April 23: A bizarre bird and bathroom situation, sunburns, and rain can't dampen our spirits...

'Tis the season for rain, which usually comes like clockwork around 4pm. Today, however, we woke up to plenty in the morning, but luckily it cleared out before we got to work after a restful day off. As we drove to the worksites, we noticed the rivers and canals were all fuller and the rice paddies were starting to fill up. The water buffalo were able to lounge in small pools in the fields instead of swimming in the small lakes outside of town. Even behind the community centre where we eat lunch, what was a dry plain two days ago is now a lake teeming with life. So much change over the weekend, we couldn't believe our eyes.

Saturday we worked a half-day then were guests of honour at a New Years Sports Day event hosted by a local community group. This was a first for us, and it was a nice surprise to be paraded in by the children and some traditional Kandian dancers. After playing games with the kids and adults (including tug-of-war which we won because they let us) we were treated to a big buffet of rice and curry. It was blazing hot out, but of course the rains came and cooled us all off. It was very nice to relax and celebrate the New Year with Sri Lankans, something we don't normally get to do.

On our day off there was a lot of sleeping, except for the lucky few who rose at 5am to make it to the elephant park. The market in town was bustling and everyone bought lots of spices to bring home and a few sarongs and wraps. A couple of us even managed to work on our sunburns, roasting our winter bodies to a soft pink similar to a lot of the sunsets here. We've been so safe on the worksite wearing sunscreen, but all it took was one lazy day to undo all that.

Of course, it takes more than some burned skin to keep us from working hard all day and today Team Buddah was back to cementing the sidewalks around the new building at the monastery. We finished the floors on Friday and Saturday morning with the help of a small diesel-powered cement mixer, but today it was manual mixing again. At the school volunteers got busy with painting the new walls white and getting the yards cleaned up for tomorrow's events - our last day! It has flown by way too quickly. Everyone wants to keep working. There's always plenty to fix here, so I'm sure some of us will be back next year to continue the project.

We've had a few more incidents on the trip, as these things tend to happen. First, Jeff managed to be the target of what must have been a very large bird, while seated INSIDE at the Tangalle Bay Hotel for dinner on Saturday. Luckily he had finished his meal, which he managed to keep down after the 'bombing'. And it seems the Bruun family has a real knack for getting trapped in washrooms. This morning it was my sister, Amalie, who was locked in the Monk's toilet at the monastery. Keys were produced, which didn't work, and finally volunteer Susan put her solid shoulder into the door and busted it down. It looks like we now owe the monastery a new lock. The best part was watching the usually serene head monk laughing hysterically at the news of both mother and daughter being so adept at toilet trouble. Of course this just leaves me to get stuck in a washroom, so hopefully I can make that happen between now and Wednesday morning!

Ayubowan,

Kristian 'Loku' Bruun

DWC Participant

Sri Lanka, April 2011

April 18: An aching back and an averted disaster!

Today was work day four and everyone is starting to feel it. For the first time in my three trips over here I had to see a masseuse to work the kinks out of my back, so yesterday I didn't get a chance to write before dinner. Work is going steadily and today was an especially long day. At the monastery we turned in extra hours cementing the residence floor, which we will finish tomorrow. It took a large group of workers and volunteers, and even the head monk grabbed a pair of gloves (but remained barefoot and in his robes) and helped us pour concrete! At the school we finished plastering the walls, and tomorrow we will start cementing the sidewalks and finishing the floors. The last two days have been tough, but our bodies are adjusting nicely. Or as nicely as can be.

