Madagascar news!

Dear family, friends and loved ones!

Finally we have some time and an internet connection for a little while...to let you know what we have been up to and to show you some pics from the country!

Madagascar is a strangely beautiful country, with so much diversity and rich cultures. What has been most obvious to us, has been the contrast between where we came from, the 'land of plenty' in Reunion, into a 'land of challenges' in Madagascar... people are extremely poor and yet most of them seem to be content with their lives...

Our last few days here have been great, the people are friendly and warm and the island is so huge that we will unfortunately not be able to make a visit to the gorgeous coast...

Below is some pics that were taken on the first day here in Antananarivo, the capitol of Madagascar.





















- Home for 10 days...
















- Us at our Hotel with some of the Rotarians that welcomed us the airport (the guy in the middle next to Josie is 'Souf Efrican'...)
















- the view from our Hotel, Le Relais de la Haute Ville... and in the foreground is the church that's next door, where we run a few laps... some mornings...)

- The National broadcasting station that we were privileged to see, which also houses the national radio station (below). They were busy with a recording of a local music group during our visit...

- the local bicycle shop...
















- All dressed up and ready for our first Rotary club meeting and presentation in Madagascar. After the formalities and dinner, we got the house rocking with some karaoke! Malagasians love their Karaoke!

















Being in Madagascar means that you have to check out the Lemurs - 'primates that look something like a cat crossed with a squirrel and a dog'... they are indigenous to Madagascar. Did anyone see the animated movie Madagascar?

Day 2 saw us visiting the Lemur park a few kilometres outside of Tana, a beautiful sanctuary!

Here's some pics of what they look like (follow the links to see more info on the lemurs)












































































We have another busy week ahead of us with visits to some hospitals, businesses, Rotary Clubs and maybe a day to ourselves to check out some more of the country!

So we will be back soon with more pics and stories!


laugh, love, live!!!



The Team

Last Reunion pics

Hi everybody!

Here's the last of it, we promise. The internet connection is very slow in Tana, so we can only upload a few pics at the time.

Enjoy, Madgascar pics soon.

love,


The Team









- beauty in the weirdest places

















- Tania and Helmien trying to work off all the food...













- A nursery we visited...















- And again, a beer factory, local southern Reunion beer...we had a good brew...


(and we are not alcoholics..)

Last Reunion pics

Hi All,

Here's some of the last pics of our time in Reunion. We reflected a little on what the time meant for us and we will post that soon.

In the meantime, enjoy these pics.

love,


the Team!

Madagascar is on!

Dear friends and loved ones,

Sorry for the silence, we have been busy and we have left Reunion and arrived in Antananarivo (Tana), Madagascar on Wednesday.

The end of Reunion was very good like the whole trip has been for us! We'll try and do some more pics and try and catch up with the days...

Madagascar is a beautiful country. In contrast it is very different from Reunion. Wait for the pics to see...

We have a busy week ahead but wanted to let you know that all is well with us.

Be awesome,

love and light,


The Team

A day off...

You would not believe it!

We had a day off, left to our own devices, which meant a lazy Sunday... we ended up alongside the pool, drank lots of cocktails, read, snoozed, checked out the lagoon, did short walks...phoned loved ones!

heaven!

not many pics materialized, but here's two nice ones.

Helmien and Alistar did a late afternoon walk along the beach and ended up on the small jetty... this is what awaited them...




























we were filled with hearts of deep gratitude for being out here.

the calm before a busy Monday...


more coming!

love and light!


The Team

Day 7 Reunion

Dear friends and loved ones,

The Club of St Joseph on the South Coast was responsible for us on day 7. And we have to say, what an awesome group of people! People in the South felt a lot more relaxed than their brothers in the North...

We did a hospital visit that had worldclass facilities and got to check out the heli-pad on top of the hospital... cool views!

In the afternoon we managed to get a swim in! gorgeous beaches as usual... and then it was on to check out a new hotel that opened a week ago on the island, fancy wancy!

Waiting around for dinner that eveing with the Cub of St Joseph, a local soccer match was playing itself out on the field across from where we waited...

A day well spent! We ended late and did some afrikaans songs for our hosts... 'die padda wou gaan opsit by sy nooi in die vlei...'

Our beds were a welcome escape...

until later,

be awesome!

