On 2 January 2012 (or thereabouts) I will be headed for the magical island of Madagascar, situated off the southeast coast of Africa, to take part in a 10 week charity expedition.
I have secured one of a limited number of places on four annual Pioneer schemes run by the charity Azafady. Azafady runs projects in rural southeast Madagascar supporting environmental, humanitarian and sustainable development projects. As part of the scheme, I need to raise a minimum donation of £2,000. This goes directly to support Azafady’s work, with only a tiny proportion covering my food, training and travel whilst in Madagascar.
I have just purchased the Bradt guide to Madagascar and must admit it was probably a mistake to read the Health and Safety section first. In my time in Madagascar I must watch out for:
· mosquitoes (of the malarial variety in particular)
· furry looking plants and caterpillars
· tapeworm (apparently if I pass a worm, “this is alarming, but treatment can wait”)
· sunburn and prickly heat
· rabid animals
· infections and tropical ulcers
· venomous fish/sea urchin spines on the ocean floor
· jiggers (parasitic fleas that burrow within the skin leaving a hole through which they will periodically release an egg)
· thieves
Eek!
If my participation in this expedition is in itself not enough to convince you to part with your hard-earned cash, I have also challenged myself to my own version of Ocsober. As I couldn’t possibly be expected to abstain from booze in the Netherlands, I started Ocsober on 27 September and will finish on 31 October, carving out the three days abroad. As a lover of real ale and night life generally, this has been a real hardship for me: missing out on a pint in the old smugglers’ inns of Poole, being limited to fizzy water while enjoying the views at Bournemouth on the one and only gorgeous weekend this year, spending Friday nights washing the dishes and doing laundry and discovering why diet soft drinks exist (because drinking tap water in a pub – even when it is fine Thames Water water – is depressing). But it is all worth it for this great cause.
Madagascar is the fourth largest island in the world and is home to an extraordinary diversity of plants and animals, over 80 per cent of which can be found nowhere else on earth. Although it is biologically one of the richest places in the world, its inhabitants are amongst the very poorest.
As a Pioneer, I will be living and working alongside remote village communities helping them to build a
better future for themselves. The kinds of projects Pioneers become involved with include:
· building wells to provide clean water, protecting villagers from the spread of cholera
· establishing community market gardens and beehives to improve nutrition and provide villagers with alternative incomes
· building schools to provide children with access to education who previously had none
· planting trees in areas of deforested land.
I saw an ad for Azafady earlier this year and have given much thought to this opportunity. It will be a challenge – not a few hours a day of basket weaving as Azafady points out in its brochure – and I’ve only 10 weeks to prepare for it.
