End credits.

My Sri Lanka, a journey I’ll never forget.

There’s a travel quote I love that says the following: “Twenty years from now you’ll be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do then by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade wind in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover” - Mark Twain. And that’s exactly what I, in my case, did... I dreamed, I abandoned my safe harbor in Spain and I went exploring in Sri Lanka.
And Twain is right, I’m never going to regret this trip.

My firsts days in Sri Lanka were difficult -as the culture shock was hitting hard. It isn’t that easy to get into a totally different culture, all by yourself, and live there. But, as they say, time heals everything... and the pain of leaving home soon disappeared. My host family was great (Malika’s house in Demanhandiya, Negombo) as was the pre-school and orphanage there. Every morning we went to the pre-school and stayed with the almost 60 kids, trying to teach them some basic english and make them talk. We sang, drew, talked and played. Then, we had lunch and in the afternoon we went to the orphanage, where we helped with some tasks but most of all stayed with the kids.

I’m not going to explain my trip (I have an online blog of everything: www.ceylonvolunteeringtrip.blogspot.com) because I prefer to explain my highs and lows of the whole trip.

What I’ve learned is impossible to teach to someone else, you have to experience it yourself. Living with the basics during three weeks is awesome, and in no time you start enjoying and appreciating everything 100% more. It’s silly how long you have to travel to figure this out. To wake up every morning with a coffee and then going to the pre-school to teach the kids some English... how can we call that? I think Paradise. And its not only because of what I did I call it paradise, its also because of everything you get back from the people around you, the kids, the host family, the village people... Always smiling, always a cheerful “Hello” when you pass by, always a laugh... incredible.

Of course, you also experience some lows. I remember all the times we went to Negombo town, and all the people we saw there asking for money on the streets. Its hard to see very thin, old, maybe blind or cripple people at every corner, but what can we do about it? Also all the stories behind the kids at the orphanage were hard to listen to... but that’s reality. I still think everyday of a boy at the orphanage. He’s 15 years old, and due to the fact that I’m only 17, it was difficult to see a boy almost my age living in a total different way than I and even so, being able so smile. It made me realize that we’ve got so much and we don’t even appreciate it. Yes, carpe diem, enjoy.

I would like to thank everyone taking part in this mind-opening trip: Malika and her family, Projects Abroad Staff, all the other volunteers (specially my room mate Krystel) and most of all, the kids, that even though they might be small, I learned everything from them.
I’m never going to forget this experience, it was perfect. I encourage everyone to to this, it really makes you grow and see the world in a different way.

Thank you.

Sorry about the delay... internet=sucks!

July 18th, Demanhandiya.
You can’t even imagine how these last two days have been… AMAZING. I’ll explain what we did Friday 15th. We all woke up at 8 o’clock because we had to pick the bus to Colombo. After waiting more than 30 minutes at the door because all the buses that passed by didn’t want to pick us up (why? No fuc*** idea!) we paid a driver to let us at the bus station in Negombo. As always I had to pick the funny place to sit, all the others were sitting on proper seats while I was on the floor at the back. Lovely, though, if you like a very bumpy ride that lets your ass totally blue… hahaha. Finaly we got to the bus station and we entered our bus, an A/C bus!!!!! I sat down with Taiwan Princess while the French sat down a little bit further, god bless you. The French troup started complaining again about everything and I just sat there with Princess’s IPod plugged in my ear. Suddenly French guy turned around and said to me: “Tara, call Gishan.” Em… what? As if he can just treat me as his servant. I was really getting cross now, but just send Gishan a sms telling the French wanted him to pick them up at the bus station. FG got pissed because I didn’t call him but that’s his problem. After 20 minutes he turned around again and said I had to call him NOW (yes, in that tone) to tell him we where almost arriving to the bus station. I looked at him and said it was still to far away and that Gishan knew he had to pick them up there, that he didn’t have to worry. The stupid little bastard killed me with his eyes and then said something in French I didn’t get (I’m sure it wasn’t something really nice though…). We arrived and then the big problem started. Where are we exactly and where is Gishan? I had to call him and after 8 minutes of shouting and trying to explain where we were he hung up. I really couldn’t care less, I knew where I wanted to go with Princess (Barefoot) and if the stupid stubborn French didn’t want to pick a bloody tuctuc to the office for his Visa it definitely wasn’t my problem. What did we do? Guess. Bye bye, see you later alligator. Princess and I left with a tuctuc to Barefoot and let the two French behind… this may seem cruel, but after all I had to swallow from that asshole and then he treats me like shit, he deserved it, a lot. When we got to barefoot I thought I just arrived in heaven. How beautiful that was! From the outside its another dirty small building but when you passed the small wooden doors, I assure you you enter in a small oasis in crazy Colombo. It looked a little bit like ZARA Home, but not so expensive and it had a more Asian style of crafts. They sell from cushions, textile, clothes, and toys to books, agendas, paintings and even statues, ornaments and more items I can’t remember. It was divided in small rooms full of stuff in bright vivid colors. Then, if you wanted to go to the bathroom, you had to go outside to the inside garden… I stood there flabbergasted. How BEAUTIFUL. The inside garden had a small waterfall, verandas and even a small art gallery. You could stop at the bar/restaurant for a drink or a meal while enjoying the peace of the place. We were only 50 meters from the door that took you to the streets of Colombo, but it seemed like I was kilometers away from that place…I still enjoy it now only thinking about it. Princess couldn’t believe it either, we were both so happy, it was the first really nice place we had seen since… two weeks? I bought a couple of presents (not going to tell what, better let is as a surprise) and Princess too. We stayed there till the last last last moment and then we had to go to a shopping center to wait for Gishan. After a while we were in his car driving to Waduwwa. We both didn’t want to go, we wanted to stay sitting and drinking in Barefoot… but well, it was something nice we were going to do with the kids. A dance group from Switzerland was going to give us a workshop dancing and then a performance. Why a group of Swiss dancers wanted to come to Sri Lanka? Easy, one of the members was from Sri Lanka and wanted to help kids from where he came from. We arrived to the old sport center in Waduwwa and I wanted to run out of there as fast as I could. It was hot (very hot!) and I wasn’t in the mood of dancing. But that changed in only a matter of minutes. I saw Rosie and Veronika and also Andrea and Abdulah. I met some new volunteers and some of the staff of Projects Abroad. Then… the dancers arrived. I think all we “ladies” stared with an open mouth… how beautiful. Hahaha. Some didn’t want to dance, but Princess, other volunteers who were with us and me stood up and danced nonstop. It was sooooooooooooo funny. I hadn’t laughed so much in a long time! I still have muscle pain today, imagine how we danced! We had a break and then started again. This time Princess and I were in the front dancing with the kids, it was so nice. It was break-dance what we were learning now, and I fell really hard on the floor. All the kids laughed and I saw myself totally black of the dirt that was on the floor. I went outside and had a shower, yes… with clothes and all, and I felt fresh and shiny. Thanks god I bought a dress in Colombo! We finished and the kids went back to school/orphanage/home and we to the hotel. We were going to have dinner all together in some hotel near Waduwwa. I got changed and we waited for dinner, an all-in buffet… YES! We sat down with Natalie, an English girl I started talking with on facebook before coming to Sri Lanka. She is so nice! Very English, loud and cheerful… I like that. then came Yvone (Dutch!) and Eva (Denish). We talked all night long and had so much fun… it seemed a bit like girls night, and even how bad that may sound, it was bloody fantastic!! We were the last to leave back home, and at about 12 o’clock at night we arrived home, and prepared ourselves (Princess and I) for our next day… Anuradhapura at 5 am.

