an update from the tip of Africa

farm workers participating in module three

it's been awhile since we posted and so much has happened since then, this post is a short update that includes some of the highlights of our time back here at the tip of Africa in the beautiful but challenging Elgin valley where the small farming town of Grabouw sits amongst high mountains, ever dwindling lakes and dams with the struggles of daily life in the informal settlements bumping up against those of us who have the opportunity to 'live in the first world' where cappuccinos flow faster than the much needed rain!

a drive to work

firstly we must say that it feels like we've never been away, yes things have changed, often for the worst, but the people remain the same, friendly faces greet us from our former colleagues at ThembaCare and the Village of Hope whom we visited on 'World AIDS Day' to children calling out our names as we drive to meetings in the informal settlements, faces of friends we have met at various gatherings, including those from our 'old' home group who were celebrating the end of year with a Christmas 'get together' and others who we have joined at a meal and film night at a local vineyard.

painting with the kids at the village of hope on
World AIDS Day

our work here has led us to meet up with some incredible people and organisations, we are excited by the opportunities that are presenting themselves to us as we seek to gain some much needed traction to the work that Emerging Leaders are doing here. we are blessed to have two wonderful local colleagues who really have the heart and passion to see transformation come via the Leadership for Life modules and we have already had the chance to work together with Joseph and Sharene who share the same love of the material as we do.

Maz swimming in the dam whilst I ran around it!

we have also had help in translation from English to Xhosa from some of our friends who we got to know during our six year stay here from 2008-2014 which has been great, its amazing to see the lives of these young people transformed, incredibly they attended the original Leadership for Hope three day event in October 2014 when Trevor Waldock first led the programme, to say they have gone on from strength to strength is an understatement. they have certainly picked up their 'life pen' and started to write a new story for their lives, two of the boys are now at university and one lady has just graduated from the Pinotage Youth Development Academy and who is now working at a senior level at one of the local packhouses.

it would be foolish for us to say too much on this social media site but just to say we have been working closely with our UK funding partners who have enabled us to have access onto the farms in their supply chain. we've run three modules at Paul Cluver we have had some great fun with their workers who have embraced the Leadership for Life principles via our interactive delivery.

Stunning Spring flowers and a very low dam!

we have spent a lot of time in meetings securing dates for the delivery of the programme and now have six farms, two schools, where we will be working with the teachers to help them 'see themselves as leaders', and one huge packhouse, with further discussions with the World Wildlife Fund who have already used our programmes in other areas of South Africa and who are keen to help them with the success of their projects and initiatives.

a visit into the community on World AIDS Day
with old friends

Maz has been able to swim most days, even venturing out into the Ekienhof dam with her friend Ali whilst myself and Sandy ran around the new 'mountain bike track', around 9kms, which was wonderful.

this time next week we will be back in England where we will be spending Christmas with our family before returning to South Africa in mid January for a further three months, all of which seems a long way off as we sit here in the hot African sun having delivered module three 'Lead your finances' to some farm workers this afternoon.

back in busy beautiful South Africa.....

maz and joe running a leadership for life module
in the hot South African sun!

so we've been back in South Africa for just over a week now, after arriving on a very rocky and hair raising flight through the thunderstorms from Antananarivo, via Johannesburg, to Cape Town and we have certainly hit the ground running.

it was very sad to say goodbye to our friends in Madagascar but we leave them with the knowledge that we have delivered on all aspects of our vision for our time there and have left an amazing team of trained trainers in both Antananarivo and Toamasina with the knowledge that we will be returning to work with these people in 2017.

Lekker braai 

this first week here in Grabouw has been a time for us to not only catch up with some of the wonderful local people who we'd grown to love during our six year stay here when working with the Thembalitsha Foundation but also setting up and attending meetings with different farms, businesses and organsiations who we are looking to work with to deliver the awesome Emerging Leaders, Leadership for Life, modules to all members of the local community and beyond.

initially we were hosted by our good friends Sandy and Ali before moving onto a local farm where we are also staying with some people who have become part of our lives over the last few years. one evening we were served a wonderful meal by Rob and Emily House at their newly built home in Sir Lowrys Village.

