We are well settled into a routine now. We have fewer “individual moments” with the little ones as their volunteer is now back from her touring. Instead Gil and Wyn, along with Ben, a young student from Canada, have the responsibility of taking eight of the youngest preschoolers (petits pre-schoolers) for two hours of special activities twice a week. The preschool has 19 children with limited space for the children, teacher and her assistant. Having eight fewer children for part of the time allows the teacher to concentrate on the children who will soon be going to school. These eight 3 – 4 year olds are as active as young kids anywhere. They crave attention and are so happy to do something new each time. Thanks to Peg’s bubble machines we have had a great time blowing bubbles. The play dough has also been a great hit and kept the entire group occupied for an hour.  The children are also learning our names and call us vahaza (foreigner) less often now. It is hard for  them because there are about ten volunteers at a time with regular turnover.

Ball play is also very popular. We have a limited number of balls so the first few sessions was  spent trying to convey the concept of sharing (difficult for us without the language). A great success has been one boy who had a tantrum every time he lost the ball, who now participates fully in joint play with the others. The place where we play with the balls is very dry and dusty and the children are returned to their classroom covered in dust and hardly recognisable.

Gil and Wyn  have started individual lessons with some primary school children who need extra help. This is sometimes a hit and miss affair: they often forget to come, have other duties to perform, (like doing the cleaning up after the lunch),  the key to the classroom goes missing, there is no chalk or paper. But when the  kids do show they clearly enjoy our input and attention. We work on maths, puzzles, English, drawing and writing.

Wyn has acquired two English classes, They are beginners Year 1 and 2, but because of the unusual situations that bring the children to the Home, some are older than what is normally expected in early classes. Regardless, these children are keen to learn and enjoy the challenge of saying words and sentences. Wyn finds it a challenge teaching English in French!

Gil is regularly called on for medical opinion, most of the ailments are minor and all that is required is reassurance and TLC. He is working with the Domestic Science teacher to address health issues of girls who are placed in the Home as teenagers by the courts. Many have had no schooling and are too old to place in the regular secondary school system. Instead, they are taught cooking, sewing and other skills which will hopefully help them into employment. Their health concerns are many; some come to the Home already pregnant and with little knowledge about self-care.. Early and unwanted pregnancies seem to be a problem in the country as a whole with a very high birth rate.

Already our second week has passed. The children are now into the routine of school again and we too are getting into our routine and our schedule is filling up. At a very useful meeting with the other volunteers we have established who is doing which activities and found niches for ourselves to be useful.

An activity that is particularly valuable is quaintly termed “individual moments”, which are actually hour long, individual sessions with the babies and pre-schoolers. The staff are wonderful with the children and the each child. So volunteers take children for  one-on-one sessions, playing games, cuddling and simply giving each child a time of undivided attention away from the childcare centre. Naturally there was some apprehension when we appeared for the first time and the children where a bit tentative. However we must have done something right as on the second day the children we had taken out the previous day all clambered around us, wanting to go out again!

The activities we do depends on the age of the child, their abilities and interests. One delightfully bright and active girl who loves to laugh and dance, steadfastly refuses to throw, catch or fetch a ball. Her day was made watching Gil try to get her to dance, she literally rolled on the floor with laughter at his attempts to dance. Even something as simple as visiting the chicken run is fun for these children. Spending time with the children on an individual basis allows us to make observations about their interests and abilities, and these are entered into a log book so progress can be monitored.

We eat our main meal of the day with the children. The food is simple, huge qualities of rice with either meat or vegetable stew. Sometimes fish or sausage is served. It is always tasty and often followed by fruit and a traditional hot drink, made from the residue of cooked rice, actually quite tasty.

The caring atmosphere here is quite outstanding.

Our host’s home with Gil on our flat’s balcony behind the driveway gates

Arrival on Sunday afternoon gave us time to settle in to a very new and strange environment. On the way to Ambohidratrimo, the village where Akany Avoko is situated, we are told that we will not be staying at the volunteer accommodation at the Home, but in accommodation at Rebecca and her husband’s place, about 300 metres from Akany. In the “annexe” we have two rooms above the garage, a fair sized bedroom and a small kitchen with gas ring, fridge and the basic essentials. Across the courtyard is our own shower and toilet the reason for our being housed her is that at the moment the volunteer accommodation is very full (all young, single people from UK, Holland, Switzerland). We are the first to stay in the “couples” accommodation. Rebecca is a long term volunteer at Akany Avoko, having first come here from northern India some years ago as a volunteer with Christian World Mission. She is welcoming and a source of much information.

Wyn’s new friends enjoying a picture book.

We are told that this first week will be orientation for us and no formal tasks will be expected. On Monday we met another long-term volunteer, Ony who has been at Akany for ten years. We are given a guided tour of the entire facility which is spread over a large area, several buildings housing the babies and pre-schoolers, dormitories for the girls, the admin building, the primary school classrooms, the half-way house, the cafe, the garden, the screen printing room, the dining hall, the volunteer houses. We are encouraged to walk around, get the feel of the place and to just “be there with the kids”. Certainly the children crave individual attention and soon we are clambered upon by the less shy. We spend some time with the babies and pre-schoolers who are all wanting cuddles and attention and someone to share books with them.

The Picnic Lake

This is week is not usual as it is the midterm “Pentecost” break. The pre-schoolers (all 20 of them, including babies) are away on a holiday from Thursday to Tuesday - to a village a few hours away by bus. The bigger children have few formal activities arranged, so on two days we join two of the other volunteers to take two groups of children on a picnic. The first picnic was with the younger children to a “lake” about a twenty minute walk from the home. On the way, we stopped at the village market to buy banana fritters for the picnic. The lake looks positively lethal, dark greenly polluted- we focus on the children not getting too close, but they have a great time playing tag, rolling in the grass and doing cartwheels and hand stands. A longer route home round the lake expended some more energy and the little ones were quite tired by the time we got them home.

Enjoying the banana fritters

The next picnic with the bigger girls involved a longer walk up a hill to a lookout where we again enjoyed our banana fritters and the views over the rice paddies. The top of the sacred hill (which once was the site of a royal palace) now has some royal tombs.

 Outing with the bigger girls

Among the tasks completed was the unpacking and cataloguing of all the things we brought from New Zealand. We managed to get here with a total of 100kgs luggage (about 70kgs for Akany) without having to pay for any excess baggage!! The goods that we brought will certainly be put to good and careful use. Another task was to help unpack and sort a large consignment of goods for the pre-school that had been sent from Reunion. The preschool class room is tiny for about 18 children and we hope to be able to take small groups of children for activities to reduce the pressure in the classroom. In the afternoons we will be doing some one-on-one work with the primary school children.

Already Gil’s medical expertise has been drawn on, giving advice and helping a volunteer who had injured himself. Wyn has been asked to help with computer up-skilling of one of the coordinators so our time is going to be full.