That's all folks

Hello everybody! I hope you’re doing alright and that you’re getting ready for Christmas. This is my last post, but before I write the beautiful words that you are all expecting to read, let me tell you what I’ve been doing these last few days.

First of all, last week we went to the beach again, to a place called Manakara that lies to the east, by the Indian Ocean. It was my first contact with this ocean and I have to say that if you were expecting paradisiac beaches like those you’ve seen in previous posts you are going to be a little disappointed by the pictures that follow. The thing is that the Indian Ocean is too wild, with sharks, strong currents and winds, making it impossible to go for a swim there. However, we deed enjoy visiting the fishermen villages that are connected by a water canal called Canal de Panganales and we met Andrea and Peter, a very nice couple from Czech Republic.

Then we went back to work. Last week was exam week and now I’m going to have to spend these last days correcting them. By the way, the results are really awful; it’s obvious that just 8 or 9 from the 150 students that I teach actually studied for the exam. But hey this is Madagascar! The land of mora mora! (which means something like “Don’t stress me”). I’ve decided not to take it personal; people here are just like that. I know that deep inside they have learned something from my classes and I hope they can use it in the future.

Either way, last Saturday we threw a party for the students! It was so much fun! We played sports, we invited them to lunch and we sang karaoke. The students had a really good time and they showed us how grateful they through a lot of smiles and laughter. Watch the photos if you don’t believe me!

Finally, yesterday we had this meeting with the Rector, the dean and all the directors of studies in order to choose the students who were going to receive a scholarship from our foundation, Zukunft Madagascar. In the end, after 5 hours of meeting, Zukunft Madagascar helped finance the studies of more than 60 students and this, my dear friends, was the most rewarding experience I’ve had in Madagascar. It was the perfect end to a perfect stay here at the ESSVA.

So it’s time to say good-bye everybody! Or , it’s time to say hello! Because I will be seeing you guys very soon! I can’t wait to tell you all these stories in person and to laugh together about all of the experiences I’ve lived here. Thank you very much for your all support and extra special thanks to Edu, Blanca and Maria for their deep and meant emails. A lot of you guys have written me telling me how much you admire me, but let me finish this story by telling you this:

The road to happiness isn’t made up of the countries you visit or the people you meet along the way. The real challenge in this life isn’t going to a third world country to try to help the poor, that’s easy, the real challenge is trying every day to become a better version of yourself, to be happy and thankful for what you have and to try make those around you happy, whether they are friends, family, colleagues or just someone that you’ve met on the street. Those of you who think that you’re going to find yourselves if you travel around the world, you are mistaken. If you don’t work on yourself, on who you are, you are always going to stay the same, no matter how far you travel, and you are always going to carry yourself with you.

What’s difficult for me, and what I admire the most, is to live a normal life, with everyday’s routines and difficulties, and still be happy and have the strength to try to become a better person each day.  That’s what I am going to try to do as soon as I arrive home, and I hope you’ll be there to help me! 

See you guys! And take there!

Keep moving it moving it!

ENJOY

Today has been my happiest day in Madagascar so far. Why? Well, I have to say it has been a very ordinary day: I have woken up at 6, studied a little French, written a letter to my friend Blanca, started classes at 8, had a break at 10, gone back to a bar to use the internet, then done some shopping for my trip tomorrow, after that eaten something on the way back to the uni, then two more hours of class and finally I’m here now back at the bar while the storm is starting outside.

I don’t know, but it was while I was writing to Blanca that I realized how stupid I had been the last couple of days. Indeed, this last couple of ways I had just been complaining all the time, like: “people here don’t work as they should”, “everybody is nice to me because they want something from me” or “if these people don’t start working now they are always going to be poor” or “my work here doesn’t mean anything” and blah blah blah. Worse than that, I had been thinking too much about what I’m going to do after my stay here and concentrating on the future had made it impossible for me to enjoy the present!!

So today I was writing to Blanca this beautiful letter and as I was starting to complain again, I told myself What the f*** are you doing????? And then all of the sudden all the nice words from so many people came to my mind,  the constant support of my family, the deep and sincere words of Edu and Sebastian, Maria’s and Blanca’s letters,  full of joy, positiveness and kindness and so many messages of support from so many people, so I told myself, “Pablo, today you’re going to work hard, you’re going to work your ass off for the students, but  you are also going to ENJOY it”. And boy I DID!!!!

I went to the uni with my biggest smile and gave class to 2 different classes (2 h each, 4 h in total). Some of the students presented a topic, which they had been preparing for the last 2 weeks, then we read a text about “what makes a good school” and the students gave me their opinions on how a good school should be or what it should have. They came with some pretty amazing ideas, but the best part was the part when I asked them what I could improve in order to become a better teacher. If never seen so many people laughing about me and it felt GREAT! Some of them told me that I was very strict but I also knew how to laugh, others told me that I TALKED TOO LOUD, a couple of them told me that I was always moving very fast and talking too fast, others (girls) told me that I was very BEAUTIFUL and finally 3 or 4 told me that my classes were perfect and that I was the best teacher that they had ever had, and the best part of it is that they meant it. Finally, I gave them the lyrics of “Without you-David Guetta” and we sang and danced to the song, see the results!!!

So the moral of this story is:

 Study hard, work even harder, try to always give the best of you to your family, to friends or at work, but NEVER EVER FORGET TO ENJOY IT AS WELL!!!! Because what’s the point if you don’t enjoy it?

