Luggage – and sickness – arrive

Ryan and I skipped the group's dinner at Mamy Rabe's home Tuesday night so we could work on the blog, but Ryan started having bouts with vomiting in the early evening, which will put a kink in our blogging progress as well as his own comfort. He's being a trouper, but is really sick. We are offered various meds by the group when they return to the hotel, and I move down the hall into another room in case he's ailing with a virus rather than a food- or water-borne bug of some kind. The luggage arrives on a flight from Paris about 11 p.m., and I'm in the lobby working on its underperforming WiFi connection when John finally arrives from the airport in a van packed with suitcases for everyone except Joe and Nancy Powell and Vicki Anderson. It's now 1 a.m. but no one minds being awakened with the long-lost clothes they packed and left home with on Saturday. I put Ryan's bags in the room – one was severely damaged – but his gratitude for them is overshadowed by how truly crummy he feels.

Technology issues to overcome

We're running 1-2 days behind in reporting to you, complicated in part by my AWOL Mac laptop that didn't make the trip, and a malfunctioning digital camera from our office in Abilene. I'm now borrowing the Tysons' camera, but didn't have a way to download images from it to Ryan's laptop until yesterday. Internet access is spotty in the hotel, and slow, and non-existent while we are traveling during the day. The hotel has us buy 5-hour WiFi connection credit cards, and the 5 hours fly by when waiting for Internet connections that are as slow as Christmas in the evenings, when most of our work has to be done. To allow Ryan to do his video editing, I handwrite my posts on a legal pad, and type them into a Word file when Ryan has a break in his work. We reserve our precious WiFi time for actual posts, and are on our fourth 5-hour credit card. Our room looks like a Radio Shack store, with wires and converters and cables everywhere in an attempt to tame the Madagascar technology. Some members of our group actually have a laptop with them and can see what we're recording on the blog, but most won't have the ability to read about what they're doing until they return home. We have electricity blackouts throughout the day, although they are brief, and thankfully, not experienced in one of the elevators, although I came close to that yesterday.

Betikara orphanage

After the Croc Farm we ride more rugged roads to the Betikara Orphanage run by Barry and Stacy Rosie, the only full-time missionaries from Churches of Christ in Madagascar. The orphanage supports 21 girls and 22 boys, employs four caregivers and two cooks, and provides medical supplies for people who walk up to 10 km to receive them. It is an amazing operation and impressive facility on about 7.5 acres that include an orchard of 450 fruit trees, rice fields and gardens. The orphanage was established in 2004 and a school in 2006. Plans are underway for additional housing and a medical clinic. "The Lord has really blessed us," says Barry while leading a tour of the grounds. We are greeted by the children when we arrive, and they are all wearing purple ACU Homecoming T-shirts from 2007 that our office facilitated, thanks to ACU alumnus and graphic designer Mark Houston. The irony proves emotional for me. "You never know where your influence spreads, do you?" notes Jack Rich. We greet the smiling children, who perform several songs, including "Jesus is Beautiful." There are not many dry eyes among our group. We find several Abilenians working there, including Daphne Williams, Susan Perry and Joy Crouch, along with ACU grad and physician's assistant Liz (Murphy) Crittenden from Bosnia. The orphanage's main building is constructed of granite walls, mined from behind the structure. Daphne and Malagasy graduate Carole Ranaivoarivelo dispense medicine through an open window to villagers who wait in line outside the building, including Felana Andriamampianina and her sister, Fenohaya and Miora, who have walked 3 km from their home. All are under the age of 10. Other ACU Malagasy graduates work there, including Rotsy Rasamimanana. Look for a video clip soon of this visit. [Pictured here: ACU trustees Virginia Chambers and Barbie Johnston greet children, and the orphans gather to prepare to sing]

