One of the Best Days of the Year

Having had almost 4 months apart we planned a family getaway after Christmas for 4 days to Acacia Bungalows at Manambato. We have previously stayed there twice before with our good friends Tracy, Frank and Kathleen as well as a few others. However this time it was to be just us and no other Mercy Shippers. Don't get me wrong, I love hanging out with fellow crew members but sometimes it is nice not to hang out with fellow crew members.

Anyway we packed Viking Chess (Kubb), Dao, cards, frisbee, skimming balls, books, kindles and swimmers. No iPods, iPads or Nintendos. The drive down went okay - that is no one vomited this time, just a little nausea. It is about 100 km of "highway" driving followed by 7 km of typical dirt track non-road. The AC in Alexis van was broken so it was pretty stuffy. Once there we got into swimming, reading and Viking Chess. Whilst playing a couple approached us and asked us about the game and then more about what we did. They introduced themselves as Stanislas and Vola and invited us to drop in on them the following day at their holiday house.

Dinner that night was great - beautiful zebu steak for Mick, soup Chinoise for Tammy and 3 serves of spaghetti bolognaise for the boys followed by crepes and banana flambé.

Banana Flambe

The next day it dawned with overcast skies. Mid morning with spray jackets on and carrying our frisbee and Viking Chess we wandered up the beach to Chez Luigi and asked for "la maison de Stanislas et Vola". The staff knew who we were looking for and led us to their house. Stanislas and Vola were delighted to see us and introduced us to their four beautiful children - Julie (19), Louis (17), Zakasoa (15) and Malalatiana (9).

What followed was one of the best days of the year. The weather cleared and the sun came out. The kids played wonderfully practicing their french and english. We swam in the lake, played football in the yard and on the beach with the local kids, played frisbee, played Viking Chess, buried each other in the sand, shared lunch, prayed together and generally had a most wonderful time.

Malal, Zak, Mark and Harry playing front yard soccer

Harry playing beach soccer

Malal after being buried

Zak

Malal, Zach and Mark. I think Mark and Malal use the same hairdresser!

Julie, Jack, Mark and Harry. Harry asked Julie to bury him.
She thought he asked her to marry him!

I loved this - all the kids playing in the water together oblivious
to their different languages, colours and nationalities.

Harry and Malal were both doing flying forward rolls into the water
but I couldn't catch Malal

Tammy and Vola

Beach soccer

Beach frisbee