Tuesday 28 June 2016

26th June - Happy Independence Day

On Sunday, Madagascar celebrated it's 56th Independence day. Antananarivo has been preparing for the day over the last 2 weeks as almost every building, lamp post and statue is adorned with a Malagasy flag. The center of town was closed to traffic with a fairground and stage set up on the empty road. Every evening for the last two weeks there have been concerts on the stage by various musicians.

Independence day decorations

Paper lanterns for sale

Market stalls have been getting more and more colourful as paper lanterns are hung up for sale. A big tradition here is to buy lanterns for children to parade along the street on the evening of the 25th. This year we ventured out to join them. There was no official parade, just a steady stream of people making their way towards a central area. Locally that was the Talatamaty roundabout where a small stage had been set up. Although we didn't understand anything being said on the stage, we did recognise a few of the songs. It was the first time I have heard Bob Marley's ''Buffalo Soldier'' in Malagasy!

Ready to go into town

Talatamaty concert

It was cool to see the stream of children arriving with their lanterns, although many of them were carrying LED flashing wands instead. These wands are much safer than the paper lanterns, which are candle lit and have a habit of bursting into flames (as Bethan discovered, much to her distress), but they don't have the same aesthetic appeal!

On Sunday a military parade was held in the stadium in town, followed by more concerts. In the communities around the city, school children had their own parades, dressed in their uniforms and carrying banners. We chose to not to attend any of these parades, instead we spent the morning at our church and then made the most of the empty roads to take a visitor on a tour of Antananarivo.


Independence Avenue, the venue for many of the celebrations






Friday 17 June 2016


Vision Valley Graduation

On Saturday, Bethan and I (Matt) went to Vision Valley School to see the seven grade 12 students graduate and receive their diplomas. The person we had gone to see was Vanah, who I have tutored in maths for most of the last 2 years. I saw how hard she worked to succeed in a subject that she did not find easy and it was a pleasure to see her joy at finally getting the reward for her work (and maybe it was also the joy at never having to study statistics again!).

Vanah receiving her diploma

Each student gave a heartfelt speech to the audience, thanking their teachers, parents and fellow classmates who had helped them along the way. There were lots of laughs and a few tears as they each shared memories of their time together. It was clear that the graduating students valued their education and were thankful for the opportunity that they were given to learn English, maths, science, sport and Biblical studies. 

All the graduating students 

Helping Vanah gave me the opportunity to do some teaching, which I have missed while we've been here and it was fun to tackle some maths questions that I haven't thought about for over 10 years. Bethan also enjoyed "teaching" Vanah about adding and take-aways at the end of our sessions and spent a happy afternoon playing with her once it was all over.

Vanah came over to play when her exams were over

In 2000, Gavin and Rhoda Jordaan moved to Tana from South Africa to start a church (Vision Valley church) and an English-speaking school (Vision Valley school), having previously visited the country and seen the lack of good quality education available here. The school started in their own home with just 3 (2 of their own) children but quickly moved into a rented building to accommodate another 5 including 3 Malagasy children. When they outgrew those premises, they built their own facility (in 2006) with 10 classrooms and then a hall, which was also used as a meeting place for the church. The site was expanded further in 2009 to what it looks like today and the church was renamed Tana City Church (TCC). For the last 6 years they have also provided secondary education and so now Vision Valley School has nearly 300 students from pre-school age all the way up to 18. At the end of this academic year the school is moving to a new site a few miles away.

Vision Valley school classroom

Playground at Vision Valley school

Data from 2009 shows that 15% of children in Madagascar have no formal education and another 43% have left school before reaching the end of Primary education. The 7 pupils that graduated from Vision Valley School are part of the approximately 3% that complete secondary school in Madagascar. With the skills and knowledge that they have learnt and being fluent in English and French as well as Malagasy, they should have exciting careers and futures ahead of them.

Data taken from this website: http://www.epdc.org/sites/default/files/documents/EPDC%20NEP_Madagascar.pdf