Our great friend 'Big Mike' who helped us with our xhosa
translation at our first training

on Friday evening we were interviewed by the local radio station on a programme talking about the 2020 vision of Grabouw, it was wonderfully to be able to share the dreams that we have for the next few months with some people of similar heart and mindset.

today we ran our first ever Emerging Leaders training on a local farm, it was fantastic to work with the existing team here in South Africa, as well as to see the eyes of the farm workers light up as they began to see themselves as leaders and the realisation that their lives are real stories which they are writing.

catching up with old friends in the community!

we've enjoyed lots of braai's, hugs and smiles since returning and although we think we've got our work cut out to deliver the numbers we have been set but we know that we have until the middle of April to work towards those, and its with great excitement that we look to the next steps of this journey, seeking to bring a tangible difference via mindset change to a town and people group that we love so much.

thoughts from a morning in Madagascar....

The sun rises early, it's Wednesday morning in a coastal town in Madagascar, a town that sits upon the stunning Indian Ocean. People have been busy for many a long hour drawing water from hand pumps outside their bamboo structured homes preparing a simple breakfast of rice over charcoal fires. The noise of Chickens and children and the smell of smoke has woken us as we think about setting off via Tuk Tuk through the crowded colourful streets.

Streets adorned by market stalls selling every imaginable commodity, from locally grown exotic fruits, banana, pineapple and mango alongside fresh homemade breads that wouldn't look out of place in a Parisian cafe, to patched up inner tubes for bike repairs and second hand Manchester United football shirts.

Streets where our Tuk Tuk struggles to make its presence felt amongst many of its own kind, the driver however skillfully negotiates his way between Scooters and rickshaws who's passengers cling tight over potholed roads avoiding the stinking exhaust flumes belching from the huge articulate vehicles carrying cargo containers bought swift from the port. 

The destination of our journey is to visit 30 or so men who gather weekly for their informal bible study in a recently built church, these men come from various towns and villages across this huge and inhospitable island. They arrive at the Church past a tended garden complete with a vegetable patch and bushes which hold freshly washed clothes that dry in the hot morning sun. 

The men arrive in dribs and drabs, clutching their dog eared bibles to their thin and tatty tee shirts, most have no shoes but all are clean shaven with bright eyes held in sunken faces. The church building is one of many set within four high walls of their community and their only commonality, other than seeking God through his word, is that they are the inmates in the local prison.

This prison is a place we have grown to love, the hard faces of the guards who had originally welcomed us with suspicion as we entered their domain through the high rusty gates are now open and others who greet us at the transition building are now friends who accept our entrance, past walls with chalk boards containing the number of men, women and children held here, without question, which brings joy to our hearts.

Offers of help to carry a bag come from those who are being readied for their release,  more responsibility is given to either lifers or those who will be returned home soon and its those men who lead us through the dark passageway, where families are able to visit, into the stark sunshine of the prison yard.

It's hard to describe the feeling as you hear the metal door close behind you and you are confronted by around 1000 pairs of eyes who have raised their gaze from their labour or contemplation and which stare right into the depth of your very being, I can't imagine what Maz must feel like but time really does seem to stand still as you adjust to your surroundings, then you begin to realise that behind these cold eyes are men who just want to engage and find some meaning to their existence.

The yard made up of fine dirty sand is quite vast, in the middle there stands a run down basketball court and a full size football pitch, abet one with the far corner cut off for a toilet block or some such structure, and is surrounded by a large number buildings in various states of disrepair, none of them are new and those which make up most of your view to the left are where most of the men sleep and spend the majority of their day.

It would be unfair to paint too bleak a picture around the insides of these 'cells' as we haven't experienced them first hand but we have gained an idea of what they are like from the few conversations we've had with those willing to share with us. However it doesn't take too much imagination to bring to thought of over 200 adult men sharing a space no bigger than a standard classroom built for 30 children to study in, what with the hot and humid conditions where the occurrence of malaria is at one of the highest in the world, so let's forget scene of TVs, ensuite bathrooms and flat white sheets!

