Monday, October 26, 2009

OF VISITORS, VISITS AND DAILY LIVE

K'UAN YIN BODHISATTA THE COMPASSIONED ONE.



BLUE LOTUS BUDDHIST FELLOWSHIP LOGO.

CARE & EDUCATION


OF VISITORS, VISITS AND DAILY LIVE;

This update is long overdue but because our daily live has been so busy lately it is in this case: “better late then never”.

1st of all we want to recall a few visitors from Holland who came here to do some volunteer work; Anne and Sophie a couple of young student girls who did a great job here. They came originally to stay and work for 2 weeks in the Lotus Home for handicapped boys in Baddegama. The thing was that because of the short period of their stay and the very capable staff there, they did not find it very easy to spend their time there in a positive way. In fact they where more or less like staying in a waiting room at the station there. On their request we found a more fulfilling way to spend there time. They asked if we could find a family who would be helped by painting there house in and out side. That was quickly done and they painted the inside of the house of a poor family at Mettiwella, and when they where finished they supplied them with enough paint to paint the outside themselves. I would like to mention that they paid for the paint from there holiday pocket money. This we find a wonderful thing for them to do!
When they left on a trip around the island so they would have also some real holiday, they where a bit skeptic about this family painting the house on the outside themselves…… but; surprise, surprise; when they came back they found that they not only painted their own house but also that of a brother of them who lives next door! We where all pleasantly surprised.

This two who we consider to be friends of us all now also helped us here in our place when we where building our kitchen and our young monks, Aruna, Bandara en I myself where enjoying their stay very, very much!!! They made a great impression on our Justice of the Peace and his family where they stayed for a couple of days and on all the other people who met them here.
I must say that we would be very happy to have volunteers like this anytime!!!
THANKS GIRLS!!!!!! WE ALL HOPE TO SEE YOU BACK HERE SOON!!!!

THE VISSIT

Then came August and the time for me to visit Holland for nearly 3 weeks.
Together with Sander there where a number of programs and meetings planed of which some fortunately where canceled and others unfortunately where also canceled. I say fortunately because the whole trip turned out to be very exhausting for me. Unfortunately because I would have liked to meet some of the people I was supposed to meet, but … “Sabbe sankhara anicca’ti “, “All that is conditioned is subject to chance”. I also had to cut short a few other meetings which I had planned because of fatigue but it gave me a chance to do other things and dive a bit deeper in to things with the people around me and this was needed also.

There was the much welcome visit of Anne and Sophie, “Mama” Ineke, came to visit and that was so nice to see here again after here last visit in Sri Lanka a few years ago. Some friends and neighbors came to visit and in general we had a nice time, I’m so sorry I could not visit some other friends but time was a limiting factor.

During my stay Dharmapala (or better Kamal now), took nicely care of my daily needs, and my dear “brother” Ab was as always a great help in everything!
He drove me where I had to go, came daily to inquire if I needed anything and supported me in all the things I had to do and decide. His advice is always welcome and always a great help not in the least because it is given in a spirit of freedom to take it or leave it , but that is Ab.
(our brother Jiva Singha).

Shortly after I arrived there was the interview with the Telegraaf newspaper, and it turned out to be a pleasant one. I don’t like al this publicity but for the sake of getting support for the Randolph House I did it, and as said it turned out to be not as bad as I expected J. After that we had a wonderful evening at Nicole and Remco’s place in Sassenheim where I got the “Boerenkool met worst” they promised to supply. Sander and Ardje, Ab and Kamal and me, we all enjoyed a great evening there with them.

The meeting with the Rotary ladies in Rozendaal was a nice evening, and I got some donations in my bowl that night which I have used for a part to give a young man a chance to start a motor repair place. The rest will surf its purpose to pay for some small operations and supply some people with medicine. Also the donations which where placed in my bowl during the meeting with the people from the Randolph Fellowship in Breda will be used accordingly.
I must ad that the money collected is spend now on a eye operation of a young man and because of this donations we where able to pay for 1 eye, the costs for the other eye we still hope to collect.

