Volunteering in Sri Lanka - Weekend and 4th Week

English Readers:

Saturday (8th of August)

- We caught a bus to Kogalla, a small coastal village about 15 km from Galle. The bus left us a few meters behind the gates to the Free Trade Zone, an industrial setting where many foreign companies manufacture. The principle is simple and effective: by providing a tax free zone, the government gathers the ideal conditions for foreign companies to invest, and therefore create more jobs and sustainability. Companies like Puma, Benetton, or Hugo Boss are already working on the free trade zones.

- The village itself is almost inexistent, although there are a fair number of attractions. There is a prestigious museum dedicated to the History of Buddhism; a Spice Garden, with many trees and plants that provide the raw elements from which most of the spices and herbs are made; a big lagoon where, in a small rowing catamaran, one can visit several islands (one of them with a buddhist temple); and stilt fishermen. Apart from this, there are only a couple of hotels and a fairly small stretch of beach.

- To be able to see all this, we called for a tuk-tuk. The driver, named Aja, took us to all these places for almost nothing, and waited patiently while we explored every attraction. I was interested to know about the effects of the Tsunami in this part of the coast, and I was surprised to know that Kogalla was completely flattened out by the raging waters. No buildings or houses remained intact. Aja was driving his tuk-tuk when the Tsunami hit the coast. He was caught by the wave but luckily found a palm tree where he grabbed for his life. The tuk-tuk vanished. After all the gigantic tidal waves were over, Aja went home. There was no one... there was nothing anywhere, apart from destruction, mud, and corpses. In his house lived his family -- wife, daughter, mother, and father. The first three survived miraculously. The father's corpse was found 3 days later several hundred meters away from home.

Volunteering in Sri Lanka - Weekend and 3rd Week

English Readers:

Sri Lanka (3rd Weekend)

Saturday (1st of August)

- We went to the Beach Party at Hikkaduwa, supposedly a big Summer event where thousands of people gather on the beach and dance. We caught the bus at about 11h00, just in time to get to Hikkaduwa (some twenty kilometers away from Galle) and have lunch. Then we checked in at the "El Dorado", a Guest House we found listed on the Rough Guide.

It was located about four hundred meters away from the main road and the beach, in a calm place, away from the noise of the cars and the sound of the bars' loudspeakers. Inside it was very simple. The air conditioning in our room was broken, so we had to get on with the ceiling fan. There were no sheets on the bed, no towels, and when we asked for toilet paper, they said it was available for a price. We paid 1650 rupees for the room, which is about 10 euros. This may sound cheap, but in Sri Lanka you can get a nice guest house for the same price, with toilet paper, bed sheets, towels, air conditioning and hot water. Here we didn't have any of this.

- We strolled along the main road, looking at the shops, had a swim at the beach nearby, and looked around for signs of a party. There weren't as many people as we were expecting, although most of the bars were packed with big loudspeakers and preparing for the night. After a nice swim in the rough sea, playing with the waves, we walked back to the main road to do some gift shopping and watch some art crafting. We had dinner at the Francis Restaurant, a fancy place with live music, and then headed back to the beach for the party. The music here was deafening and too rave-like, but everything looked pretty calm at this time, apart from a few small groups dancing randomly in some kind of trance. It was definitely not our party, so we went to bed.

Volunteering in Sri Lanka - Weekend and 2nd Week

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English Readers:

Sri Lanka (2nd Weekend)

Saturday - 25th of July

The weekend arrived and, as planned, we went to visit Galle for the first time. Ann was going with us, which was nice.

Inside the Bus

We caught the bus at the main road, our first time on a bus in Sri Lanka. Lucky as we always are, the bus was crammed with people and getting into it turned out to be a Tetris Challenge. The bus is new by Sri Lankan standards, probably around twenty years old, but it feels like something from World War II. The ride is harsh, bumpy, noisy and totally unsafe. But if you pay five cents to go to Galle (about five kilometers away) what would you expect? It's like going on a roller coaster for free.

We arrive in Galle... alive!

Galle Bus Station

The bus station is packed with people. There are dozens and dozens of buses all over the place, mixed with three-wheelers, motorbikes, bikes, people and dogs. There are vendors in every corner, selling everything, from fruit to clothes and craftwork.

Galle is divided into two different zones, the New Town, and the Old Town.