So good.

July 14th, Demanhandiya.
Yey yey, a new volunteer has arrived. I’ve already nick named her “French Lady” and everyone knows her that way now. She’s exactly how I imagined: to start with, WEIRD (it would have shocked me fore is she would be normal for my eyes though…). Curly fluffy hair, hippy dressed and 4Curly fluffy hair, hippy dressed and 45 years old, divorced, two sons, 21 and 24 years old. Oh well, at least FG has someone to talk to in French! Gishan came this morning to bring her to the house and he asked us if everything is OK. He told us to come to Colombo Friday morning with the bus so that FG could get his new Visa and then we would set off to Wadduwa, where there will be a get together with all the volunteers here in Sri Lanka. I don’t know why he also needed to ask me “Tara, have you got a Sri Lankan boyfriend at the moment?” Taiwan princess couldn’t stop laughing and I thought Gishan would also ask her the same question, but now, it only was for me... Weird, do I look like a catcher or something!?. Now we’re waiting for lunch and at 4 I’m going to paint some walls at the orphanage, I miss painting so this is perfect! But now I really want to explain to you yesterday’s night, it was SO funny… FG and I came back from Negombo town around 6 o’clock in the evening, we read, music and waited for dinner. Princess continued talking on the phone for almost 2 hours (I would love to see her bill at the end of the month! She could probably buy another ticket to Sri Lanka with everything she’s been calling!). We had dinner and I watched some movies of a school event of one of Malika’s grandsons. All the family when to bed at about 9.30pm, logical if you know they wake up at 4.30-5.00. we then went upstairs and watched a French movie, with English subtitles of course. Princess was tired and went to bed, I stayed talking with FG at the terrace… it was about 00.15am. As you all may have noticed very well due to my irregular posts and answers on facebook, here in Sri Lanka Internet works when it want to. The same for water, sometimes we have, sometimes we don’t… and no problem, I assure you it’s only a matter of time till you get used to it. but yesterday night, suddenly, we noticed there is more… electricity. There was a pretty big rainfall outside, and wind was increasing significantly, but still, that’s normal around here. The funniest part was that, in 1 second, all the light went out, even the 2-3 lights of the street. Ok, without light you can do everything with candles, and we did. But then, SHIT, no electricity = no FAN! Oh shit shit shit. That was actually a big problem, not only because we would wake up more tired that when we went to sleep nor that we would be sweating all the night, but… the mosquitoes. No fan and the mosquitoes dupli or triplicate themselves… I had one of those bad laugh attack and started to do the silliest thing to solve the problem. FG jumped on a char and started to manually make the fan move… I have a picture, it’s so funny! Then, a cat came inside our room and started eating our food… it was a crazy night. I didn’t want to sleep in my room because with the heat I would die, so I just put my matras on the terrace and slept there. FG stayed watching HOUSE on his Ipad (or something like it) but I fell asleep. Suddenly, electricity came back to the house, and in a matter of seconds it abandoned us again. But you know what? What did it matter? We were in a house with beds and we weren’t alone… isn’t that the most important? Who cares if we have internet, electricity or water? Bah… no problem, for me it’s perfect. When I woke up this morning I saw myself sleeping alone on the terrace, I really didn’t know where the hell I was. Oh yes, of course, I slept at the terrace I though, and started laughing. I moved the bed inside, next to the door to have some air but inside, the wind storm we had was terrible. I loved it though! So, what do you all think? Funny, right? But what makes me laugh more is the fact that it doesn’t impress me anymore… its just normal, the way I’m living here for me is normal… Wow, I love it… just living with the basics.

I love nothingness

July 13th, Demanhandiya.
Yesterday we didn’t do anything…. I suppose it was because we were all so tired after the fantastic weekend we had. In the morning no one when to the school, Malika let us sleeping, and Taiwan princess came back home from the hotel at about 10 o’clock in the morning. We had our coffee and we got back to bed; we didn’t sleep but we talked and talked and talked. I also wrote my diary and passed the photos from the camera to my PC. Then FG woke up, it was already 1.30 pm. We had lunch (vegetables and some chicken, STILL SPICY!) and then Taiwan princess and I fell asleep again. See? We didn’t do anything, hahaha. At 4pm we went to the orphanage to play with the kids and it was fun, they came and painted with us. I tried to talk to them but it’s very difficult, the most I got out from a boy was “My name Janika” and a big smile. We all had to clean the garden because there was an announcement yesterday for all the schools, orphanages etc, that there is a small “epidemic” here in Sri Lanka. A lot of people are dying now from some kind of mosquito bite, and that’s why we had to cut all the plants and clean everything, just to be able to see the ground and avoid all water possible. We came back home and had tee time. That’s always a good moment of the day, you don’t have anything else to do and you enjoy that by drinking some tee at the veranda. Yes, it’s fantastic. And after tee time? We started making bracelets for all the 16 kids at the orphanage, and I also wrapped my presents in (yes yes yes, YOUR presents!!!). Shower and dinner (I only had some soup, wasn’t hungry at all) and then we went up again all the three of us. Oh, I almost forgot… mom, BE CAREFUL! Remember I always said before coming that I would meet an Indian and I wouldn’t come back? Guess what… Hahaha. He’s not Indian, but Sri Lankan, studies aircraft engineering and is 23 years old. It’s the guy from the bus I explained about. Hahahaha. Just talking via my Sri Lankan mobile phone, DON’T WORRY! He lives 4 hours away from here, and I’m definitely not going to take that bus again to Kandy, Ha!. My roomy and I went to sleep at 00.30am, it was a good day.
Today I woke up at 6.40, like always. I don’t know why, but here in Demanhandiya I almost always get up very early (not as early as Malika though, she and her family wake up at 05.00am!). I read, had a coffee and listened to music. Now I have to wake up the others because we have to be at the school at 9 o’clock and I don’t want to be late, I hate that! I still have a couple of thing to tell about yesterday… when we had dinner and Taiwan princes and French guy disappeared, I stayed talking with Malika. I asked some questions about the kids at the orphanage and everything around it. Some things really hit me very hard. This is what I know now: there are 16 boys, from 5 to 16 years old. The main reason why they are here is because their “parents” wanted to have sex without any anticonception method and…ups, a baby came to the world. Because they can’t afford a child they give it away to child care in Sri Lanka and they got to the orphanage. Some others lived with other family, like aunts or grandmothers, but they weren’t taken care of. Like a small boy of 7 years of age… he lived with his grandmother who is an alcoholic. The woman didn’t take care of him, wouldn’t pay his school and didn’t give him anything to eat. Thanks god some neighbors knew about this and called child care. But still, it’s hard to hear these stories… The school only has 16 kids because they don’t have the money to afford more kids (but they do have space for them). One year scholarship for all the 16 kids costs about 40.000 rupees, some 300€, and they almost can’t pay it. I’m trying to convince FG and TP to each of us give 100€ to them and then Malika doesn’t have to worry about scholarship this year, but maybe they’ll be picky on money so I’ll just pay in with my SYC salary.

Sweet home... Negombo!

