Network Adventure in Madagascar!
My name’s Kieran and I’m a Networker from South Angus. I was recently part of Madagascar 2019 – an international expedition to Madagascar with fourteen Networkers, and a leadership team of five, from across Scotland.
The Adventure Begins
The journey began at the end of 2017, when a selection camp open to all Networkers and older Explorers from across Scotland was held at Bonaly Scout Centre, in Edinburgh. We were given a number of team tasks to complete, including a hike across the Pentland hills (carrying bricks and wearing silly hats!), maintenance of site facilities and cooking over an open fire. We also had to complete an interview with the expedition leader, discussing the (at that time, largely unknown) details of the expedition and why we’d be a good fit.
Fundraising and Training
Once the team had been selected, we each had to raise £3,000 expedition costs – to cover food, equipment, flights, training etc. We each had our own individual fundraising efforts (for example, I abseiled the Falkirk Wheel and organised a ceilidh) and there were also group fundraising events, such as a bucket drop outside “Madagascar the Musical” in Edinburgh.
We had five training camps – designed to teach us certain practical skills (such as bricklaying, tiling and cement working) and to get us used to working together as a team. We also each completed an accredited food hygiene course, short mental health first aid course.Some of us also took a media course and remote area first aid course, specifically tailored to being in Madagascar.
Me abseiling the Falkirk Wheel with my friend, Trevor the ring-tailed lemur, to raise money for the expedition. I raised nearly £800 with this event.
We knew from the beginning that our primary project would be to work on the construction of a national Scout Centre called Tranom Bitsika (means “Ant House” – name chosen because ants can work together to build something much bigger than one could achieve on it’s own, and Scouts endeavour to do the same). This is part of a larger, ten year partnership between The Scouts (UK) and Firaisan’ny Skotisma eto Madagasikara – the federation of Scout associations in Madagascar. What we didn’t know was the nature of our second project. We eventually decided to support the renovation of a home for abused girls and young women called Akany Avoko Faravohitra [https://avoko.weebly.com/] (AAF) The home focuses on teaching skills for life such as cooking, basket weaving, hairdressing, administration and many others with the aim of helping the residents into a trade when they leave. It also sends them to school or, where that’s not possible, educates them in house.
Madagascar!
We arrived in the capital, Antananarivo (Tana) after dark and were greeted by a group of local Scouts – many of whom we would be working with over the coming weeks. The next morning, we had a tour of Tana and visited both the worksites and our accommodation.
That night, everybody slept at Mamre – a nunnery in the village of Sabotsy Namehana where we lived whilst working at Tranom Bitsika. Next day, we split into our teams – with one going to AAF and the other two to Tranom Bitsika.
Work Begins
The work was rewarding, varied and tiring. Whilst working at Tranom Bitsika, we’d leave Mamre at about 08:00 every day and get to the site at about 09:00, sometimes earlier. We’d be briefed as soon as we arrived and then start working straight away. We performed construction and maintenance tasks, such as the erection of a dining hall, building of a retaining wall and rebuilding of a brick path. I learned a great many skills including brick laying and working with rebar. The contractors overseeing the work were very keen to get us involved and practice their English in conversation with us. I was very impressed with their use of English technical jargon. We’d normally finish work at about 16:00 and return to Mamre to rest before eating. Most of the Malagasy Scouts working at Tranom Bitsika also stayed at Mamre, so we had plenty of time to get to know them in a more social environment.
At AAF, we lived on site. We would work from about 09:00 to 17:00 each weekday and Saturday. The work was mainly construction and demolition. We demolished old water butts (no longer needed as the home now has piped water) and used the stones to build steps to a new shower block. This was like a jigsaw puzzle as the stones were all different shapes and sizes. We knocked through a kitchen wall and built an extension by roofing what was previously an alley outside the house. Unlike at Tranom Bitsika, where the work was all done using more traditional hand tools (saws, spades, chisels etc), we used the power tools we’d brought with us extensively at AAF. Each evening, we’d eat at a restaurant owned by AAF and operated exclusively by the girls and young women who live there. The idea is to raise money for the home whilst teaching the young women useful skills.
Top left: Building retaining wall at Tranom Bitsika with sandbags, Top right: The finished product, Middle left, Rebar reinforcement for concrete columns in dining hall, Middle right: Using stones we took from water butt to build steps at AAF, Bottom left, Playing rugby at Mamre, Bottom right: The girls had been practicing a dance and performed for us when we first arrived at AAF.
R&R
After just over three and a half weeks of work, we spent the final week travelling South from Tana. We stopped briefly in Ambatolampy where there is a recycling factory, turning waste metal into miniatures before going onto Antsirabe. Here we saw how a number of businesses made their wares, including miniature vehicles, embroideries, woodcuts and zebu horn carvings.
We then headed to Ambalavao where we visited Anja Park, a reserve set up specifically to protect ring tailed lemurs. When it was set up in 1999, there were only eight lemurs living there. Today, there are 450! They are well used to human visitors and will allow you to come within arms reach – quite an experience. We also saw two different species of chameleon, some small lizards, a few snakes, a wild cat and some astonishingly large butterflies.
Upon leaving Ambalavao, we headed for the Ranomafana rainforest. Ranomafana is the kind of place you’d picture when somebody says “Madagascar”. We had two days of hiking and saw, among others, golden bamboo lemurs, Milne-Edwards sifaka, red fronted brown lemurs, ring tailed mongoose, pygmy leaf-tailed geckos and a moth bigger than the span of my hand! Entertainingly, one of the expedition happened to be standing beneath a golden bamboo lemur when it dropped some bamboo. He picked it up and held it out toward the lemur. It reached out and took it out of his hand!
After leaving Ranomafana, we returned to Tana and spent one last night at Mamre. The next day, we visited both sites and spent time with the Malagasy Scouts we’d been living and working with for three and a half weeks. That evening, they came to the airport with us to say goodbye before we returned home.
Top left: lizard at Anja Park, Top right: Handmade miniature bikes in Antsirabe, Middle left: Ring-tailed lemur at Anja Park, Middle right: Hiking in Ranomafana, Bottom right: Pygmy chameleon at Anja Park, Bottom right: Ring-tailed mongoose in Ranomafana
All photographs come courtesy of our expedition photographer, Fraser Ewen.
Find out more about the expedition by reading our blog [https://madagascar2019.home.blog/]