Patience

/8520Hello everyone,

it's been a very busy week. Jutta and me, we have been very ill all week long. They call the illness " La tourista" (symptoms may be described in previous posts). Seeing things positively, having this illness has given me the time and therefore, the opportunity to stay still and think about the things I've been experimenting since I came here to Madagascar.

Thanks to my stay, I'm beginning to know what patience ist. Western civilization was built on having things right here and right now, on having an answer for every question, and also it is understandable to be frustrated when things do not go as we want. People here are different. Time has a different meaning for them, and their meaning of time has been growing on me these last few years. Actually, sometimes there is no answer, we just have to be patient and wait, yes wait,  but the wait isn't awful, it is not linked with anxiety or anger, because we need to learn to appreciate and be thankful for the things we already have: our health, our family & friends or even the beautiful world that we live in.

As I've said before, this week has not been easy.  Due to my sickness, I have not been able to do the things that I wanted. I just had the time to do 2 or 3 classes and then go back to sleep. Volley-ball training had to be postponed and it was also frustrating to watch my body become an echoo of what it once was. However, I never gave up and here I am now! Completely recovered and ready to get back to work!!
By the way, we just moved into our new house. See a picture below.

Today we went to school and prepared the scholarship programme with the dean and the selection Committee. It was challenging but rewarding, dozens of students will receive a scholarship for the foundation that we work for.

We are now preparing classes for tomorrow and later we will buy the last things for our trip to Tsingy/Morondava! We will there for 7-9 days so don't expect an update of the blog soon! But I will always be with you, and remember how important it is to have patience!

Can't wait to show you all the pictures of the rivers, the beach, the lemurs...!!!

I am reborn

Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

That's what I've been telling myself the last 48h. I have come here to help others and this is how the lord above thanks me? But as someone wiser than me once said, "patience reaches everything"

So hopefully I am now back on track and today I will have my first lecture after "getting rid of" (you may laugh) my bad thoughts! 

Can't wait to share my first impressions with you guys

By the way, I just went to the toilet and I am proud to inform you that I have just had the two most beautiful "babies" you've ever seen. They are big, fat and solid. I almost cried of joy when I saw them!!!

I know some will find this new entry quite disgusting, but when I meant to share everything, I really meant EVERYTHING

Antsirabe

So today was the first day that we got to know the city of Antsirabe.  I must admit admit that firstly I was impressed by the poverty of the malgasyans here. Near our home (we’re still in the residence) a woman lives in a wood hut with her 6 daughters, the oldest one being 9 years old. Children beg in the streets and people look at you as if you were some strange creature because of the fact that you’re white and wear sunglasses.

However, people here are extremely nice. They are always smiling and they greet you back laughing when you tell them Bonjour! It makes you think on how come that we have arrived to this point and on how can be help these people.

God! I wanted to tell you more about it but the greatest storm on earth is about to begin! I have to take me things and look for shelter!! NOW!!!!

A couple of pictures of today! We really enjoyed the Trianon planning our classes for next week!

First days

So a very a loong flight from Madrid to Paris and from to Paris to Antananarive, I arrived at 22:25 at Madagascar and the first I thing I saw was...nothing. Everything was so dark (street lamps do not exist in Madagascar) that we (my guide and me) barely managed to find a hotel along the road. However, the first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was this:

Not bad, is it?

After picking up Jutta at the airport, the other volunteer that is doing the programm with me, we headed off to Antananarive, the capital. There is not much to say about Antananarive; however, what impressed me the most were the number people living on the street and the difference between rich and poor, and day and night. At night the cities in Madagascar seem to be deserted, with no lights, car or people to ask for the right direction to the hotel...

After doing some shopping in Tana for the university, we went to Antsirabe in this...

Can you see my hand? Believe me, it is really not so comfortable as it looks like and actually thanks to the quality of the "vehicule" we managed to do 150km in 5 hours.

So finally we arrived to Antsirabe, the place where we're staying. We're staying at a dorm near the university for our house has some "technical difficulties" yet. I'll show you some pictures of the city in next posts but for now this is our dorm:

                                    

Classes start on monday, until then we are getting to now the city, and the very poor but smiley people that live here. I hope I will tell you more about them soon!!! 

Until then, HAVE FUNNNNN!!!!

                                  

I like to move it move it!

Hello everybody!

Following orders from Blanca, a very  insistent friend of mine who suggested my creating a blog for Madagascar, here I am, writing the first words of it...
Tomorrow I will be leaving for Madagascar and I will be staying there until Christmas or who knows? Maybe even more! As Maria always says, maybe I will find some hot malagasy girl with tanned skin, green eyes and stay there forever. I wouldn't have anything against it!

Before leaving I would like to explain why I am doing this trip:

First of all, growing up in Madrid, I always felt grateful for the things I had; a nice house in a nice neighbourhood, a couple of very good friends, a strong family... I had almost everything I wanted and I think I am one of the few people who has laughed 3 or 4 times every day for the last 22 years of this life. Sometimes I felt I was the luckiest boy in the world, but I also knew that some people were not that lucky and that it would be extremely selfish from me to keep on concentrating on myself. I knew I had the responsibility of helping them, and in some sort, of giving back all the luck and the energy I had received for so many years.

So now, after finishing my studies, I have finally found the time and the place to give back to the world all the energy that it has given me! And I am soooo going to seize this opportunity!

But I know what u are thinking! Pablo just CUT THE CRAP, get your ass moving and tell us everything when you are there!

I surely will, soooooooooo.......
See you in Madagascar!

Au revoir!!

P.S: I think it's the first time I am leaving Spain without wanting to come back in a long time.