As part of Blue Ventures’ education programme, past volunteer Gabrielle Johnson has initiated a letter exchange programme with her students at Laguna Blanca School in Santa Barbara, California, and the students at Ecole Sainte Famille school in Andavadaoaka. 

“I thought the letter exchange would provide a great conduit to expose our fourth graders to a unique culture, as well as connect them more directly to an area we are studying in science.

In addition, it provides them with an opportunity to see how other cultures are often very similar to ours in terms of needs and wants.  As part of the fourth grade science program, students learn about natural resources and conservation efforts.  After understanding the basic ecological principles, I thought it necessary for them to understand the social and political aspects of conservation for them to have a better overall understanding of the many sides to conservation. At the end of the unit, we will discuss what they implement in their lives to contribute to change."

Laguna Blanca students sent out their first letters, introducing themselves and their lives in Santa Barbara, to Andavadoaka in December 2004. The letters were used in English classes to encourage the Malagasy students to write about their lives in Andavadoaka and convey a sense of life in a small fishing village on the SW coast of Madagascar.

Some challenges that arose included trying to explain the meaning of snowboarding and raccoons to the Malagasy students... similarly, the teachers in the US will probably have some difficulty explaining cassava and zebu to the American children!