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!

islands at the fore

maz arrives backpack along a deserted beach......

If you've been following our progress over the last year or so you will see an amazing theme running through our lives, that being the fact that we seem to end up on some incredible islands and this last week or so has seen us add another to our list.

stunning sea views

However before we provide a short travelogue around our most recent trip to Jersey there is another island that is at the forefront of our minds, that being the fourth biggest island in the world, Madagascar. 

maz and franny catch up along another deserted beach

Again if you know anything about our lives we have made the huge commitment to return to that most needy island in September where we will be seeking to train up to 300 trainers who will take the Emerging Leaders 'Leadership for Life' material into the wider poverty hit communities where we are certain that the training will make a massive impact on those peoples lives.

gorey castle

We are still looking for further support to help towards the costs of the trip, the main costs are both the international and internal flights and also the accommodation that we are looking to book as we host those we will be training on the week long training events.

out towards the west coast

If you feel you could invest a few well earned Pounds (or Dollars, Euros, Rand, etc) in the development of some of the most vulnerable people on the planet then please follow this link to our online giving page.

thanks.

Now for a short update on our recent trip to the most gentle of islands where we were blessed with a week with our lovely friends Rebecca and Lisa who live on the biggest of the channel islands.

strange beachscape 

I (Tim) met Rebecca many years ago when we worked together on quite a few projects around the island, since then both she and Lisa have visited us in South Africa and were great supporters towards the work that we undertook there at the Village of Hope.

Set only a few miles off the north coast of france, Jersey is normally blessed with slightly brighter weather than the rest of the United Kingdom, last week was not one of those weeks, although it was quite warm with blustery showers, however that didn't stop us getting out and enjoying the stunning scenery.

rockpooling

We were staying on the south side of the island, which has long sandy beaches and is home to the capital St Helier with its castle (St Elizabeth) sitting just outside the harbour wall. Jersey has one of the highest tides in the world with up to 20ft drop within three hours, this results in large rock pools which are a draw to children and adults a like.

Our days were filled with walks, runs (another blog post will follow about that exercise) and bike rides, in fact one day we ventured out for a short ride along the long prom, up and over the old railway line to a delightful lighthouse out on the west side of the island. 

maz even went for a swim....unusual!

The ride was supposed to be an easy with much of it spent on cycle paths and where we had planned to enjoy our bought lunch and a bottle of wine overlooking the stunning clifftops, but being us Walkers (or newly named Bikers!) we weren't not content with the view and the fact that the cafe was closed when we arrived we moved/cycled on, and on, and on, up hill and down dale, stopping for Maz to enjoy a swim across a cliff enclosed bay and for us to wolf down our now well earned lunch.

fresh seafood lunch with rebecca and lisa

In 2005 I had completed the 48 mile round island walk to raise funds for the work in South Africa and spent a total of 17 hours (in one hit) completing that, so I sorta knew where we were going, however by the time we'd made it back to the house we'd completed over 60kms on a couple of cross bikes (road frames, and seats!, with heavier duty tyres). I was so pleased with Maz who kept up so well and thoroughly enjoyed her time as we completed a whole lap of Jersey!

stunning sunsets

We were blessed to have the chance to meet up with a few other friends, Franny and Spencer, and Franny's sister Katie, who had all volunteered with us at the Village of Hope, after spending a couple of hours in the oldest pub on the island with Franny we joined her parents for a wonderful cooked dinner at their home in Gorey.

tour de jersey!

Amongst other things Maz also had chance to have her haircut, which she is very pleased to have sorted before a couple of weddings that we have been invited to later in the month, but as always it was all too soon to return to England where our lovely son Josh completed the drop off and pick up from Gatwick airport.

We do love island life........next one will be Madagascar in September, God willing!