ago. I gave him some copies of the Jesus-film in the Tandroy and Bara dialects.

I should now explain the “language ecology” to you! But I am not quite intelligent enough to do that!

It is something like this: The government insists that EVERYBODY (i.e. ALL THE PEOPLE OF MADAGASCAR) can speak and understand Official Malagasy. They do not deny that there are different dialects, but they are (politically?) convinced that everybody can understand each other!

Well, guess what! It is not TRUE!!!! Scientific tests have shown that the difference between Official Malagasy and Tandroy is comparable to the difference between English and German! Und, ich weiss das des dem dis dich nicht verstehe nicht!! (Or something like that!)

So, when people hear and see the Jesus film in their own language, they often hear it for the first time, even though they might have been church-goers for ages!

Glauco told me that they had great success with their outreach actions to some of the villages were they presented the Gospel in REAL Malagasy!

(While returning from my shortened visit to Manja I saw how the people do not understand one another. The driver of our truck is Merina. He is from Tana. The Merina people speak Official Malagasy. He has obviously not been doing the Morondava – Manja route for a long time. Each vehicle, be it a bus, taxi or truck, has one or more “conductors.” These guys load and unload the vehicle. They did the truck out if it gets stuck, change the flat tyres, etc.

Now it so transpired (How’s that for fancy?) that the driver gave the one young man some instructions, which he promptly carried out wrongly! This was not the first time that he did something else than what the driver ordered. (And now for the point of the story!)

The driver then exclaimed: What? Do you not understand? Do I not speak Malagasy?)

This is something small, but I believe clearly illustrates how different the languages are! If you can not understand the bit about first unloading the oil and then the rice, HOW will you undertand the bit about that Man nailed to a tree, all those years ago?

(For a description of the language Offical Malagasy click here! I do not know if everything is accurate, though!)

Glauco told me about a new program they are planning. They call it “Operation Kara-panondro.” That is Operation ID-card. They want to buy one of those cameras that where used in the “olden days” to take ID or Passport photos. The camera has four lenses and therefore take four identical photographs in one click. It also uses Polaroid camera film.

That means that the photos are instantly available! No need to send the film to Morondava or Tana for developing them!

I am not 100% certain how this program will work. However, I suspect, that the church will offer this as a social service to the community. (I think that there is no-one else doing this in Manja!) Theoretically this can open doors to sharing the Gospel.

I have a sneaky suspicion that they HOPE that I will finance this program.

Please pray for Glauco and the People of Manja. they are in the middle of Malarai season now. (I heard on the BBC today that every 20 seconds somewhere in the world, a child dies of Malaria!!!!)

(I hope to write a short piece about funerary customs here in Madagascar. The following picture is of a Antandroy grave just outside Manja. As you can see it is nearly as big as a REAL house. Yet it is the grave of only one man! But then again a house is for a life time, and a grave for eternity!)