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Why
Green Hope The
tsunami diary
Donate | (to
French site) . For news before sept 26th 2005, read more from the French version of the diary |
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December 30th, 2005, Hikkaduwa - Pierre and Quentin Annick, Michel, Cecil, and their family left us yesterday; we would have liked to dedicate to them more time. A very big thank you for the collection which they organized for Green Hope, that of the " " Club du Cèdre " of Milly Lamartine, and Danielle and Gilbert from Marnay (71), to whom which we shall answer their very nice letter, and their requests - when we get their email address. We already have an answer to their request……Otherwise they can also contact our website friends in the Saône and Loire: help@green-hope.org... Thanks to everyone who understood that we need your help for the long haul … Every day brings intense moments, laying of foundations, the beginning of a new life….. Sometimes time is needed before the magical moment of happiness: On Wednesday, the foundations of the houses of Malinda, on the Kumara Kanda Road. In the photographs, we can see him, the fisherman, living alone with his parents, since the Tsunami, in two wooden shacks … a fishing family, passed on from father to son….faces, looks, marked by the hard reality of days. Click on these pictures, and stop for an instant to imagine with us the importance for them of a roof against the rains and for the rest at the end of a day…the fnundations quickly advanced, all their friends were there to help …
Yesterday, Thursday, the foundations for the new home of the Lalith Kumara family, on the Gall Rd. The father is a Green Hope fisherman like Malinda … In the picture, you can see him in front of the foundations with his wife and his two children …They also lived since the tsunami in a shack The ceremony was particularly moving, with friends, neighbours, and the sea in the distance, so cruel, but so necessary to accept and to fish there in order to have food. We kept in mind " Secouristes Sans Frontières" who help us in this new program of reconstruction … We hope that by the time of their visit here, in February, houses will be advanced well because two others start in the next few days These houses are guaranteed for 20 years, all the materials are top-class, with real shutters, and solid wooden painted doors, equipped with a minimum of household appliances. For Green Hope, the poorest must be considered by the wealth of their courage, their heart, with the dignity and appreciation which their way of life demands from us.
This morning, at 9 h 46, the advantageous hour, we were on the
public beach at Hikkaduwa for the first launching in the water of
the new glass-bottom Green Hope boat, the " le Monde de l'Asie
"
We are going to take a very break up until the start of the school year on January 2nd. We will join our friends François, our representative in Colombo, and his wife Shinta, to mark together the coming of the New Year, in a small mountain hotel in the middle of the tea plantations. It will not be a complete vacation; we must also finalize the details of the organized trip which will take place this summer at the end of July and the beginning of August … and you are already many who want to come to visit our activities, to take part in the second festival, and go around the Island. We want to put together an unforgettable stay but at a small price, accessible to all. Next week, we shall give you more information… To our friends, the " Bearers of the Word " of the website, who gave us new superb pages, to all " little engines ", all of you, so faithful and generous, hundreds connected to the website every day, we wish you, with the fishermen, the women, the children of the villages, a year in 2006, beautiful and even more beautiful, full of dreams and of a Utopia achieved, believing in the impossible so that it becomes possible ……continuously believing in hope … December 27th, 2005, Rully-France-Jean-Christophe and Alain It was one year ago today, this sad message from Pierre and Quentin came to upset the gentle end of a year, between Christmas and New Years Day: "The island of Sri Lanka has undoubtedly just experienced
its biggest environmental and humanitarian disaster. Here, there
is suffering; nothing remains of the coast, many persons missing,
a lot of deaths, even among the people of the villages with whom
we share our life... Help, help, help. But how, at 10000 km distance, help a devastated region? Then urgent meetings. First, a quick collection of some money to
set up an account which will serve for funding first aid, the most
basic, but so necessary. Then, also quickly, getting organized so
that the generous instincts are not just an empty sentiment, an
evening Téléthon or the collective salving of conscience.
