To choose the child that you want to sponsor, go to my Facebook page “Kathy Boesch-Lucking” and choose a child to become friends with, to help through school and even to write letters to if you wish.

Check out the website under ‘Toonie Twinning” for a more complete description of the program.

thank-you.

Jordan's self made steps

Alex teaching physical education-"Like this!"

Jessica teaching gym

English class for the villagers

Richard before his operation in Kenya

Richard 6 months after his operation

Judith taking care of laundry

Luke and his following

Michelle running Art class

Catherine and Denis with his new cap

Dave with new solar oven he built

Preparing for gym class - students had never seen balloons before

Dave and Jordan expert bike fixers

One of Joseline's dance classes

Evan's following

Finally all here....with luggage!

One of the most exciting aspects of the year was hosting ten volunteers at the project!

Judith Goodwin and son Luke; Joseline Beaulieu (MSP’s Vice Chair), and her 11 year old son, Evan; The Porter Family (Michelle, Dave, 17 yr old Jordan and 15 Yr old Alex) from West LeHave, Nova Scotia; Catherine Wilson, a graduate from McGill and daughter of our MSP secretary, Nancy Wilson; and Jessica Beehler, a high-school student from Ontario.

Some of the highlights of the year in brief are:

EDUCATION

• The volunteers taught dance, art, music, physical education and exercise, to our students. They also taught English, guitar and keyboard to interested villagers.
• we added another grade so that we are now teaching 10ieme (equivalent gr 2/3 Canada)
• we began a school for young girls who didn’t get an opportunity to finish their education because of lack of family finances. We have 38 students working on grades 5-8 Canadian equivalency. They are very happy to be back in school and we are pleased to know that the education level of the parentsof our next generation of children will be higher than in the past.

• we witnessed the opening of a new school in Manga Be built by parents and made possible through the “Toonie Twinning Operation”
• we began classes teaching sewing (coupe and couture) where the students learn to make their own patterns and sew clothes by hand.
• Catherine took on training a young deaf student, Denis, and his family how to communicate using the gestures from the language learning program AIM. Denis became an active member of the school community as a result.
• we hosted a student apprenticing in administrative studies for 3 months. He is
• we trained 3 young men in construction through an apprenticeship program with our engineer and his team. Two of the men are employed in construction full time as a result
• we began using the program AIM (augmented integrated method) to teach French and then English to students and villagers
• we helped a local student go to university by having his sister (one of our teachers) train teachers in another village how to use AIM, and translate English readers into Malagasy.
• we had a swing set built with money from the Cornwall Rotary Club for our students at Tenaquip
• we transformed Lova Soa into a school to teach trades. It is now housing classes for local young people and adults in sewing and embroidery. Wood-working class is our next goal.

• a donation from a church in Long Sault has allowed us to plan to send another palette of books, and this time we hope to send textbooks in French to support our elementary and young girls school

Preparing for gym class - students had never seen balloons before

Dave with new solar oven he built

• bought more land for gardens at Tenaquip
• planted trees all around the boundary of the school (leaves to be used medicinally)
• built a rice mill so that villagers would not have to walk an hour to mill their rice
• built a new 4 classroom building with a two-room medical clinic
• installed two solar water heaters, allowing for staff, students and volunteers to enjoy hot showers
• installed another solar panel for teacher’s apartments and volunteer house

GARDENS

• we sent our gardener and a committee member on a week long learning experience to Park Ivoloiny to learn the essentials of organic farming and caring for a tree nursery
• we built an irrigation system at Lova Soa using an electric pump in our well and a reservoir to water the plants

SOCIAL WORK

• we purchased 250 raincoats for students and staff of the school with a donation from Tagwi High School in Ontario. Special thanks to Mme Thompson and Mr Blaine
• we ran the feeding program again in both villages helping more than 500 families
• as part of the feeding program, a new kilometre-long road was built by villagers to travel over the mountain and avoid the mud of the regular road
• we bought two bicycles, one for each school, to facilitate getting supplies
• Dave taught the local people how to repair bicycles and gave them the tools to do so. He also showed them how to make solar ovens and successfully made our delicious meals using solar power.

