Clownered, in Madagascar

apologies if you aren't really bothered.
But a few people have asked me for a few pictures and stories from my year in Madagascar….so here goes
they aren't really in an chronological order…. just which photo disc i pick up.

firstly let me give you some background information.

Madagascar is the 4th largest island in the world and has a pop'n of around 20m.
Its in the top ten poorest nations in the world. I went to the Anosy (pronounced anush) region in the far south east of the country where its population live off less than 2 dollars per week! The area is absolutely beautiful with dramatic coastlines littered with shipwrecks, small pockets of rapidly vanishing natural indigenous forest. This area has very little natural resources and is too arid to grow the 3 main staple crops in madagascar (coffee, vanilla, rice).
The area is one of richest areas in an element called ilminite (this is the industrial colour white) which is a black sandy substance. 3 areas of forest and 2 areas of mangrove swamp are due to be destroyed to mine this (the process is very very harmful to the natural surroundings)

The charity was based in the largest town in SE madagascar - Fort Dauphin (or Tolognara in Malagasy)

series 1 episode 1

Ill start here….



these are the general housing "stock" made almost entirely from the travellers palm (the national tree of madagascar), the leaves once dried form the roof, the bark is stripped flattened and made into internal walls, the stalks before the leaves are weaved onto batons from the trunk to form the external walls. The timber from the trunk makes the frame - we built half a dozen houses using this method, although very labour intensive it is hugely rewarding. and surprisingly water and wind tight….



the travellers palm



this hut is about 8 months old…and was made in the first few weeks of being there.
They weather very quickly, the climate is very hot most of the year, but has 2 rainy seasons, which are monsoon conditions. several hundred years ago the majority of forest was rain forest…

episode 2…. the wildlife
to follow…………..

 

That's brilliant!

 

Looking forward to reading more of this. Keep it coming!

 

series 1 episode 2.. wildlife
and before anyone says…. where are the blooming zebras, penguins or lions - no there aren't any.

one of the main reasons for me going out there was to help to conserve the wildlife in madagascar (or Mad from now on) if any of you have seen attenborough's mad, then you will get a good picture of what is there.

lemurs are the largest population of wild animals, with over 100 recognised different species, all of which have adapted to their own areas of the island.
Where i was based there were about 12 species, ring-tailed which account for about 20% of all lemurs and are the ones in the film.
brown lemurs, shifaka, mouse lemurs, ruffed lemurs i saw mostly and the odd bamboo lemur. lemurs only live wild in mad.



l-r
shafika lemur, these are the funniest of lemurs (mad's famous dancing lemurs, they have adapted to walk on their hind legs, however they can only do this sideways, giving the impression they are dancing (very cool though)
ringtailed lemur, the most famous, very social lemurs (most are not) almost tame in some areas (eaten in times of hardship)
brown lemur, very shy lemurs
shafika… thats me feeding a shaifika, they love bananas (mad grows 3 types of banana, none commercially) shafika love them, if they are near and have a banana they will come close, but being a Vazahah (white man or foreigner) they are very wary!
last one is black and white ruffed lemurs coming close to a watering hole, where the locals wash and bathe!!

i have got hundreds of chameleon photos, the colours they display are amazing, even adapting to the colour of tents!!
to follow in episode 3…..

 

episode 3


sorry this is just me showing off, i managed to capture this caged research chameleon feeding, he is a fully grown adult male.
took 3 attempts to get it in such clarity, but he was happy and well fed.

it is estimated that there are only 70% of chameleon sub species actually recorded. the rare ones are found mostly in the northern forests (5 hour flight from where i was )

however….. a night time walk spotted this…



its a pigmy chameleon, this one is a nocturnal hunter and quite rare, its less than 3 inches long.

 

Surprising they don't mate quicker with togues like that

 

that was only about a foot away…. its not unusual to reach 2 times their body length….. my mrs wishes haha

 

Just gone from being really pissed off after watching England lose to sat here with a massive smile on my face after reading you posts.

Cheers mate.

 

I've really enjoyed reminiscing jay, and its given me an excuse to get the photos onto my mac.

done for tonight… theres some crackers to come…… well i think so anyway
shame i can only put 5 pics on per post

 

sorry just one more before bed…….
i never got a video of this… but i think there is one on youtube…
the malagasy (madagascar language) song… hand washing
we taught this in every village we went to
imagine british, american and french volunteers trying to sing this…..