Very quickly, the website appears as a link, the catalyst of possibilities,
the meeting-place for teeming ideas and promising energies. Jean-Christophe, Alain and Karl
December 26th, 2005, Hikkaduwa - Pierre and Quentin It was on ordinary Sunday We remember the intense blue colour of the sky…the silence also…the dismay, when the force of nature goes beyond the reason of man, the illogical nature of fate. Some minutes afterwards, on the streets of Hikkaduwa, going up and down on our bikes, we discovered death, terrible, and desolation … At the same time a desire arnse in us to fight such an injustice, force increased tenfold by love, a real brotherhood with these nice, worthy, noble, brave people….and afterwards, as you know, to share it, live it with Green Hope. Today, one year later, in respect and reflection we give you three texts from Indian writers, so that together, we stop for a moment, too rare a moment, a moment in parenthesis, in communion with all those who were marked by the grief of a scar in their heart. Tomorrow, the Diary will take its normal course again, parties
for the pre-schools, good news, reconstructions. "Where roads are marked I lose my way. On the vast sea,
in the blue of the sky, there are no marked lines. Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) Nobel Prize for Literature 1913
Shantideva (VIIth century)
Swani Prajnanpad ( 1891-1974 )
Today and tomorrow, we have decided to give you texts and photographs for us to reflect together and remember … Here, everything is very quiet. The temples receive the faithful, and hear their prayers echo in the deep jungle……. The sea, once so cruel, is calm….. with all those with whom we have the desire to share our life, the villages, the boats out at sea, we thank you for this splendid support network which allowed Green Hope to give back a smile and hope to these broken people. While there still is a lot to do, we know that you are tenderly attentive at our side. Thank you! We shall take up again the daily Diary on the 27th with a lot of good news. Pablo Neruda was born in Chile July 12th, 1904, died from a broken
heart after his houses were vandalised by followers of Pinochet,
September 11th, 1973. These extracts of texts, written around 1930, on this " Earth full of ocean ", on the eve of the commemoration of the Tsunami, appear almost like a prediction of that sad Sunday, December 26th, 2005. Thank you!
December 22th 2005 - Hikkaduwa - Pierre et Quentin Yesterday, we had the visit of the family Delfort, who were so cruelly touched by the Tsunami - three members of their family were carried away by a wave north of Hikkaduwa. In the morning we gathered around memory in that place. They greatly honoured us by allowing us to share this moment together ..… Nathalie is a "Green- Hopian" from the first days, a dental student in Toulouse, who finishes her studies this year and we shall organize a preventative dental programme in the villages, thanks to her assistance, at the end of 2006. This campaign of prevention will allow an evaluation in order to look forward to a screening and care programe later …
Together, we went to see Dushyantha in a private
hospital in Gall where we had persuaded them to take him in immediately
on Monday. A few hours before, he had come to visit us accompanied
by his father with a wound in his foot which had gone septic very
quickly. We understood that there was risk of septicaemia. Without
doubt Dushyantha does not have much luck, having already lost an
eye this year . Luckily he has a fantastic godmother, Patricia -
our Alsace delegate - who gives herself without counting for Green-Hope
and for him. Just beforehand, we had attended one of the last rehearsals of the show in the school in Patuwatha which will take place tomorrow. No less than fourteen sequences of dancing, singing and costumes. The families were present, very proud of the performance of their children … Work on the stadium advances, the second floor is almost ended. The opening will take place on February 25th of this year … Boats are taking back to the sea - the catamarans every day, two trawlers on Sunday and the fishermen are getting good catches again … Laying the foundations of the three houses will take place as planned on December 29th in the morning.
"I move towards the centre
of a pale and dark country and which trembles at the beginning
December 18th, 2005 - Hikkaduwa - Pierre and Quentin Violent, torrential rains poured down on the country…..Normally
this season is that of a tropical spring, with flowers, birds, and
fruits, usually the nicest season in Sri Lanka. Normally, we have
gentle days and cool nights, days of bright sunshine, blue skies.