MEDICAL

• we facilitated two youngsters having surgery to repair cleft palate
• hired a doctor who works at our project two days a week, serving the community as well as our staff and students
• we raised money and sent Richard, a young man, to Kenya to have surgery to remove a five year old dental cyst and do extensive repairs to his cheek and jaw
• we screened all our students for general health (weight, height, vision, hearing, teeth) to implement a breakfast meal for those who are suffering from mal-nutrition
• we brought an ophthalmologist to the area to screen students and villagers and made eye glasses available to them through donations of eye glasses and monetary help from the Rotary Club of Cornwall

A NEW OPPORTUNITY TO SUPPORT THE PROJECT

• we began the Toonie Twinning Operation which allows young Canadians an opportunity to give a Malagasy child the gift of an education by donating $2 per week. They can also gain a global friend by corresponding with their ‘twin’ in Madagascar. We are pleased to announce that we have 91 children supported as of December 31 2011.
  

  a Toonie Twinning friend

]]> http://www.madagascarschoolproject.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=650 0 http://www.madagascarschoolproject.com/blog/?p=649 http://www.madagascarschoolproject.com/blog/?p=649#comments Wed, 30 Nov 2011 10:05:42 +0000 kathy http://www.madagascarschoolproject.com/blog/?p=649 On Monday Nov. 28, 2011 we received registrations of young women between the ages of 11 and 21 years, who had to stop their formal education because of lack of family funds. These girls dearly want to finish their education, and have come in little groups to ask us for classes.

We have started with 4 classes, a split Canadian equivalent of Grades 7/8 who study in the morning 8:00 – 11:00. There are 18 students in that class. In the afternoon, 1:00 – 5:30 we have 16 students in Grades 5/6. Since our school is bursting at the seams with children, we decided to split the large lunch room to allow space for the girl’s school, to work along side the Kindergarten who work at one end. At 11:00 everyone must clear out to prepare the room to feed our 300 students and staff. When the tables are all wiped up and the floor is swept, class begins again in the afternoon.

The girls are taught by Mlle. Helmine, who has graduated high school and has a dream to go to further her studies to become a mid-wife. To earn enough money to pay her tuition, she will work for us for three years, and help others while she helps herself.  She has never taught before but is taking on all of the subjects and is teaching the girls with all that she has to offer. She teaches Math, Science, Literature, Malagasy, English and French languages, as well as History and Geography. We are pleased to welcome her to our staff.

Mindware Academy in Ottawa, and an individual donor, Graham Wells, have offered to help us fund this endeavor. The girls don’t have so much as a pencil, so they need to be provided with study materials, and we are looking out for used French text books for the teacher to use to help her in her planning and teaching. Since exams here are written in Malagasy and French, and most good jobs require a working knowledge of French, we have decided to use it as our language of instruction.

We are starting small, to make sure that we can do a good job for the girls, but the demand is great. Already we have many young men asking if they can also learn. We will make sure all girls get a chance and that we can sustain the learning and teaching before we expand. We feel that it is the women who will play the biggest role in affecting the quality of the lives of their children, and so every opportunity to educate them will be a vote for the positive future of the community as a whole.

This initiative was born when a Canadian volunteer, working in Madagascar this fall, Catherine Wilson, began making visits to the inhabitants who live all around our school. Provided with a voice recorder by Sally and Heather of the Anglican Christ Church in Long Sault, she went out with a Malagasy interpreter and spoke to people in their homes. She asked them about their history in this village, about their hopes and dreams for their children, about how the school in their community may affect them both positively and negatively, and how the school might help them personally.

Catherine received nothing but shocked looks of disbelief at the question of negative impact of the school, and they assured her that everything about the school was wonderful (mahafinaritra) for the community. They often mentioned young daughters who were forced to end their formal education because of poverty, but who wish that they could finish school.

After she went out on a few such visiting days, groups of 5 or 6 shy girls would show up at the school to ask when classes would start. It was really cute to see them because they thought that it was too bold a question to ask, but wanted to ask badly enough that they would urge each other on until some bold soul would finally step forward and ask when they were going to be able to come to school? This happened regularly enough that eventually we would see a small group of girls hanging around, and know their motive for coming without asking.

Our principal, Mme Raline, is one of the busiest people I know, with a line up at her office door of people who need to see her at most times of the day, but she was as excited as I was at the thought that maybe we could do something about this situation. We decided that if we could find some funding, find a teacher who could take the work of organizing on her own shoulders, then we would begin. All things fell in to place as we’d hoped. So away we go!!!

Love to hear comments or suggestions. Bye till next time,

Kathy

I was standing on the balcony at the hospital (a lovely place of quiet refuge), and about 80 metres away, among many other houses, is this yellow house, bungalo, 2 windows, made of brick with cement overtop. There is a little girl there, probably 9 yrs old who I enjoyed watching at play yesterday. She is all arms and legs and reminds me of my granddaughter, Emma.

At about 5 a.m. this morning the mom comes out in her nighty and takes each chicken out of the nighttime basket, ties a string to each ones leg, attached to a little wooden outhouse at the other end, and lets it go.

