Madagascar Expedition 2019

Today saw the teams under the leadership of Fisher and Graham, alongside Malagasy Scouts, building a retaining wall at Tranom Bitsika – the Scout centre. This will later be fortified with wood so that it will stay standing once the sandbags have decayed.

The day’s work finished early so the Malagasy Scouts took the Scots on a tour of the local area. They took us to a nearby quarry where we took a break next to a stream before looping back to the site. Here Luke, the chief commissioner, showed us how far it extends.

Malagasy and Scottish are now working more closely together, with many friendships growing.

Kieran

The demolition of the existing kitchen and creation of the new showers, kitchen and access has commenced with vigour at AAF. With our Malagasy partners walls have been demolished and removed, new doorways created from existing windows and the first of the brick work for the shower stalls laid it’ s all go under the direction of Brian, Nikki and our friendly local builder.

Martin

This post was written on Wednesday night – data access slowed us down getting it up. Sorry!

Well, we made it to Madagascar and have spent the past 24hrs getting our bearings.

On Tuesday night we were met off the plane by Malagasy Scouts who ensured that we had an incredibly efficient passage through the border and collected our bags (all of which arrived intact). From the airport we were taken to nearby accommodation, issued with Malagasy straw hats and got our heads down for the night.

Wednesday happened to fall on Madagascar’s Independence Day so was a great day to travel around the city (no traffic) and meet people. It’s fair to say that Antananarivo is a big city with small roads. We spent the journey getting to know some of the Malagasy Scouts; as always happens with International Scouting, we compared badges, worked out who had been in Scouts the longest and learnt about each other’s cultures. Upon arrival we were met by the director of the Girls’ Refuge (who just happens to be a Scouting Commissioner) who gave us the tour and outlined the work we are going to carry out. Lunch followed and then we were taken on a tour of part of the city – which gave us a great opportunity to experience the excitement of Independence Day.

From there we headed off to the Scout Centre which is outside the city & formally opened the project – Fisher gave a lovely speech on behalf of Scottish Scouts.

The day was wrapped up with a Campfire with a local Scout Group (3 blind Jellyfish was well received) and food. Fair to say that by the end of the day everyone was mentally & physically tired and ready for their beds (admittedly I’m typing this to the sound of 14 Network members learning to hoot like owls….)

Hi all,

We’ve heard the reports that there was an unfortunate stadium crush in Tana yesterday at the main stadium. Just to let you all know that we were well away from the area and were visiting the Scout Centre at the time with our Malagasy colleagues.

A full post of our first day will follow tonight (assuming we can get data).

Today we start work on the projects.

Well, we’ve all made it through security and we’re ready to go. Thank you to all those who got us here. We’ll update this blog as and when we can.

With only a few hours left until the final kit check and weigh-in, now seems the perfect time to write a post about bag packing. There is no single “right way” to pack a bag but I will take you through my preferred method.
The first thing you’ll want to do is create a kit list. You will almost certainly feel like you don’t need one when you start packing but by the time you finish there will be at least one important thing you’ve forgotten. If you’re travelling a long distance, you’ll probably have a main bag and hand luggage. I very rarely know exactly what’s going in each before I start packing but it can be helpful to list some essentials you’ll want on hand to go in your hand luggage to avoid accidentally packing them in your main bag. These could include a change of clothes (nobody wants to be sweating into their uniform for the entire duration of travel), a book and some basic toiletries. Take a look here for some ideas of what to pack in hand luggage.
I find it’s always easier to pack the main bag first. It’s easiest to look out everything on the kit list and lay it out on a surface before putting anything in the bag. Then we can group the items into categories and arrange by size. Start by placing the category including the largest items (normally sleep equipment) at the back of the bag, veering toward the left. Other bulky items, such as fleeces or trousers, are piled on the right hand side of the bag. We can then fill in the gaps, remembering to keep items grouped into categories as this will make the bag easier to navigate later. An important space saving tip is to roll rather than fold wherever possible.

Hand luggage has a different approach. I normally use a rucksack, so it’s important to keep any items I’ll need on hand toward the top. It’s not fun to go rooting through a bag for that important document you packed first – and is consequently at the very bottom of the bag. Once again, we can start by grouping items but this time arrange by size and likelihood of requiring quick access. Start by placing any bulky or less important items at the bottom of the bag and work your way up, with important items at the top. If your rucksack has outer pockets use these for small, important items such as your passport.
Finally, throughout the packing process make sure to tick off items from the kit list as you pack them. That way you’re less likely to trick yourself into thinking you’ve packed something which is still lounging in a cupboard. If you wish to pack something which isn’t on the kit list, ask yourself – if it’s important enough to warrant taking, why didn’t I include It on the list? It’s probably not that important after all.

Hopefully everybody on the expedition has finished packing by now – each with their own method of packing.

This evening we are meeting at the 71st Craigalmond Scout Hall for our final bag check and weigh in! So make sure those bags are packed and ready to go.

Hopefully everyone can get a few hours kip before 4am when we finally head off to Edinburgh Airport, beginning a long and tiring day of travel.

So this is goodbye from Scotland, and onward to Madagascar.

With only 5 Day to go the washing is on, the bags are being packed and last minute items are being bought.

With our departure from Edinburgh on Tuesday morning getting ever closer it’s easy to see the excitement rising with every day.

This week has seen a huge amount of last minute prep from the leader, medic and media teams as well as, hopefully, lots of washing, drying and packing ready for the big day.

I don’t think it will properly sink in for me until I finish work tomorrow and realise how soon it really is. 😀

At the date of publishing, there are only 6 days until we are scheduled to meet up at the hall to distribute our donations and to retrieve the rest of our kit prior to the departure to the airport trip.

We are all gathering the final few pieces together and packing it all as small and as light as possible.

Remember to check how early before the trip you have to take the anti-malarials.

I am personally just getting together the final few things like a second pair of working gloves and a padlock etc.

Over the past week a lot has been going on to prepare for the trip. As we’re spread across the country (and trying to hold down jobs, prep for the trip & ensure our loved ones still talk to us) we’ve not put together a full blog post, but we still want to make sure you know what’s been going on. So in short, since Saturday:

• 7 members of the expedition took part in an advanced first aid course.
• The leadership team took part in a mental health first aid course.
• 4 members of the expedition undertook some media training with Scouts Scotland (we hope to give them more of the blogging responsibility).
• Aidan spoke at his District AGM.
• Kit arrived!
• Kit began to be distributed.
• Martin received a richly deserved award.
• Graham & Nikki’s tea arrived.

It’s only Wednesday!!!