Here, nobody understands what has happened. In one of the villages
we were alerted that a hill of red earth had collapsed. We went
immediately there to note that subsidence had stopped just in front
of a fisherman's home, with the risk that the next rains carry it
away … These meteorological disturbances slow down our daily activity considerably. Roads are flooded, the workers cannot work, and many our friends are sick. The boats which had gone to sea the must immediately come back to the harbour; one of them took refuge in Matara, more in the south. It poses real economic problems, there is no help for thnse laid off, if a worker does not work, or a fisherman does not fish, they have no income. Without mentioning the small seasonal jobs such as the sellers along the beaches, when the tourists desert the seaside … The only rays of sunshine are the free lessons of traditional dances of Saturday and the celebrations of the end of the year of the Green Hope pre-schools. On Saturday, we were invited to the celebration of the future pre-class in Tiranagama for which we still do not have a sponsor, and yesterday in the small pre-class in Katukoliya which we opened during the year, thanks to the City of Rully. A show of three hours - starting with a Buddhist prayer and ending with the national anthem - remarkably orchestrated by the teachers, with splendid costumes made by the parents. Singing, dancing, freshness and innocence, proud children to whom we had postponed giving the end-of-year certificate and a class photograph. They are going to join the mainstream school system next month, with an education which they would not have been able to achieve without the free pre-classes which were put on for them.
The small pre-class in Katukoliya consisted of only
13 children. It has been going for 22 years in the Temple, but was
fee-paying and this area is very poor. This first Green Hope
year there were 20, next year there will be thirty and we plan to
construct a new school … December 20th 2005, Green hope , Switzerland The Green Hope Sri Lankan Christmas Party Over the past few weeks I have been lending a hand in the organisation of the Green Hope Sri Lankan Christmas party that was held in Geneva on Wednesday 30th November. It was the first time that I had been involved in a fundraising event and I really hope that it won't be the last. It was a genuinely enjoyable experience and it was an absolute pleasure to be a part of it all. The attitude of everyone was really quite overwhelming, not only of the people organizing the evening but also of the guests that attended the party. There was an underlying sense of commitment and passion throughout the evening, which is what made it all so special.
On the day of the party many of the volunteer helpers arrived in the early afternoon to start setting up the hall and to undertake the grand task of preparing the food for the evening. There was a lot that needed to be done, yet thanks to the forward planning of the key organizers Enrica, Rob, Karl and Claudio and not forgetting the head chef Gavin with Mike and Jon, everything moved along like clockwork. The harmony amongst the group was really something worth seeing! By around 7.30pm most of the guests were starting to arrive and from there the evening was under way. Guests were welcomed at the entrance by two Sri Lankan ladies beautifully dressed in their traditional, colourful Saris.
After enjoying a few aperitifs the guests were seated and soon enough the young waitresses, who had volunteered to help for the duration of the evening, rolled out to serve the 'entrée', a traditional Sri Lankan speciality 'Spiced Onion & Cauliflower Pastry Puffs'. Soon after, the main meal was served, which included many typically Sri Lankan. After enjoying a few aperitifs the guests were seated and soon enough the young waitresses, who had volunteered to help for the duration of the evening, rolled out to serve the 'entrée', a traditional Sri Lankan speciality 'Spiced Onion & Cauliflower Pastry Puffs'. Soon after, the main meal was served, which included many typically Sri Lankan dishes including Chicken Tikka, Spiced Lamb Masala and Sweet & Sour Chick-Pea Curry. Complimented by the generously donated wine, the dinner was truly excellent!
After dinner, came the Bingo, which was brilliant fun. Winners of the Bingo left with snme exceptional prizes including a night's stay in a top Geneva hotel; a cooking course at Chex (the caterers of the evening); a weekend car hire in a Volvo, a 6 month gym place at one of the top Geneva fitness centres; a session with an anti-ageing nutritionist, amongst others! All in all it was a 'fun' evening to be had by all. I hope that
was just the first of many Green Hope fundraising events to come.
I will be the first to volunteer for future events so I can again
have the chance to work with such a great team of people and of
course be able to contribute towards the fundraising of such a worthy
cause. December 16th, 2005 - Hikkaduwa - Pierre and Quentin<*p> We have just come from buying the land and the building which will become the future Green Hope training centre. It is located on Gall Road, the main road which goes from Colombo to Matara, in the Commune of Patuwatha, on the edge of Dodanduwa. The future centre, which will open its doors some time in 2006,
will offer lessons in English on two levels and computer science
to every person not able to gain otherwise this knowledge, so necessary
for success in Sri Lanka. So Green Hope gives an equality of chance
to all. The "Schola Europea" in Munich are associated
with this project, and can imagine sometime in the future, inviting
some of these students for a training period in Germany. To the
building, which is already imposing, is going to be added a second
which we are going to build, so that we will have in the one place
the Green Hope offices, an office for the fishermen, a refrigerated
truck, and, hopefully, the base and the garage for the future ambulance…. The school of Patuwatha is completed. We shall take in 70
children there. On the facade, they can read that the building was
constructed on a ground given by the ancient prior of the Temple
de Dodanduwa, to help the poor people of the village. We should
name this gnod and generous religious: the Reverend Dammasena.
