Children's Cook Out for Independance day

It's party time in Madagascar! Yesterday was the annual independance day, June 26. This day is a feast for everyone. But is it really? Many poor people have no means to celebrate. Street children are sent by their masters to beg, because a national day of celebration is also an excellent day for begging.

To avoid letting children go beg on the street, the center for street children I'm supporting had a great idea: organizing a Tsikony. This is a Malagasy tradition whereby children are cooking! But how to finance this? I sent an email to my generous friends here in Tana and raised a good sum of money and support. Thank you Amanda, Patricia, Anita, Nieves, Kyong, David, Pascale, Alain and Fedor!

It was a lovely event. All the food and cooking utensils bought by the center were displayed like a market. The children were getting 'monopoly money' worth 30,000 Ariary per group. They had to buy stuff and prepare the food, in the cutest little dishes, with mini spoons and minuature pots and pans, like in a giant doll house. We the guest, were 'selling' chicken, sausage, even shrimp, and veggies, rice, pasta, fruits, etc and giving points for cleanliness and cooking skills.

So we watched three-year olds cutting tomatoes, six-year olds sweeping the floor, toddlers fanning the  charcoal cookers and all ages running back and forth to buy spoons full of cooking oil. 

Honestely, got to give it to these kids...I don't see 'our' little ones preparing a whole mini-meal in one hour. Bravo!

What donatations bought - a true feast

Three types of cooking gear

The market is open, for the first group of children

Monopoly money - give children some commerical sense

Cute little dishes

Yoghurt: 1 Ariary, Banana 2 Ariary

The guests are 'selling' the stuff

Carrots 10 Ariary per piece

Buy mine! No mine!

Here's your change

The first sales are done

Tables clothes and minipots are indispensible

Wait for your change....

Hmmm, shall I buy chicken or shrimp?

A luxury! Chicken for 10 Ariary

Even dish liquid could be bought!

Mr World Bank counting his money!

Six year old boy cutting chicken

What's on the menu girls?

Boys job: lighting charcoal

Peeling carots

It's getting smokey in here!

Fanning with a slipper

Three year old cutting tomatoes like a chef!

It is starting to smell so good!

Never to young to fan up a fire

Stir so it won't burn

Another technique to light up charcoal

Soleine is cooking too

Alex and I celebrating this great event

This is what's left at the end....nothing!

Cleanliness is important!

Bon appétit les enfants!

Happy Anniversary Center

The center just celebrated its 7th birthday. Seven years in which it has grown from 20 to 300 children. Seven years of trial and error, of near shut downs and rescues. Seven years of joy, laughter, tears, theft, fire, donations, support, disappointment, surprise and mostly...300 children getting food and schooling!

That calls for a party!

Alex's opening speech

Doing a dance for the guests

Birthday cake! Enjoy!

Red Dress Run Huge Success: Raising Over 6 million Ariary

Dear All,

A big thanks to everybody who made that first ever RED DRESS RUN a huge success and most important a funny day.

Please send me your pictures of that day on CD or on Web and read this email to the end.

Un immense merci à tout un chacun pour avoir fait de ce premier RED DRESS RUN un succès mais plus important une journée très amusante.

Merci de m’envoyer vos photos sur CD ou sur Web et n’oubliez pas de lire cet email jusqu’à la fin.

A BIG THANKS to -UN GRAND MERCI à

our sponsors :

SKOL (which financed the beer, the beer stop, the food provided by Café de la Gare, the goodies, the T-shirts,….)

Falck from Europe (Thanks Thijs, yes we will never Falck alone)

Madarail developpement for providing the great secured Soarano facilities in the heart of Tana.

nos sponsors :

SKOL, qui a financé non seulement la bière mais le beer stop, les cadeaux, les brochettes fournies par Café de la Gare, les T-shirts,..)

Falck depuis l’Europe (merci Thijs, oui nous ne falckerons jamais seuls)

Madarail Developpement pour nous avoir donné accès à ce superbe site sécurisé de la Gare de Saorano en plein centre ville.

(The total budget of the day was around 4.5 millions ariary!). So thanks again.

(Le budget total de cette journée fût d’environ 4,5 millions d’ariary !). Encore merci.

