Newsletter August 2020

A newsletter from the Hofmann family. No longer from Julianadorp aan zee, but now from Nijensleek, province Drenthe.

New Residence

It is already August. We came on furlough to the Netherlands at the end of February. The intention was to return to Maroamboka, Madagascar on the 5th of July. Well, that didn't really work out :( of course, you secretly hope that by then everything and everyone is back to normal, but that was not the case).

The contract of our house in Julianadorp expired on the 11th ofJuly and could not be extended. So we moved again to the location where we also lived back in 2012, Nijensleek in Drenthe. In a cottage on the premises of Katja's mother.

Prospects

Of course we, try to keep up to date with the developments concerning our return home. It remains difficult to get good information from Madagascar. The last message we have received is that President Rajoelina said that tourism on Nosy Be could resume in early October. Nosy Be is an island north of Madagascar with its own airport. For us this would not be an option, as traffic to the south should therefore be allowed. For the time being, non-essential traffic has come to a standstill. The capital is still in a strict lock down which is difficult because all traffic to the south has to go through this city and province.

At the moment it is winter in Madagascar. We hope that when the days get warmer, the government will relax a bit more with regard to the virus. We sincerely hope that we can return home soon. Yes, we do miss our friends and fellow villagers.

The Children

We are very proud of them! They also have to overcome their emotions. One of them said, "I'd rather go back to Maroamboka. There we live in isolation, and we don't really have many friends, but at least we do know where we stand. We just go to see our friends in the capital every three months. Now, friends are close by but just too far to visit. As if you see an ice cream behind glass ... You just can't reach it. ”

Yet we enjoy together! We go for walks together, visit museums, and take a dip in the pool. We try to use our extra time in the Netherlands as much as possible! It is also great that we are now able to celebrate the birthdays of the children together with family and friends.

The Work

In general, we just continued with what we normally do. The children do not have a summer holiday like most children in the Netherlands. That is not as sad as you might think. It is impractical to stick to the normal Dutch school holidays because we travel back and forth a lot. Katja tries to adapt the schedule to the situation as much as possible. That way, the children don't have to panic because they don't finish their work before the holiday starts. We plan around it. This gives peace and regularity.

Jurgen is digitising the Gospel of Luke in the Tanala dialect. This is quite difficult to do. He cannot go into the village to ask how to pronounce a certain word. The Tanala dialect is still largely unwritten. Jurgen writes the words phonetically but that is not an easy job. You can download and view our materials from our website: https://www.jurgenenkatja.nl/en/#section-2355

In addition, Jurgen uses the advantage of fast internet to improve various things. For example, small errors on the website, which we cannot adjust directly from Madagascar, accumulated over time. In addition, he tries to stay informed about the news from Madagascar and Maroamboka. Finally, Jurgen is also promoting our work in Madagascar. Several presentations and sermons were cancelled earlier, but now we hope to be able to pick it up again.

News from Maroamboka

Our other friends, Sylvestre and his wife Fanja, regularly send us messages about the latest news in Maroamboka. This way we are aware of each other's ups and downs. We see photos with Nendrin'i Lea showing how many eggs the chickens have laid. Those eggs were a great motivation to take good care of the chickens. Unfortunately, this source of income is gone. Last month Fanja informed us that there was a chicken disease and all chickens in the area died, including ours. Naturally, we wanted to be sure, so we asked again: “All chickens! Or one?" The answer: "Totally all chickens, not one alive any more." Of course, we are very disappointed about that. Not even for ourselves but more for Nendrin'i Lea.

Fortunately, there is also good news. One of our cats was missing, but popped up again. That's good news because a cat in the house keeps the rats and mice away. Our two guard geese are also still alive.

Other Contacts

It is not always easy to get news from Maroamboka. News from the capital is a lot easier. In recent years we have become good friends with various families. We try to travel to the capital every three months. Once there, we try to meet each other as soon as possible! We encourage each other and share joys and sorrows. Our friends, Sue and Kim Midgley, have six children. The three oldest went on a holiday to their uncle in Australia. This was early March. Suddenly all countries went into a lock down, and they could no longer go home. Now, 5 months later, they are still there. At such a moment you wish you could hold each other for a moment, just a hug. But that is a bit difficult while living 8900km apart. We pray for each other and keep in touch via Whatsapp.

Further

The car! All rust is gone and parts have been replaced. The car is ready to go! We are grateful for all the people who have given so generously. Thanks to you we can drive safely in and out of our area.

Another ‘thingy’ was of course our transport in the Netherlands. We borrowed the car, in which we are driving at the moment, from the Hand foundation: 'stichting Hand'. Fortunately we got an extension. We can now borrow the car until January 2021 ... Let's hope and pray that this will not be necessary :)


This was it for now. Thank you for all your prayers, gifts and friendships!


Many blessings,
the Hofmann family

Hoofdweg 73a
8383ED Nijensleek, the Netherlands
Whatsapp (Jurgen): +261 34 85 472 82
Temporary phone number (Jurgen): +31 6 27269000


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