April 19 was a beautiful, clear day to hop in local conservationist Be Noel‘s boat to our next teaching village, Marofototra. We loaded up supplies for the Marofototra students and took the beautiful scenic boat ride an hour down the coast.
Even though it was a Sunday, the children eagerly came to school, some even skipping church so they could get to school early. It rained pretty heavily off and on while we were working with the children, and so a lot of time was spent indoors using the coloring books, sketchbooks, and various resources that we brought. Over 60 children were gathered in one classroom. We took the older students to another classroom, but could only use half of the room because the other half was pouring rain through the ceiling…
Chef Eddy traveled with us and brought supplies for lunch, cooking over a fire in our hostess’s little house. Lunch is always a pretty formal affair; even a picnic has a tablecloth, plates and silverware, and multiple dishes. He created wonderful lunches for us so we could relax and eat after school and before the long boat ride home.
The second day of teaching had some nicer weather, and we got the kids outdoors with the cameras. It poured rain in the middle of our adventure, but a tarp and trees over their heads did the trick to keep the cameras dry.
The last day we took the projector and closed up the shutters to the classroom to make it dark. The children really enjoyed a photo show of both their own photographs that they had taken the day before, and photos and videos that we had taken of them. Pascal will continue to be able to go to this classroom and share the camera and educational materials with them on the projector.
We also had a chance to sit down with our Marofototra hostess on the last day and have a wonderful visit with her to thank her for her hospitality. Kathy bought a fabric (right off of her bed!), and Melanie and Julie also bought fabrics from her. What a lovely and generous woman.
Two out of our three trips to Marofototra resulted in catching a huge mackerel on the fishing line towed behind the boat. A young man made a bait “squid” from plant material that looked exactly like a little squid. Eddy cooked those up into delicious dinners!
PC: David Russell, Julie Vogt, Kathy West
