Week 36 - Madagascar
Sunday we enjoyed brunch at the café here. The kids played together and made a cardboard rocket ship and we mostly relaxed and tried to stay out of the sun.
Monday was a school and planning day. I did some shopping to get stocked up for the week, the kids did school work, and J and I worked on planning ahead. One of the best things about staying here is that the short-term local planning of excursions is done for us. That saves a ton of time, though in this case, it would actually be not just time-consuming but frustrating and partly impossible to figure it out on our own. We need that time though, because the Madagascar to Bali/Lombok trip is going to have so many flights and stops and we have to figure out hotels, ground transportation, and whether we need PCR tests for each. We made some serious headway on that Monday, plus booked a flight out of Bali to Perth, Australia, since we need a flight out to get in and had a credit to use since our original flight from Singapore to Bali was cancelled. The timing worked out, so we get four more days in Bali which is good, because I was kind of feeling like we initially booked the wrong property since the kids are kind of burnt out on the beach — now literally burned as well — and want to see some more mountains. So we added a few days in the Balinese mountains before heading to Australia. I'm pretty happy with the decisions we made, though still worried about the week between Fort Dauphin and Lombok. I told J I'll be shocked if it all goes to plan, just because there are so many different connections. I guess the good thing is that with most of the stops being overnight, if we get delayed we'll still have a good chance of catching the next flight. In a nutshell, Monday was productive.
Tuesday was one of our better world school days for many subjects. S did math and reading first thing in the morning. He's starting double digit multiplication and long division which I really love teaching with Montessori materials because it's something I never understood myself until I learned how to teach it, and something I didn't often get to do in the preschool since only a few students got that far. Then about mid-morning we had a tour of Tatirano, which is a social enterprise providing clean drinking water to people in Madagascar. The main component is a rain water collection program in which water is collected from roofs to provide drinking water for schools and other community gathering places. The surplus is then sold and each site employs local women to sell and monitor the water. They also give it an extra UV filtration and sell it in reusable jugs to people like us. We've really enjoyed this service because in other places I had to carry bottled water from the store which is heavy and uses a lot of plastic. The aim is for the water sales to support the water systems that provide free water. The concept is simple and everything is done with local materials, local labor, and/or things that can be imported once and then last, so it's sustainable, unlike a lot of the projects started by the bigger NGOs which kind of falter when the initial money runs out. The kids learned about the science and technology of the collection and purification system and the social aspects of creating a sustainable project that's actually helpful to a local population. Here's S checking out the collection tank.
Another aspect of Tatirano is studying passive desalination, meaning desalination that doesn't require electricity or complex equipment that much of the world has no access to.
This system is built with all local materials and was designed by a Ph.D. student from the University of British Columbia.
S is adding saltwater, collected directly from the ocean just behind Tatirano. It goes in the green tube and soaks into the black towels in the back of the box, then evaporates in the hot, insulated box and condenses on the glass, then runs down and collects in the grey tube at the bottom, then into a collection bottle behind the wooden panel. It's cheap and can be made with materials available locally. One set up makes about 2L of freshwater per day. The goal is to have "farms" of these locally made devices and a local person employed to manage them. I was pretty impressed, and J and the kids were pretty into the science aspect and offering ideas to improve the design.
I don't normally do this and won't make a habit of it, but if anyone is interested in donating to Tatirano it can be done here:
There is a place where you can leave a message and just say you want your donation to go to Tatirano. They have some major repairs to do after the recent cyclones.
Here is their website if you want more information:
I wanted to donate after our visit and noticed there's no donation button on their page, so I asked, and the director let me know it can be done through Water is Life.
After that interesting morning we came home for lunch, journaling, and algebra for C, then time in the afternoon to play with friends.
We had a big day planned Wednesday, but both kids woke up with colds. That's just part of having friends to play with I guess. The forecast for the weekend and next week doesn't look good, so we're trying to do some fun outside stuff before the rains come. We couldn't really rearrange everything, and S was up and ready to go, but C was feeling rotten so we let him stay home. He's pretty independent and there are always folks around here in case of an emergency. It actually worked out great. We went to a beautiful park called Domaine de la Cascade. There's a lovely stream with several waterfalls and natural pools for swimming. The hike to the top was pretty steep and rocky and C wouldn't have liked it much, even on a day he was feeling his best. S had to rest a couple times, but he did great and loved it. The view from the top was lovely.
We played around and climbed on rocks and saw a lizard. S was in his element. Then we hiked back down to the lower falls where the pool is a bit bigger and cooled off with a swim.
Of course, there had to be a tree-climbing stop on the way.
We had a tasty picnic lunch, again packed by our host, then changed for the ride home. I liked S's dressing room he organized for himself.
The whole place was so lovely I could hardly believe it was real. That's how I feel about Madagascar. I keep thinking I've seen the most lovely place I'll ever see in my life, then the next is even more lovely.
Even more breathtaking beauty awaited us Thursday and Friday. Our host guided us on an overnight excursion to some land that has been in his family for generations. The journey started out similar to the one last Saturday. We took a taxi to the lake, then through the two lakes and the connecting river to the sea lock.
We were able to pass through the lock this time which was interesting for the kids. It was smaller than the one in Germany, and you can see the mechanism better so it was easier for them to understand what was happening.
The boat took us to a small village where we met one of the employees of our host family who had come ahead on a four wheeler to take the baggage and give the kids a ride.
J and I walked with our host.
We got to see dung beetles which made the kids jealous.
We then transferred to another smaller canoe for a short ride to our campsite.
This journey was filled with lovely views and was really very enjoyable. Our destination must be one of the loveliest places on earth.
There is a nice cabin, but the electric and water aren't functional at the moment and it sustained some hurricane damage. Still, it was quite comfortable. The kids wanted to sleep in a tent though, and our host obliged.
We had a picnic lunch and explored a bit.
There are so many beautiful spots on that piece of land.
But one of our favorites was a shady beach with plenty of trees for S to climb.
I did a little snorkeling and saw some cool fish and J found lots of shells.
Which we took back for a little science.
Meanwhile our host was finding fresh caught fish, crabs, and local vegetables for supper. He then showed us how to make a Malagasy crab stew and fried fish. J and C loved it and I even tried a little.
We went to bed early, the kids stayed in the tent all night and J and I had a comfortable bed in the cabin. The next morning, I got up early and watched the sunrise, then everyone else got up and had breakfast. We got to watch a Madagascar hissing cockroach for a while.
Then we started our journey back. It was a wonderful trip. I was completely relaxed, our host cooked, the caretaker cleaned up, the kids were happy exploring, and I didn't even check my phone. I haven't felt that much peace in a long time. S wants to live there, I want to go back and stay a month, J and C think maybe a week would be about right, but we all loved it. The only way we got S to leave was by reminding him that his friends would be there when we got back to town. They had fun playing that afternoon while I unpacked and did laundry. Kind of begs the question of how I'm going to get him out of here on Thursday. He's going to miss this place so much. I am too, honestly.
Today is Saturday, I did some shopping in the morning, the kids played, and our host let the kids all try the climbing wall.
Look closely at the top right and see our other friend who doesn't even use a harness.
S and a friend found another place to climb.
We don't have too much planned for the first part of the week. We're supposed to get some rain, so we might just lay low. At some point we'll need to recheck our plans from Thursday on, since COVID entry requirements keep changing. We've loved Madagascar, but it's time to think ahead towards the next adventure.