Mahajanga

Back in June I traveled up to Mahajanga, a small city on the north-west coast of Madagascar. It’s the farthest north I have ever been in Madagascar. Most Americans associate north with cold and south with hot. In Madagascar, that concept is completely useless. Instead, there’s up and down. Up in the center of the island is where it is cold. Down by the coast is where it is hot. To give you an idea, right now it is “winter” in Madagascar. In the capital of Tana, it is averaging mid-70s during the day. People are in big jackets, winter hats, gloves, etc. It looks like a snowstorm is coming with the way people are dressed. Mind you, I’m still in pants and short sleeves. I spent 9 days in Mahajanga where the temperature every day was between 92-94, and it’s “winter” there right now. The summer sees the average temperature range from 97-110, not including the humidity from the wet season. Needless to say, I melted.

Mahajanga was interesting for me. Here in the capital there are a lot of problems. The 10 days before I left for Mahajanga, there were major power cuts across the city. Now, I lose power every night between 1-3am, and sometimes during the day. But it’s usually predictable if I bother to look at the power cut schedule. However, these 10 days were awful. I was losing power 2-4 times a day for 2-4 hours at a time with no reliable schedule. I thought it was bad and even joked with my friends that I was going to lead a protest at Jirama (the national power company). Could you imagine? A vazaha leading a protest against a local power company. Very funny image but also one that would see me on a plane back to the States and my grant with the US Department of State terminated faster than you can say “veloma”. All of this sounded terrible until I got to Mahajanga where they lose power twice a day, every day, for 3-5 hours at a time without warning. It made things extremely difficult. In fact, the power cuts are so bad and regular that the fancy hotels have invested in their own generators that they keep stored to run during the night because there are always nightly power cuts. You know, that time people actually need electricity.

So I should clarify that I wasn’t in Mahajanga for vacation. I was there to work. In fact, I was THE official US Embassy representative at two event, the English Club Moderator Training (ECMT) and the Access Program Teacher Training camp. What are those? The first is self-evident. We train English club moderators how to run more effective English clubs. We teach them how to run meetings, organize activities, and present interesting and relevant topics. That training lasted 2 days, but the Access training was extensive, and more fun.

The English Access Program is a microscholarship program sponsored by the US Department of State in countries around the world. Participants, who are students from economically struggling families and are of high school age, enroll in the 2-year program where they take intensive courses in English and technology all with the aim of providing them with strong and intentional formation, whether their future is in the United States or here in Madagascar. The last English Access Program hosted here in Madagascar ended last December (2022). Throughout my first year of living in Madagascar, I was an active and frequent teacher. Thus, when I got the invitation to train some teachers who would be running Madagascar’s new Access Program cohort in Mahajanga, I jumped on the opportunity with no little amount of enthusiasm.

Indeed, I was excited and very happy to help train the teachers and provide them with a deeper understanding of exactly what kind of impact this program has on the students and the teachers. With the program being so long, a tightknit community forms around the program. The students learn leadership skills, the value of volunteering, computer skills, and so many other hidden talents and passions that would otherwise remain dormant. For me, it reminded me of my time in the Scouts where we tried to inspire young boys to take on more responsibility and leadership, to be truly good men of virtue and service. If you couldn’t tell by now, I’m very passionate about formation, specifically male formation, meaning preparing boys and young men to be good and holy men. It’s something I notice the world needs more of, and something which I believe is my responsibility to perpetuate as I grow older and take more active roles in the lives of other through my work and vocation.

Anyways, I was also excited to go north because my buddy Andry lives in Mahajanga and is the coordinator of the American Corners there. I don’t have many male friends in Madagascar because of the gender distribution in the field of education, and more specifically in language education, which heavily leans female. Andry is one of my best buddies, and we have really only seen each other a few times, and never longer than a week. This is because of the distance between us. But as anyone with sufficnet life experience can tell you, two men who know how to read each other make good friends and fast. And that is exactly what is between Andry and I who at my Fulbright orientation, had to be separated because we were causing too much trouble.

Andry does great work in Mahajanga. He’s like the Mayor of that little city. Everywhere I went with him, people were saying hi and always happy to see him. He’s thoughtful, intentional, and all round just a good man. He’s the kind of man I want future generations to be like. And as the head of the English Access Program Mahajanga, I know the students under his care and under the direction of the teachers and teacher assistants who will be in charge of not only the students’ extra English education for the next two years, but who will be acting as their mentors and role models. Big shoes to fill.

For my part, I was present throughout the whole training and provided answers when questions arose. My actual portion of the training was about writing. Mind you, we had coffee/snack breaks every morning. And the company who ran this quickly realized how much I love coffee. So, they would leave the leftover coffee in a thermace and leave behind a single cup for me to use. The running joke about me throughout the week was about coffee. Naturally, I designed my entire session on writing about coffee. Every slide on my 38-slide powerpoint had coffee images or sketch art. During our break, one of the teachers said, “It’s so much coffee. It’s like I’m being pelted with a subconcious message.” Not to his disappointment, on the very last slide, there was a circular chart with images of coffee beans, coffee grounds, filtering coffee, and a cup of coffee. In the center was a text box, “Writing is like making a cup of coffee.” You pick out the good ideas like beans. Then you grind through it all and outline your work. Then you actually have to filter it through and write. And when it’s all done, you take a delicious sip. That’s when you say to yourself, “Mmm this was good. I should make another.” Or, “Hmm, not bad. But I can do better.” And the process starts all over again.

Regardless of my craziness, my time in Mahajanga was great. I didn’t do any sightseeing; I’m pretty much done with that now that I leave in just a few days. But spending time with my friends there and just walking around the significantly quieter and non-congested coastal city was a nice change of pace from the overwhelming life in the capital. It is hard to imagine that I leave in such a short time. And it was in Mahajanga where I was saying goodbye to my friends there that this was the beginning of what would be a long chain of final goodbyes.

As always, know that you are in my prayers each morning. All I ask is that you do the same for me.

May God be praised.