Today was a very special day! We were heading into the village to see the kids in school and see a bit of village life. As much as I loved going into the rainforest to see the wildlife, I also love seeing and meeting locals to really get a grasp on the culture. I already loved being at the camp with all the Malagasy students and guides, and couldn’t wait to see the little kidlets at the school and seeing the villagers doing their thing.

Ok so I thought it was a casual 30 min walk into the village and I had Domohina, Joany and one of the older guides come with us. Domohina and Joany were both wearing slides, and here I am thinking, ‘oh I’m a lamo tourist wearing full hiking boots’. WELL, I am very glad I wore my full touristy goretex hiking boots because, the terrain changed from a dirt road to muddy slopey very steep hills to avoiding zebu poop, walking and balancing along water logged ledges that were definitely not stable to actually jumping across puddles and balancing across logs that were put across rivers. It was also SO HOT that day, which was a massive change from the last few days that were rainy and freezing, and man oh man, I should have worn a hat! We made it to the village and I was like ‘yay!’ but then we kept walking, then we came to another part of the village and I was like ‘yay!’ then we kept walking and then we walked up another hill and came across another building and thought finally! The school! Nope, we just kept walking. hahaha! Turns out the school was up many more hills and the sun was brutal. Perhaps I was actually coming down with some virus or something which is why I was struggling in the heat so much, but I just wanted to get to the school. So when we made it and there was shade, I felt like it was a miracle I made it.

The director of the school came out wearing his lab coat – all the teachers were wearing lab coats, and there were three classrooms with three different age groups. I got to poke my head into the middle-aged group and take photos of them working on some maths with their teacher. They obviously just kept turning around and staring at me because, for some of them I am the first Asian person they’ve ever seen in their lives. The kids were so cute, trying to concentrate and write down the stuff the teacher was telling them, but then I’d catch sneaky little glances at me and the camera, so I’d try and capture those cute sneaky looks. I was very sad that my Canon R7 wasn’t working, because I wanted to be able to get much clearer shots with my 50mm. But at least I had my 2nd camera, otherwise it would have just been photos on my phone!

After I got pics of this class, we went into the second classroom that had the older kids and Domohina and Joany ran a lesson with the kids teaching them about silverleaf desmodium which is the invasive species that are affecting little reptiles like chameleons and froggies. This is a poster that I had designed with direction from Tim Eppley, Our Chief Conservation Officer, to make a visual poster that showed that this is an invasive weed and for locals to pull it out. At first it was mostly words, but then Tim informed me that so many rural Malagasy can’t read, so we needed it more visual. So seeing a poster that I had created, printed in real life, then taken to this local school to educate and then hopefully to safe some wildlife, really made my heart explode with happiness.

During the lesson I had no idea what they were saying but both Domohina and Joany made it so fun and the kids were laughing and seemed like they enjoyed the lesson. Joany made them repeat things like it was a song and then they like turned around and made little love hearts with their hands. It was SO DAMN CUTE! (Watch video below)

Also, while this is all happening, the tiny kids from the other class had come out and were watching from the windows and they were also very very cute. We then all went outside after the silverleaf lesson. One of my tasks was to get photos of “local kids playing’ so Joany got them all into one big circle and played some game with them where he picked a few kids to be in the middle of the circle and they had to count but then also roar like a lion then if they didn’t do it at the right timing they were out? I have no idea, but all the kids were laughing and having the best time – I really hope I captured some of their cute laughing faces! They then all jumped in for a group photo, basically jumping on top of Joany so I could get some pics. I was so happy when they got into the group photo but held up the poster that I had made!

I then wanted to join in the photo, so I jumped in and at first, I was like sitting at the front, then Joany said something that then made all the kids basically jump on top of me, it was HILARIOUS. I then showed them how to do my signature Japanese peace signs and most of them managed to copy me. Then I ran around and took photos of them, I put my viewfinder screen on selfie mode on my camera so they could see their own faces and I took lots of photos of them posing. IT WAS HILARIOUS! They definitely warmed up to me and realised I wasn’t a weird scary Asian and were happy to come and wave and pose for the camera. I then was leaving and was waving and they followed me and were waving, I loved it. They were just so cute. I was overwhelmed with cuteness!

