August 27th, 2006, Geneva - Enrica

Another great party which allowed us to gather around 200 people in support of Green Hope and Sri Lanka.

Enrica, Rob, Karl, and Marcello had been working on the organization of this event for about two months, supported by Mike and Jon who were responsible for the cooking and the buffet, but also by about twenty other volunteers who helped preparing everything these last few days and were involved in the party itself.

The view on the lake of Geneva from the Parc Mon Repos is splendid, and all the decorations set up by Karl and his team made the place look even more magical...the colours of the Sri Lankan flag, the candles, the wonderful Green Hope posters (see picture) as well as the smiling faces of our volunteers livened things up.

The party started with a glass of Sangria prepared by Antonio and José, and served by the lovely Emmanuelle and Alison. Then the guests enjoyed the delicious barbecue dinner composed mainly of fish.

The weather was very nice, and the sun gradually gave way to a magnificent starry sky which allowed us to spend most of the evening outdoors.

After the dinner and the tombola, DJ Gonzo turned the volume up and our guests went inside to have fun on the dance floor... All styles were played: music from the sixties, house music and of course music from the eighties as well......... and as everyone was enjoying one last drink, the clock struck 2 a.m - the deadline imposed by the kind police of Geneva!

Rob and Jon, at the BBQ	Thank you Luigi !!

Most of our friends from the Sri Lankan Christmas Party of November 30th were there, and those who couldn't make it still took part in the party thanks to the purchase of a "virtual" ticket.

And now, here's a little anecdote: one of our guests called Luigi came to the party to have his stag night. He walked around all evening with a price list hanging around his neck: 1 look = 1 CHF, 1 kiss = 2 CHF, etc.....You won't believe it, but girls paid to kiss Luigi (see picture), and at the end of the night, he gave all the money he had earned to Green Hope... We would do ANYTHING for our Sri Lankan friends, wouldn't we?!!!!!!

With all due modesty, and considering that no one among us is a professional in that field, we can say that the party went really well, and that we achieved our goal: having fun with our friends and supporting a good cause at the same time. Is there anything better or easier than that?
We made it! All the money we collected will enable to finance the building of Mrs X's house.

We would like to thank Pierre and Quentin for their trust in our work, and for advancing Mrs X the money she needed to rebuild her house over these last two months.

August 27th, 2006, France - Pierre et Quentin

Yesterday was a splendid day, thanks to our faithful friends, full of joy and hope. Dominique from Secouristes Sans Frontières came to work with us and to sign the contract which joins us with his NGO and with the Health centre of Hikkaduwa: in a few days the first funds will be sent to Hikkaduwa for the purchase of the bus and its fitting out. After a thorough study, meetings in France and over there, a definite, complete, full budget, the Country Mobile Health Center is going to come into existence. It is a big event for Green Hope and brings contentment to achieve a new and efficient, needed piece of equipment.

With Dominique, we phoned the Manager of the Health Centre to tell him this good news. We are now going to look to find funds to expand and update the Health centre, with the Mobile Health Centre acting as a temporary bridge for the duration of the work.

Signing the contract	Green Hope in Switzerland	Tsunami, december 2004 : memorial post stamp

….and thanks to the splendid support network which binds us together, solid, and lively, Enrica, who is responsible for the Switzerland Green Hope delegation got in touch at the end of day to tell us about the superb party organized by her and his friends, last Friday, in Geneva, by Lake Geneva.

This sold out Party, in a warm ambience, continued till the wee hours of the morning in summer weather under the stars. The Switzerland delegation thus can keep its promise and finance the reconstruction of the burned down home that we had decided to do as an emergency for a widow and her four children.

We hope to be able very soon to offer to the Community of Communes of Hikkaduwa, a fire truck which would have, undoubtedly, ensured that we could have avoided the complete destruction of this home.
We shall have do some research; it is difficult to bring a truck over from France, there are still difficulties with containers and if you add to them the fact that it we drive on the left, plus, we must choose a vehicle whose maintenance which can ensure, and find spare parts …
We remain confident, numerous those and those are who are aware of the importance of this mobile equipment on a zone who count 300 hotels and guest houses and numerous wooden "interim" accommodations, in clothes …

Pre-schools are due to reopen next week. They had been closed at the request of the government after a series of murder attempts. We shall speak about it and about the school programme with Dominique and Carole, responsible for educational, when we visit them at the beginning of September in Grau du Roi …

The boats are at sea; we are coming to the end of a good fishing season. We were particularly lucky with one catch of eleven tonnes, by the three trawlers, in mid July…

The home which collapsed following the Tsunami, on Gall Rd is almost rebuilt. We are going to begin the renovation of a house in Narigama, and next month, the reconstruction of three houses destroyed by the Tsunami. Since that date, these families have lived in poor wooden shacks, in Morocola near the stadium. The religious dedication of the first one of these houses will take place on September 6th of this year, the date chosen by the monks. The others will follow during September.