July 12th, back home in Demanhandiya.
Wow wow wow, yesterday was a FANTASTIC day! I started the day having a coffee at the terrace of the Hotel. I stayed there for about 4o minutes just enjoying the views and the lovely sunny weather. I went back to our lovely room nº4 and Taiwan Princess was already up. We decided to go back to all the places we liked the day before, so at 9 o’clock we were walking around Kandy again. We started going to small Buddhist shops behind our hotel, and I got the feeling the guys (monks) from the shop didn’t like it so much that we were buying by them… at least they won some money, right? We continued walking to the Gem shop that some Sri Lankan guy recommended to us but it was still closed. We walked around the lake and went to the Art and Culture association Shop… it was fantastic! We bought lots of souvenirs for you guys ;) and it wasn’t expensive at all. We stayed there looking people pass and taking some pictures, and then we decided to go to the supermarket to buy some food for the trip back home. I only bought water and fruit and Taiwan Princess some chocolate. We really looked like we lived in Kandy for years, knowing all the places and not being afraid of nothing and no one. The Gem Shop was now open and we went inside. I think the two hours (yes, 2 hours there inside) there were one of the best hours in the weekend. Taiwan princess started looking gems for her mother, who has her own jewelry shop in Taiwan and some stones for herself. I, on the other hand, was obsessed with a beautiful silver ring with a small blue topaz stone on it. I thought about it since the day before, it was so beautiful. It wasn’t expensive at all, 60€, I mean… considering the prices of semi-precious stones in Spain, it was peanuts! The owner’s assistant tried to sell me other gems, like red sapphire, aquamarine and others, but I just wanted to talk to the owner. All over the place he had boards explaining the energy of stones and how it can “heal” diseases. As you all know, I don’t really believe in it at first impression, but… if I believe in acupuncture, why shouldn’t I believe in energy of stones? I asked him if could explain me about it, and he did. Its basically this:
Every living being has an aura. We have 7 different auras (or Chakras) distributed around our body. If something is wrong with us, depending on the place where it is, it will interfere one aura on another. They say a human being is healthy when all the 7 Chakras are OK. Then, every Chakra has a source of energy, and in this case, they use gem energy to get the Chakra’s energy balanced. Depending of the molecular structure of the stone, it will give the right energy for one Chakra. That is the simple explanation of this, but the funny (and for me the most interesting of all) comes now. He asked me in I had any disease, and I told him about my thyroids. He immediately said “Ah, the 5th Chakra, the center”. I just looked at him and he got a book for me to read. I read it and I was amazed, because it said I had to have a blue topaz to balance everything. I said to him “look, I think that’s why I wanted to much that ring and nothing else…” but I said it as a joke. And then he said “of course you like the blue, because your body is asking you to get that because of it’s energy. Why do you think we sometimes like (or not) people/things without knowing them? Because of the energy they transmit to us…” I bought the ring and another semi-precious stone for Oma (with the whole explanation attached to it) and then the owner came to me and said: “I love you were interested in the stones and their energy, I hate when people come in and buy gems without asking anything about it” I knew he talked about Taiwan princess, who just bought lots of gems for her mom while talking on her phone… The owner gave me another gem as a present, a beautiful small Lapis Lasuli and said that this will also help me with my thyroids. He gave me his private email and asked me to email him if thing where going better. Yes, he was a really nice guy; I enjoyed all the stories, pictures, explanations a lot! We went back to the hotel, paid the room and went to the bus station, and… shit, the bus was full. Our lovely ride back was the craziest bus trip I’ve ever had. Taiwan princess sat on a metal balk and I stood up all the journey next to the entrance door. We were about 60 Sri Lankans and two tourists (us) in the bus, so you can imagine how all the attention was focused on us… but eventually they fell asleep our looked somewhere else. For me the 3+ hours passed so fast, I can’t believe it. A young man (about 25 years old) also traveled with us in the same bus I I couldn’t stop looking at him. He was tall, well build, shor dark hair, brown eyes and dressed with trousers and a shirt (he was Sri Lankan though, but I think a mix…) Don’t ask me why (really, don’t ask yourself either) but he reminded me of Leon. I now Leon was blond with green eyes and white, very white… but he looked like him. Maybe it was the way of walking, looking or… I DON’T NOW, but he looked like a Sri Lankan Leon. He did know English, because when Taiwan Princess and I talked he looked like he understood. I just kept on looking and I managed to get a picture (I’ll try to attach it to this article). But now comes the good one: he ot of the bus two stops before us, and when he passed next to me, he put a small paper in my hand. I couldn’t believe what happened. The paper fell on the floor almost outside the bus, and he looked at it and then at me like “grab the bloody paper”. I asked the bus man to wait and I took it back. He left and we continued our journey. And what was on the paper? Guess… // We arrived to Negombo town and TP went to her dad’s hotel and I got back home. French guy hadn’t arrived jet so I waited for him. We all cleaned ourselves and dressed nice (for the first time in 12 days!!) Tuctuc to the hotel and dinner. I wasn’t hungry at all, and intelligent Tara (without eating) had to big glasses of white vine… Lovely. We where there (in case you don’t know why two volunteers where in an Hotel) because Taiwan princess’s dad leaves tomorrow and wanted us to have dinner with him… obviously we accepted! We talked and talked till TP was going to bed (YES, SHE STAYED SLEEPING AT THE HOTEL!!!!!!). FG and I set of to the only pub in town that looked to have good ambiance, “The Rodeo”. A very drunk man came outside and said to us it was the best place in town (of course, it was almost the only one) and that we HAD to stay there. And we did. Weird guy though, 45 years, English, living in India making movies… I really don’t want to know which kind of movies. He was in Sri Lanka because of the “Visa Run”, nice man… (sarcasm). Suddenly a (what I thought) Sri Lankan girl asked “who is dutch there?” and I stood up. We started talking and she was really nice. 22 year old Aisha from Belgium. She was adopted when she was 4 and never came back to Sri Lanka. She was here because she just got divorced from her husband (who let her for her best friend… that must suck) and because she would like to meet her biological parents. She presented her just made friend to us and we all sat together. When her “friends” knew I wasn’t French Guy’s girlfriend thing changed. I had fun at the beginning, but after a while a wanted to kill them all and go. They weren’t mean or anything, but I think that if someone says NO to you, you should let it go… or not?. We also met a supposed to be very rich guy (I think… Sri Lankan Mafia maybe?) and a guy who gives money to the orphanage where we work. As you all know, the football matched SUCKED. It was very boring, and I think none of them should have won… they were equal, Spain only one because (Iniesta, was it?) was lucky after 2 hours of NOTHING. Na… didn’t like the match at all. Got back home in tuctuc (the driver was an ass, he said 400 rupees and he charged us 500, knowing that the real price is 350 rupees, I got pretty mad) talked a little bit more with FG and then to bed, I was dead!!!

Kandy, as sweet as candy!!!