The evening in Breda was well organized ( but we can’t expect anything else from Sander and his friends cant we?). It was a good chance to meet some of the people I saw in Hikkaduwa at the Randolph commemoration ceremonies during the past years. It was nice meeting them again. Over all it was a great evening. The day before I left there was a surprise visit of a crew of “Hart van Holland” who produced a nice short item about the work for the Randolph House. It was broadcasted on the evening before I left and Sander and Ardje came to spend the evening with us and together we watched the program. This was a Very Touching and emotional part of the evening, not only for San and Ardje! Late at night I finally went to sleep and early morning we left for Schiphol. I must say that it was not unpleasant to be for 20 days back in Holland, but I was O, So Happy to leave again! My mind was flying in front of the plane on its way back to Lanka! The warm or better hot welcome at Katunayaka was overwhelming! Ariyadhamma, his family, the other pupils, Aruna, his son and Bandara made my arrival feel like a real homecoming.

When I came in our place the dogs went mad, people from around came whole day till late at night to welcome me back, and even the next day some people from farter away came to visit. It feels great to be back home I can assure you!
I can assure you also that I’m not planning a next trip like this soon again .
I can only hope it served its purpose for the Randolph Fellowship.

MORE VISITORS;

A few days after I came back from Holland I received an email from our dear friend Scallet from Germany. She had hoped to come and visit me when I was in Breda, but unfortunately (or maybe fortunately as it turned out to be), she could not make it and she wrote that because of that SHE WAS ON HERE WAY TO LANKA! We all where so happy and excited to welcome here back here!
She’s one of those wonderful, beautiful people who we have got to know here in Sri Lanka! She came with two of here friends and we spend a few happy afternoons together with them. Its such a great thing to realize that there are so many wonderful young people who are so loving and caring for those people who are poor! They are nice young people who are compassioned, interested and respectful towards those who are less fortunate then themselves! We all where so happy to see here again and to make friends with the two friends she brought and we hope they will come back very soon for a longer period!

There are plans to come back and do some volunteer work which would be so nice! And; so needed!!!! We need young professional people to come and share their knowledge with the youth here! Also Scallet started again to organize some help for our work ( I should say as usual ), and here father also is planning with friends to organize some things! Thanks to this wonderful compassioned family!!!!!

At the same period Mr. Gras and Janette de Snoo a friend of his came again to Lanka and paid us a few welcome visits, they gave a personal donation which I am using to develop the land Mr. Gras gave us earlier this year.

One afternoon there came a couple of unexpected visitors from Holland; Mr. Piet van Os and his wife Durna from the Priyanthi Foundation. They had already attempted to find us but failed that time. Now then they fortunately succeeded.

They came to ask us to help them distribute some “fishing rods”. They had read the article in the Telegraaf in which Bhante stated that: “if people come to me to ask for a fish, I try to give them a fishing rod, that way they can help themselves and will be independent”. They wanted to give “fishing rods” to those in need!

After a long talk about their wishes Bhante asked them one or two days time to look what kind of projects we could supply them with. We came up with the following;

- In Akurala 24 woman where supplied with coja (coconut hair) so they could start to work on their own to make ropes. Mr. Da Silva our secretary is checking up on this project.

- Also in Akurala a man of whom half his feet was amputated had his 3cycle repaired and was supplied with 200 coconuts and he is now able to make a living for himself and his family selling them to the shops in his arrear. Also this case will be checked by Mr. Da Silva.

- In Gonapinnuwala a girl of 13 years old who is comatic ( half conscious) and who cant do anything at all and who was carried everywhere by here mother, has to be fed and is suffering from incontinence and used to sleep on a bed without proper bedding is supplied with a mattress, bed sheets, pillow and pillowcases, a wheelchair and a cupboard for the use of here and here sister. This very poor family also received some other help.

- One young man (just married) from Telwatta, who is a painter but because of a problem with his hand has to give this up, and another young man from Baddegama where helped to start a brick and flower pot making workshop, so they can supply for their livelihood. Here we have to pay also a part of the investment because this is compared to the rest a quite expensive project.

- We compiled on their request a list of 40 of the poorest children from the villages of Akurala, Kahawa and Telwatta who will be supplied with the necessary schoolbooks and maybe shoes for the next school year.

For this great people of the Priyanthi Foundation we would like to give a: “Sadhu, Sadhu, Saaaaaa !!”, because they did all this work for our poor and needy people during about 10 days time they worked with us!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our thanks goes to them and their donators in Holland! Thank you very, very much for all this help!!!!!

We are trying to develop some other programs with them together and as soon as it is clear what we are going to do you can read more about it!

