In December 2018, 4 lucky teachers from Winchester House School, James Girling, Ruth Johnson, Beverley Lomax and Jess Noakes, were given the amazing opportunity to go and work in schools in the northwest of Madagascar.

At the end of April a huge lorry arrived at school to take the resources we had made and ordered, as well as those kindly donated by parents, on the first stage of their journey.

On Tuesday 9th July 2019, we flew from the capital of Madagascar, Antananarivo, to Anjajavy, on the northwest coast of Madagascar. We started teaching at the first school the next day, travelling in the back of a 60 year old truck! Our journey took about an hour each way. We travelled with our 2 translators.

The children spoke their national language, Malagasy. Some of the teachers could speak quite good French. The children were divided into classes, depending on their age and ability, so there could be a huge variety of ages in one classroom. We worked in pairs and relied heavily on our translators! We taught different aspects of Maths and some science. Also a variety of different themes in English, including continents, oceans, colours, animals, family, homes etc. The children loved singing songs and we always finished the day with a playground game which the children loved, no matter what age they were!

All the children we taught were so keen to learn and their behaviour was excellent. They enjoyed listening to and reading the postcards which children in our classes had sent to them and wrote postcards for us to bring back to WHS.

The second school we went to was the senior school at Anjajavy, where the children ranged in age from 10-20. There was no running water in any of the schools and the toilets were out in the playground – holes in the ground! There were very few displays of the children’s work, so we tried our best to display some of the work they did with us. It was difficult sticking things to the walls, so we used a hole-puncher to make holes in pieces of paper and threaded them onto string which we strung up across the classrooms.

At weekends we enjoyed exploring the area. We went to see giant tortoises which have recently been reintroduced to Madagascar. We also did English conversation classes with the hotel staff.

On Mondays the children lined up in the playground in separate rows of boys and girls for each class. They then raised their national flag and sang the national anthem.

The last school we taught at was Anjajavy Primary School, which had 225 students aged 6 – 14. We were able to communicate in French with quite a lot of the older children. The children loved using their new resources and we created some displays of their artwork, which they were very proud of!

While we were working at the Primary school, Mrs. Lomax’s husband, Chris, installed solar power at the senior school across the vast, sandy playground. He was helped by some of the hotel staff and some of the teachers. The teachers were very pleased! There are now lights in every classroom, so they can be used for evening activities, and there is a solar powered-computer too.

There was an amazing variety of animal and plant life at Anjajavy. The lemurs were particularly wonderful. We had the most amazing opportunity to see the very rare aye aye lemur. We were taken by some of the hotel guides who knew where she was because she wears a special collar which emits radio waves. There is a tremendous variety of birdlife in Madagascar and we were lucky to see the rare sea eagle sitting in her nest. We also saw chameleons, lizards, and lots of different snakes, including thin pencil snakes and a big fat boa constrictor!

We also saw an incredible variety of different plants and trees. One of the most distinctive trees was the deciduous baobab tree, which can grow up to 20 metres and can live to be 3,000 years old.

We all felt very sad leaving Anjajavy. It had been hard saying goodbye to the staff and children at the schools where we had worked and it was equally hard saying goodbye to the incredible guides and hotel staff who had helped us so much and made us so welcome. It made us all appreciate how lucky we are and how much we take things for granted. It also made us realise how much can be achieved with very little. It was a truly memorable few weeks which we all feel very privileged to have experienced.

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