July 10th, Kandy.
Sorry sorry sorry, I haven’t written in two days, but we’ve done so many things… I’ll try to remember everything: Yesterday at about 2.30pm we went to the airport bus station to grab the bus to Kandy. In the morning we worked at the orphanage and Malika made food for us early so we could go as soon as possible. It went fantastic, the tuctuc driver took us to the bus station and 1 minute after arriving there we already sat in our NON-A/C bus to Kandy. We got the first row in the bus and we sat all the three of us together. But… the bus trip was madness. Remember the wicked bus of Harry Potter? Our ride was more or less the same… I haven’t been frightened using public transport here in Sri Lanka, but I assure you that in this trip there were moments I thought “That’s it”. After 3 ½ hours we finally arrived to Kandy, and it was cloudy and almost raining. We got a tuctuc to the Hotel (who tried to charge us 250 rupees instead of 100... didn’t work though ;) ) and we saw Rosie. We talked a while and decided to go all to the Tooth Temple. The hotel is bloody perfect; it’s exactly facing the Kandy Lake and its 1 minute away of the Temple. We got there and the 4 guards refused to let us in… we didn0t have the right clothes. Ok, no problem, we got back to the hotel and changed. When we went back they let us pass, and man, it was worth it. The Tooth Temple is the most famous attraction in Kandy and it’s supposed to guard the Tooth Relic of Lord Buddha. We just got in time to see one of the ceremonies and it was beautiful. I was loving it from the first moment because they made of take our shoes of and walk around with our fresh wet feet (It had already stopped raining). From the inside is was as beautiful as from the out, we all enjoyed a lot. After finishing the tour I started talking to one of the guys working there (who was really nice) and then we met up all to have dinner together. We went to one of those beautiful rare places called “Pizza Hut” and enjoyed our meal… Hahaha. After that, we went back to the hotel where we all sleep and some of us stayed talking on the terrace looking over the veranda. I went to bed early, at about 11 o’clock pm. FG, Taiwan princess and I shared a room with 2 beds, so it wasn’t really comfortable, and it was full of cockroaches (all of them I had to kill because the other two were afraid). I woke up today at 6:30 am because the noise of crying and screaming kids didn’t let me sleep more. FG and Taiwan princess didn’t want to come to the Elephant orphanage, and at the end we only went Abdulah, Rosie, Veronica and I with the van, and it was worth it. We did the trip in hour and got to the place outside of Kandy. Instead of paying 2000 rupees, due to showing our volunteering card, we only had to pay 100 rupees. We got inside and saw them get fed. To see all those elephant in the wild was beautiful, I’ve taken loads of pictures. We also saw the blind elephant and the one who only has 3 legs. That was really impressive. After an hour we all walked to the river where we saw all the elephants have a bad. We sat down at the terrace with a coke and stayed there almost an hour. On the way back I fell asleep in the van and it took us almost 2 ½ hours to come back due to traffic. I waited for TP and FG at the terrace and we ate at the hotel’s restaurant. They had chicken curry and rice and I had an omelet with vegetables. FG stayed at the hotel and TP and I went to walk around the city, we did and saw loads of things. To start, I managed to get a better room for 2€ more, with a private bathroom and no insects. Then it started to rain really bad but we continued walking. Thanks mom for the plastic capuchin, it saved my life today. We went around some shops, the market, supermarket and the city’s gardens. The funny thing is we made a lot of friends. Some guy started talking to me and I just responded back. At the end I figured out he has a brother working in Malaga and he brought us walking near the hotel. We entered a jewelry shop that he said we HAD to see and we stayed talking to the owner about Sri Lanka’s mines and precious stones. Maybe we’ll go back tomorrow. Then we visited the market but we ended in a dark place where you, mom, wouldn’t have liked to see me. Even though, we got out before dark and nothing bad happened. Then another guy started talking to us and we went to an Art and Culture Auditorium at the lake near our hotel. We bought the entrance and saw the entire show of music & dance of Sri Lanka. I had a shower and we had dinner. Now Taiwan Princess is sleeping and I just came back from the terrace, where I was talking to a Turkish couple who are on holiday. We talked about my volunteering, football, Spain’s economy and their son, who is a doctor living in Rumania. They were really nice, and reminded me a bit of Oma and Opa. Taking of Oma, how is she? Is she likening Australia? I miss her, like I miss all of you guys reading this. Today was Jack’s birthday, but I didn’t have his phone number to call. If someone has it, can you give regards from me? I mean Jack Rohde, just in case someone thinks different.
I can’t believe tomorrow will be July 11th already. 11 days I’ve been here, and so many things have happened and I’ve learned. If I may be honest, I don’t miss Mallorca, only the people in it. I’m looking forward going back to Holland and stay there a couple of weeks with mom, Oma and the Cataldi Family, I really am. Love you all lots, best regards from Ceylon, xxxxxxxxx.

Oh this is going better

July 8th, Negombo-Demanhandiya.
It was a fantastic day today! I woke up very early, at about 6 o’clock. I had breakfast with Malika and I went to school with my bicycle. I’m so happy I didn’t die today, traffic was chaos here! I got to school and like every day, all they long, the kids were screaming “What’s you name, what’s you name!?!?!?”. I thought I was going mad. I decided to go back to the orphanage at 12 o’clock and I did. People here look at me a lot when I pass by with my bicycle and a big smile on my face. I waited for Malika, FG and Taiwan Princess. We had lunch together and then we set off to Negombo town and beach. Its weird how we get used to things so quickly. The first two days here I hated the city and I thought I just arrived to the worst place in Sri Lanka. But now, going to Negombo town is like going to the normal civilized world. If you guys would see me here you would think I’ve had a brainwash (and maybe it’s true) but now I feel familiar with the people, I talk with everyone and I know how to move here perfectly. And you know what? For the first time in a week I really like (and enjoy) this place. Wow. I think mom and dad know this because I haven’t called them in two days now (SORRY, I’ll call you tomorrow!!!). Once we were in Negombo we waited for bus 905 to come and it came inmediatly. But, one Sri Lankan asked me to please don’t pick that bus because it was a bus of the Republic (the one that aren’t supposed to be safe and were a lot of bombs have exploded), so we decided to wait to the next one. 15 minutes latter we were in our bus on the way to the beach, a beach that at the beginning I detested and now I love. We walked around the beach and Princess and FG went into the water. I didn’t get in because there was a man I didn’t trust, so I preferred to stay with our bags. A boy of about 12 years old came to me and said that I had to be careful, so I asked him “Why?” and he answered: “That man robes people on the beach”… Good skin feeling Tara Siches!!. We stayed there a while and then we continued walking, it was only 4.30pm. we arrived to the Hotel-Resort where Princess’s dad stays and decided to get in and swim in the pool. And it worked! We came in and luckily her dad was there so they let us swim in the pool for free. None of you can imagine how I enjoyed it. I know I live in Mallorca, a place where there are 1001 pools, the best hotels and the nicest beaches, but when you live there you don’t appreciate it. Now I’m here, and I enjoy everything 200%. I think I’m learning to appreciate everything in life. After Leon’s death and now this trip I’m starting to figure out that some thing in life just aren’t THAT important. We give too much importance to those things (I’m the first one in the list who does it) but I hope I’ll change. It’s as easy as this: why all those problems don’t affect me now, here in Sri Lanka? If they don’t affect me here, why should they affect me at home? Sorry about this psychology break, now I’ll continue with today’s day. We got out of the pool and Princess’s dad invited us for dinner. I wanted to say no, because now I’m here in Sri Lanka volunteering, so I can’t just go out for dinner. But then FG said yes, dad really wanted us to stay and… actually… I also wanted to stay and eat non-Sri Lankan food (it’s good, but after a week I wanted something different). We ordered a burger, a pizza and for dessert ice-cream. It was only 6 o’clock then, but we were hungry as hell. We stayed there till 8 and then we returned home. Now I’m in my room writing this but I’m thinking of tomorrow. We’ll go to the orphanage and at 2 we’ll pick the bus o Kandy. I’ve already booked the rooms and the three of us are looking forward to go, specially after being 1 entire week in Negombo-Demanhandiya. We’ll meet some other volunteers there and we’ll visit everything and have fun!. PS: HOLLAND – SPAIN IN WORLD CUP FINAL! I CAN’T BELIEVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love you all lots, and remember: dream, explore, discover.

