The Christmas Letter

I mailed out copies of this letter to some family and friends back home, and I didn't want to ruin the fun of opening a letter for those who got one. So here it is, a little late: My first Christmas letter:

Yup, it’s really starting to look like Christmas over here. The jacaranda trees that border the lake in the center of town have exploded like brilliant violet fireworks. Beneath the branches, femmes de ménage sweep the unsightly blossoms off cobblestone streets. Men amble about hawking baskets of litchis. Women nurse behind stacks of mangos, peaches. Rice farmers prepare their fields for January planting and we scramble to get their loans processed before year end.

There are a few decorations and carols playing in grocery stores, but nothing like the commercial assault that Christmas mounts on the western world. Gift giving is so far from the realm of possibility of most that the social pressure to perform is mercifully absent. People’s wish lists are so long already- transparent government, stable employment, food security, safer streets- that it seems futile to add anything more.

As I approach the end of my first six months here I feel pressure to self-reflect, to form solid impressions, to decide what I really think of Madagascar. The longer I spend, however, the more her complexities are revealed and the more difficult it is for me to pinpoint how I feel. One thing has been made clear, though : I am not in Africa.

I am somewhere so forgotten that stylized world maps often omit the world’s fourth largest island altogether. So fiercely independent that a locally-made alternative to Coca-Cola not only exists but thrives. So unique in biodiversity that most fauna and flora exist nowhere else. With all this as the backdrop for my simple life, I am rarely bored.

In fact, with the excitement of state visits, newborn babies, and travel along the struggle of living with rolling blackouts, flooding and corruption, there is always something to work on. I am supported by a great office team, and a small circle of friends, mostly other young expatriates. With determination, community can be found anywhere.

I hope and wish that this letter finds all of you happy, healthy and surrounded by people that love you.

Happy Holidays !