Greetings from Madagascar!

Greetings from Madagascar!  Here is our first post that is actually written from the other side of the world.  And it's about time, considering the name of this blog is "A & K in Madagascar."  

First of all, our flight was fantastic.  We flew from Greenville to Charlotte, then on to New York, Johannesburg, and then Madagascar.  Our bags were checked all the way through, and we only almost missed one of the flights.  Not bad, right?

Kristen and I have been here a little over a week, but we certainly haven't been in one place.  When we first landed, we were in the capital city for a couple of days.  The name of the city is -- are you ready for it? -- Antananarivo.  Go ahead and take a minute to sound it out...

Ok, now that you've tried to pronounce it, let's agree to just refer to it as Tana.  We landed in Tana last Wednesday, and spent two days there.  We then traveled a few hours south to Antsirabe, which is where we will be studying the language.  We spent four days being shown around town and introduced to the culture, then headed right back to Tana for a few more days.  After this week, though, we will finally be able to settle into our house for a few months while we study the language.  

I am so excited to start learning the language, and it is encouraging to see the work that God is already doing here on the island.  Up to this point, however, we've mostly been spending time traveling and getting to know our teammates.  As Kristen and I begin to dive into language study next week, we'll keep you updated with all of the ridiculous mistakes we make as we begin to communicate with the locals.  Until we have some good stories, though, please pray that we would be able to settle in quickly, learn our way around the town, and that we would start off strong with language study.  Also, I hope you enjoy the pictures of lemurs here and on Facebook.  Don't try to hide it; I know that's really what you've been waiting for...