The Old Town is located inside the Fort, a massive Dutch colonial structure from the 17th Century, built over the previous Portuguese Fort. The Town follows the same patterns, with a typical colonial style and strong Dutch influences.

Our time in town is spent visiting art shops, churches and museums. In one of the churches there is a visitor’s logbook, where I see people from all over the world, but mainly Europeans. From Portugal there is no one. We are the first!

There are also many gem shops, with jewelry for every taste.

Volunteering in Sri Lanka - News from the Week

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English Readers:

Sri Lanka (day 3) - 20th of July

We woke up at 6:50 in the morning, went for a nice cold water shower and then breakfast. At about 8:00 we went to the Primary School to meet the Head Teacher and get to know the school. The school gates opened and we were suddenly surrounded by hundreds of white dressed little girls with red ribbons on their hair. They were all over the place, looking over the windows, walking on the path walks, and staring curiously at us.

We were served soft drinks and after a small conversation the Head Teacher showed us the school. It's an old school, very simple and with very little furniture. In the music room, there are no chairs: the girls sit on the floor. There is also a vertical piano, as old as the school and completely out of tune.

My photo class in the Upper School

Many children started to gather in the music room, maybe about fifty. We thought they were going to sing or dance for us. But then the teacher turns to Catarina and says: "Sing, sing to them". Well, she did sing, and all the kids sang along with her, but she learned the hard way that we must always be ready for anything. Lucky me, and lucky them, nobody asked me to sing.

After that we went to visit the Upper School, just 100 meters away from the Primary Shool. Once again, a girls school.

The school is located in a historical building, still well preserved. The Head Teacher is a nun. We had a nice chat with her at the Main Office and planned the photo classes. The School is opening a Photo Club, a place where students can learn photography and produce photo work for the school. I was assigned to teach them photography and prepare the girls for that mission. The lessons will be given on Fridays, the whole morning, to four different classes.

Volunteering in Sri Lanka - First Days

Note:

When I decided to write a blog of our daily experiences in Sri Lanka, I never thought I would end up facing an impossible mission.  There are so many things happening during the day that even memorizing everything becomes a difficult task. To make things easier, and to make up for the lost days without blog entries, I have decided to compile everything in a different written format. From now on, the "Sri Lanka Volunteering" blog entries will be delivered in topics, short sentences, and less detail.

Nota:

Quando decidi escrever um blogue acerca das experiências do nosso dia-a-dia no Sri Lanka nunca pensei que iria enfrentar uma missão impossível. Aconteceram tantas coisas durante o dia que o simples facto de querer memorizar tudo se torna tarefa difícil. Para tornar as coisas mais fáceis e recuperar os dias perdidos sem entradas de blogues, decidi compilar tudo usando um formato escrito diferente. Daqui para a frente, as entradas no blogue “ Sri Lanka Volunteering” serão inseridas em tópicos, frases curtas e com menos pormenor.

Enquanto escrevo, lá fora há macacos a saltar nas árvores.
 
As I’m writing, monkeys are jumping outside on the trees.
 
English Readers:
 
Sri Lanka (day 1 - Saturday)
 
The doors of the Airport opened, and outside the temperature was asphyxiating - 32 degrees Celsius in the shade and a sweating humidity. The car driving us to Galle was a Toyota, similar to the previous version of the Corolla Hatchback, with Air-Conditioning (Thank God!) and steering wheel on the right side. In Sri Lanka they use the same road rule system of the United Kingdom, which means that everything works the other way round.
 
There are soldiers all over the place. Although we should feel safe with such a strong apparatus, we feel more stressed than relieved, and the little road side bunkers used to stop vehicles randomly do not help make us feel better.
 
The traffic is infernal! I would probably need two full pages to explain how things work in these roads. Since I don't have the time, I'll make it as obvious as possible - in Sri Lanka there are NO traffic rules. The road is full of ‘tuk-tuks’, also called three-wheelers, three wheel motorbikes with a maximum speed of about 40 km/h. Then you have the buses. They are older than "Gandhi", they are noisy, and the drivers only know two driving actions: full-throttle and full-breaks. The golden rule seems to be the horn. If someone is coming in your direction on the wrong side of the road, you hit the horn; if you want to take-over, you hit the horn; if some pedestrian is crossing the road, even if it is miles away from you, you hit the horn; if you go through an intersection, guess what?... Yes... you hit the horn. The average "horn-pressing" from our driver, Mr. Wilfred, was 2 per minute. Since we took over 3 hours to get from Colombo to Galle (116 km distance) the number of "bip-bips" might have topped the 400. And all this on a Saturday, between 9h00 and 12h15 in the morning, far from weekday rush hours.