On top of this all they donated a gas cooker, an oven and some plates, spoons and forks for the Randolph House and they are planning also to donate a fridge.
This kind of people and organizations make our work lighter and surely more pleasant. Its so rewarding and encouraging to see that we can work together with such compassionated humanitarian people! They make it worthwhile to struggle sometimes for a period of time

Daily live

This month and the past where very busy and not only with the visitors;
We (and all the other monks) closed and are closing our “rains”, the yearly 3 monthly rain retreat.

For the closing ceremony we need always a lot of monks and because we are not able to open up a tin , we have to participate in as much as possible places.

This so called Kathina Ceremony is a very important one for us monks because our seniority is counted by the Vas or rain retreats and the closure of the retreat is therefore one of the high points of the monastic life. We participated already in 11 such ceremonies and during the last stages of this lunar month there are still some to come. This is why we are a bit behind in our work so you have to excuse us if everything takes a bit longer.

As soon as this season is finished and we are up to date with our work we decided that it is time for a short holiday; Bhante and the boys will go together with Dominique on a short trip to some remote villages and visit some of the Holy places. After a few years of hard work we hope to finally have a deserved short vacation and go on pilgrimage!

Well my dear friends and well wishers that was it for this time!

SOON TO COME: A LOST BUDDHA STATUE, MORE ABOUT THE PROJECTS AND PLANNED PROJECTS.

We wish you all to be Happy, Healthy and Safe!

Ven. H. Sri Devamitta Thera
Rev. B. Ariyadhamma Thero
Rev. R. Devarakkhita Thero
Rev. W. Narada Thero and
Rev. B. Tapassi Thero.

Sri Metta-Ashrama
Telwatta – Sri Lanka.



Sunday, June 14, 2009

board members


from left - right;mrs.Shama Chandrika treasurer fellowship. Mrs. Malika Amaravithanage treasurer Sangha Sabhava.Mr. Chaminda Prasad youth activities. Mr. I.D. Lasantha Kumara (Bandara) and Mr. W.V. Karaunasena Justice o/t Peace, religious and welfare activities.
Below:
next pic: again mr.Chaminda and the treasurers
last pic: L-R:Mr. Da Silva secretary both foundations- Ven. Devamitta and in the background Mr. Da Silva our accountant, brother of the secretary, accountant Min. of Social Affairs - housing projects.

Saturday, June 13, 2009




“OF COBRA’S, OTHER SNAKES, CENTIPEDE’S, SPIDERS, FOUNDATION BOARDS AND OTHER POISONED CREATURES :-)”.

Well, dear friends, as you might guess from the heading we had some visitors lately.
During the last month or so the weather has been hot and wet, and this brings out all kind of creatures. The first who came to visit us where a few spiders, though not deadly poisoned, they where poisoned enough!

In the middle of the night I woke up with a shock when I was bitten in my big toe (seams funny, but it was not!), and the feeling as if the bones in my feet where burning; the pain was incredible and the bones of that feet still hurt! About 3 nights later I woke up in the night because the Rev. Ariyadhamma jumped out of his bed while screaming and started rolling on the floor with pain. He was bitten in his under belly by a spider which he saw just jumping away, he was in severe pain for a few hours before it diminished and it took about a week before the pain was gone. There was a bad swelling and it oozed water from the bite mark and he had quite a fever for a few days. Next was Rev. Tapassi; early morning he screamed and when we ran to the room where he was sleeping he was jumping up and down, he was bitten twice – once in his belly and once on his back! He also had a lot of pain and there where to bite marks and soon after these places developed swellings like with Rev. Ariyadhamma. This time Rev. Devarakkhita saw the spider and helped it to a new incarnation.

The family of Rev. Narada phoned us to inform us that they where coming from Weherajaya (6+ hours by bus) to visit us but that they would be late because they 1st had to go to hospital to get the 2nd serial of injections for Rev. Narada’s little brother (he’s only 4 years old) who was bitten by a dog with rabies. When they arrived later that afternoon the little one and Rev. Narada‘s sister where near the ditch next to our house and saw there 2 poisoned water snakes. Together with the fact that we have a cobra living on the backland which we just got donated by the fam. Gras from the Netherlands made me have a urgent talk with everybody present that they should be very aware and careful for snakes!!! Not that that helped much, because the same evening when they got ready to go to the house of Aruna to sleep there, I heard quite a commotion outside and it turned out that a very poisoned snake sneaked between the legs of the little one and his father could just in time lift him up. There is no antidote for the poison of this snake and Anura helped this one to his next reincarnation.

