I made it to Toliara...I love this place already!!

I'm here in Toliara now. This place is stinking ballin. There's actually 6 dialects here. But they just wrap it all together and call it Teny Toliara (Toliara Language). If I was to have come here straight from the official dialect (in Tana) I wouldn't have understood much for sure, but Tamatave's dialect has a lot of similarities. It's still difficult, but I'll get it in a few weeks. This dialect sounds way more African than regular Malagasy, I love it.

The trip stunk, haha. Cool sights every now and then. But 29 hours on a hot mini bus got kind of old. I spent all day Tuesday driving alone from Tamatave to Tana, then stayed the night at the AP's place. 

stopping for rice

manandona

smith and marsh

mission board. our group is a lot bigger than we were last time I saw this thing

chilling in the office all night

It was way weird being back in Tana. I don't know like anyone there anymore, so many new people. Being out in province, you fall out of the loop. And it's even more so here in Toliara. I like it though. Helps me not get trunky.

Then on Wednesday, Andriamanganoro and I drove together to Fianarantsoa and stayed the night there. Then finally, on Thursday, I spent all day alone in a bus driving from Fianarantsoa to Toliara. Super glad that trip's over.

me and andriamanganoro

soooo tired

almost to fianarantsoa

I sent some pictures. I didn't take a ton on the ride cause honestly I got bored and tried sleeping the whole time. I didn't get sick though, I bought meds to knock me out so that definitely helped.

Bates and I are having a blast. Toliara is way sick. Toliara is a lot like Tamatave, just replace the palms for baobabs and add a lot of dust. It's a desert here. Pretty much the same heat as tamatave though, not too different. Just a lot less green.

my boi bates

The branch is legit. We get like 80 people at church. Everyone in this town is super close, everyone knows each other, so we're always saying hi to people. It's like that all over Mada, but here there is hardly any car traffic, just bikes and walking, way nice.

The members are way sick. Before English (which a lot of members and investigators come to) I got on the piano and sang a song for them, it helped break the ice, so everyone's chill with me now.

Um, so as far as Malagasy Christmas in general. To be honest, it's really not a big deal here, no one does anything. Everyone goes wild for new years though. It's really just a big drinking party. New Years and Easter. Stumbling drunkards, ha. Malagasy's don't really do the same holiday stuff we do. But at the church, the branch is gonna do a little party next week. Just karaoke and stuff I'm sure. They want Bates and I to do a show too, so we'll see what we whip up.

Check out pictures, have a good one and talk to you guys in a week.

Taylor

saying bye to fr arsene's family (they're from toliara)