Crazy wako odd

July 7th, Demanhandiya.
I HATE THE SCHOOL!!!! It’s terrible, the kids are terrible, it’s hot, weird, arrrrrggghhhhh! Really, it isn’t nice; I’m trying to change my programme to stay at the orphanage and not the bloody school. I woke up at 6.30 this morning and at 7 I was on my bicycle on the way to school. I’m so happy I survived the trip, it’s really amazing I did. 15 minutes latter (and totally sweated) I arrived to the school. It hasn’t got that family spirit as the orphanage. I saw the Buddhist ceremony and all te kids went to class. I waited for the English to come and when they got there we went to our first class. I wanted to kill myself. I was stupid to think the kids would be nicer… what the f***? They suck all the energy out of you and they drive you crazy. We did 6 classes in total and it was terrible. I don’t care if Gishan thinks I’m stupid now but I’m not going back, I hate it. I think I didn’t had to choose teaching. I came back home very tired and ate. Now I want to lay down a bit and then we’ll go to the Negombo town and to the tourist area (I need to see something similar to western life now…!!!). I think I got a little bit to exited when I chose how long I wanted to stay here. 1 month is a lot, really… here it is a lot! Thanks god this weekend we’re visiting Kandy and next week we’ll probably go to the South (Hikkaduwa, Galle and Unawatuna). Our afternoon turned out great. Taiwan princess didn’ want to come to Negombo so FG and I went together. We went with the famous 242 to Negombo, walked out two blocks to get money, supermarket, walked back, catch the 905 to Beach area and we got there, finally. We looked some shops but the best thing… we discovered a western pub!! Now when we get sick and tired of Sri Lanka we know that in an hour we are (almost) in Europe. It was filled with English, Germans, Dutch… so, GREAT! FG really wants to eat pizza, pasta and French fries so next week Thursday we’ll go there to have lunch or/and dinner. The two buses we had to catch to come back were 40 minutes late so we decided to go by tuctuc home. Shower at home and dinner. I’m really tired of today’s day, and tomorrow I have to go to School again with the bike… wish me luck! Oh, PS: we’ve already got our rooms for Kandy this weekend. 8€ each for two nights!

This is DIFFERENT, but rewarding.

July 5th, Demanhadiya.
Today was better than other days. I started the day having breakfast alone because I woke up latter than the others. At 9 o’clock I was at the orphanage. Even though this may seem really odd for you all, I had a really good time playing with the kids. We started playing a game called “catch”. The kids had to throw me a ball and say catch, to learn English. I then tried to teach them “catch the ball” but that was more difficult. We then cleaned up the garden all together and went inside. French guy has already have his group of Sri Lankan kids and I have mine. It seems the bad one like to be with me… why!?!?!? Hahaha. They are lovely, I really learn a lot from them. After playing we went inside and they had their lunch break. I stood there totally amazed because they were eating rice and curry at 11 am in the morning… OMG. Malike asked them to sing a song for us and they did, I didn’t understand a word they sang but I enjoyed it. Then I had to teach them (singing) the names of the basic body parts (head, shoulders, knees, toes, eyes, ears, lips…) and the alphabet and numbers. They really learn fast. We played a little bit more and than the parents came to pick them up. I went back home and did a couple of things before lunch. For lunch we had rice and vegetables, but obviously I can’t see any more rice so I only ate the vegetables (very spicy as always!). I laid down 15 minutes and then French guy and I decided to go to Negombo town; that was one hell of an experience!!! We took bus 242 to Negombo and it cost us about 20cents each. When we got to Negombo French guy needed to get money and cigarettes… I only say this: here in Negombo there isn’t a “Tabaccos” in every corner. One hour latter we finally were able to pick bus 905 to Brown’s Beach (a supposed to be lovely beach… yeah right). I’ve taken a couple of pictures that really shocked me during this evening. We then arrived to the beach, and it wasn’t that lovely. It’s a huge stretch of beach but there are parts covered with plants. The waves were pretty big and you could see rubbish everywhere. We also saw some tourist, the first one in days. I think people say that Negombo is so fantastic because they stay all day in their 5 star hotels drinking alcohol in their new room with airco. Yeah, that’s one thing, but real Negombo is a really different one. We walked for almost half an hour and thanks god French guy was there. As a woman (yes, I am a woman) I prefer not to be alone here. At the beach a group of Sri Lankan guys came to me and I didn’t like that. Afterwards an elder guy also came and then the group of guys came back. I was surrounded by them, and at thet point I started to be a bit frightend. This happened because French guy was about 30m away watching something, so the guys thought I was alone. To solve the problem I just started to walk really fast towards French guy yelling his name so that the other would think he was my boy friend. It worked, but still with FG(= French guy) they made comments. We stayed a while there looking how some tried to surf and then we wanted to get back home. It was about 6 o’clock, but here the sun goes down at about 7pm. I still can’t believe we didn’t have any problems with the buses to get back home, it al went perfect. Buses here may we old, dirty and drive like mad, but they are faster than the TIB (Transport Illes Balears). The funniest thing was that the bus driver charged us more due to our skin colour. We know, and everybody here knows, that one bus ticket Negombo .- Demanhaduya costs 15 rupees. Well, he charged us 26 each, and you can’t even imagine how pissed up I was at the time. I know 26 rupees isn’t a lot of money, but it still makes me angry that they try to rip us of and we can’t do anything about it. However, we got back home alive (after this bus ride I was really glad to be still alive) had a shower and ate. Now FG and I were listening music at the varanda and in a while we’ll watch a movie (Paris, just to miss home a little bit more…). It was a full day, but I enjoyed it.

DeWHAT!?