As we make our way past hundreds of men who are undertaking their daily chores under simple hand made structures of plastic bags stitched together to provide shade from the sun and rain (and when it rains in Toamasina it rains, being situated on the cyclone belt is not a great benefit to the towns location) we are welcomed with 'bon jours' from those who have taken time to look up from the pots simmering over the charcoal fires, all the inmates are left to fend for themselves so everyone is busy, many of them sit over their small bowls filled with their meager belongings that they are washing to rid them of the fleas and ticks that abound in their dark cell spaces. 

To say that the conditions are challenging is an understatement but it's with warm smiles that we are welcomed into the small Church by those that we first met during our trip to Madagascar in 2014, back then I had an opportunity to bring a team of local people who are involved in sports outreach to play on the lopsided pitch against the inmates team right here in the prison, since then we have been able to build further bridges via the Emerging Leaders 'Leadership for Life' training that we shared with over 50 of the inmates and guards early in 2016.

As we gathered around on unstable benches, window shutters constantly bang against the concrete walls in the ever increasing Ocean breeze, we not only share in the Bible study but hear stories of hope that have resulted in these men picking up their pens and writing a new story of Hope in their very own community. The things they had learnt from the Emerging Leaders modules have enabled these men to change their own lives in very tangible ways, they now understand that each of them 'has potential', he 'sees himself as a leader'. They have understood that leading starts with the ability to 'lead ourselves' and they have not only done that but they have also seen and 'taken responsibility' of their surroundings, the wellbeing of their fellow inmates and with the help of the guards, who also attended our training, they are now being seen as human beings who have something to offer this dysfunctional community rather than being those who just need to be suppressed whilst they serve their time.

Through the glassless window we are aware of the guard who's tower overlooks our end of the compound, his automatic weapon poised at the ready as we sing songs of a God who as able to 'help in times of trouble' and who 'sets the captive free'. It's all quite surreal but we continue to be encouraged as hear of how some of the lifers who attended our training are now sharing the principles with their fellow inmates and those who head up each cell are keen to be trained to be Trainers within the prison so that they can help others receive this life changing material which will not only make a difference whilst they are inside but also enable them to bring hope to their remote villages when they are released, leaving a legacy which will live beyond this time and space.

Time has a weird habit of racing away for those who want it to slow down and it seems to drag on for those who are wishing it's sands to move slightly quicker through the hourglass of their lives.  So it is within this space and it soon emerges that it is time for us to leave, words of thanks and a 'hope to see you again' soon follows and then one or two tough questions 'what are you doing for the rest of the day'? or 'where are you off to next on your adventures'? How does one answer these truthfully and without sounding blazé or heartless?

Tears well up in my eyes as I type this, just thinking of those face, those lives, those conditions which sit against my backdrop of excess and opportunities and so as we ventured back towards that rusty door, it was with heavy hearts knowing that this door is opened to us, a door to a world of freedom and choices for us and a door which many of these men, now our good friends with a shared vision to bring change to a challenging community will never have the opportunity to walk through. 

Yes some of these men and women have committed crimes worthy of punishment but it's never easy to say goodbye knowing that we are leaving them to another day of endless boredom borne out of the fact that there is little access to 'the outside world', even access to books and other learning materials is limited but we live with the hope that we have bought some light via our visit and can't wait to reacquainted ourselves with them again very soon.  

As that rusty door shuts behind us we are once again welcomed into the real world, a world with its busyness, a world full of choice and options but sadly not for all, if that were true then there would be no need for places where people are removed from society for the protection of others and so we set our sights on helping to create sustainable and viable communities through the Leadership training that we believe can help all men and women, boys and girls to 'see themselves as leaders', reaching their full 'potential',  picking up their 'life pen' and writing a different 'story' for their lives, the lives of their families,  their community and even their nation.

so we've got news......

....what news we hear you cry!

well you're never going to believe it but Emerging Leaders have asked us to help assist in establishing a 'new model' of sustainable training which will help bring transformation into the farming communities in.....