We did, however, have one scary event yesterday. While working at the school in the afternoon we heard howling that sounded like either a large bird, or a monkey, or possibly a person (you never can tell sometimes). We joked about what it could be, then kept working. The howling continued. We decided it might be someone celebrating Sri Lankan New Years, we had a laugh, then kept working. My sister noticed that we hadn't seen our mother in a while. We listened again. Could that be her?! A neighbour next to the school started calling to us. Just then one of our local workers came running from behind the school and immediately we knew something was wrong. Kal and Suresh (workers who have been with us for years) took off towards the trouble, followed by everyone else working at the school. We reached the outhouse to find my mother, Hilary, locked in! She had been on her hands and knees calling under a hole in the door for help for 5 minutes! Someone kicked in the door and she was saved from a rather uncomfortable disaster! We laughed for the rest of the day over it, imitating her 'distress' call, but we were also pretty touched by how quickly the locals sprang into action, and how genuinely concerned they were.

So things are running somewhat smoothly so far and tomorrow will be another long day before we break for the weekend to participate in a local Sports Day on Saturday and to let our bodies repair from all the heavy lifting on Sunday!

Ayubowan!

Kristian Bruun

DWC Participant

Sri Lanka, April 2012

April 17: A day of sadness and celebration

A sad start to the day. Late last night, volunteer Jared Estrada learned of a death in his family so this morning he broke the news that he will be leaving us to attend to matters at home. We will miss his energy and enthusiasm, but our hearts go out to him and his family in the difficult days ahead. Safe trip home, Jared. We miss you already.

Well, even sad news couldn't hold us back from more hard labour today, but on the way to school, we stopped off at our Master Builder Podi's house. Two weeks ago, with the help of TRIP Canada, his house was completed and today was the opening ceremony, attended to by Podi and his family, some local Buddhist monks, his neighbours and us. The house looked beautiful, the ceremony was fascinating, and we were all blessed by the monks (we now have symbolic white strings around our wrists). Then we had tea, coconut rice, onion sambol (a very spicy caramelized onion dish) and some traditional new years candies and cakes. These were fresh, of course, since we are here during Sri Lankan New Year's!

Fueled by the delicious smorgasbord at Podi's house, we got to the work site and formed new teams so people could learn some new skills and work with other people. At the school, Team Mix-a-Lot got down to more cement mixing and pouring (my lucky back got it's second day on that) and we managed to finish another classroom floor. Tomorrow we get to move on to plastering the walls - a nice break from shoveling and chain gang bucket-passing. At the monastery, the volunteers finished plastering the walls and while that dried they all got to work digging a trench for the sidewalk around the building. This involves pounding spikes into the ground to loosen the dirt - even the head monk got in on the action - all done under the scorching afternoon sun.

Tomorrow, Team Buddah gets to cement the massive floor in the new monk quarters, but rumour has it they're getting a cement mixer for this task (cheaters)! Apparently it's a small batch mixer so I bet they'll quickly switch back to the manual method of mixing to make bigger batches to pour.

All in all a great second day. Backs are sore, arms are achy, and hearts are warm (probably from the heat).

Ayubowan!!

Kristian Brunn

DWC Participant

Sri Lanka, April 2012

April 16: Day 1 for Team Mix-a-Lot and Team Buddah

Well, today was day one and the team was split in two - one half worked on the school, the other on the monastery across the street. At the school, they threw us into the hardest task on the worksite: mixing and pouring concrete - the ultimate team effort. The average team would be intimidated but Team Mix-a-Lot: Keltie, MJ, Linda, Amalie, Jared, Bruce, Janet and myself finished the floor for one large classroom and started on the second - with the help of our local annual workers, of course. This being my third TRIP I can say this was the hardest first day I've ever had, but we got a lot done and it felt good jumping into the Indian Ocean afterwards to wash the excess concrete off. Over at the monastery, the monks prepared a nice tea break for us as the others got to work building new monks quarters in the back. Team Buddah (Katy, Susan, Hilary, Alison, Jeff, Dan) got down and dirty with some wall plastering and rain trough digging; the former a task of finesse, the later one of brute strength and pure manliness. One can only guess who did what. All in all a fine first day, and I have no doubt everyone will have no problems sleeping tonight!

