Ladies and Gentleman!!

I remind myself to speak slow and pronounce each word carefully. There are 50 some Malagasy people seated in front of me with big eyes and bigger hopes. They entered an English Speech contest. The stakes are high. They paid $3.00 US dollars, a day’s salary for some, to participate and 1st prize is $500.00 US dollars – almost a half years salary for most.
Included in the entrance fee is a months’ worth of coaching lessons. Not everyone can win the big prize, so at the least I want them to feel that the skills they learn in the coaching sessions were worth their $3.00. The organizer of the English Speech contest is a young Malagasy man, who studied in Australia and found Toastmasters. He always wears a shiny grey suit and an outdated colorful tie of lime green or royal blue. He is a big picture guy, advertising the event in newspapers, radio and large colorful signs around my banking town. Then when he started to receive participants, he panicked and called Peace Corps for help.
The education volunteers were enlisted to help, but they were going to be out of town in training during most of the coaching, so I was approached, since I was in town.
Serendipity brought me to the event. I have a long history with serendipity. In 1972 my car broke down, I accepted a ride from a stranger, she connected me with an ophthalmologist who needed help and before I could spell ophthalmology I was in nursing school. Years later when the International Eye Foundation won a large grant to develop a Prevention of Blindness Project in Honduras, their candidate backed out at the last minute. They saw a newsletter I had written about ophthalmic nursing and with a last name like Gonzalez assumed I already spoke Spanish, called me and gave me the job. It goes on and on, but here I am today, because the education volunteers were in training.
The coaching was fun, I explained how to make a short speech American style! The 50 participants were at various levels of English, some very good, one with a very southern accent and most fair. On the first day they presented their 50 page speeches. I had to rip up the first 10 pages of their speeches which were all formalities and went something like this:
Dear Tompokolahy and Tompokovavy (ladies and gentleman) thank you for this wonderful amazing, fortuitous opportunity to be here today and speak before you. Thank you to the man who organized the speech, who went to Australia to learn about Toastmasters when he was a young. I am grateful for him and his family who helped send him there.
Thank you to my parents who raised me and gave me opportunities to learn English. My grandmother who fed me rice each day when I was young, my great uncle who said 50 years ago, we should all learn a little English, I want to thank the taxi brousse driver for getting me here safely, the lady selling mangos who wished me luck when she found out I was on my way to make a speech in English – blah blah blah – on and on.
It was incredible, but it is the Malagasy way. When I tore up the pages and said no formalities, this speech has to be between 3-5 minutes long. They looked at me as if I asked them to sacrifice their first born and said” I am sorry miss, but that is very impossible!” The word “speech” in Malagasy means 2-3 hours of nonsensical blabber.
We practiced each Saturday for a month before the contest began. We went over warm up exercises, methods to improve their pronunciation, body language and all the things that make a great speaker.
For some of the participants it took me a full minute to understand what they were saying in English. There were several participants who finished their 5-minute speech and I was speechless, without a clue of what the topic was about. The topics ranged from poverty in Madagascar to the resurrection of Jesus.
It was suggested to begin the speech with an interesting story, fact or question for the audience to ponder. One women started with “What would the world look like without mud”? I thought mud- I think she is going for climate change here, no rain. But then she continued to say how mud washed our clothes, cooked out meals, etc. Then I said “I don’t think this is climate change!” She was talking about mothers, but said “mudders” and was dropping her voice at the end and it sounded like mud.
The first weekend The 4 American judges and I listened to 50 speeches and chose 21 to continue, the second weekend, round 2, we listened to the 21 and chose 12, then 6 for the finals. We were taken back at the semifinals, when two of the participants confused the speech contest with America’s Got Talent and changed clothing. One brought out two little nieces dressed up to sing about the children of the world, the kids did not add anything to the performance as they looked at the 4 American judges in shock, as if the Vazahas might eat them. The second left the room, donned sunglasses and a leather jacket and sang full rendition of a popular song in English, complete with dancing around the stage.
In the end it was a 3-way tie, we had the Malagasy organizer pick the winner. It was a fun experience, I told them they were all winners for standing up and giving a speech in English, something I could not do in Malagasy.

Participants of the contest.

Twins

Our ambulance service, bringing in a sick women from the mountains in the rain.

Signs around town to warn of Plague