Afterwards, if your donations allow it, we envisage a series of reconstructions in the northern zone covered by Green Hope: Seenigama, Telwatha, Peraliya …

In the meantime, still in the northern zone, at the request of the monks of the most important Temple of the region, the Devil Temple, we are going to rebuild - also in September - six toilets for the numerous pilgrims. These public toilets had also been destroyed by the Tsunami, but we waited for the end of important road jobs to decide, with the Buddhist authorities, the most suitable site.

Finally, on August 29th, a new transfer to Apollo Hospital of Colombo, for Irushi and a child of ten months in Telwatha who has the same problem as little Pravin - a sudden loss of eyesight. Little Pravin will also go on this trip, but after the operations on both of his eyes, for him everything is going well…..it is just a last chech-up….

August 22th, 2006, France - Pierre et Quentin

We have received messages from some of you expressing your concern. Thus we post this short Diary entry to reassure you. We are back in France and are waiting for the details of the Festival from Jean Christophe …

We were also in touch with François in Colombo to get some information and pictures. He succeeded in reaching Jean Christophe who was taking a well deserved rest, with his children, discovering the island …

Finally, Kumara, from the permanent office, phoned us……daily life continues and we shall tell you more nice Green Hope stories when we get photos ……and you will find out then that we have begun a new series of reconstruction of houses, ongoing transfer of patients to Apollo Hospital, sponsorships …

The only consequence of the conflict is that we have closed the Pre schools for fourteen days, like the other schools on the island, at the request of the Sri Lankan government.
Numerous French NGOs have left Sri Lanka following the massacre of 17 persons of Tamil nationality who worked for " Action against Hunger ".

We have no intention to leave Sri Lanka, now more than ever the country and the people need support, trust and friendship.

We have to honour your faithful trust.

We serenely prepare the next program with the volunteers and the partners who will join us in October for several months. None of them wanted to suspend the projected plans.

August 12th, 2006, France - Pierre et Quentin

The last days, last few hours in Hikkaduwa were overloaded….we left the day after the close of the Festival. So many warm memories of the great energy of the artists present, our friends who came to join us, the magic of a splendid encounter with thousands in the audience. Jean Christophe the brains behind the Green Hope Festival is soon going to give a full account in this Journal…we wait impatiently for his tale; Delphine has already given a foretaste in pictures some days ago …

A giant puppet symbolizes the Festival	The public	Un poem for Mahesh

Already we are thinking of the party organised by the Geneva delegation, where we would like to be…as well as meeting our Greenhopien friends from the south, and from Brittany…. to persuade them to continue supporting us, faithfully …

Before leaving over there, we had the time to meet Niluka who is doing so well since she knows she is loved by Dominique and Lionel on the other side of the world, so attentive to her happiness …

And the children of this ill father who also found great sponsors….the baby, in Enrica, the eldest thanks to Danièle and Gilbert. Together with François and Delphine, we announced to them the good news. Profoundly moved, the oldest one took the two photographs that Danièle and Gilbert had forwarded to him, and bowed his head in prayer, joining his hands in blessing, and the father who has nothing, went up to the top of a coconut tree to pick the heavy fruit there and give us its milk and its white and fruity flesh …

Niluka	Looking at the photographs	This is love!	A new "Green-hope family"

Little Pravin Mihiranga was successfully operated on for the right eye ….currently the left eye is recovering and this second operation seems to be a new success …

Pravin

We are going to refit a new home in Narigama, build three new houses on Patuwatha, and two others, destroyed also by the Tsunami, in Dodanduwa …

One cannot deny that the country is in a serious situation…the roads are blocked by checkpoint manned by the army….most of the tourists have fled …the Sri Lankan mass media is alarmist, as always, it is how they make their money….