Kristian 'Loku' Bruun

DWC Participant

Sri Lanka, April 2012

April 2011: Quick update from the Team Leader

Our 10 volunteers are working hard at repairing/rebuilding a school, so that the local children can return to a safe and productive environment. Working on the school is a fabulous volunteer experience and it is wonderful to see all our old friends.

You can further follow our adventure through the photo album on the TRIP Canada website: http://www.tripca.org/team8

Thinking about all of the volunteer teams and wish you could be here with us.

All the best,

Janet McKelvey
DWC Team Leader

Sri Lanka, April 2011

April 2011: Day four on the project

Day Four was another hot one in Tangalle. After a massive breakfast we headed off to a senior English class where we were interviewed about our favorite fruit and likes and dislikes. Surprisingly a lot of the students dislike mango and banana. I guess when it's everywhere you look you might get sick of it pretty easily. Since we were late getting to the work site due to class we knew had to work hard, so we got down and dirty mixing cement and pouring floors all day. Some of us got to whitewash the new walls, while others had the dusty task of breaking old plaster off some walls, followed by rubble clearing. A tough day, but a good one!

Of course any volunteer trip isn't a completely serious affair. We've had lots of fun working with the locals, giving each other nicknames and of course making fun of each other when we say silly things. We're starting to collect a nice list of silly things Westerners say. I won't tell you who said what, but one of the best has to do with inquiries about snow removal on the narrow back roads. And of course injuries are unavoidable with hard work. Pretty standard stuff, really: Sunburn, blisters, heat-rash, chafing. All signs of a hard work and a good time.

Kristian Bruun
DWC Participant

Sri Lanka, April 2011

April 2011: Our team's first couple of days!

Well today is the end of day three and already our bodies are sore (good sore, of course). The school we are fixing up is a hundred and twenty years old and in desperate need of some TLC. It currently has 30 students who learn in some pretty poor conditions and they hope to have up to 200 students when we are done rebuilding it. A lot of the students have to pay to get into Tangalle to go to schools which are over crowded, so getting this school up and running will be a great help. Everyone is getting in on the action: the Principal, the teachers, some of their children, the local workers whose houmes we've rebuilt in the past and even the Buddhist monks from the monastery next door!

For me it has been incredible coming back to Sri Lanka. So much has changed since December, 2007. For one we have wireless high speed Internet! Last time we used a really slow, old desktop computer to send our emails and it felt like regular mail would have been faster. We are also staying at a brand new hotel, Moonstone Villas, opened by a fellow volunteer who came to Sri Lanka and fell in love with it. She has partnered with the team of locals we work with and the place is beautiful. Sure there are a few kinks to work out, but we're the perfect group to test things out on.

Here's a quick recap of the first three work days:
Day One we got to the school and immediately started clearing rubble from the buildings and the yard. The workers were also ready for us to get plastering the walls, it took some time, but the old plaster skills came back to us. Getting that plaster to stick to the walls takes a bit of finesse.

Day Two started with a tour of a Muslim school in Tangalle that also needs fixing up. Janet and Bruce are always looking for the next project to do and everyone seems pretty keen to keep helping with the schools in the area. We also checked out an English class at the village before getting back to the work sight. More rubble removal, more plastering and then we started breaking up some poorly constructed cement floors. The day ended with one of the most intense downpours I have ever seen. We are getting close to the rainy season, so I think that won't be the last time we see rain. It rained so hard I showered outside!

Day Three we got right to business. First up was the punishing task of mixing cement by hand and pouring the new floors. By far the hottest and most humid day, we sweat our way through multiple batches of cement, pouring floors and breaking up other poor ones. It's always a little frustrating undoing work that looks good on the surface, but it has to be done. An improper floor won't stand the test of time. Mike Holmes would have a field day here! Tough day, but we were happy to clean up and check out a dance class back at the village before having dinner at Lagoon Paradise.

DWC Participant
Kristian Bruun

Sri Lanka, April 2011