.....South Africa!

yup you read that right and not just South Africa but specifically the Western Cape which is a place we know and love so much.

this opportunity came totally 'out of the blue' and the six month contract will mean that we will leave Madagascar in the middle of November and travel straight to Cape Town, we have already changed our existing return flights to England and we will initially be staying in the very valley where we spent near on seven years of our lives as we set up and then ran 'The Village of Hope' under the Thembalitsha Foundation.

there is a lot of work to do within this short space of time, but we are very excited to have this opportunity to work within a community and alongside people whom we have grown to love.

we are going to be looking at a this 'new model' for the UK High Street retailer, Marks and Spencer who are working towards their 'Plan A 2020' (should you wish to read more then please follow the link), with the wonderful existing Emerging Leaders 'team' in South Africa. 

this will include an integrated plan of community engagement via farms, schools and wider social networks with the understanding that without 'good leadership' there is no tangible change, therefore it is important for us to ensure that the leadership principles of the Emerging Leaders material is delivered, understood and put into practice by as many people as possible as we seek to show that 'everyone is a leader' and it starts with being able to lead your own life.

we will update further nearer the time, but just to say we are still very much focused on the work we are currently undertaking here in Madagascar and hold both opportunities to see communities transformed via 'leadership mindsets' at the forefront of our hearts.

Catching up with old friends and training trainers in Toamasina

see yourself as a leader

firstly we're very sorry for the lack of blog activity over the last three weeks, whilst the internet is capable of allowing us to post a few photos on Facebook it isn't quick enough to allow us to access this platform which enables us to provide a longer update.

today we have ventured to a 'hotel' in town, from which we could hope to hear the gentle lapping of the Indian Ocean however the hum of buzzing tuk tuks and scooters kinda drowns that peaceful idle out! however it does allow us to send out some emails and complete this long post.....hurrah!

since our last post we have made our way to the east coast port and second largest town of Toamasina, this is where we spent three months earlier this year and was the first place we visited on our initial trip to Madagascar in 2014.

the place holds some precious memories for us, as well as precious people, so it has been great to 'escape' the hubbub of the capital and enjoy some 'freedom'. once again Cho and Deborah have made us feel very welcome, although they were in Cape Town for a church conference when we arrived so the first two weeks were spent reconnecting with other friends we'd made during our previous visits.

rickshaws

Toamasina, also known as Tamatave, is a much more accessible town, sitting at the edge of the ocean it is very flat and has a well thought out, if not well maintained, road network. there are very few 'metal'/tar roads and once you reach them you are share them with the hand pushed carts, rickshaws, tuk tuks, scooters, motorbikes, cars, 4x4's, minibuses, buses, lorries of various sizes and huge articulated vehicles which carry the shipping containers from the port out into the country.

we have probably said it before but driving here is a bit like one of those crazy arcade games where some unbelievable situation happens which you must navigate before moving onto the next level, level one navigate around the rickshaws, level two introduce the tuk tuk, level three now involve some scooters, level four drive in the rain etc!

tim sharing at the street feeding programme

we landed in Toamasina on a Saturday morning, which was just in time to join our great friend and translator, Theo, at the 'street feeding programme', it was humbling to spend a precious hour or so with these dear people who are mainly women, of various ages, and their children. it's hard to understand all of their stories but to end up on the street is no place for them. Love'NCare now provide a nutritional meal to these street people each and everyday and it seems like the time sharing is the highlight of their dull and mundane days.

maz sharing at Bethany service, they don't look very
engaged do they!

on the Sunday morning we had the opportunity to share at the Sunday service that takes place at the largest of the Love'NCare schools which sits about 20 minutes outside the 'main town' in a semi rural area. Bethany is not only a place for education but also provides a home to some of the children and women, who are now employed as cooks, whom the Love'NCare team met during their 'street feeding programme'. it is such a great model and one that is having a tangible impact on the lives of those who had previously chosen the street as their home.

sharing at this 'church', which is mainly made up of the children and the staff who live on site, is always a joy and as you can imagine myself and Maz try to engage them in stories, games and activities to get the point across.

meeting with the prisoners

during our first week we also had the chance to catch up with nine of the 30 inmates who had attended the Emerging Leaders - 'Leadership for Live' training that we had delivered in the prison earlier in the year. it was awesome to see them and the joy on their faces as they saw us walk through the 'gate' was a memory that we shall treasure for many a year.

