December is the hottest and driest month in Madagascar. Temperatures rarely drop below 23 degrees - even at night. The sun burns from the sky 12 hours a day. The last rain shower was a few months ago and the earth is dusty and cracked. Sometimes the wind brings some change and swirls the red dust around; but it doesn't get much cooler because of that. So on the day in early December when our story begins, it was oppressively hot in northern Madagascar.

Rasoa is tired. So tired. She tossed and turned all night and could not sleep. She shares her thin mat of straw and raffia with her mother and two younger sisters. Sleeping on the floor takes up more than half of the brick house, which has neither windows nor a proper door. A curtain allows the family some privacy.