All the Hashers/friends who moved their ass to collect some money for the charity Hash fund raising:

Tous les hashers/amis qui se sont mobilisés pour récolter des fonds pour ce Hash spécial œuvres caritatives :

Sheep Shager-Cheap Hot Spot, Blue soccer, Le Pimp, Comatose, Nicolette, Heiko-Catherine, Johnson and Johnsen, Taquita, Multilingus, Susan, BB-AA, SD-Talented Tongue, High Millage, I am Game, Jeremie-Ietje, Counting Nurse-Jeroboam The Thirst, Joana-Keke, Randy (ou Randa?), Kinky Reggae, Alyssia, Antonie-Christian

All our individual sponsors:

Tous nos parrains, sponsors individuels:

Falck (Thijs), Will, Mike-Laurie, Roger-Tania, Pierrot-Marie Pierrot, Joe-Rachel, Olivier, Ken, Joni, Roger-Hasi, Suzie, Dave, Soline, Jacques, Minou-Michou, Kim, Sarah, Katell, Jennifer, Pieter, Ada, Pascale, Ariane, Herman-Ans, Kristi, Thibault, Mathieu, Pinkaka, Marketa, Sidne, Julie, Patricia, Kara, Flip Flop, Jean-Marie, Loïc, Audrey, Maylis, Simon, Annette, Jeff-Rose-Sofia, Amanda, Connie, Mijntje

Bernard, Elly, Sabine, Yume-Ryota, Monika, Krishna-Muriel, Anne, Tina, Jaap, Joëlle, Naoko, Jean Lee, Ximena, Emmanuel, Natasha, Soary, Georges, Joana, Malanto, Fanja, Claude, Alphonse, Suzette, Tahina

We have raised for our 2 charity institutions:

Nous avons collecté pour nos deux actions caritatives :

6.500.000 Ariary

We will keep you posted about the final payments (stay connected to our website)

Nous vous tiendrons au courant de leur utilisation (restez branchés sur notre site Web)

And last but not least, a deep hashy thanks to the mismanagement committee, thanks guys, we did it and it was fun all way long

(please convey this email to your individual sponsors)

Part of the mismanagement in action preparing the RED DRESS RUN.

-- 
ON ON
 
Le PIMP,
GM
 
Visit us at http://madahash.hpage.com/
 
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Red Dress Run Coming Up!

This Sunday 6 November, we will organize a red dress run to raise more money for the center. The idea is that we walk or run in a red dress, men and women, in down town Tana. We have sponsorship from corporate companies, and the individual walkers and runners will have themselves sponsored by friends, colleagues and families!

If you are in Tana: JOIN US

If you are abroad: SPONSOR US!

Thank and ON ON

The Famous Fete du Pain

Today was a very special day for the center. We were invited to participate at la Fete du Pain, a big event at the train station in Tana, organized by LMM - Les Moulins de Madagascar - a large flour mill in Antsirabe. The objective of the day was to promote flour, and bread, and cakes, and rolls, and baguettes, and croissants, and..... Well you get the picture, right?

You may wonder why such basic products like flour and bread need any special promotion in Madagacar?

General rehearsal, Wednesday 4.35 PM

Well, that is because Madagascar is traditionally a rice-consuming nation. It's rice, rice and rice again here. Three times per day prefarably.

LMM reopened his mill in Antisrabe a few months ago, and to celebrate this event they organized a day with baking demonstrations, speaches, workshops for bakers, and the like.

As I am friends with Mark and Karen Reed, he is the administrateur general de LMM,sometime in June we were brainstorming about this day.  I then proposed that the streetchildren of the Akanifitahiani center could make hand-embroidered sacs a baguette. as a nice give-away for the invitees. They liked the idea, and more even, they asked the children to come and sing some songs, and Alex to make a speach to promote the center.

The Real Deal...this morning Thursday 11.55 AM

So there I am breaking my head over finding a song in French that has anything to do with bread. Then Michel helps my out...Joe Dassin's famous Petit Pain Au Chocolat! Yes, got it. So we rehearse and rehearse. We ven went for general rehearsal on stage yesterday.

Today was the big day. The LMM bus picked up the kids at 11 AM, we dressed them in their LMM caps and t-shirts and went on stage. The sang like nightingales!

And as far as their preference for rice or bread concerns...these pictures speak for themselves!

Good News and Bad News

Which one you want first? The bad news is that there has been a burglary in Alex's office (annex bedroom, annex living room) and three laptops were stolen. Apart from the hardware, a lot of files have been lost: book keeping stuff, the new website which was almost ready, and the foster parents files. There was no back up...We learn everyday. Alex is helping the police to track down the thieves, some sort of gang in the neighborhood. He has many sleepless night. Poor guy...

The good news is that the first harvest of produce from the countryside sister project has arrived! Tomatoes tomatoes tomatoes!