Then she gets the knife from the house and chops off bits of wood to start the charcoal cooking fire. She moves the charcoal cooker away from the house, starts the fire which smokes and blazes, and while that happens she gathers her buckets and goes to get the family water for the day.

Returning, she moves the stove closer to the house, gets the rice to pick through and throw up to get chaff out, puts the rice for breakfast on the charcoal. Then she puts on the same clothes she wore yesterday and begins the long job of watering the garden. Barefoot, a watering can in each hand she makes the trip down to the stream and back up for each row, taking about 45 minutes. Time to notice how everything is growing, listen to the birds, enjoy her own thoughts.

By now the rice is cooked and the rest of the family is starting to be seen brushing teeth outside, washing feet, getting to the outhouse, carrying a bucket to the shower room. I presume she will go to work and the family will go off to school etc, and I will see them again at the end of the day as they collect their little shopping bag and go off to buy some rice to go with their vegetables for supper. Then they’ll sit out together and just watch the goings on around them as the sun sets, and they enjoy an evening meal before bed.

I don’t know what appeals to me so much about all that? Maybe it’s the physical activity, or the peaceful surroundings, close to nature. Maybe its the existence of all the people who share the community space and who let kids play around their house, not worrying about who’s kids they are or when they’ll go home. It reminds me a bit of my youth, where all kids were on the street playing from dawn to dusk, reluctantly going home for lunch and supper.

Here there are still babies crying and kid’s voices, mingled with rooster crows and some singing somewhere, probably a smell from the outhouse etc., but life seems to have meaning and one is not alone, but surrounded by others going about their business and greeting each other. A couple of men sit down on the bank for a chat….an older sister puts two hands on her younger sister’s shoulder as they have to pass a barking dog behind a fence. Another young girl sits braiding her sister’s hair. There is human touch, security, sharing, just being, without judgement or criticism. I just love it.

Compare it to home, empying the dishwasher, putting on the coffee pot, pouring cereal or putting toast in the toaster…..somehow it doesn’t seem that we have earned the enjoyment of eating?  I don’t know?  Is it just too simple, too cheap, too easy, too expected, so that when there is a problem, like no bread in the house we feel put out instead of relishing in the abundance and rich flavours and sensations all around?

Problems here are big, deal with survival, but the people do what they can and leave the rest to God, knowing that death is always a possibility and so life is so much the richer.

At home I spend part of my day impatient with the line at the bank, worried about whether our car needs major work, fussing about our heating bills, etc etc. Seems that try as I might, many more negative thoughts enter my mind in Canada than when I am living here. Too many choices…too many advertisements, too much to think about! Maybe it’s because I’m still part tourist, on-looker, able to do some helping here?

In any case…it is a wonderful change and makes me feel like I take away more from this experience than I give.

Kathy

The community behind the hospital

]]> http://www.madagascarschoolproject.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=643 0 http://www.madagascarschoolproject.com/blog/?p=641 http://www.madagascarschoolproject.com/blog/?p=641#comments Wed, 16 Nov 2011 04:19:06 +0000 kathy http://www.madagascarschoolproject.com/blog/?p=641 Out and About

I did some more field work today (Nov. 3). I went out with Pascal and Lailana, who were my translators. We talked to quite a few people about Tenaquip and we also mentioned to them that we are looking for a new committee to run the school and lot of them seemed interested. We were supposed to have a big meeting with all the community members tomorrow but it got postponed. It’s hard to plan things over here.  Their mentality is a lot different from ours in that in the Western world everything is planned out. What time something will be at, where it will be held, what to bring, what to wear, etc. The Malagasy don’t usually plan for things, most of the time they just let things happen. If they do plan for something, it doesn’t usually go as expected. It can be a bit frustrating at times, but we have become used to it.  Most of the people who we talked with would invite us into their homes. They are very tiny, usually crammed with tables and chairs. Most families will only share one bed. Two, if they are lucky. In one house, there were about 4-5 suitcases piled on top of one another stuffed with things. I was wondering how they would have acquired these suitcases and it turns out that the husband of the house hold is a security guard at the airport. I guess he takes home left over luggage that people don’t claim!  Most of the time extended families will live together, or live very close to one another. Grandparents will live with their children and grand-children (not sure if it’s the paternal or maternal grandparents…I don’t think it really matters over here). I’m having a great time doing this field work! I’m getting a better understanding of the Malagasy culture and meeting some interesting people.

