We left Manga Guest House at 5:45 am and drove through the darkness to Ivato airport.
After going through security, we watched the early-morning darkness lighten into a foggy day.
Soon we were walking across the tarmac and climbing the steel stairs to our propeller-powered Air Madagascar plane.
After a brief wait while the fog cleared adequately for take-off, we began our south-southeast flight to Tolagnaro, also known as Fort Dauphin, shortly after 7:10 am.
As we approached our destination, the blue gleaming waters of the Indian Ocean beckoned us, and we glided to a smooth on-time landing at 9:00 am.
As we approached the usual incoming passenger door, an Air Madagascar official corralled us and guided us to another door, one I remembered from five years ago. We were about to experience the first of many graceful moments of hospitality.
Waiting for us inside the private reception room, Dean Donné, Santa Grégoire Council President Mahasoro, and several other Council members and parishioners greeted us and welcomed us, primarily by gestures because we didn't speak Malagasy, and they didn't speak English!
Happily, there was a young translator named Dia Soa (which means, in Malagasy, Good Journey). Also happily, the President spoke French, and so he and I could also communicate, although his French is better than mine.
While we made our first greetings and introductions, someone collected our luggage and brought it to us. Ah, if only all airport arrivals were such as this one!
We drove straight to Santa Grégoire in several cars, and how my heart leapt when I first saw Santa Grégoire's steeple as we drove up the hill toward the church!
After getting out of our cars and gathering our luggage, we crowded into a small office along the side of the church building. There we learned the plan for our next eleven days and began to get a sense of the adventure ahead of us.
Then we entered the church for the first time, and posed for a picture:
From left to right along the front row: the President of the Council (Vestry), another member of the Committee, Sarah, Meredith, Donné and his wife Vero, Rev. Stanley Isaac (an Evangelist from Nigeria), Jean, and three other parishioners; and in the back row, me, another parishioner, Dia Soa, and another parishioner.
(If anyone can help identify the others, I will be grateful and correct the caption.)
After our initial visit to Santa Grégoire, we checked into our rooms at the Kaleta Hotel.
If you click here, you will see an excellent website about the Kaleta— although the pictures are accurate, the pool was drained for the winter, and the bar doubled as the breakfast room!
And here's another excellent website— if you click on the "Visite 360o" tab you can take a visual tour; and you can click on the individual pictures to see additional rooms and restaurants, including a picture of the patisserie.
After we had a chance to settle into our rooms, President Mahasoro [pronounced Mah-hah-soo-roo] and Dean Donné and Vero [pronounced Ver-oo], took us on a tour of Tolagnaro [Too-lahn-nah-roo].
Mahasoro drove us in his car, while Donné and Vero followed on his motorcycle— except for the portions of our journey when Vero traveled with us and Meredith hopped on behind Donné!
Along the way, we had some of our first glimpses of the beauty of Tolagnaro.
After the first of many delicious dinners in the Kaleta dining room, we called it a fairly early night— we needed an early start the next morning, because it would take us nearly five hours to reach the first of two churches in time for their 10 o'clock service!
To Be Continued!
Comments