(im typing as it sounds rather than the proper language)… so you can imagine..

zaza manasha tanynanya tanynanya tanynanya
zaza manasha tanygnanya
aloosha mi ya cafoo
manaya tan
manaya tan,
aloosha me ya cafoo
madyou ni
tan ya nana

translated as…
children wash your hands hands hands
chilcdren wash hands
after you eat
when you poo
when you poo
after you eat
healthy you
to do easy.

i think….. god its been a while……..
haha

 

Fantastic.

I spent 4 weeks in Madagascar on a birdwatching tour - the birdlife is stunning - we also saw lots of the lemurs, chameleons and other wildlife. I was warned that there were 3 types of wine made on the island, red, white and grey, all were horrible but if I must try some make sure it wasn't the grey which is undrinkable. Now how can you say that t a lad from Barnsley and expect him to take notice? Madagascar used to be a French territory, if the French had been there then surely they will have left a legacy and the wine can't be as bad as our guide Keith said. It wasn't cheap, not compared to most things on the island, I ordered a grey and it looked "interesting", sort of like dishwater grey, only thing is, it didn't taste as nice as dishwater, more like a cross between lighter fluid and dirt, it smelled like wet dogs. I shared it out between the group of us, it gave us a glass each, everyone sipped it once and left the rest, Keith had been right, it was completely undrinkable.

 

Thanks for posting these, what's a great time of your life to reflect on, you can tell how much you enjoyed it.

Have you been back since or do you plan on a return ?

What an amazing experience

 

the wine was shocking, i had some when i went to Tana (Anntanarivo) the capital.
BUT three horseshoes beer is lovely.. even when warm, which it always is!!



we had just finished building a school latrine, digging a well and painting the school we had built 6 months earlier (story and pics to come later),
in a village called Emagnevy (pronounced manyevy) which was about 40 miles from fort dauphin by precarious roads and a good old hike. The closest market was in Mahatalaky some 4 or 5 miles away. Every friday was market day in mahatalakay and the only day that the generator was fired up to power the fridge and cooker.
we decided to walk there and to have our first cold beer (and first beer) in 6 weeks, well we ended up getting ridiculously drunk. they only had 12 bottles of beer between 4 of us, so we hit the moonshine…..


i ended up in a rice paddy and had to be pulled out by the 3 volunteers i was with! i lost one lens in my glasses, which i never did find!!



the next morning we walked back to the rice paddy to look again.



where i was the drink of choice (the only drink) was illegal moonshine. made from cane sugar, distilled in little operations in the mountains.
i still have a bottle in my cupboard, if anyone wants to try it… but you can't drive afterwards

 

haven't been back, but i am still in touch with the charity and am a regular supporter.

The plan is to return, but not for a few years, we started our own business a few years back, and id like to go back there for 6 months to a year, so until our latest business has run its course… its on the back burner.

 

episode 4…. building a latrine… part 1

where ever we built a school we also built a well (if there was a suitable area) and a latrine

The latrine pit is dug out (normally through clay) and is 6 meters x 4 metres and 2 metres deep, all dug by hand.



then foundations are formed to lay hand made concrete bricks on.



the bricks are made using sand from the local area (normally the top layer just before we hit clay) the cement has to be carried to site as close as the vehicles can get - in this case it was about half a mile. the children in the local school spend a few hours each day collecting water for us.

the bricks are made fresh each morning for use the following morning





the pit is split into 2 sections. one is used for 2 years, then sealed up, the other for the next 2 years.
then the first pit is opened up and emptied (by this time all the liquid has soaked and all thats left is a dry mix of human poo (suitable for spreading on spoilt ground to encourage natural growth of plants)



i must stress that these were built by volunteers with the help of a couple of local guides and a local builder who worked for the charity. the teams that i led were mainly students from the UK, america and europe. i say mainly because we had a lady come out from america who was 78. she was amazing and tried everything we threw at her…

part 2 of latrine building to follow later (while I'm watching world cup)

 

Thanks for posting these, I've really enjoyed looking at the pictures and reading about your time there.

