Meet the Masikoro People

North of Tulear, there is a people group called the Masikoro. They live inland, and are mostly substanance farmers. This people group is one of five in our Southwestern Madagascar area. Although there are many Masikoro living in Tulear, we don't know too much about them. Grant took his first trip into Masikoro territory on Monday with a visiting pastor and his family from Tana. They drove 3 hours north, to a remote village, where a small church was holding a Baptism.

Grant had a great time getting to see new terrain and meet new people. The land was pretty barren, as is much of the land around Tulear, but they were able to grow rice there (which is not possible in many places around here). Despite trying to talk to people, Grant only understood about 50% of what they were saying - making his learning experience a bit of a challenge.

He did make some good memories during the trip out to the Baptism. As water is pretty sparse, they traveled out to a rice field (which are usually pretty marshy) to do the baptisms. On the way out there (not knowing where they were going), Grant and the family from Tana avoided stepping in any puddles (see above pic). The Masikoro people laughed at them as they went out of their way to stay dry. Once they got a little closer, they realized why the people had been laughing at them. They eventually were forced to walk thigh deep in muddy water to get to the place of Baptism. All of their efforts at staying clean were pretty pointless (except for entertaining the locals of course).