Big Hair South

Volobe Sud (literally translated as “big hair south”) is the most remote village I’ve worked in with Azafady. I’ve just come back from 3 weeks building a school there. It’s been an amazing 3 weeks but it’s good to be back. I have really missed cheese. Volobe is a hard place to be for a solid stretch of time that long!

The school has been built with no major problems but what has struck me about this scheme is the epic scale of organising the work here.

Volobe is a 3 hour camion ride north of Fort Dauphin (to Tsanoriha, just north of Mahatalaky for those in the know). On reaching Tsanoriha there was quite a sight waiting for us. Some 300 people from Volobe greeted us chanting welcome songs and blowing an old bugle to further rouse the group. It was pretty overwhelming. I’ve never seen a welcome like it! From there you have to cross a terrifying bridge or ford the river (I forded the river. The bridge looked so scary). It is then a 3.5 hour trek into the mountains crossing a further 7 bodies of water before you get to Volobe. Getting 15 volunteers and their bags there was in itself a serious undertaking. But then of course all the materials for the school building have to be transported there too! In all, it took the best part of 300 porters all day to carry all of our kit and materials the 20 km to Volobe. An incredible effort from all involved and an amazing feat of Malagasy organisation!

God awful bridge at Tsanoriha. I opted for wading the river.

Dodgy Indiana Jones style bridge

Army of cement bags arriving for the latrine we go to built next tuesday. Each bag weighs 50kg. Finished school in the background.

Volobe is the most beautiful place we’ve worked. It feels truly cut off from the rest of the area in the heart of the mountains. It gets incredibly cold at night and beautifully hot in the day. No phone signal, no car access and a very limited supply of bolo, frego, coke and gouty (all local biscuits and the lifeblood of pioneer schemes). Coffee trees scattered through the campsite along with pigs, dogs and disoriented roosters who crow all through the day and all through the night (but then we killed and ate the roosters so our vengeance was had!).

Campsite

Paddy fields

Beautiful Volobe

It’s so peaceful (apart from the roosters) and all along the local river there are secluded seating areas where you can sit and sun warmed rocks and watch the birds go by. Lunch hours are spent dozing under coffee trees and devouring more books.

The view from the square foot of phone reception in the area. It's a patch of sacred forest where local people are buried (hence it being the only patch of intact forest in the area). Has a very magical quality to it. I almost expected dinosaurs to come stumbling out at dusk!

The only major break in the peace (save for the roosters) came from round the clock partying by the local people. Winter season equals circumcision season in Madagascar, an occasion for a huge party with lots of round the clock moonshine consumption, singing and dancing. The stamina it requires to keep dancing and chanting through the village for 2 days straight is pretty incredible. The guides assured me that the spirits of the ancestors had possessed them and it was this that was giving them the strength to continue. I’m more convinced that they got their powers from the copious quantities of a local spirit of another sort…

Frog in the porch of my new spangly tent.

So, all in all, another good but hard (and healthy!) three weeks. I am now eating and relaxing as much as I can before we head back out next Tuesday.

P.S. I’ve added more pics from my holiday with Mum and Dad to my last blog entry. Enjoy them!