A week later we had 2 Patheya’s (poisoned centipede’s) making a house call, they where quite big; about 20-25 cm, and that sized ones will give serious problems if they bite you, they hopefully have a better next live now.

Because I had to register my last will and testament at the Ministry for Religious affairs so the different people and the foundation board in Holland of the Randolph Fellowship could be stopped worrying what would happen if I kick the bucket, I had to go to Colombo twice and when I returned the last time I was really dead tiered. I wanted to rest an hour and went to lie down on my bed. Being very tired I could not sleep and was looking at the wall, there I saw a movement and when I looked better I saw a snake of nearly 1 ½ meter on top of the wall. I called Sarath and Ariyadhamma to have a look and they said it was a hybrid kind; a mix of a Rat Snake and a Cobra and quite poisoned. (I don’t even know if such a combination is possible, but what the heck). They pushed the bastard outside and he disappeared to the next door land. The next day all the novices where gone to school and Sarath had his work in the rent house so I was alone at home. I was busy to send sms messages to Jaap (Plugge) and wanted to send him a email when I heard a noise in my bedroom, when I went to look I saw that the bastard of the day before has come back for a next visit! I locked the dogs in the other bedroom (don’t want them to be killed), and had a more then 10 minute fight with the serpent to finally work him out of the house, man that bastard was aggressive !!!!!! When I had him outside I gave him a farewell “soejang” (hit him nicely with the broom) and of he was!

Day before yesterday we had the next episode; people catched a BIG White Cobra a few meters away of our house on the path, he was 1.80m. long and fat as an arm!!! Half the village came out because most of the people here never saw a white cobra or any cobra so big for that matter! Eventually they wanted to kill him and we where just able to stop them and we put the fellow in our laundry basket and called to the wild park. Some rangers came to fetch him but when they saw him they returned to their station to fetch a strong metal case because such a big snake was too much to transport in a rice bag (lol), they measured it later. So now we only hope that this was the end of our poisoned visitors and we have some rest of them!!!!

As you might be aware of from the above I had to make my last will and testament, because of the worries about continuity etc. when I might kick the bucket. I appointed some people to take care of things if that happens and had my testament registered at the Ministry of Buddhist affairs. (Up till now the property is all privately bought – tough there is a loan which still stands open for a part of our house and land – we have been promised that for this and for the needed improvements there will be fund raising organized?). The other land is a donation I personally received from well wishers, and there is some land I bought more then 25 years ago and those lands will be inherited according to tradition by my pupils. The Blue Lotus Sangha Sabhava Foundation will manage them and has them under its control (in beheer), as entrusted property but according to law and tradition the “Paramparawa” the Linage of Monks owns them. That way nothing can ever be soled or disowned. Having said this I realize that;

"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." - Albert Einstein.

Anyhow, I made my testament, visited the Ministers of ; Health, Education and Social affairs to make sure that when the time is there the registration of the “Randolph House” as a Vocational Training and Rehabilitation Centre will be accepted and go smoothly. Also I made sure that they will corporate and they offered tax deduction and in some cases even freedom of tax.

We now have to wait till funds are transferred from the Netherlands so we can buy land and buildings and start to build the “Randolph House” !!!.

It means that we will have a lot of work coming but we are very eager to start!
Also we found according to our ideas the right person to run, together with me, the building process and later the House. Hopefully our Dutch friends of the “Randolph Foundation” who sponsor this project understand that I can’t do everything myself (especially if I have to go on with my work for a longer time and my expiring date should be a bit later lol), and that we need someone to work fulltime on it and that such a person should be on “the payroll”. I am sure that this will be a good investment because this way we will safe quite some money on the material needed and we can be sure that we have good quality material and work done.

Our Sri Lankan Government has got the taste of things, and the MP’s have discovered that they are supposed to be lawmakers, so they make and chance laws on a nearly daily base now. Also the law on NGO’s and INGO’s has been changed again, sigh, and we had to change our board accordingly and where just in time to be within the deadline so we can be registered as a NGO.

So now we finally thought we had the two boards for the two foundations ready; but …. One of the two secretary’s who we invited was absent without leave and will be absent during the 1st few working months of the foundations. It’s a good person, and we assured that later he will still join! What to do?

