Madagascar Experience

Where are you from and do you remember how you came to attend AISB?

I’m originally from Madagascar. I came to AISB by way of Senegal, Cameroon and the United States as the child of a diplomat.

Which one of your teachers at AISB made the biggest impression on your life and why?

There were so many amazing teachers at AISB. But a few still stand out. Teachers like Mr. Newman cultivated a standard of excellence. I remember completing my first assignment for his class on the bus ride to school. It must have reeked of lacklusterness because it was returned with, “Are you kidding?” scribbled at the top! I kept that assignment. It reminded me that crappy work - just like good work - speaks for itself.

I also appreciated that he assigned works like Jane Eyre and its anti-colonial response, The Wide The Sargasso Sea . Reading these books sequentially emphasized that canonical works are in constant conversation with each other. These conversations highlighted how societies often revisit and then re-vision their perceptions. It reflected this idea that culture, and our understanding of history, is not static - but fluid and malleable thing.

Mr. Wilkinson expanded my horizons. He brought students to Stratford-Upon-Avon where we participated in workshops with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Taking my first Cuban folkloric dance class there, I began ruminating about the “theater of the everyday. ”

It articulates this idea that everything we do is some sort of a performance. Framing performance this way continues to cultivate, in me, a hyper-consciousness about how I mediate my life and work.

Mr. Wilkinson introduced us to the dramaturgy of Peter Brook (who staged MacBeth à la Kabuki), the archetypes in Commedia dell'Arte and the politics of Grotowski. Incorporating diverse pedagogues into our curriculum helped me identify a thread within the human experience and its artistic interpretations. The fact that Shakespeare’s Macbeth can express itself within Japanese Kabuki, affirms that elements of culture exist beyond localized identities. But above all - theater was a space for me to seek and practice freedom.

And Madame Fabiny . God bless Madame Fabiny who, despite my making clucking chicken noises in class, always extended her love and compassion. In my defense, I was fluent in French before coming to her class. So given my aptitude for theater, lol, I channeled a listlessness for French into comedy. A safety net of unconditionality, the fact that she was never harsh or cruel to me was somehow very encouraging. Each teacher shared a different gift. But they all helped cultivate the grounds for me to build a solid foundation for critical thought and excellence.

Describe your current job and the path you took to get there.

I have a two-fold career path; the first of them being the CEO of my own boutique travel agency called the Madagascar Experience . The story of how I came to establish the Madagascar Experience is a story as long as my life! But for the abridged version, suffice it to say that whenever I posted about my travels to Madagascar, friends always asked if they could come with me next time. So what began as an informal gathering expanded into offering thematic tours and partnering with boutique organizations. For my second career, I am a real estate agent at an international brokerage, Engel & Völkers , on a team called the Skybridge Group . I came to real estate after years of frustration working as an educator and in non-profits. I spent more time there battling administrations than I did fulfilling my roles. A career in real estate posed an interesting proposition. Everybody in the world is concerned with where they live. As such, real estate is a business that cuts across all social strata. The broadness within the field allows me the freedom to be myself and create my niche. Right now, in the throes of sheltering in place, I’ m helping couples and young families establish stability by finding them a place to call home. Both these career paths are beginning to merge as I look forward to making property ownership in Madagascar more accessible to an international clientele.

For more information visit https://www.madagascarexperience.org/