Madagascar: Water and Rice on Repeat

Antananarvio, Madagascar.

Spending a few days in an orphanage was a completely different unique opportunity and a wonderful way to spend time with these children. As soon as we arrived, everyone flocked around us, looking with big interested eyes and curious faces. We introduce each other, wave and laugh nervously. In this orphanage the children were between 5 and 16 years old. The site is a self-built house by a couple who also come from Antananarvio. They built this house back then and were already planning to take in orphans here in the future instead of having children of their own. The ground floor extends over three large, spacious rooms. One of them is a simple, tidy kitchen. The one in the middle is the dining room, where there are tables and benches like you would find in beer gardens. The last room is the lounge and play room, where you can find books, a few toys and seating. On the second floor are all the children's bedrooms, several bunk beds next to each other in a large room, but the girls and boys are separated. On the last floor, attic, there is a great TV room with lots of stuffed animals on the floor, one teddy bear was even as tall as me. An old, flickering, thick television and even more books.

Between all the children, the house dog runs around euphorically and full of energy, an ideal and gentle playmate that brings even more life into the already lively house. The couple takes care of the entire flock themselves. A young man comes to visit once a week and plays games with the children.

Everyday life is as you imagine it to be as a child. We get up early, everyone wakes up at 6:30 a.m., everyone washes, goes to the toilet and gets dressed. Freshly prepared, everyone goes down the spiral stairs at rocket speed to the kitchen. Divided into groups, the first meal of the day is prepared together, the table is cleaned and set and everything is prepared. The first meal is boiled brown rice, the rice water is put on the table as drinking water. Huge pots of rice are waiting, steaming hot and emitting the scent of hot rice. After a short prayer, we eat and eat as much as possible. I was amazed, the children ate huge portions of rice, even I couldn't manage that much. The plate was full and then it was even refilled. Everyone proudly showed me how quickly and cleanly they could eat, definitely great! After the meal we tidied up together, cleaned and cleaned the tables again. A reliable and orderly routine.

In general, it has to be said that even the other two meals consisted of nothing more than rice and hot water. Every day, three times a day. There are exceptions: once a week there is fish as a side dish for lunch, and once a week there is meat. And some fruit and bread twice a week. Despite all this, variety looks different. They can't afford more. Rice is the staple food in Madagascar anyway and is therefore not far-fetched.

Another crazy experience was film day. On Thursday afternoon all the children were allowed to go upstairs to watch TV. Before I knew it, the little girl pulled on my pants and said 'Allez, viens avec moi!' We went up the two spiral stairs at a quick pace. As always, the dog tried in vain to keep up, he was too small for the stairs. When we got to the top, everyone lay together and on top of each other on the stuffed animals on a small carpet on the wooden floor. The older boy took care of the cables, connected the television, turned on the power and a blurry, black and white image flickered slightly on the screen. Let's go! A DVD was inserted into the external player. Everyone fought for possession of the remote control and the winner pressed the start button.

What followed was a film experience of a completely different kind - a war film. Soldiers running back and forth, shooting enemies and ending up blown to pieces by a grenade. I wouldn't have thought that and so I sat in front of the screen for a while with my mouth open and big eyes, with the little girl cuddling in my arms.

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