THEN we went back to the village, up and down hills again, and seeing the villagers who were working in the rice fields – they were also very cute and were happy for me to take photos of them. One of the men apparently said that I had ‘skin like a Chinese person’ bahahahahaha Apparently anyone who is Asian is automatically categorised as Chinese. But just everyone we met along the way were so cute, and so happy to stop and have a chat, they all loved having their photos taken and staring at me hahahaha.

We stopped and talked to these two ladies who were barefeet and digging up soil for their vege gardens. Since I love growing veges, I enjoyed identifying the different veges that they were growing. They were growing taro which is something I’ve always enjoyed and have frequently bought it at our local markets (you can’t find it in the supermarkets) and I have wanted to grow it myself, so this inspired me!

Then we were heading back to the village up the hill, and there was a lady calling out to us and saying things which Joany and Domohina were laughing and calling back, then we descended the hill to go to this lady’s house. I found a cute doggo which of course I patted, then climbed the steepest ladder stairs ever into this lady’s little house. OMG she was so cute and had just boiled some TARO (it was meant to be)! so we ate some taro, me basically burning my fingers off trying to peel the taro skin and they all laughed at me, and the lady even got me a knife hahaha But I refrained and continued to burn my fingers to eat the fresh taro. SO GOOD. then they made us some coffee that they’d purchased locally, I was hoping they’d grown it, but the local village tree wasn’t fruiting at the moment. But she made us the coffee and was filtering it somehow into cups and it was very yummy. Then the grandma came along and she was even CUTER! I wanted to give them something in return but I only had like mini protein choc biscuit things I got from Japan so I gave them that. which they happily ate but I felt like they were deep down thinking they weren’t delicious bahahaha.

It turned out that they were the mum and grandma of some of the guides for Wildlife Madagascar! They were just so cute and they wanted a photo with me so I stood in the photo with one on either side of me. Then we kinda just stood there with our arms by our sides and Joany must have said something about looking awkward or doing something with our hands, so they both grabbed a hand each and then lifted it up. OMG it was just so funny and the photos is HILARIOUS bahahahahahahah. I just loved being in there and could have just stayed there and hung out with these ladies for the rest of the afternoon! Joany said that they were very happy to have us in their home and I told him that I was very happy to be invited into their home – it meant a lot to me that they didn’t think of me as an outsider who they didn’t want in their home. After we said bye and left – grandma waved at us through the window, which I just melted with love for – it was just so ridiculously cute hahaha

We then went for a wander throughout the village and said ‘salama’ to everyone we saw, and they were all so welcoming and wanted photos with me. It was cute. I saw a turkey for the first time in my life and couldn’t stop laughing – they were very funny creatures hahaha. Many of the villagers had their rice out drying and their chickens and turkeys kept hanging out and trying to eat the rice haha. I found some tiny kids who peeked around from fences to see us and I would wave and they’d run away, but then they’d pop out at another fence peeking and I’d wave again and they’d run away again haha It was a cute little game (well I thought it was, but the kids may have just been petrified of me, we’ll never know). We then saw a lady with a baby and tiny child with a basket so we asked them if we could have a look inside the basket and they had some yabbies! (or crayfish or crawfish, crawdaddies? for those not from Australia).

Was a mammoth day, then we got back and I was basically dead from the heat and glandular and sickness so I went to bed and ended up with a fever. NOT FUN! and I missed dinner / party that the students were having which made me very sad. I got up at like 11pm to go to the toilet in the house and found the students and guides all sitting in the house, with a projector on the screen singing karaoke. It was such a nice vibe – I was sad that I was slowly dying and needed to get back to my tent and sleep it off.