Quicker than a ray of light

To shine brighter than the sun. That's my everyday challenge. Of course it's easier if you are sitting on a terrasse on a sunny day with 30 Degrees, after having partied the night before, while in Europe everybody is freezing, but still....

When I'm back in Europe I will thing of this day, I will remember the sun burning my skin, the peace of the trees blowing in the wind and I will find the strength to keep going, to work harder than before, to be nicer to friends and family and to help those who need me even when I'm tired. The strength to become a better version of myself  every day and to shine brighter than the sun! 

It's never too late become who you'd always wanted to be!

Be your own superstar!

Oooh la la!

In the jungle the mighty jungle

So let me tell you a bit last week... By the way, a month has gone by already, wow that was fast.

Voleyball classes continued last week and to my suprise more and more students came to each class every day, by Thursday I had already 20! It’s funny watching them play because they don’t respect the rules, no matter how many times I tell them. When the ball comes, they all start running like crazy trying to hit it. It’s funny and we have a good time, but I also want them to learn something useful before I come back to Spain, and for that I have to be more serious and responsible than I would like to.

The same thing applies to the English classes. They are all really nice to me and I can see that I could be friends with most of them, since they are all more or less my age, but they don’t work, they don’t study at home or do their homework, so I have to be more distant and, as I said before, serious because the only way to learn a language is through disciple constancia and hard work. God is hard being a teacher... how I would like to just talk about their lives here in Madagascar, to know more about the way they think and also, you know, to just have some fun! At least I have a clear conscience, for I know that if they learn English, they are surely going to have a better job and, as a result, a bright future. That’s what I keep telling to myself when it gets harder and to them as well each time that I can.

But I am Spanish! No matter what, I always have fun!

This weekend we went to Ranomafana, a national park to the south of Antsirabe, and yes it was as cool as you see in the pictures below! I was so looking forward to it because until now, we had not seen any jungles in Madagascar. I was actually starting to doubt that there were any at all, but Ranomafana was certainly what I was looking for. So many birds, lemurs, insects, plants, flowers... And the road to it was also magnificent. I hope you like the pictures!

And by the way, we went there with Julian and Simone, two Germans who are also volunteers in Antsirabe. They had just arrived from Germany the day before, but they were really "begeistert" of the our plan and decided to come, so CHAPEAU for them!

Do you recognise this cute lemur here? It’s the cute little servant of King Julian from the film Madagascar.

 I almost grabbed him and took him with him! I know my sister Leti would have done it. I couldn’t stop thinking about her and about my father while I was there. They love animals so much... But don’t worry Leti, you are young and have a world full of possibilities ahead of you! Just have a little patience and in the meantime enjoy the pictures your older brother has done thinking about you! I miss you CHOSU BABY!

Changing

So this week was a week full of changes and contrasts. From days of hard work and tiredness to days of leisure, laughter and joy. This week I started with the volleyball classes. We were just 9 people, but it worked out really well. It's somehow funny because I've actually almost never played volleyball in my life, but thanks to my dear friend Ana and her help and dedication the days prior to flying to Mada, students actually thought that I was some kind of professional volleyball player. It's great to help other but also to be helped so thanks Ana for that!

Regarding my English classes, this week we covered Martin Luther King and I am proud to say that students really liked it. I think they liked to be reminded that we are all the same no matter our sex, religion, sexual preferences or colour of our skin, specially because here in Madagascar reality is quite different. White people are millionaires, who can do anything they want here and now, while the rest of the Malgasies struggle  to make ends meet in the middle of an economic and political crisis. I've also started to bond with some of the students. Individuals who share my passion for languages and knowledge, people who dream of a better future and are willing to work hard and learn more in order to achieve it. I hope I can tell you more about them soon.

A new change this week is that we started preparing the scholarship programme at the ESSVA. Zukunft Madagascar, the German association who has given me the opportunity to come here, and who also provides scholarships to the students at the ESSVA who can no longer pay their studies, is willing to expand its scholarship programme and will now also collaborate with the schools here in Antsirabe to find students who would be willing to study at the ESSVA but are not able because their families can't afford it.





This collaboration is what Jutta and me have been working on this week. We have visited the schools and had meetings with the principals of each of them and hopefully we will see the results of this in October 2013. I am quite postive about it and I am sure we're going to make it happen.

Last but not least, Emilien, Elissa and Julie were here this weekend and it was great seeing them again. We went to a karaoke, played some billiards, went to a mall just of zebus and yesterday on a fait la fête! It was so cool seeing that nothing had changed and that we still laughed  to the same stupid things.

And then came the time to say goodbye.

It is not easy saying goodbye when you don’t know if you’ll ever see that person again. It is sad, of course, but most of all it feels so unfair... It is like just been allowed to watch half of your favorite movie or reading just the final chapter of a great book. You know there is still so much more left, so much more that you could have lived together, and so many things that you feel the need to say, and couldn't because you were waiting for the right moment or the right words...

But as someone wiser than me once said, “you are to have and not to hold”. Like a father when a son leaves home, we have to learn to let go... and in the end, with regard to those who leave, the only thing that we can do is... well, just to wish them well I guess, to hope to see them again someday, but most of all, to learn to be thankful for the moments shared and to look forward to meeting new people, who might or might not be as special as the ones you leave behind, but from whom there is always something to learn and to whom we can always give our best smile.

Antoine, Nina, Julie, Elissa et Emilien, merci beaucoup et bonne continuation!