Croc farm and culinary adventure

The Croc Farm Parc Zoologique, billed as a five-minute drive from the airport, is a remarkable place. Once we leave the main highway, the drive to the farm is along one of the most remote villages we have encountered, a sort of dirt Main Street through a community of unbelievably poor people who sit on their door stoops and wave at us readily as we bump and bounce along in our tour bus on a narrow thoroughfare that I imagine is impassable in the rainy season except perhaps by 4WD vehicle. The farm is sort of an oasis in the countryside, shaded by tall imported pine and native eucalyptus trees. I have no idea what to expect, much less what we will be served for lunch, only knowing that my selection would not be crocodile meat, which represented 3 of our 5 food choices on a menu presented to us by tour guide, Mamy, the day before. The small gift shop inside the farm's entrance has a number of high-priced souvenirs, some made in Japan and others made locally. We are welcome, but Ryan's HD video camera is not, unless we leave it at the front desk or pay $85 US to take it inside. I protested but the lady there was not willing to negotiate. No way were we leaving the camera with them, so we paid the toll. Inside, we are accompanied by a barefoot employee wearing a faded red jumpsuit. It is wintertime in Madagascar, so were are advised that animals and reptiles may not be active. I was freezing in the windy, cool weather; my only longsleeved shirt was being laundered by the hotel, and all us were reaching the end of our travel wardrobe in now our fourth day of wearing basically the same clothes since leaving home. The farm appears to have four ponds for raising crocs. The first two we see have juveniles about 2 feet long, but they are everywhere in the fenced area – thousands of them. We are fortunate to see three chameleons in one outdoor exhibit, brilliantly colored specimens whose only movement to give away their location are eyes that rotate slowly if we watch carefully. A number of Madagascar's most exotic amphibians are displayed inside a small pavilion of glass-faced displays. Other outdoor exhibits display tortoises; a weasel-/cat-like predator called a fossa, two ostriches (one of which bites Jack Rich when he gets too close), and a family of lemurs that surprises and gives us a close-up look at their dexterity and amazing acrobatics. Another exhibit features hundreds of full-grown crocs, most of which are sunning themselves on the banks of a lake. A bridge allows us to walk out into the lake and get a close (10 feet) overhead look at some crocs that are a dozen feet long and hundreds of pounds each. Lunch is served in an outdoor pavilion at the top of a hill overlooking the lake. The food is fresh and good-tasting. Croc meat, white in color, appears in the salad eaten by about half of our group (see photo), and as an entree in a curry-seasoned sauce along with white rice. Ryan Britt lets me try some of his. The salad meat is tough and chewy; the entree meat is white and more tender. Lots of jokes persist, with some saying it tastes like chicken. Right. It perhaps tastes like a cross between seafood and chicken, with a distinctive flavor I can't adequately describe. I don't expect to repeat the taste test anytime soon, but I can say I did it once. I ordered what turned out to be grilled zebu ka-bobs, which were tender and steak-like. No A-1 sauce is to be had. Ryan captures some excellent video footage of our visit and some of the wildlife at the Croc Farm; watch for it soon.

Malagasy media relations

Part of my responsibility here is to provide media support necessary to help tell ACU's story and publicize the Commencement ceremony Saturday. I brought 25 press kits that ACU PR director Lynne Bruton and her student employees helped assemble the day before we left Abilene. They include news releases and background information, photos of Malagasy graduates, a four-minute film about the Madagascar Presidential Scholars Program, and 2 other DVDs of ACU films, Throughout the World and The Mission (our Centennial film). All but two of the press kits, however, are in my missing luggage. Key contacts with media were made prior to our arrival by invaluable event planner Délicie Rasolofomanana and her assistant, one of our new Malagasy graduates, Moustafa Laza Assany (who goes by Assany). Assany took me and Ryan Britt to the nearby headquarters of Televiziona Malagasy (TVN), the state-run television network. At 8:30 a.m., we meet TVN director Volatihina Ranaivomanana, who is already familiar with ACU through DVDs of films we have sent him previously; projects I work on annually with Phillips Productions Inc. of Dallas (whose production director is alumnus Martin Perry). It is amazing to me that Volatihina is already familiar with several university administrators on this trip: president Dr. Royce Money, vice president Dr. Gary McCaleb and provost Dr. Dwayne VanRheenen, through these films. Volatihina gives us a tour of the station, which is relatively new but spartan in its decor. Framed photos of Madagascar president Marc Ravalomanana are the only wall hangings I see. TVN broadcasts to Madagascar and to all of Africa. Its three most popular programs are Teen Talk, music videos, and a fashion show for women. Teen Talk is the runaway favorite, a talk-show format with about 100 teens in a live audience who are entertained by musicians, participate in talk-back segments and are treated to the "Word of the Day," a deliberate attempt to spread English fluency among the youngest Malagasy generation. Ravalomanana believes widespread adoption of English is one of the keys to his country's continued growth and relevance in the 21st century. Volatihina invites us to return Wednesday morning for studio interviews with Tyson and an ACU Malagasy graduate to use on news broadcasts that evening and on Teen Talk that same night. Filming them in the morning will allow them to translate the interviews for English subtitles when aired later. TVN plans to cover the Commencement on Saturday, and Volatihina is genuinely excited about the opportunity. He speaks excellent English and we really enjoy visiting with him. Today, Tuesday, is a very busy day, with two scheduled excursions: the Croc Farm, where we also will eat lunch, and an orphanage where some of our Malagasy graduates are working this summer and where several ACU alumni are volunteering this summer on a medical mission. There are rumors our luggage may finally arrive late tonight, and the prospect is exhilarating!