we can't say too much around the visit, other than it was hard to see the conditions that these guys have to endure, we are well aware that these people are inside for good reason but to hear their stories is so heart breaking, but there is hope and they told us of the transformation that they have seen both in their own lives and the life of the whole prison, as not only they but around 20 of the prison guards attended Leadership for Life training and have put the new mindsets in place to see change within the cold walls.

the main reason for our return to Toamasina was to run a 'Train the Trainer' week, similar to the one that we had just completed in Antananarivo a few weeks before. the great thing about working with the guys here is that those who we were planning to train had attended our Leadership for Life modules earlier in the year.

Maz training trainers

this group then had the benefit of seeing the new mindsets of 'seeing themselves as leaders' in whatever role or situation for near on six months and it was so awesome to hear some of their stories of how they had applied the training to their own lives and the lives of those around them.

once again we had a wonderful week with these 20 people from various organisations from around Toamasina, church leaders, prison staff, children's workers, heads of large institutions working in the social welfare sectors and younger people who had just graduated from university.

coffee time, with rice and rice tea!

as always there was an element of 'fun' during the training, although the material is very transforming it is also very accessible and to be able to encourage people to think in new ways and also new ways of training in so cool.


unlike the Tana training we weren't able to host the people but this all seemed to work out fine, we'd hired some local people to undertake the daily catering, cooked outside over a charcoal fire, this meant that we shared time around the table, which is always a great time for bonding. once again the food was great, always traditionally Malagasy which means rice, rice and more rice with different accompanying dishes.

Pastor Reynaud practicing his delivery!

the training is all about practice and it was great to see each person develop over the week, they grew in confidence and by the end we were very happy with what they had been able to deliver back to the group.

at the end of the training we have encouraged both of the groups to work through the simple but effective 'project plan' which takes us from 'the here' (reality of today) to 'the there' (what will the project look like in six months or a years time), therefore our two teams, Team Tana and Team Toamasina, have set realistic goals and we are so encouraged to think that now 50 local and passionate people will be able to deliver this training into the groups and organisations where they work which will see others in their communities transformed in the same ways as their lives have already been.

our 'Team Toamasina' Trainers

we promise to update the blog later in the week where we will be sharing some further stories of hope from our time here in Madagascar as well as some exciting news about our next steps!

investment in others......

Maz the owl cat thing!

living our lives with our heads down

this time last week we were taking the early steps in teaching thirty people the finer details of Emerging Leaders 'Leadership for Life' modules. we were at the very start of a week where we would wake up the amazing potential oft dormant in their own lives, and help them to become effective trainers who would be able to deliver the timeless leadership principles that Emerging Leaders have seen change the hearts and minds of thousands of some of the most vulnerable people of the world.

team training in action

today, a week later, we are so confident that we have invested our blood, sweat and tears to those who had been identified from a 15,000 strong congregation here in Antananarivo. they certainly went on a journey of self discovery, each and every hour becoming more and more in tune with the material, ensuring that as they went through the words, actions and exercises that make these modules so accessible, that they understood the key points and were equipped to deliver this out into some of the most remote towns and villages of this vast island.

sample of our meals (inc rice!)

we left our relatively comfortable hotel here in Tana on Sunday afternoon, joining those attending the training, along with three translators and four cooks who would be accompanying us on the hour long adventure on the RN1 that leads towards the south of the island. travel is always slow in Madagascar, which has some of the most inaccessible and unkept roads in the world, but it was wonderful to leave the craziness of the capital behind and venture back in time where rural life moves on at a pace not seen in western europe since the 1800's.

