In the jungle the mighty jungle

So let me tell you a bit last week... By the way, a month has gone by already, wow that was fast.

Voleyball classes continued last week and to my suprise more and more students came to each class every day, by Thursday I had already 20! It’s funny watching them play because they don’t respect the rules, no matter how many times I tell them. When the ball comes, they all start running like crazy trying to hit it. It’s funny and we have a good time, but I also want them to learn something useful before I come back to Spain, and for that I have to be more serious and responsible than I would like to.

The same thing applies to the English classes. They are all really nice to me and I can see that I could be friends with most of them, since they are all more or less my age, but they don’t work, they don’t study at home or do their homework, so I have to be more distant and, as I said before, serious because the only way to learn a language is through disciple constancia and hard work. God is hard being a teacher... how I would like to just talk about their lives here in Madagascar, to know more about the way they think and also, you know, to just have some fun! At least I have a clear conscience, for I know that if they learn English, they are surely going to have a better job and, as a result, a bright future. That’s what I keep telling to myself when it gets harder and to them as well each time that I can.

But I am Spanish! No matter what, I always have fun!

This weekend we went to Ranomafana, a national park to the south of Antsirabe, and yes it was as cool as you see in the pictures below! I was so looking forward to it because until now, we had not seen any jungles in Madagascar. I was actually starting to doubt that there were any at all, but Ranomafana was certainly what I was looking for. So many birds, lemurs, insects, plants, flowers... And the road to it was also magnificent. I hope you like the pictures!

And by the way, we went there with Julian and Simone, two Germans who are also volunteers in Antsirabe. They had just arrived from Germany the day before, but they were really "begeistert" of the our plan and decided to come, so CHAPEAU for them!

Do you recognise this cute lemur here? It’s the cute little servant of King Julian from the film Madagascar.

 I almost grabbed him and took him with him! I know my sister Leti would have done it. I couldn’t stop thinking about her and about my father while I was there. They love animals so much... But don’t worry Leti, you are young and have a world full of possibilities ahead of you! Just have a little patience and in the meantime enjoy the pictures your older brother has done thinking about you! I miss you CHOSU BABY!

Changing

So this week was a week full of changes and contrasts. From days of hard work and tiredness to days of leisure, laughter and joy. This week I started with the volleyball classes. We were just 9 people, but it worked out really well. It's somehow funny because I've actually almost never played volleyball in my life, but thanks to my dear friend Ana and her help and dedication the days prior to flying to Mada, students actually thought that I was some kind of professional volleyball player. It's great to help other but also to be helped so thanks Ana for that!

Regarding my English classes, this week we covered Martin Luther King and I am proud to say that students really liked it. I think they liked to be reminded that we are all the same no matter our sex, religion, sexual preferences or colour of our skin, specially because here in Madagascar reality is quite different. White people are millionaires, who can do anything they want here and now, while the rest of the Malgasies struggle  to make ends meet in the middle of an economic and political crisis. I've also started to bond with some of the students. Individuals who share my passion for languages and knowledge, people who dream of a better future and are willing to work hard and learn more in order to achieve it. I hope I can tell you more about them soon.

A new change this week is that we started preparing the scholarship programme at the ESSVA. Zukunft Madagascar, the German association who has given me the opportunity to come here, and who also provides scholarships to the students at the ESSVA who can no longer pay their studies, is willing to expand its scholarship programme and will now also collaborate with the schools here in Antsirabe to find students who would be willing to study at the ESSVA but are not able because their families can't afford it.





This collaboration is what Jutta and me have been working on this week. We have visited the schools and had meetings with the principals of each of them and hopefully we will see the results of this in October 2013. I am quite postive about it and I am sure we're going to make it happen.

Last but not least, Emilien, Elissa and Julie were here this weekend and it was great seeing them again. We went to a karaoke, played some billiards, went to a mall just of zebus and yesterday on a fait la fête! It was so cool seeing that nothing had changed and that we still laughed  to the same stupid things.

And then came the time to say goodbye.

It is not easy saying goodbye when you don’t know if you’ll ever see that person again. It is sad, of course, but most of all it feels so unfair... It is like just been allowed to watch half of your favorite movie or reading just the final chapter of a great book. You know there is still so much more left, so much more that you could have lived together, and so many things that you feel the need to say, and couldn't because you were waiting for the right moment or the right words...

But as someone wiser than me once said, “you are to have and not to hold”. Like a father when a son leaves home, we have to learn to let go... and in the end, with regard to those who leave, the only thing that we can do is... well, just to wish them well I guess, to hope to see them again someday, but most of all, to learn to be thankful for the moments shared and to look forward to meeting new people, who might or might not be as special as the ones you leave behind, but from whom there is always something to learn and to whom we can always give our best smile.

Antoine, Nina, Julie, Elissa et Emilien, merci beaucoup et bonne continuation!

Hapiness

So I finally came back from my trip, and yes, it was one of those life changing experiences you read in magazines and books, but you don't really believe in, and not beacause of the beauty of the places I've visited or the scary things I've done but because of the people I had the pleasure to share this experience with.

Sometimes you meet people in the most unexpected places, who would have guessed that I would find people that would inspire me on a trip through Madagascar in the middle of nowhere? I can't really explain what makes Antoine, Nina, Julie, Elisa and Emilien so special. Maybe it is their willingness to see the world, to discover new places and live new experiences or maybe it is just their ability to give without expecting something in return, to share a laugh and show there best smile even when they are exhausted both physically and mentally.

In this 10 days of travelling, I've been happy. I've known what kindness is, and for me, kindness is not only willing to help others but it is also not being afraid to share. I've spent all of my life hiding my fears, my dreams and my thoughts, perhaps because I was afraid that others would not appreciate them as much as I did or perhaps because I thought that having them made me somehow special, you know, the misterious but cool kind of guy. I know see how wrong I was. If you don't share with others you are lost in oblivion, coldness and darkness, if you share, you find confort in another person's smile, you grow, you correct your imperfections and win new ideas and ways of thinking,  you get closer to the light, to happiness.

I see it clear now, some people need a cup of coffee or tea every morning, other people need to feel that someday they will become someone important, others need to feel loved, they need to feel that there's someone there when times get difficult.

Me, I need to share a laugh every day with someone and I have to give extra especial thanks to a french slug  for helping me realise this.

So know let me tell you what I have done this past few days:

I have crossed a river in a canoe

I have danced and loved and danced again

      I have made other people laugh

I have felt the need to shout, cry and go back home as soon as possible

I have made some new friends

                                               I have heard new voices and seen new colours

I have wanted the people I love to be with me

                                             I’ve seen trees as high as mountains...

                                            ...and I have climbed mountains as high as the sun

  I have discovered unexplored islands

                              I have felt grateful for having someone to share my experiences with

I have learnt that no matter how ugly they are, you always have to be nice to people

I have fallen asleep watching the sunset

I have seen a world of possibilites, I have seen my future and my past, and then I have seen nothing at all, I have just felt the wind blowing on my skin

I can’t wait to tell you more but I need to receive the fotos from Emilion and Julie this weekend! Until then…

SHARE AND BE HAPPY!!!!!