Adam left his life in London and job in a bank to live with us on Nosy Komba, Madagascar for four months. How glad we are that he did – throwing himself into each project that he was part of and one of the kindest people any of us have encountered.

And we’re pretty sure he enjoyed it…

“What a fantastic experience, I volunteered for eight weeks in the Forest Programme followed by eight weeks in the Marine Programme. The Forest Programme was a wonderful insight into how rewarding conservation can be. It’s very hard to pick
just one favourite moment but hiking through sub-tropical rainforest to find wildlife every day was something I’ll never forget. The Forest Team was beyond dedicated, forging relationships and earning the trust and respect of the locals which is vital to any conservation programme.

The Marine Programme was equally as rewarding and opened up a whole new world of exploration for me. I’d never dived before yet I achieved my Advanced Open Water and a total of 40 dives during my eight weeks here under the wonderful guidance of the instructors.

My 16 weeks in Madagascar were unforgettable and I can’t recommend it enough. My only piece of advice would be to stay for as long as you can.”

Caitlin ended her exploring stint with us at Turtle Cove where she joined our community project as a volunteer for two months before returning home to Australia. She kindly wrote a piece for us about her time on Nosy Komba and the friendships she forged on and off camp. It was a pleasure having her here and we can’t wait to see her again.

“It’s been one week, one entire week since I left MRCI Madagascar. As I lay in my bed, in a well structured house, with a burning fire, a nice warm shower and mum’s home cooked dinner, I feel more than appreciative of what I am fortunate to have, yet I still have not lost my attachment to Madagascar and the beautiful people I have met.

Spending only eight weeks in paradise just wasn’t enough. You realise the value of life, you will forever cherish the memories and never stop dreaming of Nosy Komba, the beautiful little island off Madagascar. This adventure for me was life changing.

I spent eight weeks volunteer teaching in Madagascar, coming across this online and having an interest in education and volunteering, this was an easy must-do for me. This was a rare opportunity that I’m so glad I took. I was very lucky to share my time with such passionate staff and motivated volunteers, working with like-minded people, forming bonds and friendships like no other. To wake up every day with not only the beautiful scenery but also everyone’s smiling faces; I compare it to a family. You grow, learn and thrive off each other; hearing one another’s adventures, planning more and creating memories along the way. No matter who you are, where you are from, what language you speak…there is a place for you in Madagascar and for me I will be forever grateful to these wonderful people I now call friends.

As a young, naive 19 year old girl who has visions to travel the world, it is more than a blessing to have this opportunity of being a part of the community program. At night, myself and my fellow teachers would plan our classes for the next day and we would always have help by our outstanding coordinator and other volunteers too. We would talk about our days, our students and even learn a few things ourselves.

Our walks to class…definitely not a normal commute to work. Walking, trekking in the forest, climbing and scaling boulders. Sometimes it would take an hour’s walk but it was all worth it. As soon as you come close to a village all you can hear are hello’s, thank you’s, the kids calling out your names and singing songs you have taught them…a magical feeling.

We taught kids and adults. The kids eager for more…more learning, more yelling, more colouring, more play time, more songs and dances. Eager to enjoy their time that they have with us. These kids to me, became like family. Local Malagasy kids, sharing and giving the little food they have, always wanting you to join in a game of basketball or soccer, but my favourite was swim time. I had so much fun with these beautiful kids, I became so attached it never felt right saying goodbye. Not only to this day but every day, every single one of them, I will never forget. These kids all under the age of 15 really showed me the value of life, the value of love and how to embrace every situation.

The adults of Nosy Komba and Nosy Be, are very intelligent, it was so impressive. You were able to have a normal conversation with them, in English! Every lesson they participated in, they would grasp the concept so quickly and so well! Their understanding was mind blowing! Such intelligent people, if a few struggled, no one was left behind and they would all help until everyone could comprehend. They always wanted to learn more, even the little things, always wanted to know until the very last detail. So many laughs, so many deep and meaningful conversations about our lives back at home, their personal interest in us never grows old.