Maz busy training

our mini convoy made its way up and over the red topped hills and down the valleys filled with fields being prepared for the new season of rice crops, eventually we arrived a a delightful location, set in the hills above a very small town, where we would be spending our next week with these 37 people who'd we'd only known from a couple of three hour sessions where they were just faces in amongst the 200 others who had attended our Saturday morning modules during the last two weeks.

charcoal cooking

we were welcomed by the newish owners of a 'training centre', who informed us that myself and Maz were the first 'western people' who they'd ever hosted!, they went out of their way to provide everything we needed, the sleeping arrangements were basic bunk rooms and although there were two other married couples on the training the men were separated from the ladies, thankful we weren't split up and were shown to a room with a simple double bed, another room that had been set aside as an office and we even had a separate bathroom, the rest of the men who were in the same building (10 of them) had to share!.

fresh fried fish

our water for washing was to be heated on a strange electric hot plate which had to be turned on at least an hour before required, this was hooked up to a 'Heath Robinson' electrical socket in our bathroom, however it seemed to work well and we had hot water each morning, as long as we got up early enough to turn it on!. 

group training

the four cooks prepared our meals, which would all be shared around long tables which reminded us of our school day, in a small outside cooking area where everything was cooked over charcoal. every meal, yes breakfast, lunch and dinner, was served with rice. these meal times as well as the communal clean up were key to the team working together and served as an opportunity for them to practice their English with us.

meal times

Our days were busy, each morning up for 7am breakfast, then a time of silent contemplation from 8am, a Malagasy worship song and the start of training by 8.30am, we did enjoy breaks for lunch, afternoon tea (rice tea or coffee) and dinner, and our days always ended after a fun evening session where we played silly games, such as a 32 player version of 'musical chairs' and our famous 'under over' balloon game which we perfected at our sports outreach during our six years in Grabouw. we really did have such fun, there was so much laughter as many of the people had never played these before.

my run support team

One evening I (Tim) went out for an evening run, however the team was so concerned for my safety as I make the long slog up to the top of one of the surrounding hills that they joined me along the way to provide me with some protection.....that said I arrived at a huge rocky outcrop before anyone and spotted some very strange markings cut into the rock, it wasn't my intention to upset anyone but an angry man started shouting at me from a near by local village so I ran on very quickly. I later found out was a very sacred and it was 'fady' (local taboo) for anyone to venture near the spot!

last supper

we must admit it was hard work, keeping things moving, people on track and motivated, each night we literally dropped into bed exhausted but with the knowledge that we were planting seeds that will bear much fruit in the coming weeks, months and years.

our wonderful cooks

there is so much else to say, once strangers have become friends, the team bonding and planning how to take this training forward and make the most of the opportunities that are already presenting themselves to us here in Madagascar, a country with a poor performance on leadership, in fact without saying too much we would encourage you to follow a couple of links below to local news sites which contain stories not often heard or reported in the west.

Team Tana!

tomorrow we start our two day training with 48 people from a national government department, lets hope that this Leadership training has an impact on their thinking, and mainly their heart and character!

http://www.madagascar-tribune.com/La-manifestation-des-opposants,22503.html

back on the red soil of the red island.....

in the seychelles 'for two hours!'

well we've made it back to Madagascar and firstly we must thank all of those of you who have invested in us to enable this trip to coming into a reality. we do hope that you will feel part of this incredible journey and hope to keep you updated via this blog, our new facebook page and email as and when the intermittent internet allows.

once again all of this was a step of faith. in the middle of august we asked ourselves 'did we believe that we were being called back to now train trainers in the awesome Leadership for Life material'? if we did then we just had to book the flights.....so we did....and here we are!

always an awesome sight

less than a week ago we were sitting at heathrow airport with what is a bit of a round about journey ahead of us, we started with an Etihad flight via Abu Dhabi, if arriving in the midddle of the night isn't bad enough there was a 20 minute dash across the terminal through security to make our connecting flight to the Seychelles, never the best exercise after the already long seven hour flight from london! on to the smaller Air Seychelles flight into and out of that delightful island and onward to the capital of Madagascar, that is the crazy Antananarivo (locally known as Tana), which has become our home for the next month or so.

there's always seems so much to say about our flights but with so little space and the thought that you want to get to the meaty bits of this post so we'll just say that our hearts both jumped and fell as we saw the red soils of the roads leading to the tiny hill top villages that are home to over 85% of those living on this vast and remote land. thoughts of those we have come to serve and the challenges that will bring to our 'western' lives which we had once again slowly drifted back into whilst living in England. 

