Live Broadcast from Madagascar on Saturday

While most of our ACU community could not travel to Madagascar to celebrate with our Malagasy graduates, we can join them in spirit - and also via the Web - through a live broadcast of the graduation celebration.

A live broadcast will be available on Saturday, July 12, at 7 a.m. central time (for those early birds back here in Texas).

Congratulations to all 24 graduates and their families!

Note: This link will only work when the broadcast begins, and it is best viewed on Windows Media Player on Windows.

TV coverage bonanza

While the group goes out to eat for dinner, I stay in the hotel to work on the blog and not tempt fate with my stomach uneasiness. The group reports when they return that the TVM network broadcast – to Madagascar and all of Africa – included a news story with edited interviews from this morning in the early evening, and later, Teen Talk started with the 4-minute film about the Madagascar Presidential Scholars Program and then included more edited interviews. On another TV station, MBS, two of our graduates were seen being interviewed. Someone noticed that Dr. Gary McCaleb's name on screen (a TV super is what that's called) was somehow lost in translation and mine appeared in its place. McCaleb laughed afterward that when he's in the U.S. he's known as Gary McCaleb, but when traveling in Madagascar, he goes by Ron Hadfield. I'm sure I looked more distinguished as the vice president of the university, former mayor of Abilene and inductee to the ACU Sports Hall of Fame, but I do want my hair back when he's through.

Lunch on Wednesday

We enjoyed lunch Wednesday after a long drive to this Malagasy restaurant on a hilltop near Antananarivo. More kabobs – Zebu and chicken (my choice, as I'm Zebu-ed out), and it tasted great; very tender and much like I'd expect in a Texas-grilled kabob. Sides were rice and fried potato wedges and what looked like pasta and herbs. There was a fresh salad before the entree and generous fruit for dessert, although I am beginning to feel like a war has started in my stomach. Have been cautious about what I've eaten, especially knowing what Ryan went through the other night with his digestive system. He is still under the weather and stayed back in the room to rest today. In one of these images you can see our small touring bus, which seats all of us snugly – any larger, and I don't think it would fit down some of the narrow streets we traverse each day. Many roads seem only large enough for 1.75 lanes of two-way traffic, which means somebody has to either veer to the road shoulder (if there is one) or play chicken with oncoming vehicles. There are people on foot everywhere we go, many of them walking so close to the bus that we could reach out and touch them. People dart out in front of our vehicle and evade being hit about like the Hadfields' Chihuahua, Sweetie, escapes being stepped on around our house … sixth sense if there ever was one.

The Carlton Hotel

Thought you might like to see images from the Carlton Hotel, where we are staying. I believe that all of us are in rooms on the 10th floor. The view from our window:


The lobby area features sitting areas; display cases showing Madagascar wares such as jewelry; a bistro and restaurant (where we eat 1-2 meals a day); and small shops where we can exchange money, get a haircut, and purchase clothing, chocolate, women's accessories such as purses, and perfume. Clocks on the back wall behind the registration desk show the current time in three cities: Antananarivo, Paris and New York City.


The lobby and banquet level of the hotel feature exquisite carvings in wood (mahogany, I am told) and other materials depicting Malagasy cultural history:

Croc farm video clip

As promised, here is Ryan's video of scenes from our visit to the Croc Farm Parc Zoologique as described earlier. Sorry, no video is available of Jack Rich being bitten by an ostrich. Enjoy!

A busy Wednesday

Dr. Royce and Pam Money, Dr. John Tyson, Dr. Gary McCaleb, Dr. Dwayne VanRheenen and Jack Rich have an early morning meeting with Malgasy officials at the Ministry of Education. They compare notes afterward over coffee and Coke in the Hotel Carlton lobby. We have an appointment shortly afterward at TVM, where Royce, John and Gary are interviewed for a story the network plans to air that evening on its national news program and on Teen Talk. We walk a short distance from the hotel, past people selling wares and begging on the tree-lined sidewalk. The interviews go well, but have to be done twice because of a technical glitch they discover as we are about to leave. TVN director Volatihina Ranaivomanana moderates the individual interviews as the ACU administrators take turns sitting in blue plastic chairs where Teen Talk audience members sit during that show's filming. Volatihina tells us he plans to air the 4-minute film we gave him, plus the interviews, later tonight, and we hope to watch them as they are broadcast on TV later tonight while eating dinner at the home of Assany's brother. The group leaves about noon for lunch at a Malagasy restaurant about 90 minutes away, then heads to a tour of the Queen's Summer Palace atop a mountain. [Dr. Royce Money, Volatihina Ranaivomanana, Dr. John Tyson and Dr. Gary McCaleb in the studio of TVN on Wednesday; and McCaleb waits for his interview to begin]

Video clip of orphanage

As promised, here is Ryan's short video clip of our visit to the Betikara (which is translated "A Place Where Lambs Live") orphanage. Hope you enjoy it. We wish our video stories could be lengthier, but we're mindful of the upload time. We are putting these clips on ACU's YouTube channel, then embedding them into the blog.