A New Home

On my last day with them, Maria first showed me the Centre Toky. It is a community development project for children who live under particularly difficult conditions. Many of these children grow up in very difficult financial circumstances and are given the opportunity to receive food and free education there. What I found particularly interesting was that over the coming weeks, I would not only be working there as an English and mathematics teacher. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I will also visit the children's homes together with the staff. We will talk to their parents about their financial situation, as well as health problems within the family.

Maria strongly supports the project and is actively involved. If, for example, a child urgently needs money for an operation, Maria steps in and tries to organise the necessary financial support. I myself was only at the Centre Toky for about 15 minutes that day. I briefly introduced myself to the team and got a first impression of the place where I would be working over the coming weeks. Then it was already time to move on.

My Future Home: Marillac

Our next stop was the Marillac monastery, where I would be living for the next six weeks. There I met Father Kasimir for the first time, an 83-year-old Polish man who has lived in Madagascar for 43 years and speaks both French and Malagasy fluently. He has now been living in this monastery for 21 years. We briefly talked about my plans for the coming weeks, and he explained what my work would look like during the school holidays. Since the holidays are still going on, the children's program currently takes place on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. On those days, I will look after and work with the children from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Moving into the Monastery

After that, we went back to Norbert and Maria's house. Slowly but surely, I started packing my bag for the next day, because then I would finally be moving into the monastery and starting a completely new chapter of my life. To be honest, I was a little nervous at first. I didn't know how well I would settle in there, since I would be the only German and everyone else mainly speaks French and Malagasy. I knew that I could speak French, but it was still going to be an adjustment compared to the beautiful house and familiar surroundings I had with Norbert and Maria. Later, however, it would turn out that these worries were completely unnecessary.

The next morning, I had breakfast with Norbert and Maria one last time. Then it was time to leave for the monastery. When I arrived, I was shown my room for the next six weeks: Room 45. It was quite large and had two desks, a small bed with a mosquito net, a toilet, a sink and a kind of shower. The water was freezing cold, but that wasn't really a problem for me. The smell in the room also took some getting used to at first, but after a short time I got used to it and hardly noticed it anymore.

After arriving, I immediately met the first brother: Isidore. He took me around and showed me the huge grounds. There is not only the monastery there, but also a church, a school, a lycée, a kind of kindergarten, and the sisters' house with medical facilities and its own church. The grounds are so large that it is easy to get lost at first. Isidore not only showed me where the different buildings were, but also explained the daily routine to me.

Every day, the first Mass starts at 5:45 a.m. After that, breakfast is at 7 a.m., lunch at 12 p.m., and the second Mass at 6 p.m., followed by 30 minutes of meditation. Dinner is at 7 p.m. The fact that my day would now start at 5:45 every morning was certainly not the best news I received that day, but since I had previously worked as a bakery sales assistant, I was at least used to early working hours.

Welcome to the Family

At dinner, I then met all the other brothers. They were all incredibly kind to me, spoke fluent French and made it easy for me to settle in from the very beginning. They immediately told me that I was now part of their family and that I shouldn't hesitate to ask questions or ask for help whenever I needed it. That definitely gave me a real moral boost, and I immediately felt welcome.

Many of my worries from the day before had already disappeared. Of course, everything was new – the people, the surroundings, the language and, above all, the completely different daily routine. Nevertheless, already on my first evening, I had the feeling that I would be in good hands here.

After dinner, I went straight to my room. It had been a long day, and the first Mass would already be waiting for me at 5:45 the next morning. So I enjoyed my first night at the monastery – until 5:30 a.m.

Now I knew: tomorrow, things were getting serious.