Rentree Solonelle

Today was the Rentree Solonelle (Nov. 4). It was the official opening of the school and all the parents were invited to come! The kids raised the Malagasy and Canadian flag and sang the Madagascar national anthem. It’s a really beautiful song and the kids all sing with so much heart. They really love to shout the lyrics. Everyone crammed into the cafeteria where speeches were told and prayers were said. Kathy made a little speech and introduced us. It was a long ceremony and many of the kids started getting restless. A few started crying. One kid farted really loud and all the kids laughed (I swear it wasn’t me! à Auntie Aurora). I tried to hold in my laughter. After the ceremony was finished, Kathy pointed out a woman who had spent the last 6 months in prison. Her daughter was framed for drug possession and was sentenced to go to jail. Her mother didn’t want her to go to jail because she was doing really well in school. In the Malagasy justice system, a member of your family can go to prison instead of you. So the mother went to jail for her daughter. She has 8 children and had someone look after them while she was away. Also, someone had to look after her because they don’t feed you when you’re in prison. When she got out, she was completely broke. David, Jessica and I slipped her some money and she was so gracious. The smile on her face was indescribable and I felt really good that I was able to help her out. We gave her 50, 000 Ar, which is around what a teacher’s salary is for a month (25$).

In the afternoon, Denis, his mother and two siblings came for their lesson! I had a bunch of pictures which I got from story books and had gestures to go with the pictures. At the end of the lesson, they were all able to do the gesture when I pointed to a picture. I also was able to get Denis to open and close a book by gesturing to him! I know it may sound like such a simple thing, but I felt really happy and think that he will learn quickly. I thought of video-taping either Jessica or one of the Porters doing an action, and while Denis watches, I show him the gesture. Things like go, come here, I want to play soccer, stop, etc. I hope it works!

Akany Famonjena (Mary’s Orphanaga)

After the lesson, Jessica, the Porter’s and I headed out to catch a bus to Mary’s orphanage. We were invited to stay the weekend and we all wanted to do some souvenir shopping in Tana. Michelle wasn’t feeling well, so her and Kathy stayed back and will meet up with us tomorrow morning! We made it in time for dinner, which was rice and meatballs! Mary had us all sitting at different tables, eating with the orphans. My table was pretty shy and quite. Some of them wanted to practice their English though so we made some small conversation. Before eating, we all said grace. The process of saying grace lasted about 10 minutes. They sang some songs in French and English and said some prayers. The food was delicious. After everyone had finished eating, another song was sung and another prayer was said. As well, they said Thank you and Good night in about 15 different languages. Once the tables were all cleared, everyone started playing games. I got in on one game where you hold a spoon in your mouth, and pass a marble to the person sitting next to you while balancing it on the spoon. We also had arm wrestling matches and this one tiny little boy, probably 10 years old, beat me! He was sooooo strong! Or I’m just really weak…. :S Jessica, Alex and I got our hair braided. Some of the girls at the orphanage are in school to be hair dressers! Everyone was really nice and welcoming. We ended the night playing Spoons. They loved it! I ended up going to bed at 11, which is the latest I’ve gone to bed here.

Shop ‘till we Drop…Again

Today (Nov. 5) was a busy shopping day! We went to a Malagasy Art Market. Lailana and another boy from the orphanage, Nina, came with us as our body guards. They warned us about pickpocketers and I felt safer having them around. It turned out to be not too sketchy. At one point I was wondering alone, trying to find my way out of the market, and one of the vendors who had been following me around, trying to sell me something, knew that I was lost. He said, “your family is out this way” and pointed me in the right direction! The Art Market consisted of rows and rows of booths, under canopies, and small aisles in between. It wasn’t too busy, but the vendors would get right in your face, trying to get your attention and money. When I first walked into the market, I began looking at these really nice precious stones. The vendor would not let me walk away without buying one. I did, but he followed me all throughout the market, showing it to me, trying to get me to buy it. It got really annoying. I don’t even like it in Canada when I go into a department store and they start hounding you about what to buy. When I would ask the vendors “outin” (?) (how much), they would say a price but then they would always say “but you can dispute it” (many of them spoke English, and all of them spoke French). I thought it was funny that they told me I can dispute the price.  I don’t like bargaining but I got really into it! I bought a precious stone, which was originally 50,000 Ar for 20,000 Ar. I won’t go into what I bought because most of them are Christmas presents. Hihihih. One guy who kept following me around wanted my Puma hat and kept asking me what I wanted to trade it for. Another guy wanted my sneakers! As I was leaving, a woman started showing me some souvenirs and naming prices. I heard her say 5,000 Ar, which was a good price for what she was selling so I said sure, but I only had a 10,000 Ar bill on me. She was going to find change, but everyone had already left and I had to run to catch up to them, so I said no, sorry, I have to go. I walked out onto the street, trying to catch up with everyone else. Well, the same women runs after me saying she will go make change, but I’m not going to give her my 10,000 Ar and hope that she will give me change. So I keep shaking my head. Then she hands me more souvenirs and says take all this for 10,000. I said ok, took the souvenirs, gave her the money and kept walking. I was falling behind, and no one had noticed I wasn’t following. Then, I hear footsteps running up behind me. It’s the same women. She has my change and asks me to give her back the extra souvenirs she gave me and she would give me the 5,000 Ar. We did the exchange and I was finally free from the crazy vendors! It was an exhausting adventure.

