Lemurs of the Day: Wednesday/Thursday

[Thursday] I didn't forget about our Lemur of the Day promise, but we did get preoccupied Wednesday, so you get a two-fer on Thursday. Since I'm a stay-at-home kind of guy today, I'll anoint myself as Celebrity Chooser. And there is no one here to argue with me.

Thursday's excursions

[Thursday] Eternal Threads is a ministry devoted to helping provide meaningful work to women in developing countries by importing their handmade products for sale in the U.S. Their skills are amazing. ET is directed by ACU alum Linda Egle, who has begun to work with women near Antananarivo to produce goods. Lunch at ET included some ethnic dancers entertaining the group, and an opportunity to do some shopping for their wares. Ryan returns at the end of the day with good footage and reports on the activities, including the most Close Encounter of the Lemur Kind yet, where a fearless one climbed his tripod and made himself at home on his Panasonic HD camera.

The curse in Room 1002

[Thursday] My gut feeling was correct. Now I’m the host of of some vile species of intestinal distress and decline to participate in Thursday’s excursions to a lemur park and Eternal Threads, thinking it unwise to be very far from the bathroom. I hate that for obvious reasons, but also because I’m supposed to be documenting this trip and keeping up with the blog, but I feel terrible. Ryan has rebounded from his ailment, so he’s back in the saddle again – riding shotgun next to the driver as the wheels of our tour bus go round and round. I make a little progress on the blog but spend most of the day in bed. After what Ryan and I have experienced this week, food has lost its allure. I’m not sure when it will return for me. We are staying in a 4-star hotel with excellent food, but I’m avoiding uncooked vegetables and other food travelers are advised to abstain from in out-of-the-way places. Bottle water is a constant companion. Our room now is not only a burgeoning Radio Shack store, but a pharmacy as well. Lots of little white pills and capsules from local drug stores, and charcoal capsules. Valinda Tyson is a professional dietitian and well-armed with meds to cure most anything related to the digestive system. Tommy Lyons comes back from a walking trip to 3 nearby pharmacies (a challenge with the language barrier) with something called Stoppo Vomito (or close to it). Several others have contributed Pepto Bismol tablets, including Pam Money. We are grateful to all.

Queen's Summer Palace

[Wednesday] After lunch Wednesday, we traveled to a mountaintop to visit the Rova, the former summer Palace of the Queen in Ambohimanga. The road leading to it had only one lane, but the view was spectacular, again winding through villages of the very poor. At the entrance to the palace, we climbed a steep bank of steps where a legless man sat begging, and a blind man played a stringed instrument. There were several craft vendors there, including a lady who was embroidering, and her two charming children. The palace was once used by Queen Ranavalona I, and its ruins have been preserved after a catastrophic fire. It is one of the most culturally significant historic sites in the nation. Unfortunately, the battery in the digital camera went dead as we entered the palace ruins, so I can't show it to you.

So that's why

I have concluded by the sticker on each of our tardy suitcases from Air France that the "Z" is French for "make zure zees sootcase eez zee last one off zee plane." For the record, we all have our missing luggage, except for ACU trustee Joe Powell from Paducah, Ky. He is being a better sport about it than most of us would be.

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.