But life, must go on and we shall not leave, because we like this country, its people, we share its troubles, because in truth you are at our sides, confident, and because more than ever the fishing villages rely on us …

New needs…new plans:

We shall begin a new programme in November, for several months:

Plongeurs du Monde will come back to introduce the young persons to diving and discovering the underwater natural resources, there will be a new eyesight testing, the getting under way of the Mobile Health centre for prevention and treatment, with Secouristes Sans Frontières ……and the Training centre in languages, computers, and arts for the adults who finished their schooling too early. We are examining a partnership with a travel agency for training in the tourism industry resulting in a job at the end of an exam …

We are going to try to twin Hikkaduwa and the Community of the Communes with a Community of Communes beside the sea somewhere in France …
We must find funds to get a fire truck to combat fires in the area……it is a large expense, but really needed. As of now, our area has no means of fighting against fires …

Myriam, Delphine, Serge, Nicolas, Thierry, François are going to join us, new blood for the new plans…

Maybe it will take us more time for the realization of these plans but shall get there …..together.

Continue to support us, like the Conseil Municipal des Enfants from Grand Champ in Brittany, the Foyer SocioEducatif in the Collège Barbey d'Aurevilly in Rouen, our friends in St Nolff... More than ever we must tighten the links of our superb support chain.

August 4th, 2006, Hikkaduwa - Delphine

Life is often made up of surprises and of unforeseen ways. And then there are meetings which appear to you as something obvious: when you fall for someone, a look, a smile, a small hand in yours and images which stay in your memory forever. That is exactly what happened in our story in Koggala, a meeting with a village, people, children, splendid children, so lively and full of love and with such deep looks that one can read all hope there …

The desire to go even farther then comes, to leave in order to come back even better, and especially not to forget because life must go on for them and thanks to these moments of sharing we return full of ideas, with the desire to do good things, to keep going, to broadcast the story of Green Hope.

That's how, with the generosity and trust given us every day by Pierre and Quentin, we have decided to create an antenna, a small bridge between two villages: "Green Hope Koggala", made up, for the time being, of Mary, Tiphaine, Sophie and me.

Our first plan is to open a big Youth Centre for the children of Koggala and the neighbouring villages. They will be able to dance, sing, play music, paint and, in the long term, learn foreign languages and computer science.

In parallel, we decide to help the children of Koggala take part in the festival, a nice event to allow them mix with other children, to live a moment of sharing and holiday outside the camp.

Finally, after six months of waiting, unbearable impatience, that we are back here today in Sri Lanka. We were very apprehensive the day we met up again with the refugee camp at Koggala.

We arrived at night, as magically emotion welled up in us with each step. Tears of joy rolled down our cheeks as we embraced them all in our arms. Some people seemed to us to have gotten very big, others as if just born, but all had kept their smiles and their undamaged looks.

The following day, we started workshops in the camp, a big fresco to decorate the stage of show for festival with the bigger children and for the little ones: pearls, masks and kites …

The time spent with them brings them closer to us, and also succeed in instituting a true climate of trust with the parents, a bit scared at first. The mums are even by our sides every afternoon and also participate in workshops. Everybody seems happy, the life in the camp finds a new sense, laughter and joy are felt more than everything. On Wednesday we joined the team of the festival for some hours, the children could then set up their fresco where the festival takes place; then we visited some workshops. A nice day and everybody was delighted. Today, as I write you from Hikkaduwa, there is great excitement. The stage is installed, all artists and children are here. The elephant also has arrived this morning, he takes the children for rides the next three days.

I hear the music of Axel in the distance, nicknamed the "Bamboo Man" here, the children give it their best with hearts of joy. Laurent also practices the circus show, some people juggle, others are on stilts. While Benj practices with the musicians come especially from Colombo, Patou and Isa put finishing touches on the puppets, Nico and Stephane install the equipment for vertical dance, Léo, Alice, Sophie, Ingrid, Tiphaine continue with the decorations. Like the conductor of an orchestra, Jean Christophe follows all the logistics of the organization of the festival.

Tomorrow will be a big day, there is already a lot of life at the stadium, the tension rises, all determined to be ready for this nice holiday. Annick, Michel and Cecil have also joined us, their help is very precious to us.

I cannot find precise words to explain you what takes place here - it is magical, the emotions are so strong when they are close to their goal. Once again the concrete expression of a plan, and shared moments of happiness, make life a little nicer each day. The coming together of two peoples, a real sharing with the same values and common strength, - the dream continues on thanks to you and to this courage in our hearts. You are uppermost in our minds, all of you over there, and we shall not fail to tell you all about these next two days of celebration. I embrace very much also Marie and Pierre - you are very much missed but are with us in our hearts.

To all of you, see you very soon …

Preparing the festival (Eléonore)

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