“"Sometimes you just gotta let shit go and say to "hell with it" and move on"”

And that’s what we do! During the 1st period we will have 1 secretary for the 2 foundations and later we will see if we can persuade the intended other secretary on his return to Lanka to take over the post of secretary of the Blue Lotus Buddhist Fellowship our “working foundation”.
So its time for me to introduce our boards to you:

THE BLUE LOTUS SANGHA SABHAVA;

This is the foundation that is running the affairs of the Sangha, controlling and managing property and in charge of the religious affairs and activities. In future the board should mainly be made up by Sangha members except the treasurer which should preferably be a layman/woman. (We prefer woman to handle the money, in Sri Lanka its better anyhow and they know it very well)

President: Ven. H. Sri Devamitta Maha Thera.
Secretary: Mr. De Silva (Super intendent of a big rubber and thee estate and secretary of the Ruhuna Buddhist Council for Welfare and Social affairs.)
Treasurer: Mrs. M. Amaravithanage. (Housewife)
Gen. member: Mr. W.V. Karunasena Justice o/t Peace. Religious and welfare activities
Gen. member; Mr. I.D. Lasantha Udeya kumara De Silva (Bandara), youth activities and coordination projects.

THE BLUE LOTUS BUDDHIST FELLOWSHIP;
This is the “working foundation” which will execute the projects and be in charge of running them on a daily base.

President: Ven. H. Sri Devamitta Maha Thera.
Secretary: Mr. De Silva (see above).
Treasurer: Mrs. G. Shama Chandrika (Director Samurdi Bank Ambalangoda).
Gen. member: Mr. K.H. Chaminda Prasad (painter - contractor) Youth activities
Gen. member: Mrs. Karunasena (retired teacher) woman and children activities.
( I would like to put a face with the names and therefore you should have a look at the pics.)

I’m quit sure we have a good team and hope and wish that we will be able to work hard together for the benefit of the poor and needy, and for our society in general!

I like to wish all the members of our board good luck, and success in their work. I hope that they will find satisfaction in the work, and that the knowledge that they are working for the good, happiness and wellbeing of many will bring wellbeing and happiness to them to!!!!!!! Lastly I would like to thank them personally for their participation and their wish to help us do this often difficult work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ven. Holland Sri Devamitta Maha Thera.

Monday, May 25, 2009

freedom of terrorism


FREEDOM OF TERRORISM, FINALLY !!!!!
SRI LANKA HOPEFULLY GAINED ITS FREEDOM OF TERRORISM

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves. -Abraham Lincoln

Dear Friends

After more then 30 years of terrorist attacks by the LTTE this organization which has been internationally recognized as the most dangerous terrorist Group in the World has been defeated by the Sri Lankan armee.
War and armed action is a horror in the eyes of any normal person, but sometimes a government has to use armed action to protect its people, and a government is the only authority in a country who is allowed to use force for this purpose. We are not happy that the Sri Lankan government had to use full force, but in this case there was a need to do so. The LTTE has killed during the last 30 years more Tamil people then Singhalese, and we all know how many presidents, ministers and even the prime minister of India fall victim to this group. A number of young samanera’s (novices) and monks where slaughtered by them, innocent worshippers at the Maha Bodhi Temple (mainly woman and children)The Temple of the Tooth was bombed , hundreds of innocent Muslim worshippers at mosques where killed, market places, schools, trains, busses etc. etc. where bombed and innocent people slaughtered. Tamil parents who did not want to give their children to them as canon flodder where brutally murdered and so we can go on and on. Hopefully this is now all ended. We want peace and wellbeing for all, not only for a few.

… For Cruelty has a Human Heart,
And Jealousy a Human Face,
Terror the Human Form Divine,
And Secrecy the Human Dress.
The Human Dress is forged Iron,
The Human Form a fiery Forge,
The Human Face a Furnace sealed,
The Human Heart its hungry Gorge.

-WILLIAM BLAKE, Songs of Experience ( A Divine Image)

To long we have been living whit this kind of humans, it should end now!

This cruelty, jealousy and terror has to end!
It should be changed so we can live in peace together true unity, non discriminating, with mutual respect and with a feeling of belonging. That it is possible, we saw that during a number of inter – religious meetings we organized with the purpose to reconcile the different groups! When we started there was animosity, mistrust and fear. After a few day’s during which there was the possibility to confront each other and openly talk about the wrongs done, the situation changed quite quickly, and there where apologizes, expressions of regret, respect, care and love for each other and a feeling of belonging together! There we learned that:

... For Mercy has a human heart,
Pity a human face, And Love, the human form divine,
And Peace, the human dress.

