Dispatches From The Field

29 June 2003 -- Chris Golden

Today I woke up with plenty to do. In the afternoon, we were having the celebration for the commencement of my education project. In the morning, I practiced my speech and delegated certain drawings to be made for the book that Martel and I are compiling. We adapted the text from Lynne Cherry’s children’s book The Kapok Tree to be relevant to the wildlife and problem’s facing our area of Madagascar. Now, we just need line drawings to go along with the text. We are going to make black and white copies for every student in our classes and they can then use it as a coloring book.

At 1:45, we left for Andranofasika for the celebration. We had music playing with speakers from a local hotely called Fifaliana. We also had two soccer games- first the girls and then the boys. Before the games begin, there was quiet for the delivery of speeches on a microphone that we rented. I gave the first speech, then they Park Director from ANGAP, then the mayor from Andranofasika. I was very nervous to give my speech because I gave it in Malagasy, but everything went very well and the applause at the end more than made up for the mistakes I made during the speech. As for the games, the girls from Ambodimanga faced the girls from Andranofasika. Everyone played barefoot and played hard. They were all very good.

Things today really couldn’t have gone any better. At the end of each game, we presented the losing team with a new soccer ball and the winning team with a new soccer ball and 50,000 Fmg. I’m so excited to begin teaching on Tuesday. I have a lot to prepare, but I have a very good feeling about the future of the program after the success of today. All of the children seem so enthusiastic about the program and I have already made a few friends who shadow me when I walk through town. For the first time today, instead of hearing “Vazaha”, meaning foreigner, I actually heard a few of my students say “Salama Chris.”