Sunday morning (Nov. 6) we went to church with the orphans. It was a long 2 hour service, and Jessica, Alex, Jordan and I sat up on the balcony in the church with the other orphans. They would try to translate what the priest was saying, and they gave me a French bible to follow along with. I attempted to sing along to some of the hymns but it’s really hard to read Malagasy and some songs were really fast. After church, which ended around 11, we headed back to the orphanage where we had lunch: rice, green peas and chicken (it was really fatty and bony), cucumber salad, and pizza (which is a treat for the orphans)! There was corn on the pizza and it was pretty good. Then for dessert, Mary had bought a bunch of Gooda (?) which was being sold at the church. It’s made up of rice flour, sugar cane and bananas and kind of tasted like banana bread batter. As we were packing up the truck, getting ready to leave, the Porter’s took out their Jamba’s which they had bought and the orphans started playing them and singing. It was really cool. It reminded of Tam Tams in Montreal and I know that the next time I go I’ll be thinking of the orphans!

School Day

This afternoon (Nov. 7) I had a lesson with Denis. I had put some photos on my computer to show him, which I think he enjoyed. There was one of me eating corn, and his mom laughed. I didn’t have time to make videos of someone doing actions because both Jessica and Alex were busy with gym class all day. They played soccer with all the classes and one team was wearing bright orange Tim Horton’s jerseys. They were so cute! Some of the kids were too tiny for the jerseys so they looked like dresses on them and the kids would waddle around trying to kick the ball. They had a lot of fun. This evening Alex put corn rows in my hair! She had practiced on Jessica last night and they turned out really well! I look really funny. My scalp is really white. But maybe I will fit in a bit more! Sorta. No, not really.

A bit of History

Today (Nov. 9) Mr. Justin took us to visit the King and Queens Palace. I have a picture of the Queen’s Palace on Facebook, which is in Tana, but we went to visit her country home, out in Ambohimanga. It was about an hour and a half walk from the school. Two students in Mr. Justin’s class came with us. He was really into taking us there and I think he’s a big history buff. The monarchy ruled Madagascar up until the mid-1800’s, when the French colonized Madagascar. It is a historical site and there were a lot of white tourists in the area. The Queen’s house was European styled and in her bedroom there was a mirror hanging on the wall which was given from Queen Victory of England as a gift. Out front there was a really nice courtyard where cows would be sacrificed. Their skulls would be hung on the tree in the middle of the courtyard and some of the skulls are still hanging there. The grass surrounding the tree is sacred and there was a sign saying “no shoes” if you were to go and step on the grass. We also went into the house of King Andrianampoinimerina (1787-1810). It was very simple and made out of wood. It was a perfect square building and in it was the Kings bed, which was elevated high off the floor to protect him from people breaking in and keeping him warm during the cold months. His wife’s bed was located across the room from his, and was no elevated. There was a spot on the floor where they cooked their meals and where they sat to eat them. His house was a lot simpler and a lot less elegant than the Queens and I’m not sure if it’s because of the different time periods or whether it had to do with status. Entering into the Kings house you had to make sure to enter with your right foot as a sign of respect. When we left the house we had to exit backwards with our left foot. This was to ensure no one had their backs to the king. On site were houses which held the tombs of the two queens, Ranavalona I (1828-1861) and Ranavalona II (1868-1883), and people still give sacrifices to the kings (they burn candles or give flowers and candies). Ranavalona I despised Christians and drove them out of the country and Ranavalona II welcomed back Christianity, which remains today the primary religion in Madagascar.

Committee Making Time!

Today (Nov. 10) was the Fokonul (spelling is probably wrong) where many people from the surrounding communities came to the school for a meeting. The mayor called on everyone with a conch and within an hour we had about 50 people show up. Michelle Porter was sick and had to go to the hospital so Kathy went with her. It’s nothing serious, but she wasn’t getting better here at the school so we decided to send her to the hospital. Kathy and Raline were supposed to run the meeting and try to gather enough names of people who want to be on our committee. Since Kathy was gone, I helped Raline prepare for the meeting. We decided to choose 4 people from the 4 surrounding communities. Next week we will have interviews for the 16 people and we will narrow it down to 8. The meeting was held in one of the classrooms, and everyone packed in Malagasy style (5 to a seat which should really only hold 3). From each surrounding community, people either volunteered or nominated someone who they wanted on the committee. The names were written on the black board and numbered. Pieces of paper were distributed and people voted on the person who they wanted on the committee. Then we took the 4 highest votes. I get to help out with the interview process next week! I’m pretty excited.

