April 8th 2018
I am sitting comfortably in Naturaliste after having a shower and putting on fresh clothes. It feels very nice to be clean and cool after being hot and sweaty all day. Today was Doria and my second morning with the lemurs. We were very excited to be with Museum Group and be able to identify about eight lemurs. There were only two of our focals that we didn’t see. We have been going to the lemurs at 8:00 am and staying until around 10:30 am. In the afternoon today Milliasse and I met with the teacher of the grades 4 and 5. He let us know that there are 66 students in his grades that will need Red Book colouring books tomorrow. We will be bringing red books and colouring pencils to the school. Milliasse, Doria, a fellow researcher at Naturaliste and I are all going to go to the school to give out books, conduct a questionnaire and show the documentary.
On my first night at Naturaliste I showed the documentary to my fellow researchers here. They were super supportive and really enjoyed the starry night sky shot and the shot of me eating the beans and rice for breakfast.
Showing the documentary to the children and other supporters in Fort Dauphin was really special. First we set up the room with one pen, one packet of pencil crayons, one red book, and one questionnaire for each student. They also each got some peanuts, a drink and either a donut or a samosa. First we explained the red book and what it is and explained that the children get to keep their books. Then we completed the questionnaire asking questions such as “have you ever owned your own book before” and “how much do you like the drawings in this book”. Then we played a game where the children had three tickets each and wrote down their name and the number of a prize that they liked. Prizes were all donated by Jazmyn Sturgeon, 8 years old. Next, the names were put into a bag and the ‘winners’ were drawn from the bag until every child got a prize. Even though there was some confusion during the game no children were pushing or fighting over prizes, they were all really well behaved. Then it was time for the surprise birthday cake for Germaine. It was decorated with a birthday message and two candles showing his age: 22 years old. He was very surprised and everyone sang “happy birthday” and cheered. After handing out cake to everyone we had the showing of the documentary. Again, I was really impressed with how well behaved the children were, sitting patiently for the 25 minute documentary.
After dinner the executive and Mami, Fabrise as well as Gael came to the Kaleta hotel for some debriefing and drinks. There were a bunch of people and in total we were 12. Gael was talking about how Monica and I are sisters and said “the only difference between Amber and Monica is that Monica dances and also she drinks beer”. I thought this was funny.
After dinner we (Milliasse and Doria and I) went to the Le Dauphin hotel and Mami got in the taxi with us. I said “do you want to have dinner with us at le Dauphin?”. I said “Monica said to me to be extra nice to you, Mami because usually the boys occupy all of our attention”. We had a really nice dinner together the four of us and we talked about the problem of the Mahavoky being an expensive place to hold conservation club meetings. Mami said she did talk with Monica about it and arranged for renting a club house. It would cost 80,000 Ar or 32$ per month. Then the club could meet as often as they wished. It would also be a house for whoever needed one. I said it would be perfect for Fabrise because he is homeless and living on the streets. I gave Mami two months rent worth for the club house and said we would reassess the situation when I return to Fort Dauphin at the beginning of the month of June. It seemed like a perfect solution but then again, nothing here is ever really just straight forward.
Categories: Madagascar