It is the time for preparing the start of the new school year, this year in Patuwatha, Narigama, Katukoliya, Peraliya, and Tiranagama. Tomorrow, we are going with Asanka to buy the school supplies, we will have to take a minibus to bring back all the equipment for the future 220 children. We also got a photographer, and Green Hope is going to give a class photograph to every child before the end of the year.… It is also the time for celebrating the end of the year, when the pupils are going to perform shows in each of the schools, we will see very moving pieces of dances and songs…. We will tell you all about it… The three fishermen's houses on the edge of coast were demolished; the propitious date for the beginning of foundations is on December 29th … Just a few days from the sad anniversary of the Tsunami, we are fiercely turned towards the future, and life and hope …
Between the search for a missing friend requested by a Frenchwoman, thanks to the Alsace delegation, and found by her family…. in Nuremberg, Germany…. and the accounting work of the week…. some minutes on the public beach of Hikkaduwa. On Sundays, the beach is full of numerous families, and by groups of friends who organize Parties. Right to the end of the, this excitement, the ball games, diving, athletics, women swimming in sarongs, the arrivals of coaches from Kandy and Colombo there, here and there go the glass bottom boats, everywhere a nice life of simple joy: " The beach is my village " Manjula says to us…. This fierce will to believe in life … Our friends from FR3 television left us, far too early. Together, we lived the memory of shared moments, soon to be one year ago, and especially our belief in hope. Together, we met with Manjula, a new Green Hope fisherman, on the beach, in the process of working on the glass bottom boat given by " le Monde de l'Asie ". Together, we visited the sad camp site in Morocola, a village of wooden shacks piled up one next to the other. There 18 families live, 90 persons in three rows, only one shower, five toilets, no privacy, and of course numerous diseases, as well as an exponential outbreak of alcoholism and conjugal violence, confirmed to us by a doctor who attended in these living conditions … Finally having gotten authorization by an official letter from
the mayor of Hikkaduwa to rebuild the houses destroyed along
the edge of the sea, and supported once again, it must be said,
by our friends in " Secouristes sans Frontières ",
we began, the same day, to clear out the ruins and started three
construction sites of houses which we are going to rebuild, in keeping
with the respectability and culture of these noble and modest people.
Thanks to the help of Bouddhika, a sinhala / French interpreter, and a friend of François, the Green Hope correspondent in Colombo, we are going tn be able to work better by understanding better. Bouddhika stayed with us these last few days and his love for his country, its inhabitants, its generosity, and feelings are the values which we are fighting for. Berny started the first free lessons of traditional dances from the region last Saturday. An incredible attendance in the Green Hope room in Patuwatha - about two hundred persons waiting from 8 am, to inscribe their children's names. Berny worked with 76 participants on three levels. The first level is that of the study of these sacred dances and lasts five years. At the end of this period of study, the professor can decide to transfer to Kotha, also known as Karaduwa. Then, the dancer dresses in the sacred attire the Kandyan Costumes, which takes their name from the city of Kandy, city of Perahera, where these costumes are made according to the pure ancestral tradition. Covered in silver, the costume is worth 25 000 Rs. Every region has its particular characteristic, a specific mask, the fire game. Finally, five years after Kotha, the dancer is consecrated during a Buddhist ceremony so well recounted by Jean-Christophe in the book " Journal du Tsunami " … This consecration is called Kohabha Kankariya. Every Saturday Berny will bring his knowledge and initiate the children of the villages of the fishermen in the splendid and disconcerting expressions of the body which will narrate the sacred legends of Sri Lanka …