The Clothing Mob

Today (Nov. 12) is the Porter’s last full day at the school! I can’t believe they are leaving in 2 days. I will miss them…and their cooking J Jessica, Alex, Jordan and I hiked up the mountain. It’s so relaxing up there. As I was lying down reading my book, I began to hear the hum of motor’s approaching. Three guys on dirt bikes had biked up the mountain. I was very uneasy up on the mountain with these three guys, but they kept biking on. I had a lesson with Denis at 3, and an English lesson at 4. Kathy and Michelle came back to the school today and Michelle made it back in time for English class. She is really good with the kids, and they all love her. They kept asking me where she was all week. We had about 25-30 kids today! At the end, Michelle had some clothes she wanted to give away. She tried to wait until most of them had left and picked a select few to give the clothes too but when the kids found out she was giving out clothes they fought for them. It was insane! It was such a sad thing to see. One little girl got caught under people who were pushing and shoving to get a piece of clothing. Her mom quickly scooped her up. Michelle and I grabbed back the clothes to stop the fighting. People left and we stealthy gave away the clothes to some girls who had stayed back. They were very gracious. I was quite shaken up about the whole situation. I wanted to give away most of the clothes that I brought here, but will probably donate them to a church to give out. It’s hard to be generous here. When one person knows that you are giving out stuff whether it’s clothing, money, food, you can get put into a very dangerous situation. Kathy was telling us that a man was attacked by thieves because the man had sold bricks and the thieves knew he had money. People are very desperate over here. You want to help as many people as possible but you can’t. And it’s frustrating when you can’t.  After that ordeal, we were back at the volunteer house and 5 girls who were also in English class asked me if we had any clothes for them. They were probably no more than 10 years old. Michelle still had clothes to give away but we contemplated about whether or not we should give them something. We didn’t want a bunch of other kids hounding us for clothes and we didn’t want the other kids to start fighting with the girls to get the clothes. In the end, Michelle put 5 pieces of clothing into a plastic bag. I went outside and motioned for the 5 girls to follow me. I showed them the clothes in the bag. They all had huge smiles and said a big ‘Thank you!’ and ran down the hill back to their houses. I felt really happy and I’m glad we decided to give out the clothes.

Good-bye Porter family!

Well the Porters are on their way back home now! (Nov.14) I can’t believe they have left already. I still have about another 6 weeks and I’m happy I’m not heading home yet! We stayed at the orphanage because we had to be at the airport for 10. Mary has a volunteer staying with her until the end of December. Her name is Magda and she is from Toronto. She just finished high school and Mary is a family friend. The last night the Porter family had in Madagascar, we had rice, French fries and pumpkin for dinner! I didn’t recognize we were eating pumpkin, but it was delicious! The kids asked us if we had it back in Canada and I said no, because I’ve never eaten it like that before. It was smashed up, kind of like squash. Before eating, we all stood up, and one of the orphan girls recited quotes from the bible and everyone sang a lot to them. It was really beautiful.

Madagascar growth spurt.

We are not sure if it is normal to have a growth spurt around your eighteenth birthday, but that is what has happened to Jordan.  We can`t seem to feed him enough.  We first attributed this to the great meals Dave was cooking with all the local produce we found at various markets and all the fresh air, but it seems to be more than that.  We have spent several weekends in Tana, doing errands, and of course we had one weekend in Andasebe to see the lemurs.  On these excursions we have eaten at conventional restaurants.  Jordan usually orders several appetizers, a main course, dessert, a milkshake, several soft drinks and two or three expressos.  This somehow isn`t enough.  He then proceeds to finish everyone else`s leftovers.  Luckily we walk about 10 km each day, plus Jordan, Alex, Catherine and Jessica climb the mountain near the school every Saturday just for fun!

Madagascar Creativity.

