Last Days in Tana : (

So Friday, Saturday, and Sunday I spent in Tana.  Honestly I don't remember a lot of what I did, so I'll just go off the pictures... which I now realize are not necessarily in chronological order.

Here's some videos of the fireside:

 

Oh my, so I just realized that the video on the left is basically a solo of me singing Fitia ao an-Tokantrano (Love at Home)... kind of embarassing lol sorry.  

Sr. Fanja and I in her yard.  She's done a really good job of keeping up her garden so she wanted some pictures of the plants

Elder Goff speaking at the little fireside I set up at Sr. Fanja's house. A bunch of people from the ward came out and it was a lot of fun.  

Ward members listening to E. Goff

Our snacks! Sr. Fanja made lemonade and I bought some nems and brochettes and then people donated cookies and crackers and such.  'Twas delicious.

Sr. Fanja and the missionaries.  Sr. Christiana is half in the foreground.  

Sr. Zafy and Fr. Faby - I taught them and helped them get some papers so they could get married and baptized.

Fr. Toky... I think

Sr. Elianne! And her 2 daughters (Tsiky and Ana) and 2 random girls. She was one of my favorite investigators and now she's one of my favorite members.

E...someone, forgot his name.  E. Goff, me, and Christina.

The fireside was Saturday night, the 25th of June which is the equivalent of 4th of July Eve - except that in Mada, the fireworks and most of the celebrations for their independence day (26 June) occur the night before.

Kids carry around these little lantern things called Arenjinas - they're cool!

E. Southwick!

On Sunday I ate dinner at 2 members houses = filling and stressful lol.  This is Gabby's daughter - he lives in the Ivandry ward.

Gabby and his wife (center), Sr. Fanja and Christina (bottom right) and their kids and some guy (L)

A copy of a newspaper hanging in the mission office.

The APs! E. Hall (my "daughter" - I was his second companion) and E. Slater.  They were dope and helped me a lot with phone numbers and such.

Again.  Yay APs!

A relief map of Mada haning in the office

This is the Branch presidnet of Ft. Dauphin with his family after coming back from the temple.  Busteed and I stayed in his house in Ft. D when we were there.

The train station in downtown Tana on 25 June.

For most of my mission this thing was all run down, but then they fixed it up and turned the inside into a shopping mall type thing - kinda fancy!

They also built/finished this after my mission - the new city hall (a block up from the train station) complete with this big fancy fountain which is completely closed off by a giant fence so it doesn't get all dirty.  It is the new attraction in town and everyone takes their pictures in front of it lol.

Kind cool, eh?

My son!  E. Sender (R) was the only missionary I trained.  I met him for brunch at CookieShop on Saturday morning.  His companion was E. Tahitata

Saturday afternoon I was in Ivato (where Sr. Fanja lives) for a baptism.

E. Slater talking to Christina, and Sr Fanja & E. Southwick

I can't remember this Elder's name either...

So when I was staying at Sr. Fanja's house earlier during my trip I went and visited some people I knew.  One of them was another lady named Fanja (L, short with a striped sweater on) I taught her and was there for her baptism.  She's another one of my favorites she's just always so peppy : - ).  Anywho, when I visited I found out her daughter (shortest, in white) was 8 years old, so I go "oh so is she baptized?!" Nope.  lol so I was like well "when is she getting baptized?" after some talking we found out that there was a baptism coming up on the 25th of June, and Fanja asked if I would do the baptism.  Which was kind of a shock to me - seeing that I wasn't a missionary or anything.  But it just so happened that I would be in town that day and I thought it would be kind of nice/fun so I agreed.  I had been asked to do the confirmations for her other two children (which was one of my most spiritual experiences) who had been baptized while I was a missionary, so now I had a sort of connection with all of the kids lol.  So yeah, I did her baptism. Kinda cool!

I love these pictures because they remind me of the song "We're Marching On" lol

Again, lol.

Ok, so this made my day.
When I was a missionary in this ward, we wanted to come up with a way to get the ward excited about missionary work.  President Donnelly had just given a major missionary policy speech at Stake Conference and used the metaphor of the kalaza - which is a knife on the end of a stick used to get banana from high up on trees.  So played off this metaphor and made a banana tree and every member who referred a friend to the missionaries to teach was recognized with a "banana".  Then we put people who got baptized's names on a list on the tree trunk.  This all happened, mind you, in 2009.  So imagine my surprise, when I walk into the building in June of 2011, 18 months later, and find the banana tree still up and going strong!  It was sooo cool to see that maybe I had actually made a difference : - )  They even still had the scripture I had printed out up on the wall.

Ward member

Ward member I had heard about but never met - she had been working in Lebanon when I was a missionary

More members.  Sr. Jenny - Fr. Leon's wife.  I just found out today that Fr. Leon is the new bishop! and Sr. Zafy in the background.

So Friday I think I mostly ran errands.  Saturday morning I met E. Sender at CookieShop, bought some things for my job, and then booked it back to Ivato for the baptism.  In the evening we hosted the fireside at Sr. Fanja's house and then I got a ride with the APs back into town.  We tried to make it for the fireworks but traffic was terrible (as usual) and so we missed them : - (  I still really want to see the fireworks someday - they're actually kind of legit, from what I hear.  After the fireworks, Busteed and I walked to some members he knew 's house in Anjanahary (Sr Manda and... her friend) and we played cards as is their custom lol.  It was a lot of fun.  Busteed and I got a taxi back to our semi-sketchy hotel around ... midnight or 1am I imagine - which was a little weird since I'd never really been out that late in Mada before.  Woke up, and went to 3 different wards: Mahamasina (my first area), Ambohipo (my second area) and Ivandry (my 3rd area).  Got to say hi to a lot of people really fast. After wards had lunch at Gabby's in Ivandry, and then dinner at Labarre and Valerie's in Ambohipo.
After all that, I got a taxi back to Ivato where I packed up and then walked to the airport with Sr. Fanja (its about a 15 minute walk from her house to the airport).  My flight left at like 2am I think.  I said my goodbyes to Sr. Fanja, checked myself in, and then waited for the most ridiculous series of flight I've ever made...