Volunteering in Sri Lanka - Finally, Sri Lanka!

Initial Note: I had a lot of pictures to post, but the available internet connection at the moment is really bad. It would take me about 5 minutes to upload just one small photo. I hope to have this problem solved next week.

This 2 last days in Sri Lanka have been filled with new experiences, there is so much to say it is hard to compile everything in a small text message.

I will try to deliver the news as fast as possible. For now, you can read the story of the remaining flight adventures.

Nota Inicial: Como estou a escrever atraves de um teclado Cingales, nao me vai ser possivel incluir os acentos.

Tinha varias fotografias para apresentar juntamente com esta entrada de blog, mas a ligacao a internet e tao lenta que uma simples fotografia de pequena dimensao iria demorar 5 minutos para carregar. Espero ter este problema resolvido na proxima semana.

Estes ultimos 2 dias no Sri Lanka tem sido impressionantes, cheios de novas experiencias. Ha tanto para dizer que se torna dificil compilar tudo numa mensagem de texto.

Tentarei enviar-vos as ultimas noticias sempre que possivel. Para ja, deixo-vos com as aventuras finais do resto do voo. 

English Readers:

The plane transporting us to London was not from TAP, but from PGA. Our first time flying on PGA, and also the first time flying in this kind of plane, a Fokker 100.  The plane is slightly smaller than the AirBus A310 and feels very crampy inside.

The flight to London started reasonable well, a bit shaky perhaps, but crossing the Channel all the way to London was probably  the worst flying experience we ever had. The plane felt like a milk-shaker, and the thought of pieces falling from it crossed my mind. For those who know my odd passenger car sickness, you can easily imagine how horrible it felt; I had to make a big effort to avoid puking. Now I understand why they named the plane "Fokker".

Airport N. 2

The news from Gatwick Airport were not that great too. We were starving and, at 22h45, only the sandwich machines seemed to be delivering. After a while we found a nice Coffee Shop called Nero. The bar was well decorated, with confortable sofas and round tables. Some people were already sleeping there, a good sign that the place felt warm and cozy. We ate a meat sandwich and drunk a nice fresh natural orange juice. There was also free water with ice.

It was late and we were both tired, but we couldn't sleep at the same time; someone had to look over the baggage. Catarina went to sleep, and I stayed awake all night, writing, reading and taking care of our stuff.

Volunteering in Sri Lanka - Airport Nº 1

Para ler a versão em português, seleccionar "read more" no link que se encontra no fim da mensagem.

English Readers:

Last time we met I was quite confident with the last minute preparations. Everything seemed to go according to plan. Last time we met... yeah, I was still at the computer pressing the send button.

Afterwards, I went upstairs to see how Catarina was doing with the baggage. It was chaaaaaaotic... unimaginable chaotic. I knew we were taking a lot of "stuff". It's comprehensible, we were going to stay in Sri Lanka 2 months. Somewhere between planning the things and making them happen something went awfully wrong. We had too much, and even the super-gigantic-extra-sized bags we proudly bought were too small for everything. But we did it, the zips locked and two strong man were enough to carry each bag to the car. The only concern now was guaranteeing that the car suspension handled the way to the airport. It did! We're in!

Time for check-in. With reenergized strength I was able to pick up the bags by myself and put them in the check-in mat. The man behind the counter gave me a strange look. "Hummmm..." he said, "you're carrying 30 kg of excess baggage". I gave him a surprised look: "Really??? I had no idea", I said. He then went to explain that with over 30 kg in each bag we would never be able to pick them in London (apparently they have a 30 kg restriction). Solution: we had to take has much as possible from the bags and buy some carry bags to put the extra weight. And you know what?? There is a bookstore inside the airport that sells bags for extra weight. They look  a lot like those bags you get as a gift when buying a sun lotion, but these cost 15 euros. 15 euros!!!! When we start shifting the extra weight to this "don't know who called them carry bags" we realized that when they meant "extra-weight" bags they were probably referring to pocket-books, mobile phones or nail cutters, not 30 kg of extra-weight.