On one of our outings we made the walk across the rice fields to visit the school in a neighbouring community. Along all the trails, there are cows and bulls staked out to forage for food. The path we were taking went right past a temperamental bull, who upon sight of our little group gave a snort of disapproval. Jordan and I decided to find another path around the bull, but Jessica thought we were being silly, and plodded onward. When the bull charged we heard some experlatives from Jessica, and we all ran in the opposite direction. Being unbalanced and surprised, I tripped and fell, spraining my ankle. Luckily the bull reached the end of his line before he reached us, but I was left with the dilemma of walking another 5 km with a sprained ankle. After making it back to the house, Kathy suggested we call a local woman to have a look at my foot, as there was a woman in the community named Mme Elizabeth who was given the ability to do therapeutic massage, which she informed us was a gift God gave her. Her massage helped a great deal, but my foot was still very tender, and we had to walk everywhere we needed to go regardless of my condition.

There was also another woman in one of the neighbouring communities named Mme Mariette who makes all the brooms we use at the school. Luckily we ran into her at the local market, and I thought she might be able to make me a walking stick using one of the sticks she carves to make the brooms. I asked Kathy to translate for me this request, and after drawing it out in the dirt road,  Mme Mariette seemed to understand very well what I wanted. This was on a Monday, and she said she would deliver it to the school for me on Wednesday. At 7:30 on Wednesday morning (after a 2 hour walk from her community) she showed up at the school with my custom made walking stick. To my surprise it was made of a piece of grey PVC pipe with a stick inserted in it to give it strength, with an old red umbrella handle fastened to the top for a handle. I guess she felt my walking stick should be made with modern materials, and not a worthless stick. I thanked her graciously and asked her what price she wanted for the cane. She wasn`t sure, as she had never made one before, so we settled on a price of 5000 ariary ($2.50 Canadian). My fancy cane will be coming home with me as a memento of this wonderful woman.

We got to Grace Lodge, a very nice, quiet resort, which we stayed at for 2 nights. There was one other group who was staying there, a British tour group, who were much older. The woman who ran the lodge, Henriette, was the nicest lady I’ve ever met. She used to live in Tana, and when she retired from working at the Hilton Hotel, her and her husband moved out here and built this little resort for tourists to stay at. There were a bunch of small bungalows for the guests, and Jessica and I shared a room. There was also a swimming pool! A very green looking swimming pool, but we jumped in anyways! It felt very nice after the 4 hr bus ride. The main building was where they served meals and I believe Henriette and her husband lived on the second floor. The meals were delicious. The first night we had fried cheese and zucchini, beef, carrots and peas and banana flambé for dessert! The next morning we had planned to go to a national park and see the lemurs, but I woke up feeling horrible. I was really sick and stayed in bed all day, while the others went off to see the lemurs. Henriette made me some tea and some rice to eat because she knew I wasn’t feeling well. I was sad to miss the lemurs but I saw pictures and videos they took. I could also hear the lemurs off in the distance, and they sounded like loud party horns.

I felt better the next day, where we went off to another national park to spot some more lemurs. This park was near Vakona Lodge, where we stayed our third night. Our guide took us through the national park where we walked through thick, dense forests. It was great!  We saw some lemurs but they were hard to spot as they were high up in the trees and jumping from branches. Our tour guide had amazing eyes and senses, and while we were driving back to the hotel, he yelled from the back of the truck to stop. The driver did, and the tour guide jumped out and motioned for us to follow him. On one leaf was a tiny bug, a giraffe bug, which I believe is only found in Madagascar (I could be wrong). It had a red body and thin gangly legs. I couldn’t believe he saw it from the truck! It flew away before anyone could get a picture of it.

Dinner at Vakona Lodge was exquisite and also educational! I had coconut curry shrimp and pasta. As we were waiting for our meals, a woman came in from outside holding what looked like a giant orange and yellow leaf. It turned out to be the world’s biggest moth, and it’s only found in Madagascar! She found it outside near the light and said that when its life is over it flies toward light. It was shaking a little bit in her hands and she put it on a plant in the restaurant. After eating, Jessica wanted to capture it in a box and take it home. She tried to pick it up, but it kept fluttering its wings, trying to get away. We decided to put it outside to see if it would fly, but the next morning we found it dead in the same spot. Jessica decided not to kidnap it.

The morning of the day we were leaving, we visited Lemur Island, where they have protected lemurs. We walked along a path and spotted a few lemurs ahead of us. We were all really excited to see one so close and not high up in the trees. To our surprise and amazement they ran right up to us and jumped onto our shoulders! It was incredible! But one peed on me. The guide said it was good luck! Hahaha I didn’t really care because I was too excited and amazed. They were really soft and had really long tails. They loved my hat and at one point I had three on me, all licking my hat. The guide had bananas and we were able to feed them as well. Some of the lemurs were carrying their babies, which were wrapped around their bellies. They were way too cute for words. The baby’s tails would wrap all the way around the mom’s or dad’s bellies, and its faces would be nestled into their fur. Awwwwwwwww. After Lemur Island, we went to see crocodiles! There were so many, and they looked so archaic. We walked over a scary suspension bridge which crossed over where the crocodiles swam. We also saw turtles and boa constrictors! I held a boa around my neck. Alex had one wrapped around her head!