July 4th, Demanhandiya.
What happened to me this morning sucked. I couldn’t sleep yesterday and tried to fall asleep watching golf, reading, listening to music but nothing worked. I saw the whole football match, ¡¡viva España!! But I really couldn’t fell asleep. The guys from reception saw I had bought Sri Lankan cigarettes and asked me two at 1.3o o’clock or something like that. I gave them the two they asked, but It would have been better to not have given anything. Now they thought I was the free cigarette giver or something, and at 2.00 I got a call from Reception (and I’m sure it was to ask more cigarettes), then they came to my room and knocked on the door and then they phoned again. Obviously I didn’t answer the phone nor did I open the door. They are mad!!! I think fell asleep around 4.40, I think that time because I last looked at the watch and it was 4.30. great, finally asleep, now the problem was waking up.
I got a call from Gishan at 7 o`clock. SHIT SHIT SHIT. I had to be ready (shower, breakfast…) at 6.45 this morning. I jumped out of bed like the girl from the exorcist and just put something on and close the last bags. I heard Gishan waiting outside so I opened the door for him. “Sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry” that was the onl thing I could say this morning, I felt so ashamed! We got everything down and in his car and went on the road to Negombo. It took us about 40 minutes and then another two from Negombo to my placement, about 20km inland from Negombo. I didn’t have a well fixed first impression, but when Gishan explained some thins to me and we finally arrived I loved it. It are three houses next to each other on a piece of land. I live in the first house with Malik, who is the head mistress of the orphanage. She’s lovely, and her family too (the problem is that no one of her family speeks English… so to communicate with them is a bit hard). I got a big room with views to the orphanage and the garden. I’ll share it with a Canadian girl who will arrive next Tuesday. I just met the French guy, Christian, but he’s really French. Malike explained to me that he really wanted someone who spoke French to come because he doesn’t like to speak English… well, get use to it because you’re in far away Sri Lanka! When I arrived I hadn’t had breakfast yet and Malike prepared some toast and yoghurt for me. After that I gave her the dutch presents and I stayed with her in the kitchen. She and her family are all Buddhist. She was preparing Dhal (a kind of cereal you cook) for the Buddhist temple here in Demanhadiya. I asked why and she told me it was because every 4th of the month her family was supposed to make food for them. I can imagine that if you believe so much in your religion it isn’t a problem for you to cook for them. I’ve got mixed up feeling about this though… I asked her to explain everything to me, even the most stupid things. I think I’m going to help her make dinner now. Well well, the French guy turned out to be my very opposite! He almost can’t speak English, but we try to communicate and it’s going ok. Malike explained to me that the monks of the Buddhist temple only eat breakfast and lunch. For supper they drink a special tea to clean their inner self. I almost kill Cristian when he said his favorite music are the Beatles and that he didn’t like the Kooks nor Arctic Monkeys. We’re total opposites, but we’ll manage. Now there’s a birthday party at one of Malike’s son’s house, her cousin turned 14. Cristian presented me to them and they have invited us to the party… let’s see how that will go!
The party was awesome! Totally different from European parties… why? Here some facts: first I would like to say tha the girl who celebrated her b’day turned 14 and as present she got teddy bears, a doll and more small girly stuff. Then, we sang “happy d’day to you”, but what they do is after singing the one who’s b’day it is has to cut a big piece of pie and go around the whole room to let everyone get a bite of cake. First goes the father, then the mother, then the sisters/brothers and then the rest of the invited people. The French guy (whose name is Tristan, not Christian! Hahaha) and I also had to bite the cake and they all made funny comments in Singhalees that we didn’t understand. I would like to know what they were saying. French guy doesn’t talk a lot, but because I DO, there’s always something to talk about. Tomorrow will be at 8 o’clock in the orphanage to see both morning ceremonies, the Christian and the Buddhist one. Then we’ll be with Malike and the kids till about 14.00. We’ll have lunch and then I don’t know what we’ll do. I think I’l go back to the orphanage and stay till 17.00 and after that I’ll go with Tristan to Negombo’s beach, we really want to go swimming! He’s brought lots of TV series like The Mentalis, Dexter and House (all in French, though) so I guess we’ll see them this night; I don’t know why but for both of us it’s really difficult to sleep here in Sri Lanka. They started to play an instrument and they al sang. I got downstairs to go to the other house and I watched them sing and dance. That was really like a movie, al clapping, laughing and having a good time with the basics of basics. The smile I had on my face was even bigger than all theirs together. The 14 year old girls invited me to dance with them. They were very shy, but eventually I managed to grab to of them and dance al together. All the family started yelling “Duuutch, duuutch!” and I just couldn’t stop laughing. Then a little boy came to me and said “Tifol, Tifol” I just stared at him thinking what the hell that could mean. After that he said “Tifo, Tifo, you?” Ahhhh, that’s what it was! Hahahaha. I learned him to use my camera and he made some pictures at the party. When I say a little boy, I really mean LITTLE boy, like about 5 years old or something like that. He learned how to use the camera in seconds, and we’ve got some great pictures together and some of other kids with me. I know these pictures will be hanging in my room when I come back! What a good evening!! =)
Now I had a shower and I’m going to try to get into the web. It’s really old fashion here (1001 wires, connection to the telephone, slooooooooow browser blablabla…) but at least we have something!

PS: for the lovely girls who let me the note in my rucksack (Fark Burbu and Espe) this is my answer: YES YES YES, I SMELL LIKE SHIT, BUT I DON’T MIND!!!!!!!

PS 2: LOVE YOU ALL, and even though I’m enjoying this 101%, I miss you lots.

Colombo is CHAOS.

July 3rd, Colombo.
It has been a wonderful – ful of culture shock – day!! I started the day having breakfast at the hotel at about 9.15 (fruit, toast and a coffee). I realized I definitely don’t like papaya, it’s awful!!!! After that I went back to the room and Rosie came to pick me up and have breakfast herself and then leave. We left the hotel at about 10.45 and set of to Pettah in a tuctuc (that’s the local cab). When we arrived to Pettah, real live in Colombo started for us. I didn’t realize we were going to be so different in this country. I haven’t seen more than 6 western people in the whole day! Well, we walked across the Pettah market (where they only sold shoes, bags, watches and movies) and then we got lost, really really really lost!!! All over Colombo you can find soldiers, it’s pretty amazing. I actually had the weird idea that they could help us because they obviously speak English… I was really wrong. They didn’t understand us but they (and we) really tried to communicate. We gave up after 15 minutes of trying and just started walking toward Galle Rd. Rosie realized that there was a weird Sri Lankan guy following us and started to get nervous, but in the meanwhile, I continued walking and trying to figure out how the hell we were going to get out of there. I then realized there was a Tourist Board here in Colombo, so we decided to go there and ask a couple of recommendations. Ok, they might smile a lot the Sri Lankan people, but I can assure you this is the first time in my life I feel discriminated by my skin colour. To get a tuctuc to drive us there was easy but to fix a price wasn’t at all. Usually they have to charge between 150 and 250 rupees rides in Colombo, but for us they just put the prize a “little” big higher. Of course, we slowly are becoming real Sri Lankans, so at the end we managed to get a normal prize. Thanks god the Tourist Board existed. A man came to help us out with the tuctuc and let us in. I’m sure you all imagine a nice office with air conditioning, lamps, chairs and a big map of Colombo. Yeah, of course. It was a small 6sqm cabin with no light, no air conditioning and with a police officer and an old lady sitting inside. That’s Colombo!. We got a tuctuc fot 500 rupees an hour (about 4€ an hour) and then the fun begin. We went to a Buddhist temple and it was beautiful. We had to put up a long white skirt and couldn’t show our back to the Buddha. It was really amazing, I enjoyed it a lot and took lot’s of pictures (also some of myself, mom!). After this we went to an Hindu temple and then to the Victoria Park. We walked around and Silba (our tuctuc driver) showed us the cinnamon trees and explained more about plants. I was more interested in his life, and I figured out of him this: he is married and he has got 3 childs, two girls and a just born baby boy. He lives in Colombo for almost 12 years. He had to come here because his dad is an Ayurdeva dr (oil and plant treatment) and in Kandy there was no work for him. No he is tuctuc driver and Ayurveda dr here in Colomb, because he can earn more for is family, but he misses his other family in Kandy. He earns about 70.000 rupees each month and his little flat in Colombo costs 25.000 each month. Ha! I’m becoming a real specialist in interviewing!
We ate at the Summer Garden Restaurant, a nice place were all the resident people of Colombo come to eat. A mixed salad each (which was totally different from the western mixed salad) a 2L bottle of water and two beers (one for Rosie and one for Silba) turned out to be 700 rupees each, almost 6€, and it really was fantastic food. During meal it’s normal to burp and make funny noises (good for you, dad) but I couldn’t stop laughing when he just burped and burped and burped all dinner long!. After all of this we went to buy my Sari, a lovely ocean blue with silver on it one. This is the most expensive thing I’ve bought here, I think it was 30€ or something, but it’s really worth it.
Oh yeah, I want to let one thing clear: the weather in Colombo is like the mood of a menstruating woman, it changes like mad during all day. But It’s fun, I like it.
We ended in the National Museum and then we walked across the Victoria park again till a supermarket to buy something to drink, toilet paper (yeah, there’s no toilet paper in Sri Lankan toilets), apples and some chewing gum. We crabbed a tuctuc and he drove us to the hotel, a normal ride that would take 15 minutes but it took us like almost 40.
Now we’re at the hotel with our laptops and enjoying the evening. It goes dark really early at about 7pm. We’re going to ask a pineapple juice and enjoy the football match Argentina – Germany.
Good facts of today:
-To get lost around Colombo.
-All the crazy tuctucs on the road.
-Burps throughout our meal.
-Only seen 7 white people all day long.
-This is a good one: Silba trying to convince me to buy Sri Lankan Marihuana because he says it’s a really special type here in Colombo and he knows how I can find it. I don’t know if it was a defense reaction of my mind or not, but when he told me the first thing that came to mind was the board hanging in the emigration post in the airport saying “Possession of any drug in Sri Lanka is punished with death penalty”. Hahaha.