I had a tendency to grow strong connections with them, because they spoke such good English, I was able to spend a lot of time with them. I would spend most weekends and a lot of my spare time with them. They would invite me into their homes, I would help them cook and then enjoy a meal that was prepared in a way I had never seen before. They would show us the local places and where to go! Enjoying massive boxing and football matches during my time (both so different to our ways in the westernised world), partying and just having an everyday conversation with the magnificent people of Madagascar.

Simply, they invited us to be apart of their culture. So I embraced it.

This was the most precious gift given to me, I took a step out of my affluent, middle class life and took time to embrace their culture and without this, I don’t think you could fully enjoy Madagascar. Without knowing these people, it would have never changed who I am today. They taught me so many life lessons, so many things I don’t need to worry about, the essentials and values. The culture is the one thing I will always treasure and I owe it to the wonderful people I met along the way.

Life is life, Madagascar is paradise!”

It’s Tuesday today which means we get to enjoy coconut rice for dinner tonight. Here at camp, Raissa, Perline, Marie-Solange, Micheline and Nadia treat us to a different, delicious meal each night of the week, but ask around and no doubt this dish would prove a popular favourite. I sat down with the ladies and asked them to share the recipe with me…

Firstly, fresh coconut is scraped out of it’s shell using a special stool, crafted specifically for this purpose – an arduous task but the result is definitely worth it! (Should you not have a Malagasy coconut grating stool at home, there are other coconut grating tools available).

The coconut is then combined with white rice, salt, water and a cinnamon stick. Mix together and bring to the boil. Simmer until the rice is cooked through and enjoy with almost anything, or just on it’s own!

Thank you so much ladies for all the fantastic food – you’re the best!

In light of Sunday night’s supermoon eclipse I decided to do an astrology themed blog post…

Here at camp, our night sky acts as an overhead gallery. Each night we go about our business under a phenomenal display; deign to look skyward and you’re almost guaranteed to see a  shooting star. When you live here it’s easy to become complacent with the light show above your head, but look up and no words seem fitting for what lies there. All the language that springs to mind feels trite given its use in the day to day. It is so easy to forget the true meaning of words when they are so frequently rolled out; ‘awesome’ and ‘magnificent’ now finally content in a description befitting of their definition.

Sunday night saw the eclipse of a supermoon, some 31,000 miles closer to Earth than usual (that’s around the world 8.6 times), one of only five supermoon eclipses to have occurred since 1900 and the last one for eighteen years.

I went to Chile last year and was introduced to astronomy by a man called Jorge Coranthes who, after twenty years as an astronomy tour guide, gets the same joy from visions of the universe that he did when he began. He had meant to become an engineer but on a routine trip into the Atacama Desert two decades ago, he encountered a German woman (her name still fresh in his memory) who asked him to point out the Southern Cross (constellation of Crux), which he did. Her reaction, he said, was one of delight. She had always wanted to see it, and that interaction caused him to pursue a career in astro tourism, taking people into the desert nightly to have their minds blown by what sits a loft. We can see the Southern Cross from Turtle Cove too, in the company of Mars, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn and for September at least, Mercury.

I am no scientist – physics, frustratingly, is beyond me, but space is too interesting to leave alone. The wonder of it all… To know that when you are looking at the Andromeda Galaxy, you are looking at a moment 2.57 million years ago. That on Neptune it rains diamonds, that technically we are all made of star dust and that a day on Venus extends beyond a year on Earth. That a soup can full of neutron star material would have more mass than the moon. That all the reactions, the forming and death of stars takes place in total silence and that there are more stars in the sky than there are grains of sand on our planet.

Coming home to Nosy Komba at night by boat might just be the best taxi ride of your life! A canopy of unfathomable proportion, bioluminescence igniting under the water. It’s pretty great.

Thank you to Brandon, Tamara and Julia for the beautiful photographs.