 

part 2 - latrine building.

there are no health and safety regulations, all of the building is supported by what we would describe as offcuts and scraps of timber.
the timber is reused over and over again to build makeshift stepladders, scaffolding, boards for shaping and levelling cement,

Any used nails are removed then sold back to the blacksmiths and remade into nails…. that reminds me, most of the tools and metal used for nails etc is recycled from the shipwrecks that litter the bay (although this is technically illegal - the govt don't really concern themselves too much)
tool wise, i have thrown better away. but this is all we had, wooden mallets are shaped and made each time we needed one, these are used for chiselling.



the latrine pit once built up is then built up with timber inside to make a floor base, this is then laid with re-bar and any gaping holes filled with leaves, old bits of cloth etc

 

concrete is quickly mixed, as in the temperatures is starts to set in about an hour or so,
working in teams of 6 or 7 and rotating the concrete is mixed in a preprepared cement mixing base, then carried in buckets and poured into place, while someone stands underneath to try and fill any gaps that start leaking



holes are left in the latrines (for obvious reasons) once set the holes in one side are lined with plastic and filled with a weak cement mix so that it can be removed when required.
There are no girls and boys toilets, so the queues can be huge. . the latrines are only for the children to use, if the whole village used them they would fill up within weeks.
a wooden hut is built over the open latrine pit and fastened down, this then is moved over the other hole after the 2 year period.

Every child is then given lessons by the volunteers in how to use the latrine, and more importantly how to wash their hands.
The culture in madagascar is that every village has an area designated for pooing (sorry if your eating your food) but health education is scarce.

our aim was to get this generation to see the value in latrines, and the value in keeping your hands clean after using the toilet.

the volunteers were tasked with creating a hand washing play and performing for the children, in the hope that they will remember the "vazahah" acting stupid and then remember the messages that we are trying to put across…



the whole latrine building process took about a week.

the pictures of this build were in a small village called Emagnevy.

The first one we built was in Ebakika village, it was solid clay and took 4 days to dig out in temperatures of 36 degrees. one day it started raining and we all jumped in, the water soon made it slippery and we ended up having a huge mud fight (unfortunately i haven't any pictures because it was too wet to get the camera out) but the malagasy (malagasy (pronounced malagash) refers to both the language and the people) don't come outside in the rain, they hate it, so we had the site all to ourselves.

 

Again these read are really interesting, I keep looking forward to reading and seeing the

 

obviously being a football fan, i tried to get some football played…. with varying results!! i took with me 3 footballs and all of my old barnsley shirts, which i gave away… so i think i have officially started the first barnsley fc madagascar supporters club.(not that they will ever get to know how well we are doing in div 3)



showing off my left back skills…. all football is played bear foot, on improvised pitches. I've played on long grass, prikcly grass, but worst of all was a white sandy pitch with loads of little stubbly twigs growing through it… it hurt like hell, but after a few games you got used to it...


oohh.. while discussing sand
for those of a squeamish nature stop reading now!!

cool damp sand (which is pretty much everywhere in mad) houses a small sandfly.
this friendly little sandfly loves bare human feet. Malagasy feet are as hard as leather and they don't really like them
what they love is soft white feet or children's feet
the female sandfly is always on the lookout for a nice place to lay her eggs, so what she does is finds a lovely host
the host in question… feet
she lays her eggs into your toes mainly down the side of your nails where its lovely and soft.
the eggs (known as pirasy pronounced pirash) grow in your feet and left untreated they grow, eating the flesh until one day they appear as a new sandfly, ready to repeat the process.

if the egg is spotted early enough it can be treated, oh when i say treated don't go thinking of medicine!!!!
the skin on the toe is peeled back layer by layer so as not to burst the egg sack, once out in the open the egg has to be "scraped" out and burnt! the egg can still attach itself to your feet too!!

the guides used to love to remove these from our feet (i later learned to remove them myself and for other volunteers)



sorry if your eating haha

we came across one little boy (an orphan) who has 27 of these at varying stages in his feet, we had to take him to the local doctor to get them removed, he couldn't walk for 3 weeks.
the most one volunteer had was 3.
most people would get 2 or 3 a week, less when it was really hot and dry!!