Almost arrived, here I am.

July 2nd, between India and Sri Lanka (flying)
I can’t imagine I’m almost there. I’ve already been travelling for the last 16 hours, and in a couple more I’ll be in Colombo. The journey has loads to tell:
Fist we begin at the in-check in Schiphol - Amsterdam. I only had 21’1kg of 30 that was fantastic! I’ll be coming back with about… 5kg? Hahaha. Well then, that went fine, I got my boarding passes AMS-BXM-CMB and I said good bye to mom and dad. Poor mom, I really felt bad when I saw her waiting till she really couldn’t see me anymore… But well, all babies grow up one day!
I passed the control check and I set to zone D. I arrived (after 25 long minutes of waiting with my back pack, pc bag and the map) and I sat down with a water and something to eat. When suddenly I see I only had one hour left till boarding, so I though…better go and wait at the door. Thanks God-Allah-Buddha I did that! I ask some guy from the airport where I was supposed to be going and he said “You boarding ticket is from, you can’t be at D and G at the time” I thought so… Half an hour latter running across gates A, B, C, D, E I finally get to G. I only had to wait 30 minutes and I already sat in my comfy chair. A guy I saw while boarding turned out to sit next to me, so, as I continue being Tara Siches, when he sat down next to me I couldn’t stop laughing. Yes… the whole bloody day laughing, I’m sure some people thought I was stoned or something, but I just couldn’t imagine what I was doing (in a positive way!) Okey, a good flight, loads of movies (+200 movies, +1000 podcasts, +150 TV channels…) I was pretty entertained as you can imagine. I went like 10 time to the toilet just to walk a bit, and due to the fact I sat next to the corridor, if not I wouldn’t be that childish. We arrived to Dubai without problems, but the last 40 minutes of plane were nice because I saw a guy (dutch) sitting in front of me playing Trivial, and the question was: “¿in which Atlantic isle is the Teide?” He didn’t know the answer and I just said to him: “Tenerife – Canarias”. He just looked at me thinking “How the hell do YOU know that?” but it was very funny. I helped him some couple of times more, but only in the area Science, Geography and General Knowledge. Oh yeah, one important fact: he didn’t know a philosophy question, but… I DID! Pfff… and then I have a 3 in my grades… buah!
Well well, in Dubai I walked a marathon I think, it’s HUGE. Between looking for a phone cab, trying to buy something with €, $ or Pounds, and then changing all of these in Sri Lankan rupees (which I eventually didn’t get because they didn’t have…) I almost died. My salvation was a free internet point where I could send an email to dad to let him know everything was going well. I got to the boarding gate and everyone was already in. A beautiful Sri Lankan woman asked my if, why and till when I was staying in Sri Lanka and we talked for a while. I love these women, they are so… I can hardly explain, but I think that without the 3kg of makeup, 1001 surgeries in a row and the A-label clothes the western women wear (and I include myself in this pack) are faaaaaaaaaar more beautiful. They are also so nice and polite, with their big smile, and I almost bursted out laughing when I saw this: imagine a thin tall Sri Lankan, with a small bag, who had a face of lost you can’t even imagine and then has got on his bag: a HUGE sticker that said “Tamirei SRI LANKA”. Yeah, like if you first name and country only is going to work if they want to give it back to you I couldn’t get my smile of my face, how funny was that.
I now smell like shit, look like shit, and actually act lik shit, but I’m the happiest person alive. My next door neighbor is very nice, and we talked about Colombo and Negombo. I asked him to recommend me some places, but he talks so bloody fast I only picked up 3 names. He said to me he would be in Negombo tomorrow because his family lives there… you never know, I might actually see him again!

Now it’s 22.52 local time (18.52 for you) and I’m in my bed in I don’t know how it’s called Hotel Colombo. When I arrived to Colombo Airport this morning I finally set my first feet on Sri Lanka. It was (and still is) very very very hot and most of all, humid. Even so, I went with a big smile to immigration were I got my stamp and then I picked up my luggage. And no, it wasn’t a scam. When I went to Drivers Association there was a board with my name on it “Tara Siches – Projects Abroad”. I got my sim card and a phone and I exchanged all my Euros, Pounds and Dirhams to Sri Lankan rupees. I thought Anura (the man responsible for me) was driving me to the hotel but it wasn’t. We went out to the parking lot and I saw one of those very old and almost totally broken vans waiting for me. An old Sri Lankan came out and helped me put all my trash into the van. As I put on my seat belt, they smile and say “no no, here in Sri Lanka we don’t use those”. Oh my god, I just started laughing. He was a good man; he explained some things to me about Colombo and the country. I really had to focus to understand him, but together we eventually managed to have a kind of, something like, conversation. After 1 and ½ hour I got to my hotel, got a shower and fell asleep. No, first I called dad to let him know everything was going fine and I was still alive. I was so tired I just laid on bed and fell asleep. I woke up at 7, but I didn’t have a clue what time and where I was. I sent a sms to Anura to know what I was going to do and Elize called me. At 19.30 I went down and had a pineapple juice. I met Elize at 20.15 with three other volunteers: Abdul, Rosie and Brooke. We had dinner at a Chinese restaurant and Elize gave us all the information we needed. Tomorrow Abdul and Brooke will set of to Galle, and Rosie and I will have the day to visit Colombo. Gishan will pick me up Sunday at 7am to take me to Negombo and introduce me with my family. By the way, I also know now I have a roommate, a frech guy. All the volunteers in Negombo are guys, 3 of them from the UK, one from France (my roommate) and me. I’m so looking forward to meet them!!!
Oh yeah, one great news I already know you know: HOLLAND WON THE MATCH!!!! Yeeeey!!!!
Now I’m going to look the match Uruguay – Ghana in my room and I’ll go to sleep. Tomorrow will be a busy day.

The end has come, begining is finnaly here.

July 1st, Delft
HERE I GO!!!!!!!!!!! Yesterday I had a fantastic las day (except of the moment were I lost my family in Delft and I didn't have any money, mobile phone nor keys... yea, that Sucked!!) We did our last Sri Lankan shopping and enjoyed our last meals together... I don't no why, but I was so tired I slept from 4 till 7, and then we went for supper to the Cataldi family. You can't even imagine how we all enjoyed. After almost 13 years that we didn't do anything as two families together, this was awsome! Pucho and Domenico were like to drops of water, and te same for mom and Lizzie. Thom, Luke and I also laughed a lot, but gosh.... they're so big!!! We stayed till about 1 o'clock am and then walked back home. I didn't think I could sleep, but eventually at 2 o'clock I was in my moon.
Now they're comming to pick us up... I've already (or at least I hope so) got everything and I'm prepared to go!

