Week 2: Andranosoa

The last few days in the village saw a wealth of activity. 20 benches were completed by Mr Opie's hard working team and Miss Ellis's group finished two murals inside the classrooms. All pupils had the opportunity to have a walk up to the top of the sacred hill to see the tombs of past kings and queens of Madagascar and understand a little more about the culture of ancestor worship. A team has been surveying the village to find out the houses most in need of solar light bulbs while a separate group of students has been handing out stationary equipment to local children. Mrs McCall's hard work around camp and organising all of the food has been well recieved. 

We are all excited to confirm that we will be returning to Andranosoa on the 3rd of August for the opening ceremony and an afternoon of Malagasy music and dancing. We might also squeeze another football match in too (unbeaten so far W1 D1 L0). Today we are in the city of Andtsirabe and have taken the opportunity to have a hot shower and sleep in a bed for the first time in over a week. Tomorrow we will be travelling to Miandrivazo for the start of the 3 day long canoe trip down the Tsiribhina river.

An afternoon walk up to the sacred hill overlooking Andranosoa.

Both of the murals have now been completed

Nokero solar bulbs have been sponsored by the Upminster Residents Association. 

A proud man showing off his new solar light bulb. 

Local children with their gifts of pencils. 

Joe and the rest of the bench team have worked extremely hard to finish all of the benches. 

Week 1: Andranosoa

Week 1: Andranosoa

We arrived in Andranosoa apprehensive, knowing that there was a lot of work to complete in a short time. After a lack of progress on the first day waiting for materials and paint, days 2-4 saw a big push by the team to catch up on lost time.

Mrs McCall is queen of the camp, making sure that we are all well fed with delicious meals of beef stew (spicy!), pasta and sauce, and vegetable curry, all cooked over an open fire. Tonight sees chicken in white wine sauce- traditional expedition food?!

Wake up call is at 5.30 and work has begun at 7am. Boiling water over an open fire for 38 takes a long time! We are working so hard, bed time has been at 8.30 after songs and games around the campfire.

Half the team have painted the school with three coats of white emulsion overseen by Miss Ellis while the other half have made school benches with Mr Opie. The painting team are starting on the murals today and so far 10/20 benches are complete. It has been an amazing effort by all involved with few breaks, many blisters and lots of paint on clothes and faces. In a race to see who was the fastest to construct a bench, the girls team stormed it by beating the boys 42minutes to 44 minutes. Well done to Ainslie and Georgina Barrand.

Mr Cornish has been in charge of weather forecasting, and has a record of predicting it wrong every day. He still sticks to the fact that it doesn't rain in Andransoa in July even though a rainbow has been spotted over the camp! It has been very cold at night and coloudy and breezy during the day- so much for our solar chargers! Hoodies and fleeces have come in very useful. We are all looking forward to the warmth of the west coast although no-one believes that it will be 30 degrees and sunny as we shiver in our tents!


Any spare time has been spent interacting with the locals. Mr Cornish has been supervising English lessons, making sure that Lucy Morris teaches standard English rather than Essex slang. All of the team now now how to speak simple Malagasy thanks to the two interpreters that have been organised to work with us during our time in Andranosoa. 


The team were overjoyed this morning at the official opening of a new toilet block with high ceilings and a lock on the door. Previously we had to make do with a close to full drop toilet with giant spiders and doors that opened of their own accord. 


Sunday saw a fortunate turn in the weather and a blue sky day just in time for an afternoon visit  to a local restaurant with a swimming pool (freezing) and shower. All tucked into pizzas in a change to camp food. Lucy Chapman had enjoyed her 17th birthday the evening before with a celebratory BBQ on the roof terrace of a local landowner.


Tonight sees the much anticipated England vs Madagascar football game on the village pitch. With only 4 tufts of grass, an altitude of 4,500ft, hard soil and various potholes, the excuses for losing are already racking up. The locals have been in training for a week but with the height and weight advantage, Mr Cornish and his bulldogs (or Corn-puppies as they are now known) hope to bulldozer the opposition and bring a little cheer to English football fans.

The view across to the sacred hill

A rainbow over camp at breakfast- Mr Cornish is still adamant that it doesn't rain here. We are sleeping in the primary school classrooms in the background. 

The 20m walk to work for the painting team. The roof goes on the school today. 

George and Albert enjoy the sun while sanding wood for the benches. 

Lucy celebrates her 17th Birthday with team leader of the day (Ben) capturing the moment on camera. 

Houses on the sacred hill at sunset.

Eleanor, Lucy spend their break time playing games with the local children. The school is in the background. 

The local children are happy to see us knowing that their future will be better because of our fundraising. 

Week 1: London- Tana- Andasibe

Week 1

London- Tana

Smooth journey via Nairobi with no excess baggage costs despite one of our boxes weighing over 30kg. All luggage turned up in Tana and thankfully we didn't have to show them the contents of our carefully packed bags and boxes. We checked into our hotel close to the airport at 2am and met up with Gary (Remote River Expeditions) and Roland (project Manager, Andranosoa).

Tana- Andasibe

Early in the morning, Mr Cornish went to the bank to change money and ended up a multi-millionaire. Mrs McCall was in charge of spending over 1 million Ar on food for our camp in the project village. At 13.00 we set off for the Eastern Rainforest and a national park called Andasibe where we spent 2 days hiking and lemur watching. Key lemur species seen were the Indri (see photo), Brown Lemur, Bamboo Lemur, Black and White Ruffed Lemur, and Woolly Lemur. The lovely log cabins (with flush toilets and warm showers)were to be our last taste of luxury for a while. One of the highlights for the pupils was a visit to lemur island where the lemurs are semi-tame and can be fed.

A male Indri feeding in Andasibe. One of the group's highlights was hearing their eerie call echoing around the forest. 

  

A Black and White Ruffed Lemur at Andasibe

Ross greets a friendly Brown Lemur

Bottoms holds the largest chameleon in the world (Parsons)

Speaking Malagasy

While we are in Madagascar i would like everyone to have a go at speaking the local language. Malagasy has its origins 4000 years ago on a tiny island in Indonesia. Together with influences from English, french and arabic, it is its own distinct language. Here is a great guide produced by the American Peace Corps giving you the basics: http://multimedia.peacecorps.gov/multimedia/audio/languagelessons/madagascar/MG_Malagasy_Language_Lessons.pdf
Watch this video about the lives of some people in the Capital Antananarivo to hear how the language is spoken.

Martin Clunes in Madagascar

Martin Visits Andasibe- where we will be on Monday- wednesday next week.

New Interactive Prezi Guide to the Expedition

Please wait until it has downloaded before you play.

Madagascar Expedition 2012 on Prezi