As most of you know, my working life in London involved a stint at Laura Ashley with experiences of home furnishing and public relations, followed by Morgan Stanley International, where I worked in Training and Development. I then decided to follow my childhood dream of becoming a teacher and pursued a Montessori Teacher Training course in London. During this time, I worked part-time at a small Montessori school, ‘The Rocking Horse’, which, once qualified, I seized the great opportunity to take over as owner and principal for a very enjoyable couple of years.
Wanderlust/enthusiasm to Carpe Dieum changed my career path to become ‘Captain’s mate’ onboard our yacht, ‘Ben the Boat’, for two years. This certainly was a memorable voyage and taught Philip and me a lot about the beauty and fragility of life. During this time, I started a long awaited interest to write and illustrate a series of children’s story books, which is actually entitled ‘Ben the Boat’, and is based on our ‘circumnavigation’ (Ben actually completes the voyage which Philip and I began! The book is soon to be published, so watch this space……?!).
Philip’s decision to change career path, from ex-Lawyer/Merchant Banker/Yacht Captain to Doctor took us to the island of Saba. I continued to write my story books and at the same time occasionally helped out at the local primary school. During this time, the dean of the Medical School, a very interesting Russian, asked if I could teach his wife English. My English lessons consisted of teaching grammar and vocabulary, accompanied by lots of delicious blinis and Russian tea! I found it most fulfilling to teach English as a foreign language, particularly to an adult. It was then that I discovered the difference between simply teaching a subject in isolation versus teaching both academic and behavioural skills to children. I certainly enjoyed my teaching career as a Montessori/primary school teacher, however, this new discovery revealed an interesting path to pursue.
I subsequently embarked on a course to teach English as a second language to become a fully qualified teacher. I received valuable experience in Saba, teaching English to the aforementioned Russian friend, and then to French and Peruvian friends on Nevis. After this, I had the great opportunity in Charleston South Carolina, U.S.A., where I taught a mixed group of Hispanics, Russians, Japanese and Chinese adults for three years. It was certainly a very interesting period of my life and a wonderful opportunity to meet such a diverse group of interesting personalities from many different cultures.
On moving to St Barth, I established my own private business to teach English to adults and teenagers, which has been a great success. My improved French language skills have now also enabled me to offer a translation service (French to English), which has become a major part of my work, with clients ranging from the exclusive St Barth billionaires to restaurants, local magazine publications, beauty product companies to curriculum vitaes/biographies for a broad range of individuals.
Philip has now happily dedicated his working life to Madagascar, where he has set up a charity, Mada Clinics, to support a small mountain hospital and a school. He has also recently established an additional enterprise - a farm to cultivate the Madagascan staples of rice, maize and peanuts. Philip travels to Madagascar twice a year, to spend a couple of months working as a doctor, plus supervising and training staff and managing the farm. He has a very reliable team working for him in Madagascar, which enables him to manage these projects from St Barth.I also accompany Philip from time to time to visit and assist this beautiful country with its magnificent flora and fauna and a fascinating population of extremely kind, honest individuals who remain forever positive about their most humble lives, despite their extreme poverty and the challenges which they face. Life is indeed very hard, and thus Philip and I have made the choice to live on St Barth in order to preserve our energy to give all that we can to these people and their country, whenever we visit. For further information on Mada Clinics, please visit http://www.madaclinics.org/
