The Boulter-Hodson Clan in Toliara
14TH DECEMBER 2019
Toliara is getting very hot and humid, we have had our first cyclone through of the season which mercifully hit the north coast just dumping a lot of rain here, so the whole town is awash or calf deep in mud. Meanwhile the surreal sight of fake snow-clad Christmas trees can be seen in various roadside shacks while we all sweat in the sun.
It has been a very eventful few months since our last newsletter. In October I started teaching, and have a great group of ten young people training for the priesthood or to be evangelists. They have a wealth of experience in the bush churches, and lots of enthusiasm, but very little education. So it’s a matter of assuming nothing and starting from basics, all of which is great fun and their faith is deeply inspiring. The classroom is dark and hot, so we normally abandon it and teach out under the shade of one of the thorn trees, with the obligatory white board propped up on stones. There are a number of local clergy who are helping with teaching, and I have a very good translator, who does a great job of getting me to explain theology in plain English.
The diocese is very new here and quite precarious, lacking a solid indigenous leadership base and money. The churches are in the poorest communities and so getting new leaders trained up takes time as the educational level is so low. I am hoping to set up an educational fund for the diocese to help with those needs, so do be in touch if you would like to contribute to that. Also the diocese is encouraging the parishes to twin with parishes in Europe, the UK and the USA so do let me know if your parish might be interested. More than money or resources the people I meet are scared they have been forgotten by the rest of the world. So, most importantly, do pray for this remote corner of a country where the rest of the world only remembers its environmental riches and forgets that many people live here in abject poverty.
Daily life is an adventure, we have got a charcoal stove as it is much cheaper than the gas bottles, and does not heat up the house (it also gives everything that slightly camp fire taste).
The streets of Toliara are an experience in themselves with bustling stalls selling the most random things, including tables of used nuts and bolts and other engineering parts all laid out in size order.
Hannah had her eighth birthday and it is a mark of how fast the expat community has welcomed us that she had quite a band of friends around for tea. The children’s school is turning out to be very good, although how they play sport in this heat is beyond me. Meanwhile I’ve started painting and posting up on my web site. www.adamboulter.co.uk
Sadly Beth’s mother, Hatta, took ill in October, had a stroke and then died within two weeks, all of which was a massive shock. So we arranged to head back to the UK for a few weeks for the funeral and memorial service, which turned out to be quite an undertaking. All the internal flights were full, and so we landed up having to drive to the capital which is 24 hours of driving then fly via Ethiopia to London. In the end, we set off a few days early and stopped on route so as to not tire the children and to take the chance to see a bit more of the this beautiful country. Even so, it was an exhausting trip, and we landed with our very generous hosts in London with a palpable sense of relief.
Hatta’s memorial service was a wonderful event, if very emotional for us all, with so many good friends and family around. The next day we flew back to Madagascar, and spent a few days in the Tana the capital, sorting out visas and hunting down books for the students, before flying back to the heat and humidity of Toliara. All in all it is wonderful to be back, but also full of surprises.
In this humid heat there is just not the energy for worrying on top of daily life, and Malagasies take a very laid back attitude to tomorrow. While I often find that attitude frustrating I’m starting to think I need to learn some of it from them. One of the truths of our lives here is that things are not what we expected. The problems we worried about and tried to solve before getting here have generally turned out not to be issues, and the things that are issues I often failed to predict (although they seem so obvious now). Which leads me to think, why do I get so afraid of all these things that have not happened? Plan and prepare, yes, but I seem to spend a lot of energy worrying. When I am right it does not prepare me, and when I’m wrong it misleads me. So maybe we need to hear the voice of the angel to Mary: ‘Do not be afraid”.
Blessings,
Adam, Beth, Joseph, Hannah and Benjamin.
