Thank you for the lovely Halloween card! It has received many oohs! and ahhs! from my village kids since I put it up on my wall of cards from home. They like the shiny gold border and pretty pumpkins, but are confused as to why there are faces on the pumpkins. I’ve found it difficult to explain our Halloween fomba (customs) in Malagasy. I’ve been keeping my eyes peeled for a pumpkin or squash at the market so I can make a real jack-o-lantern to show them, but have yet to find one.

Here, you learn to live with the knowledge that foods are only available when they are in season—the way it used to be in the US. For example, come December we will have lycees, mangoes, pineapple, ripe papaya [people also eat green papayas in salads] corasol [T: I think that may be passion fruit, which are eaten and used to make juice] and songambo [T: no idea what those are]—masses of ripe fruit. The past few months, however, all I’ve had in the way of fruit has been bananas. Just recently a strange fruit, a tart, tropical-apple-like one called makoba has been available, and for a while, sour oranges, which I’m allergic to anyway and can’t eat. Can’t wait for December to roll around!

The excitement of peak fruiting season is already beginning as the clove crop became ready for harvest and drying this month. The vanilla orchids have started flowering, giving farmers a one-day window to hand-pollinate them so that they will produce green seedpods by next season. I’m not sure when pumpkins would be “in season� here in the tropics. [smiley face here] Will continue to keep my eyes peeled. In the meantime, I’m really enjoying the dried fruit Mom and Dad send frequently in their packages. [to be continued]