After all that excitement it was time to catch our train back to Tana! We took the Micheline, which was built by Michelin in the 30’s or 40’s. It is one of the two only trains left in the world built by Michelin. The other is in a museum in France. David Porter works for Michelin and was especially excited to go on it. It was a very small train and fit about 18 people. The chairs we were sitting on weren’t fastened to the floor, so when the train took a sharp turn, everyone’s chairs moved with the train. It was a beautiful 5 hour train ride and I sat next to a Malagasi woman who was involved with women empowerment programs in Tana. She practiced her English with me and I practiced my French with her!

I’m glad to be back at the school and in my ‘own’ bed! The kids come back to school on Wednesday because they get time off of school for All Saints Week. Hope everyone had a great Halloween!

It’s hard to believe that we are over half way through our adventure here in Madagascar.  There is  a lot happening as we have a set teaching schedule now.

Jessica and Alex teach Phys Ed. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 8-3.  Jordan and Alex teach Music from 8-3 on Tuesdays and Michelle and Catherine have art classes with all the grades on Thursdays.   We are hopeful that the Malagasy teachers will pick up some new teaching methods so these subjects can continue in some capacity after we return to Canada.

We are also offering an English Class to people from the nearby villages. Twenty-six students showed up yesterday.  Kathy and Catherine have been working with our deaf student, Denis and his family to teach them communication methods using the same gesture based programs that we use to teach French and English.  Denis, his mom, brother and sister have all learned the Malagasy alphabet in sign language also.   It’s very exciting.

Jordan’s Guitar class has grown to seven students and Alex started teaching keyboard last week.  Michelle has befriended the kitchen staff as they help her practice Malagasy without laughing too hard.  They are excited that Michelle is starting English classes with them next week.  On Jordan’s Birthday Dave and Kathy bought a bicycle for the school at the market Obviously this was quite an event as about 60 locals crowded around to watch the bartering.  Dave has constructed one solar oven that we have used to cook amazing meals like macaroni and cheese, baked beans and zucchini and garlic spaghetti sauce.  Dave is presenting this solar cooker at the Town Meeting on November 4^th.  He will do a workshop for anyone who is interested in building one.  So far there is lots of positive buzz in the community.

Stay tuned for more!

In the past week we’ve started phys-ed classes with all 7 classes in the tenaquip school, which have been going amazing! We have phys-ed every second day. The first day we started phys-ed, we blew up around 70balloons and had the kids have gym in the canteen and just play with the balloons, pass back and forth, keeping it in the air, it was amazing to see how happy all the kids were, they’ve never seen a balloon in their life! The funny thing was watching the kid from each class that popped the balloon and seeing all the straight faces of everyone thinking they’ve done something horribly wrong. The second time we had gym, we thought we would start off with something easy, something like..duck duck goose.  After about 15 minutes of us trying to explain how the game worked, still nobody understood, they were just staring at us like we were crazy, so we changed games and played freeze tag, which still was quite complicated for them. The person who was “it” tagged someone, and instead of the person who got tagged freezing, the person who was “it” would freeze and we would try to explain to them that it was the other way around but they couldn’t understand, so we just let them play like they were. They were having fun.  The third time we had phys-ed we had relays. This was our best phys-ed class yet. The first class went well (oldest class) we lined all the kids up in all their lines to run and then when we did the countdown of 3-2-1, all the kids ran at the same time! So we stopped them and re-explained and now do the countdown for the second time. 3-2-1, all the kids run to the same pylon. So once again we stopped them and explained how each group had the pylon they had to run around straight infront of them, after we explained that everything worked out well and the kids were having a blast! Fridays are church days, so all the little girls were dressed in dresses, and one girl was in what looked like a brand new bright, white dress and for one of the relays we did the “crab walk” and when she stood up her brand new white dress was no longer white…or new, but she didn’t seem to mind. Another relay we did was making them run backwards and it never failed the first person would always fall on their butts and the whole class would laugh their heads off! Everyone had a blast and by the time gym was over for each class they were all drenched in sweat! The youngest class we had we couldn’t do the relays with because they couldn’t understand what to do, they couldn’t even go in a line! So we kicked the soccer ball around with that class instead, which them seemed to love just as much! In Canada phys-ed is such a regular thing we don’t think about it, but in Madagascar, where they have never had phys-ed before it’s like a little kid on Christmas day, their eyes are wide and they were so anxious to start to play!

-jessica beehler!