traditional street view from taxi 

reality truly bit as we were trying to insert our Malagasy mobile phone SIM cards, standing over us were two policemen who had apprehended us at the tiny airport in Tana by a couple of policemen, our bags hadn't even come off the plane so this was a little nervy, however unbeknownst to us these were 'friends' of the pastor who is hosting us and they were there to ensure our smooth passage through customs!

after making the short but somewhat complicated and convoluted route across the small but incredibly hilly and overcrowded city, with our driver trying to avoid the usual fare of cows, hand carts, various french made taxi's not seen in europe since the early 1970's, including the ever faithful Citroen 
2CV and Renault 4's, and numerous police, who seem to adorn every street corner, we arrived at our basic but clean and tidy 'hotel'/appartment which is fitted with a kitchen, bathroom with hot water and hand shower, two bedrooms (his and her's one thinks!) and a large lounge.

the 'hotel' is home to the local 'tourism school' so we are graced with the presence of the young people who are hoping to make a living out of those who might venture to this isle less visited.....it even has a 'restaurant' which unfortunately shuts at 7pm, meaning that we have to have eaten by 6.45pm to allow them to lock up and go home. the food however is great and is even based around a 'western style/french' menu.

anyways just to say we are well and settled and extremely excited by the opportunities that have already opened themselves up to us via the huge network that Pastor Njato from the FJKM Zoara Fanantenana Ambohipo church (yes that's a real name!) has set up for us.

meeting at the Dept of Education (us with pastor njato)

our first few days have been extremely busy with two meetings with members of the national government. firstly we met up the General Secretary of the Department of Education who is very interested in our offer of training teachers in the leadership material therefore changing their mindsets as we then look to invest in the lives of the children they teach.

the day after we had a further meeting with the 'Director of mass education of citizenship' (what a title!), basically she has a wide network of workers across the country who are both responsible to deliver government initiatives into every home of this large island and to promote good citizenship, all of which fits so well with the type of training we are offering. incredibly she invited us to deliver the four modules of the Leadership for Life programme into her 48 head office staff and agreed that any change begins with ourselves. she is keen for her staff to receive this training and implement it into their lives before expecting the rest of the population to take it on!

Maz sharing module one training

on saturday morning we began the four week training with near on 200 members of Pastor Njato's church in Ambohipo, it was wonderful to be back delivering this life and mind changing material to a new and excited group of people, including the General Secretary and the Director we had met during the week who took up our invitation to come and see the training for themselves! 

rice, rice and more rice....

late on saturday afternoon we experienced our first power outage, unfortunately we hadn't taken up the opportunity to eat at midday so we were left literally in the dark without a can opener. our plan of opening a small tin of tuna which Maz was going to add to the rice gently boiling away on the gas (thankfully) stove was going to become a little harder......such is life and after an adventure down the steep stairs via candlelight we found an opener and enjoyed our meal in relative peace.

overflow at church

sunday morning allow for a lay in as we attended the late service, starting at 11am, late as in not the early ones which start at 5am, 7am and 9am, the church has a congregation of around 15,000 (yes fifteen thousand) and our interpreter did a great job in explaining all that was going on as choirs sang all dressed in their white silk gowns and people shared of stories from their recent ministry trips into the wild and remote areas of Madagascar to a church which was overflowing into gazebo tents in the 'car park'.

maz hand washing.....

after the service we were well and truly fed and watered receiving two invites for dinner, one at midday and the second later in the evening, to be welcomed into the Malagasy homes is truly awesome and what with the church providing us with a driver and a guide for our own personal use we are truly blessed and looking forward to all that these next couple of months will bring....

...p.s we have updated our reading list to the right hand side pane and Maz is busy hand washing our clothes as I post this, well done Maz, looks like a great work out!

wedding bells, american friends and balloons ahoy

Tim, Alfie and Arry enjoy a T20Blast game in Bristol

it's been a bit of a crazy time since we last updated our personal not only have we booked our flights to return to Madagascar in early September but we've also spent a week with our eldest son and his family in Bristol and then spent some extra special family time with my (Tim) sister as we celebrated the marriage of her son (Joel) to his long term sweetheart Charlotte at the stunning Chewton Glen hotel and spa down in Dorest.

the beautiful Waddesdon manor

we are very excited about our return trip, this will be our third time, to Madagascar and as many of you will know this time we will be training people to train others in the incredible 'Leadership for Life' material that Emerging Leaders have created to bring hope and new ways of thinking to some of the most vulnerable communities in the world.

