Snot, political crises and running time

Sneezing, snot, fever, coughing - the flue. Completely normal at least once during the Norwegian winter. And guess what? It exists in Madagascar as well. At least I was able to get it. Who thought of bringing warm clothes to Africa? Not me, for sure. So when the sun sets, or is just gone for the whole day because of the rain season, it gets cold. And then I get cold. And eventually I get sick as well. So after eating a lot of new food, been many dirty places and in a really different country than Norway the one thing that brings me down is the flue.
So here I am, with a regular illness, just like home.

And in the middle of this the government has gone crazy. The president decided to close the TV-station of the mayor, his biggest rival. This of course resulted in big demonstrations. When he then chose to also close his radio station things didn’t become better. So now there’s been a lot of protesting against the president and the town is not the safest place anymore. So it seems like I’ve chosen a good time to be sick, as we’re not able to go to work this week and are just staying in Sabotsy-Namehana. Here it’s safe. So except from little milk, oil and butter, as the president has got monopoly on these things and his warehouses have been robbed, we’re doing just fine. Relaxing and doing nothing. For the first time since I got home from Mahajanga I’ve actually cleaned my room properly: folded my clothes nicely and put them in my suitcase. Put up the mosquito net and made my room nice again. So being stuck here is not totally bad!

But I’m good. We’re good. Madagascar is wonderful and I’m starting to realize that this won’t last forever. Just as I was on my way to get here four moths ago, I’ll soon be on my way back home again. They say that the time is coming here in Africa, it’s not just passing by fast, like in the western world that we know. But I think the time is passing by pretty fast here as well. Sometimes even running. It seems like just a month ago Arnhild and I went to Mahajanga. And it seems like only a couple of days ago we were wondering about how it would be so start working again when we came back to Sab-Nam. And now January is closing up, we have only a couple of days left and then the boys will come back, Monica will come and infield will start. Hopefully, if things don’t get worse. With a packed program time is always running by. And our program is packet. So soon infield will be finished. Soon we’ll go to Antsirabe to join the missionaries’ meeting. Soon I’ll turn 20 and soon we’ll go home. And what then? May be then I’ll have the culture shock I never really got here, when I come back to Norway. Will much have changed? how much will I have changed? I don’t know.
It makes me think. Wonder. About the future. About all the things we experience. If everything will just pass by and be forgotten.