Changing

Recently I've been doing a lot of thinking about changing.

Can a zebra change it's stripes?
What about when it just change on the outside?
How much change on the inside is necessary?
Do we have to change everything about ourselves?
Why does there have to be an external force for real change to occur?

Change is something I've always had a lot of practice with. I grew up moving around a lot. I changed schools, I changed houses, I changed friends, etc. Who knows maybe all the changes at such a critical identity building time are part of why I've struggled to figure out my identity and why it has taken so long for me to figure out my stripes. And even now I don't know that I really have them figured out.

Back to the question, "Can a zebra change it's stripes?" Initially I thought of Luke 1:37. Why couldn't a zebra change his stripes? Nothing is impossible.
But I guess like with everything else, the key is faith (Matt 17:20).

Return from Madagascar

I returned from Madagascar today. My life is changed.

I went with my roommate who served her mission there. This was her first time to return since being home. Getting to Madagascar was a story all in of itself, but I want to devote this place to the place and the people, not the trip.

I was only there for a short time but it was the taste of something profound and meaningful, and I hope something that will be in my future.

I'm not entirely sure how or in what way, but I feel different. I feel changed because of Madagascar. I think it was good for me to go, not just because I got to go to a very far away and exotic place, or because I got to meet wonderful people, but because I think I needed to just slow down a little. I'd become very caught up in this to-do list and the pace of it. I'd forgotten many things. Time moves slowly in Madagascar. There is an island flavor in Mada that contributes to the laid-back culture. Mada is a place all it's own. It's not Africa, it's not Polynesian. It's just Malagasy. Things are not time oriented, they are event oriented.

 Madagascar is beautiful. It is full of green covered mountains and valleys. We drove from the capital city, Antanarivo, to a place at the beach called Tomasino.

 The valleys are saturated with rice paddies. And it seems as though the people continue to grow rice as it was done hundreds of years prior by their ancestors.

I like the jungle-ness of Madagascar. As we drove through the jungle covered mountain the chirping and buzzing could be heard above the sound of the car and the wind. I recognized a lot of the plants because they grow here in Texas, mimosa trees, elephant ears, and palm trees (although there were were fewer and fewer the further we got from the coast). There are a lot of ravenala trees, eucalyptus trees, ferns, and grass in some places.

I swam in the Indian Ocean.

 I liked Madagascar. The people are nice. The city is very big and busy, and really dirty. But most big cities are.

 I met a gidro. My life is changed. Madagascar changed it.

Tiako be ny Madagasikara sy olona gasy. Misaotra betsaka. @ manaraka.

I will see you again someday.