Helen and Chaz visit Maz' Dad

in two weeks time we will have already landed in Antananarivo where we will spend our first month before moving on to the east coast port of Toamasina where we will be hooking up with the wonderful Cho and Deborah from Love'nCare Ministries who we lived with for three months earlier in the year.

Mel and Fran share photos with Maz at Jess' wedding

there are still a few thousand pounds to be found before we reach our estimated budget spend so if you'd like to sponsor us as we seek to share with those much less fortunate than ourselves then please either contact us direct or visit our online giving page.

now back to the last couple of weeks here in England. prior to journeying down to Bristol we were able to welcome our youngest son (Arron) home from his six month stint in Thailand where he has been working as a dive instructor, it was so good to catch up with him, to listen to his stories and to hear about his future plans.

Maz and Eli enjoy some colouring time

Arron also joined us as we, that's the royal we as Mark and Viv bent over backwards to allow us to host Helen and Chaz, two of our good friends from the U S of A, we know Helen from here many trips to visit the Village of Hope in South Africa, and we'd met Chaz when we ventured state side last year. we enjoyed a fantastic couple of days together visiting historic homes and gardens, as well as tasting a few local ales and traditional pub food.

wot balloon?

we joined Jess and her new husband, David, for their wedding in Aylesbury with a reception at Creslow Manor near our home village of Whitchurch, it was wonderful to see Jess looking so happy and for us to enjoy a day together with other friends from near and far. Mel Kidd even joined us all the way from South Africa, along with Fran and Spencer who we'd just seen in Jersey.

the next week was a roller coaster ride as we joined Chris and Claire along with their children at a home in Long Ashton which they were 'house sitting' for friends. Long Ashton is home to the Bristol Balloon Fiesta, an international balloon festival where literally hundreds of hot air balloon fanatics join together to fly the balloons, right over the house where we were staying.

those balloons

it was a sight to behold as we stood in the back garden, either early in the morning or later in the evening and watched the balloons of various shapes, sizes and colours float (is that what balloons do?) silently over our heads.

I (Tim) and Arron also took our eldest grandson, Alfie, to see his first first class cricket match, a T20Blast match (if you don't know what that is then don't worry as its too hard to explain during this simple blog post) between Gloucestershire and Durham. it was an exciting affair which Alfie really enjoyed, unfortunately for Alfie the home team lost to Durham who actually then went on to lose to our beloved Northamptonshire Steelbacks in the final last saturday!

impromptu Walker boys shot at the weddding

after a week at home we made our way down to the stunning Chewton Glen hotel (and spa) on the sunny (well maybe not sunny) on the south coast of England. where we had been blessed with a three night stay and were joined by other members of our extended (Knight) family and the Charlotte's family.

the hotel was far and above any that we normally frequent, with supercars adorning the car park and famous faces from TV and film gracing the public spaces. as we think back to the places we have rested our heads this year it confirms the conundrum of 21st century life, from straw filled pillows and mattress in the rain forest areas of Madagascar as we stayed with the local villagers to our suite at Chewton Glen where we were blessed with three TV's in our room, including one posing as a mirror in our bathroom!

Joel and Charlotte photobomb Tim's selfie

the forecast for the weekend was for high winds and torrential rain which was going to prove a bit of a pain as all our children and their children were camping just down the road, however as is often the case the weather wasn't quite as bad as predicted and we enjoyed a blustery sunny day with the bride and groom who both looked fantastic.

we all enjoyed the superb food, washed down by a few glasses of wine, listened to some heartfelt speeches and danced the night away to a band who'd travelled all the way from south Wales to play for the happy couple.

anyone for croquet

the weekend rushed away but we all had such a great time and we feel blessed and refreshed as we look forward to our next adventures, to Madagascar and beyond!