Carmel College students love adventure (think four weeks in Madagascar), extraordinary experiences (living in a remote rural village where we funded and then helped build a small community hospital) and trekking through mountainous regions or deep canyons in heat often nearing 40 degrees. We also love dancing lemurs (just like in the movie), colourful chameleons, mighty baobab trees and slippery, yet harmless, snakes. Needless to say, we certainly encountered a wide variety of this type of amazing wildlife, endemic to Madagascar yet so different to the wildlife we are more used to in New Zealand, on our recent trip to this stunningly beautiful country.

Thanks to our school’s long-term association with World Challenge, and working alongside international organisations like Feedback Madagascar, Zonta and ‘Days for Girls’, we were offered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to visit Madagascar, setting off in early December for this month-long adventure. It took two years of fundraising and personal preparation to bring the three phases of our adventure together as a coherent whole.

The first phase was our community engagement project, which provided us with the opportunity to pay for, and then also assist in, the building of a two room hospital for the rural community of Ambohimana in the Ifanadiana district. Living conditions in the village and surrounding areas are very basic but, in terms of the bigger picture, completing our project also underpinned the principles of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals meaning that the small hospital facilities that we, as Carmel College students, contributed to, also makes a meaningful contribution to this community’s own development initiatives. We spent a week completing this project phase. We also spent afternoons teaching children English, immersing ourselves in Malagasy life and were particularly humbled by the kindness and generosity of the locals who have so little, yet gave us so much. 

Another wonderful aspect of our trip to Madagascar was the opportunity we had to personally present 50 re-usable ‘Days for Girls’ hygiene kits to this non-profit charity that works hard to keep girls going to school once they begin their periods. Sadly, girls are often forced to leave school and stay at home during this time, missing out on valuable learning opportunities. This particular initiative was led by Nadeen Amso, a material technology student at Carmel, who developed the manufacturing system over a two-year period. The Zonta students and teachers at Carmel College made these kits for young Malagasy women to use and we then carried the kits in our backpacks to deliver personally. Students at Carmel College also raised an additional thousand dollars to help keep the initiative going in-country, which we were lucky enough to present to Bishop Sami and the community leaders on the day.

A third aspect of our trip was more physical and involved the personal challenge of undertaking and completing three difficult treks in different parts of the country. The landscapes we encountered were breath-taking and spending Christmas Day in the highlands of Andringitra National Park, with its spectacular views of huge towering granite peaks was unforgettable, thanks to the efforts of our teachers Pauline Larkin, Pip Buddle and Jess Fitzgerald (the expedition leader) in preparing an unforgettable traditional breakfast and open -fire dinner with very limited resources.

During the month we were in Madagascar, we learnt and grew so much thanks to the challenges we faced, the people we met, and the wildlife we saw. The trip was definitely not easy yet, despite all the challenges thrown at us, we were always able to pull together and find new solutions to our problems, as well as make important decisions as a group. Sometimes during the journey we would have to face unexpected curve-balls like last minute transport arrangements or challenging budget issues. However, our adventures in Madagascar still ran smoothly thanks to the kindness of locals we met along the way. Without our translator and guides our experience would not have been the same. 

With the initial planning for our next World Challenge adventure to South America in 2020 already underway, we hope that other students take up the opportunity to experience a once in a lifetime experience, just like we did. 

 

- Written by Aislin Hook, Lauren Collett, Pauline Larkin. Photos by Pip Buddle and Pauline Larkin.