The project in Sri Lanka is finished.
On this page you can follow the progress of the project and get a taste of my big trip to Sri Lanka. Armed with two cameras I will try to capture the spirit of international and local volunteers working together on social, ecological and building projects. You can find more information about the project here.
A call from SCI Sri Lanka
Dear Friends, This is a New Year Appeal from the students of the Blue Rose School in Kandy - Sri Lanka. They need your help & co-operation in their annual fund raising effort. Can you help to sell some of their greeting cards ? They are priced at 15 Rs per card (4 cards per euro). Hope to hear from you soon, Raju. Contact SCI Sri Lanka.
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Friday 1st February
During this month (February) my pictures will be on display in the Fnac in Leuven. Come and have a look!
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Sunday 18th Novembre
The exhibition and reception in Brussels were a great succes. Thank you to all the project partners, family, friends and other nice visitors who made this possible.
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Monday 5th November
The photo exhibition opens today and will be on display at the Narafi in Brussels until the 18th of Novembre. As a closing event there will be a reception. More information.
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Saturday 3th November
Marylene, the fantastic french volunteer, made a nice report about the projects/work camps organised by SCI. Read it here.
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Saturday 6th Octobre
my project will be presented at the big world/travelling fair in Antwerp: go strange. Of course you are welcome to get more information, see some pictures or just for a chat. Hope to see you there.
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Tuesday 25th September
This is me in Kotagala, the village near the third work camp. I was making a little reportage about 24 houses that burned down and nobody is taking responsibility for. The children kept smiling the whole time and were very motivated camera assistants: holding the umbrella (unpredictable rain) and moving the tripod around.
My life in Belgium is at full speed again: film school, photography classes, band reversal,... This leaves me not a lot of time for the video editing, but I do my best. I'm missing all the nice people I've met and the beautiful country. Warm greetings to all my friends in Sri Lanka.
This is the blog of my best friends who are now working on a project in india: www.find-purpose-the-means-will-follow.blogspot.com
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Friday 31st August
I arrived safely back at home with all the equipment. It feels strange to be in Belgium, but probably I will get used to it again. Anyway it's nice to be home. There will be more pictures and maybe some video online soon.
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Saturday 18th August
A little summary of all the things that happened the past two weeks. The work camp in Talatuoya was a nice experience: we had to remove bushes from a little lake to make sure the water was preserved. It was quite important since 500 families are depending on the water for their income. They are using the water for the irrigation of their fields. Unfortunately I got quite sick during the camp and had the miss a lot of it, but I got well and was able to attend the big ceremony with the whole village.
The documentary is coming along as well: I’ve started doing a lot of interviews about voluntary work, the war in the north and other smaller subjects. I also did a lot of filming in the Flemish project of the bouworde: I went to Kiriella for three days to film twelve Flemish volunteers renovating a school and building a house for the teacher. It were a nice couple of days.
Now I’m leaving for the last project of SCI: tidy a school in Kotagala. It’s a little Tamil village 3 hours (by train) south of Kandy. The people will be very curious since they have not seen any foreigners in their village yet.
My apologies for the bad maintenance of the site, I’ve just not been able to do more of the post production so far… so I hope you can be patient for more news, pictures and movies. Got to run now to catch the train ;-)
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Thursday 2nd August
Mette arrived two days ago. He is a Dutch volunteer who returned after 5 years, he will stay with us for one week. Yesterday Sooriya took me and Mette to his home in the middle of beautiful rice paddies. We got a warm welcome and a superb diner. Tomorrow the second work camp starts. There will be no internet access, so unfortunately no updates until the 15th. The video editing is also a little bit delayed. As a side project I made a digital version of the SCI Sri Lanka incoming volunteers book. Download it here(4mb, easy dowload: right click > save target as).
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Sunday 29th July
The first work camp is over now and we have a few (filled) free days. Paula, the wonderful Australian swimming teacher has left. She got a big thank you ceremony for everything she did for the Blue Rose School and in the evening she bought us dinner, a nice time. Yesterday we went to the temple of the tooth at the evening, it was very beautiful as you will see on the pictures (I will upload all the pictures Tuesday). Today Marylene and I were invited to a Muslim wedding. It was a little bit different as expected but nevertheless a good experience. For dinner we cooked European :-) pasta with vegetable sauce en for dessert pancakes! Tomorrow we will go for a trekking the whole day to the local mountain. My Sinhalese is improving and I start to understand the local culture a little bit more everyday. I’m also getting closer to the all nice people that surround me.
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Thursday 26th July
A lot has happened this week. Monday and Tuesday we went on a fantastic two day trip. It included a nice walk trough the mountains, a great safari ride, wonderful picnics,... not enough superlatives to describe. Have a look at the pictures(coming soon). On Wednesday the British family continued their journey in Sri Lanka, we really miss them already. For the rest of the volunteers it was a working day and the project of the day was building a tree house. In the afternoon I had a guided tour in the university thanks to Nilu. Today we went to Kandy in the evening, something that's not really common to do here, it was even hard to come back at 9 because people don't stay in the city so late, but for me it was really a beautiful walk in a dark city lit by bright but few lights.
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Sunday 22nd July
The first work camp started a few days ago. Before midday we do some work with a big group of local volunteers like gardening, tiding up and cleaning. In the afternoon there is time for excursions to for example the botanic gardens. We also had a trip to Pinnawela, an elephant resort. In the evenings we sing local and international songs, it's a lot of fun. Unfortunately not a lot of time to update the site ;-)
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Tuesday 17th July
Everything is going great. Yesterday Sooriya and a nice British family arrived, you can see them on the pictures page. Some great events that took place: I participated in a ceremony with Indika and his family: Arms Giving. Hopefully I will get the video online soon. Today we also went swimming with the children of the Blue Rose school, it was such a nice experience. All the people I have met here are super friendly, the food is great and the weather always changing, but not too warm. Now I really have to go to bed... more adventures will follow, greetings, Wouter
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Saturday 14th July
There are some pictures online, check it out. The stories will follow.
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Thursday 12th July
I'm in Sri Lanka! I had a good flight and a small jet lag. I'm surrounded by nice people in an incredible environment. I already learned to eat with my hands :-) more soon
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Tuesday 10th July
Tomorrow I'm going to Sri Lanka! first to Brussels then a high speed train to Paris, a 10 hour flight to Colombo and a long drive to Kandy. It will be 5am when I land, but to me it'll feel like 1am so probably a big jetlag (if I'm not able to sleep during the trip). I will try to get a good night rest today. Isn't it incredible that one can travel around the half world in a half a day? Unfortunately it's not very ecological. A funny quote: "The true traveler is he who goes on foot, and even then, he sits down a lot of the time." (Colette)
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Friday 6th July
I'm really getting excited, only a few days left before I leave to another continent, climate, world. All the practical, technical and medical things are arranged. Now I only have to pack my suitcase, mow the lawn, trim the bushes and say goodbye to Belgium and everybody who is dear to me for two months.
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Wednesday 4th July
Finally I managed to finish the website, all kinds of things came in between. Although it was a while ago since I made my last website I'm happy with the result and hope you like it too ;-)
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