The Team

Day 6 Reunion

Dear friends and loved ones!

We hope that you are all well and alive! We certainly are! most of the time...

We have two options right now: update every few days with running commentary, or update maybe once a day with pics and short descriptions only... our choice - pics only! easier work for us...

So here it goes!

- This has a story to it; remind one of us to tell it to you one day... but you dont find many of the older men with these hats anymore...so this is a rare sight... It comes from a history of slaves that rebelled against only the rich wearing hats!

- A beautiful church in the town of E 'Tang Salee, on the south coast of the island of Reunion. We arrived on the south coast on Friday afternoon last week and had lunch with some Rotarians from the E 'Tang Salee Club

- En route towards St Pierre we saw some of the damage caused by the last Cyclone (Feb 2007) on Reunion island. This was a huge bridge that was toppled by a river... The new road we were on, a temporary road, just opened a few hours before we got onto it...

- We visited a hospital that care for the handicapped in the town of Le Tampon. They have a wheelchair basketball team that take part in competitions across Reunion and France. We tried our luck in the wheelchairs against some of the team members... hard work we can tell you! great way to build muscle though and the team is interested in coming to SA next year! Rotary E 'Tang Salee also sponsored the team with new competion styled wheelchairs during last year.

Here's some more pics of us in action...

- hot and sweaty!

- And this is how our day ended...true style! a perfect dinner with some amazing Rotarians and of course we had to make a party of it...we are in Reunion! (Josie is a great team leader...)

some more pics soon,

love and light!

Bernie, Tania, Helmien, Alistar and Josie

Bonjour!

Hello All!

For all you english teachers out there, who happen to read our blog... this is a place of free expression! Our language use is at our discression!

And just so you know... yesterday we was at the beach! A gorgeous place!

love and light,

be awesome!


The Team (Helmien, Bernie, Tania, Alistar and Josie...)

(we'll try and be more careful with our use and structure of language...)

Day 5 Reunion

Dear friends and family!

Today we were the guests of the Rotary Club de la Montagne in the North of Reunion. A very friendly group of Rotarians that welcomed us with open arms.

In the morning we went to check out one of the rivers in the area. Reunion has lots of rivers! Its famous for its white water rafting trips. Unfortunately for us we could not join a group down the river during our visit. Maybe, just maybe we can do a trip next week Tuesday or Wednesday before we leave the island on the 25th...

Bernie of course loved the setup and was dying to taste some Reunion white water! Below is some pictures of the river and the white water rafting company.
















- The river: warning signs clearly explained!
















- Rafting Reunion
















- Their inflatables: 1-man, 2-person and 4-person kayaks





















- A layout and information on the Region's rivers

We had a gorgeous swim in the river and waited for the group that was on the river with the company at the finish point. Bernie's luck! He got to test the water with a kayaks of one of the clients... he was in top form!

Driving back to the city we noticed it was washing day for some of the locals. This was in a small village outside of the town of St Benoit. The women sometimes do laundry in the river, maybe once a week. Here's what it looks like.































Later the morning we had the opportunity to visit a design and printing company, who's owner is a Rotary member. This was a very interesting visit for Helmien as she understood a lot of what was going on, her family being in the printing business also. They do some incredible stuff and the company is very involved with social projects in sponsoring printing material/resources for projects and fundraising actions.

Here's some pics of the company.
















- The creating and manipulation process
















- Doing test prints
















- a finished product (for a cellphone company...)





















- and ready for delivery (everybody always wants it 'urgently'...)

We also stopped by at a Centre for physically and mentally challenged children. The Centre is fairly new and the facilities very sophisticated. The Director, Mr Nasser has done a great job with starting the Centre and get lots of support from their government. The Centre gives the young people a different outlook on their disability and how they can live their lives with meaning. We'll tell some more later of an interesting music production system that they using to stir the creative juices of the children... fascinating!

The evening we spent with the club members and did a small presentation to them. Its was very intimate and a lot more relaxing than what it has been before this, which allowed us to be more spontaneous and share more of ourselves.

And to end it all off...the flag exchange! The Club president and some club members dined with us afterwards. We had a splendid day and evening.




































By now, we starting to get the flow of the island: be ready for anything, look forward to surprises and say yes as often as you can... island style is great!

until later,

be awesome!


The Team