Hey everyone!
We finally set up the library - woop woop! Have fun reading about our second day in Djangoa.
Saying goodbye to Geneviève:
The start of the day was heavy: getting up at 5:45 a.m.! Geneviève wanted to go running and as it is too hot later in the day, our starting time was 6.00 a.m. Sarah was immediately in and somehow the two of them managed to persuade me - Dominic - to go with them. Unbelievable, me - a convinced not-runner and late riser - went running at 6 a.m. Stunning!
I have to admit: it was great! Running through sleepy Djangoa at the edge of wakening up, the rising sun in our back and lots of greeting people at the wayside. Mbala Tsara!
After the breakfast Gene had to leave us and go back to Nosy Be. This was a really difficult moment for us, as Gene was our confidential person in the first 4 days in Madagascar and helped us a lot to feel comfortable. She is great, she talks and laughs a lot and was a really big help! But now we were feeling a bit insecure. We were worried since although all family members understand French, only Émilien and Lisa are able to speak it. However, once again our concerns faded away...
Only minutes after Gene's departure Azaly (he's a teacher at École Mamiko and Gene's nephew) visited us to speak about the library. He was declared responsible to help us setting up the library and is really motivated about it. We decided to wait until the afternoon and learn some Malgache instead. Mora mora - slowly, slowly!
As we were sitting in front of the house with Azaly, one person after another joined us and told us thousands and thousands of Malgasy words. Luckily Sarah had her notebook with her, resulting in us starting our very own French-Malgasy dictionnary. Émilien, Storya, Azaly, Délphine, Valentine and lots of kids were very enthusiastic about teaching us Malgasy. They really opened up and we feel much more comfortable now! And even better: Azaly brought us coconuts picked freshly from the garden.
The arrival of the books: In the afternoon Azaly, Storya (the potential librarian), and we transported our heavy luggage, loaded with books and solar lamps, to the school. We (and especially Domi, who had the hardest job: he took pictures of us carrying and pulling the 64kg) did a real physical effort to have the books in the library. Arrived at the library building, Lisa joined us and we all put the books on the shelves. We tried to make the library more comfortable and appealing with carpets (handmade in Madagascar), 3 posters (Malagasy-French, about animals, water, fruits and hygiene), and soft-toys. Some children were observing what we were doing and as soon as we had finished, they entered the room and started to open and flick through books! They were very excited and at one point even argued over a book. While the kids were enjoying their first visit in the Boky Mamiko library, we - the adults - added the book classification symbols and the Boky Mamiko logo on the Malagasy books Lisa had bought in Tana (Antananarivo, the capital). The library is finally set up now and the books reached their final destination: Djangoa! Tsara be - very good! June 9th, Sarah and Domi