December 8th, 2005 - Hikkaduwa - Pierre et Quentin Green Hope has just bought a new fully equipped boat, thanks to the " Monde de l'Asie et de l'Inde ". After the first night boats, the catamarans, Wallams, and trawlers, we were able to invest in a " Glass Bottom " boat moored at the public beach in Hikkaduwa. The hull, made of glass, allows one to see the coral and the fish. Before the tsunami, on this beach, there were 70 boats such as this one, now there are only 20…. The boat will allow tourism activities in the morning, and fishing in the afternoon. It arrived on the beach this morning and will start being prepared for these different uses from tomorrow. We agreed to use this boat for small trips on the sea for the children of the pre-schools … Other partners have chosen to contribute to the future Training centre which will open for the next program, at the end of 2006. As we wrote before, this centre, free of charge, will be opened first and foremost to those most needy to allow them to start to learn English and computer science and to give them the same chance of success as others have. Turning to the support of " Plongeurs du Monde " …it allows us supplement the purchase of the "Rully / Sète", the cost of which we had never managed to completely cover. This trawler came back to the harbour today with 1800 kg of fish: not quite a huge catch but still the beginning of a season that we hope will be better than the last two months … We should soon begin the reconstruction of several houses destroyed on the edge of coast. We wait for the confirmation that it is not forbidden - as had been announced - between 100 metres and 500 metres of the sea. We had the first oral response from the Mayor, but wait for a official written reply before investing funds. As soon as we shall have this agreement, both we and the local people hope soon, we shall rebuild three houses at the same time. Of course, these houses will be rebuilt there solidly, according to tradition, two bedrooms, a living room, kitchen, bathroom, a terrace. Tomorrow, a new visit to the hospital in Colombo for consultations and analyses. Five persons will be on this trip: two fishermen, the child who is going blind, the newly born child and the daughter of a fisherman who has a heart problem. You are numerous in supporting us in this work….we think, of course, of the Swiss deputation which organized a big party in Geneva, last week…On the 14th , Green Hope will finance the operation and hospital stay of a child handicapped as the result of a poor operation which made him lose the use of the left arm … The Women's Workshop goes well… "Araliya
Design" has numerous orders and will introduce its work
on December 18th of this year in Paris. We have just bought the
first industrial sewing machine which should be delivered next Tuesday. December 2nd, 2005 - Hikkaduwa - Pierre and Quentin Louis, the president of "Plongeurs du Monde", sent us
a photograph of the signing of the contract with the Poseidon
Centre, PADI, of Hikkaduwa. This will allow the initiation of
numerous children from the villages in underwater diving and the
discovery of the fauna and flora of their ocean…..another way
of From 10 till 19 February 2006, it is our friends from the "
Secouristes Sans Frontières" who will join Green Hope
for a program of First Aid which will allow a large number get a
Certificate in First Aid and bring help to those in need. We are organizing a new trip to the Apollo Hospital on December 9th. Thanks to these trips, Green Hope was able to save the mother of a fisherman who had a tumour in her stomach, discover that little Awiska did not have leukaemia and allowed numerous treatments of diseases of the skin and eyes. Following the entry in the last Diary, the baby Hirushi found a family of sponsors which is going to look after her and help us finance the necessary care. Enrica and the Switzerland delegation organized a splendid party in Geneva for Green Hope. Soon we will be able to read the details of this party, but already we know that the funds will go to medical care … For a week now, we are in negotiations to buy and renovate a big building on the Galle Road, on the way out from Hikkaduwa. We shall set up there a Training centre in English and in computer science, to give the necessary tools to the most underprivileged here for their success and for relations with the outside world … At the same time, we found a new site in Elhatotowatha on which we are going to build a new school of two pre-classes for the villages of Narigama and Tiranagama. Then, we would like to find a site for a pre-class in Dodanduwa, and to renovate the existent pre-class in Katukoliya …
This morning, we met with our new associate members, from the International association "Habitat For Humanity", with which we will do many projects in 2006. Together, we visited the pre-classes. The members of this association shared songs with the children and offered gifts... and an impromptu game of football... After a long and difficult month, the fishing has become good again. Yesterday the catamarans returned to the port with nearly 1000 kg of fish. Two trawlers are at sea, while the "Secouristes Sans Frontières" must be repaired for some damage in the ice compartment... The end of the school year is close; the children prepare the end
of year concerts with dances, mimes and songs. The inscriptions
are closed for the existing pre-classes... 210 pupils to begin
the new year... Just one year ago, we were preparing to open the
first pre-class of 30 pupils...
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