"extra-weight" bags

Back to the check-in. Let's see how we were now? 26 kg in one bag, 25 kg in the other. Much better. The lovely man behind the counter gave another strange look. "Yes??" I asked inquisitive. "Well, you will have to pay for each extra kilo above 20 kg" he said. We did manage to get rid of the "extra-weight" above the 30 kg London limitation, but not the 20 kg TAP limitation. "How much?" I asked. "11 euros for each kilo" he said. My face went white!!! 11 euros per kilo??? Anyway... he was friendly enough to make us a discount and we "only" had to pay 75 euros of excess baggage. Add to that the 15 euros for each of the two bags bought, and it makes 105 euros. Not bad for the first airport.

Volunteering in Sri Lanka - Departure

Para ler a versão em português, seleccionar "read more" no link que se encontra no fim da mensagem.

English Readers:

It is time to make a pause on my Greek adventure tales, and start a new thread dedicated to my next adventure, now with Catarina.

A few months ago we were looking for places to volunteer, mainly in developing countries where help is always in high demand. After searching for projects in almost every Continent, we selected a few and ended up choosing the Sri Lanka Tsunami project.

Before the Tsunami that swept the Sri Lankan coast on the 27th of December 2004, Janaka de Silva, a native from the South Coast, created a project dedicated to help the local poor communities, especially children. The focus of the project was to provide education and facilities to kids without access to school. Many of them work 7 days a week, 12 hours a day to help on the economical support of their families, and this initiative provided them with the means to get some education. But with the calamity that devastated most of the East and South coasts of Sri Lanka, and the consequent loss of his parents, Janaka channeled all the project resources to the rebuilding of houses. A few years after, Ann Chawner, a British lady with a long curriculum creating, managing and developing volunteer initiatives, found about the previous project, got passionate about it, and volunteered to help bring it back to life. It is now called the Tsunami Memorial Library.

So here we are, almost packed and eager to get on the plane. 5 hours before departure.

The planning and organizing tasks started about a month ago. Since then we attended the Travelers Medical Consultation and received two vaccinations, for polio and yellow fever; we were also prescribed with several preventive medications; I went to get an International Drivers License; our both passports had to be updated; new clothes and shoes for the humid and hot weather; anti-mosquito spray; teaching material, some donated from english schools nearby, the other from friends or ordered from Amazon to deal with special requests; photographic equipment, loads of it... too much to be mentioned; computers, drives and other technological gizmos; special hand washer liquid (prevention for H1N1) - a gift from my parents; books, mobile phones and of course, money. We are probably taking some other things, but I'm already suffering from travel anxiety and my memory is not working at its best.

We arrive in Colombo, the Capital of Sri Lanka, Saturday morning. Yes, that's correct, it is a 2 day journey to get there... a special "recipe" that we found to avoid higher flighting costs.

Fist flight, Oporto - London. Almost... almost there! We will tell about the other flights later. Check the blog often to get the latest news.

You can also follow our adventure on twitter, facebook and flickr.

Adventure in Greece - Chapter II

The small journey to Madrid ends up being safe enough for a smooth landing and a round of applauses, a clear sign that everyone is happy to be alive.

27th of July, 09:45, Barajas Airport, Madrid, Spain

The Airport is surprisingly calm, inviting for a confortable and pleasant walk along the corridors and open spaces; my stomach, on the other hand, is already growling for attention, demanding some food. I pay 3.75€ for a cheese and ham sandwich and 1.40€ for a 50cl water bottle. A quick trip to the bathroom reveals some nice touches, everything looks very clean, the liquid soap containers are not empty, and there is plenty of paper to dry your hands. But the good news stops just about there. The plane to Greece is 1 hour late due to a technical problem, and the grumbling from the impacient passengers echoes in the lounge. A Portuguese couple is complaining vigorously, afraid they will arrive too late to visit the "Akropole", which closes at 19h00. After a while, everything settles...  the plane is ready to go. The plane is as old and rusty as the previous one, and after being informed that the problem was a broken piece that had to be replaced, my confidence drops to the lowest level since the start of the journey.

