Workshop Prep

Today I visited our office and we finalized the plans for the workshop. It was nice to see some familiar faces from my last visit, and I was joined by a former colleague from DC who’s now a contractor on this project. After reviewing our plans for the next few days, we went to lunch at a nearby restaurant. As we sat down, I noticed the spire of another LDS chapel I had seen on the last trip. Within minutes, some senior missionary couples entered the restaurant and I started seeing missionaries streaming down the hill. After a few moments, I excused myself and ran outside to talk to them, asking if they knew a fellow missionary a friend had mentioned on facebook who was serving in Madagascar. They told me he was in a different area, but it was still fun to meet these guys so far from home (they were all from Utah). It was crazy to think that in their lifetimes, the Church here had grown from a single branch to two stakes in Tana, and branches in several major cities.

Back at the office, we stayed late finishing our preparations. I was on my own for dinner, as my colleague had only arrived the night before and was fighting jetlag. I’d come prepared for this possibility, buying a book to read as my dinner companion. After consulting the guidebook, I opted for a place called La Rossini and had a Malagasy dish of zebu stew with cooked greens and a French pastry with local vanilla for dessert.