Sri Lanka, here comes Tara Siches.

And tomorrow is d-day.

June 30th, Delft

Wow... These last couples of days here in Holland have been totally fantastic. We went present-shopping yesterday in Delft. We got very cheap, but beautiful, giant jigsaws, balls, books, some toys and painting items. I really enjoyed walking across Delft (as I’m from here) and just talking to people and smile. After 3 hours of Sri Lankan present shopping, we picked up Pucho and went to eat in a place mom loves. I had never been there, nor my dad, but it turned out to be fantastic. It’s called KOFFIEDUMIDI and it’s an old farm (with still all the animals walking free around there) were you can eat breakfast, dinner or supper. We all ordered really Dutch food, and it was great. We talked and talked and almost stayed there 2 and ½ hours, but the funniest part came at the end, when coffee arrived. Just returned from the WC and by accident I throw a glass of water over mom. Ok, she got pissed, but everyone can have an accident. But then coffee arrived, and as soon as I got mine, it went over mom (AGAIN!!!). She almost killed me, she went bananas. The lady of the restaurant laughed, and Pucho too. One of the guys working there was really nice (and also handsome ;)). He also laughed, but to punish me, mom started saying things to him about me and I just couldn’t do anything! Hahaha.
I almost forgot, yesterday morning we also visited the Cataldi family! After years I hadn’t seen Luc, and he’s huge! I’ll see Tom today evening; we’re all going to eat together in their house.
But the next thing I’m going to tell really made me laugh yesterday. Mom and I arrived home at about 7 o’clock. I really wanted to see the football match (Spain-Portugal) so we decided to not tell Pucho and just tell him we had a surprise. But then, I open my laptop and see a long list of names. I stayed looking like “WTF?” and then I got it. It was the participants list of the 470- Sailors in Den Haag. I went to New Zeeland and there were 6 names. I just guessed and I did it well. The two train boys (Tom and Jack) are actually called: Finn Dummond and Francisco Lardies. Yes, they are New-Zeeland students, 19 years and on facebook. Yesterday I already spoke with Tom, I mean… Finn. My first two Ceylon Adventure Friends!!!!
Well then, I’ll upload some pics, and for the ladies, the blond one is Finn ;)

A little bit of Holland.

June 28, Delft.
Well well, I can now say my trip has finaly begun. Yesterday evening the SYC ended and the Calvià troup came to sleep at home. Today began eating breakfast all together in the kitchen, but latter on I had to put the finishing touches into my bagpack. At 9.30 they were all gone after long goodbye speeches and we drove to the airport. As always, when the Siches family travels together, tense and ackward moments occur, but we always make the best of it.
We got into the tube at about 11.00, mom and dad together and I at the emergency exit. And then it came, my last look at Majorca. When we arrived to Schiphol (Amsterdam), all our lugagge came and we set off to the train. During our walk, as always, mom and I were looking at (what we thought to be) dutch boys, tall-blond-blue eyes... Suddenly, I just start saying positive things about them (thanks god!) and it turned out to be... they were spanish! Plash... that hit hard. What occured next will demostrate I just sometimes don't learn from my mistakes. Waiting for train 28 in platform 1-5, we saw to young students, one was tall, blond, had green eyes and was casual dressed and the other one was dark, with green eyes and also had a yachty look. Mom went bananas when we missed our train and went looking for someone to ask when would the next one come. I just started laughing with dad and soon we where talking about next year's SYC. I noticed the blond one (I've named him Tom) looked all the time at us, and they both laughed when we said things. When mom returned they asked us if we knew which train whent to Den Haag, and we told them they had to come with us. We sat together and started talking. Let's call them Tom and Jack.They came all the way from New Zeeland to sail in a competition in Den Haag, they were students and will stay in Europe for more or less two months. But that's when my not-learning thing came again: Jack was Argentinian! When he said that I just said: "yes, and I'm chineese". When he started talking argentinian spanish I just stood there with my mouth open. That's why they were laughing before, they understood almost everything!!! We exchanged cards with them, and I would actually like to see them again, maybe I'll go to Scheveningen to see them, it would be fun! We then left them becouse we changed train and we arrived to Delft, grabed a cab and came home. In this precise moment I'm sitting in the living room writing this and no one can even imagine how good I'm feeling. I'm free.

Now I know where I'm going.

After 8 months of waiting, now I only have less than two weeks to go, and I can't wait!!! Yesterday they sent to me all the information about my placement, so I'll post it here so you can see where the hell Tara is going.

YOUR PROJECT:
Name of Institution: Prasanna Children's Home

OVERVIEW:
Prasanna Children's Home is an orphanage for 20 small boys. It is in the town of Negombo on the west coast of Sri Lanka, about one and a half hours west of Colombo. The care of the children is undertaken by the permanent staff, but volunteers here can play with the children, do some teaching and of course, conversational English is always in demand!

There is a big hall in front of the orphanage which is used for activities and is also used by a Montessori school in the mornings when the boys are away at school.

LOCATION:
Prasanna Children's Home is in Negombo, approximately 42km west of Colombo.

KEY FACTS:
No. of people cared for - 20 boys
Age Range in institution - varies
Age range cared for - 7-15
Av. Group Size - varies
Hours of work/day - 15.00-17.00
No. of staff - 3
Type of institution - Orphanage

Bit by bit.

Well, some months have passed and now it's only 8 weeks to go before starting this mind opening trip. I've just got all the vaccinations I have to get to travel there and I also bought (with some money I received for my birthday) my backpack. I can't wait. I've also received my insurance and VISA. 

Mmmhh... patience.

For medical emergency when you are on your placement please call FOGG Assist on +44 845 658 9899

Your insurance type is Fogg Long Stay Travel - Projects Abroad Scheme

YOUR INSURANCE:
Policy Number:	PM0624109
Name of Insured:	Miss Tara Siches
Date of Birth:	14-04-1993
Date Issued:	01-03-2010
Departing From:	Netherland
Destination:	Sri Lanka
Excl/Incl - USA/Canada/Caribbean:	World-wide Excl USA/Canada/Caribbean
Dates of travel first dest.:	01-07-2010 - 07-07-2010

Ticket

And it all starts, now.

Hello everyone,

My name is Tara Siches, I'm dutch and I live and study in Majorca - Spain. In summer time it's well known that we like to party, go to the beach, and party a bit more. I'm done with it. 

Last November due to some private issues, I had a breakdown and tried to solve it thinking of what would I really like to do, to make me happy. Conclusion? After many years of waiting, I decided to sign myself up for a volunteering program in Sri Lanka (Also known as the old Ceylon). I passed the tests, thanks to my head teacher Vicky J. I sent the referee and, after two months, I was accepted and they (Projects Abroad) were looking for my tickets. Yesterday, I received my tickets, so now everything is done, the only thing I have to do now: Wait.

I think its a good day to star this blog, and my purpose is to let the world see how a 17 year old girl is going to wait till that day comes that she will start looking at the world from a total different point of view, and, at the same time, show and explain to everyone my experience...

Ceylon, here I come!