Winner of the Grand Prize in the WeSay Contest

I'm a "Happy Camper" once again. This time the prize came from the recent but already acclaimed news site WeSay.com.

The Grand Prize was awarded to my "Car Explosion" photo, a picture depicting a dramatic scene where firemen fight a raging fire caused by a car explosion.

To get more details check inside: http://www.wesay.com/Contest/116200964325178

Shopping vs "Digicaming"

I don't like shopping! I'm not the kind of person that gets inside a shopping center with a smile, strolling around and drooling frantically store after store. There are some benefits though that I have to agree with - you can always exercise, keep up with fashion trends, and look at the advertising billboards from a photographers point of view.

So, yesterday my wife asked me to do some shopping with her. As always, I made a little frown and resigned to my duty as a dedicated husband. But I couldn't go empty handed, so I took my small digicam, a black pocket-sized Sony T100. I usually have it with me all the time, and it has proven to be both reliable and dependable. It is my "evernote", the place where I keep visual memories of interesting things, and more practical information, like the copy of receipts, book pages, recipes (for my wife), event calendars, etc.

This time I used it to fight my natural boredom for shopping activities. Decoration stores are usually good places to make cool photographs, there are lots of color, interesting light with mood and personality, and subject sets that make great abstracts. I chose a few targets and turned an otherwise uninteresting afternoon in something enjoyable.

Here are some examples:

Next time you find yourself stranded in some place with nothing else to do, remember... you can always use your digicam, iphone or whatever you use to grab those striking visual moments.

April Holiday Velvet Competition Winner

Glad to know that my picture "Sra da Rocha Beach" from Algarve won the April Holiday-Velvet competition.

Here is the link: http://www.holiday-velvet.com/algarve

And the picture:

Adventure in Greece - Chapter I (Departure)

Introduction

It was the year 2006 and I remember it as if it was today. It could be just another calendar ripped out from the wall, a sequence of daily routines easily forgotten, things that just don't really make a difference. But no, nothing of the sort! I don't think I've ever had a "bad" year - those that you just want to forget - but this one... this one topped them all. In a time span of only 5 months I embarked in one of the most incredible adventures of my life, got married to the most beautiful girl, went on a honeymoon to a fantastic place, turned 30 and became Junior Consultant in the Department of Innovation of a big company. But, for the sake of this story, and to keep all things photographically fenced, I won’t go beyond the "incredible adventure of my life" in the land of the Gods - Greece.

It was around April, when the first rays of light started to shine through, that I felt the urge, the sudden inspiration to do something different. And, this being a turning point in my life, due to the upcoming wedding, I was struggling with existential doubts regarding my future liberty and the loss of my bachelor status. I had to do something big, something that could ease up my mind and free the rebellion of my spirit. I started looking for places that fitted my personal criteria: cheap to fly into, cheap to "live" in, easy to move around, photographically appealing, challenging and wild. To make things easier, I also searched for local connections within the on-line hospitality communities of which I have been a member for some time now. After about a month analyzing the possibilities, I ended up choosing Greece.

There is still a chance for them...

Today I was browsing some old archives and decided to have a look at the "unsorted" dated folders, the place where I usually put the pics I really don't care for or that I think are not worth the effort of sorting and editing. Most of this folders just stay there in the "dust", till I decide to wipe them due to lack of disk space. I like this process because it allows me to keep the good stuff and get rid of all the junk we all eventually end up collecting.

Anyway, I was in one of those revival moments and thought it would be interesting to see some of my previous work. I still thought it was pretty much "junk" material, but this time I decided to pick some and have a go on the "editing table".

I chose two pictures from the set. After the finishing touches, this is what I ended up getting.

Girl and Dog

Before

After

Earthquake in L'Aquila - photos of the tragedy

An earthquake struck L'Aquila, Italy at 3:22am local time Monday, April 6th, followed by many aftershocks that continued to shake the medieval city. It only took about 30 seconds to cause the destruction, leaving most of the region's inhabitants without shelter. People awoke to the sounds of buildings collapsing, including one dormitory at the University of L'Aquila.
This is the deadliest quake to hit Italy in over 30 years. Around 15,000 building were damaged in the quake, including, many historical buildings.

Photos of the tragedy

Rescuers sift through the wreckage of a house in L'Aquila. Four children were reported killed after their home collapsed. (Reuters)