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.
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