September Newsletter

Hello Members,

No matter how long you have been out of school, September always seems to feel like a new beginning, a gentle push on the reset button before a fresh start. For some it is the end of the lazy days and a bit of a back-to-busy schedule bummer. For others it's a quieter house - finally! - and finding that space again for all the things we enjoy in our every day, "regular" life. At the Alliance, one of those things is our monthly "Tour de la Francophonie." This month we'll embark on new adventures to the beautiful island of Madagascar.

Madagascar isn't a Disney movie setting. It is a remote and isolated island off the east coast of Africa, a hidden jewel little known to the outside world - making it all the more fascinating. It is regarded as the 8th continent due to its diversity of flora and fauna and unique melting pot of cultures. The "red island" boasts a panoply of unique plants and animals, from numerous species of baobab trees and endemic orchids to giraffe-necked weevils, athletic giant jumping rats and the bizarre-looking aye-aye lemur.

On Friday 10, photographer Koléane Foxonet will take us on a spectacular train journey from the country's East Coast to the central mountains, across valleys that are completely isolated from the rest of the world. Then on Friday 17, Koléane's brother and local resident Johnson Lahinandro will talk about growing up in Madagascar, and how the lack of safe water impacts everyday life in large parts of the country, particularly for women and young girls.