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!