We Wish You A Merry Christmas & A Mada New Year

Tratry'ny Kristmasy sy Faly Taona Vaovao! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Seeing as though it is the holiday season, I am going to give you the gift of a blogpost that you don't have to actually read. You can watch it! Here is a short video of my performance of a classic Christmas song with a few fun facts about Madagascar sprinkled in. If anything, you should watch this video to see one of my little lizard friends crawling on the wall behind me. Enjoy.

Lyrics:

We wish you a merry Christmas. We wish you a merry Christmas. We wish you a merry Christmas and a Mada New Year.

Glad tidings we bring to you and your kin; Glad tidings for Christmas and a Happy New Year.

In Madagascar you eat lots of rice, but pick out the rocks or you will pay the price.

Akory abe e, mbola tsara, salama, vaovao. So many different ways for you to say, “Hello.”

Right about now in the Northern Hemisphere, you dream of White Christmas, but it’s HOT down here.

If you volunteer in Madagascar for one term, you might get a bacteria or even a worm.

Lemurs, geckos, endemic species galore. No we don’t have talking penguins… so you can stop asking.

The animals are neat and the landscape is too, but the best parts of this place are the people around you.

Thanks for your time and if you ever get the notion, you should check out this island in the Indian Ocean.

Talking With Tina

I wrote a book! Well, not a full-length novel, but a book nonetheless. It's a children's book titled Talking With Tina. I know that I don't have a publisher, illustrator, or even a clever pen name, but I do have a few rhyming lines and good takeaway message. Just use your imagination to visualize your 1st Grade teacher reading you this book, rhyme by rhyme, with the proper pauses in-between to make sure that everyone gets a good look at the captivating illustrations (preferably in the style of The Very Hungry Caterpillar).

This story captures my longing and struggle for companionship in a place where communication can be, in a word, difficult. I know that this concept rings true for many of my other volunteer counterparts in Madagascar and around the world, and I hope that it also is relatable for those of you reading back home. However, as you will find out, you don't always have to be able to communicate to be able to build relationships in a place such as this...

Talking With Tina

By Nicholas Sutherland

I have wondered far and I have wondered wide.

I’ve gone up mountains and I’ve surfed the tide.

People, places, food that smells rad.

Around the world, many adventures I've had.

But now, I suppose, I just have the notion

to go to an island in the Indian Ocean.

This place that I'm going is amazing, you see!

It's called Madagascar, and it holds the key...

...to adventures with flowers and fauna galore.

With lemurs and geckos and oh so much more!

But now that I'm here, when I look around,

cows, pigs, and chickens are all that I’ve found.

I can find these animals wherever I go!

It seems kind of lame, but, you know...

...there is this one cow that I milk everyday.

She prefers the name Tina just like Mrs. Fay (Tina Fay).

Tina's great to talk to and always listens well.

She doesn't care that I'm American or even that I smell!

When I ask, "Vaovao?" which means, "What is new?"

she always turns her head towards me and lets out a hardy, "Moo."

She is indifferent to my topic, yet listens intently.

She likes it when I rhyme, and likes it when I don't.

Tina's not the only one that I like to talk to here.

I'll say hello to any creature that happens to be near!

Conversing with cows and pondering with pigs.

Chatting with chickens, while I imitate their jigs.

Ramblings with rabbits and dawdling with a duck.

Even wonderings with worms if I have any luck.

If talking with Tina has taught me one thing,

it's that everyone always has something to bring...

...to any conversation, though the topic depends.

You don't have to understand to still be friends.

The End