-WILLIAM BLAKE, Songs of Innocence ( The Divine Image)


Unfortunately we had to stop these meetings: not because there was no interest (the people who participated had many ideas to expand the activities), but because of a lack of funds. We are so sorry for this because especially now we need this kind of activities mosth. We had hoped to be able to organize also a number of inter – religious activities for woman and children etc. but money is the problem! I want to stress that we need reconciliation and a dialogue and I want to appeal to anyone who can help us to reach our goal! If any of you can help us or knows a way to find funding please help us! Our Christian, Hindu and Muslim brothers AND SISTERS are most willing to meet again and work hard for this purpose!!!!!!

THERE HAS TO BE DONE A LOT OF WORK IN THIS COUNTRY.

Democracy on the basis of one person one vote has to become accepted true out the whole population, not one group might it be religious or racial can expect more then that. No more privileges like before, not to the Singhalese but also not to the Tamils; not to anyone!

Corruption has to be routed out! Unity has to be established! Like President Mahinda Rajapakksha said: There will be only one majority; Those who love, and are working for de independence and unity of Mother Lanka! And there will be only one minority: Those who are against that!

This all is a long proces and we hope and pray that it will be successful, it has to be if we want peace and prosperity in this country. It’s a hard and difficult process. This country needs all the help it can get, not the “help” like we had recently, we don’t need this NGO’s and INGO’s who 1st of all fill their own pockets, stay in the most luxurious hotels and have humble crab en lobster lunches!!!!! We don’t need those who work together with and support terrorist groups!!! We don’t need those who put their stickers on houses build be others to show their donators a lie, or those who announce great projects and stop them half way because “its so difficult to work here”. We don’t need those who come here and try to buy over people to become a member of their religious groups so they can collect more funds to convert more “poor heathens”! We surely don’t need more of this politicians who come here to have a nice trip and who look down on the “natives” and feel like the colonial masters they once where! They have the courage to judge the situation here while their own countries invade and slaughter millions in other country’s (based on lies and financial interests!!!!!). We don’t need more of this Sri Lanka “experts” who have been here a few weeks or even months staying in their luxury hotels or villa’s racing true the country to reach the nearest beach resort and the next luxury hotel to open another bottle of whiskey.

Those things which are wrong here may be said, but they will have to learn to do that in a respectful and not in a patronizing way!!! That way anybody here will be willing to listen and agree!!!! We need those who really have the best interest for this country and its people in mind!!! We need those who are willing to help this country to do the work needed in constructing democracy, welfare, development, human rights etc. and who are doing that because they want to help fellow human beings in an independent, peaceful and united country.

My mother used a saying which I want to share with you here: It’s so easy to push the crown of once head, but it’s very difficult to put it back on! Let’s together try to put the crown back on the head of this country!!!!

I know it’s a difficult job, but live has no easy ways if you want to do something positive.
I’ll end this piece by asking you to work together with us and pray for a peaceful and prosperous future for this beautiful and deserving country and its people.

With Love; Yours in The Dhamma:
Ven. Holland Sri Devamitta Maha Thera
Rev. Baddegama Ariyadhamma Thero
Rev. Rotumba Devarakkhita Thero
Rev. Weherajaya Narada Thero
Rev. Baddegama Tapassi Thero.

Metta –Ashrama
Singha Govi Mawatha/ Bandarawatta
Daluwatumulla. Telwatta.
Sri Lanka.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Old Year - New Year


OLD YEAR – NEW YEAR

Dear friends
The old year has passed and the New Year has started, we hope and whish that it will be a good year for all of you; and better year for all of us!

The past year has not been an easy one, we changed place, we had losses and some of us had personal tragedies to cope with.
The Rev. Devarakkhita (Bhante’s second pupil) even lost his father on X-Mass day. Together with the Rev. B. Samitha Thero, Bhante took care of the funeral costs.

Many more of our friends have passed away this past year and the war took its toll like some natural disasters did.
Even the Mafia killings in and around our village are regrettable.

Some of you also had personal losses and even the economic crisis has left its mark on the world.

Even tough all of this there are also good things which happened this past year: we changed place (tough not easy, it’s a good thing because all of us are happy in our new place), we could do a number of very good works for our society, we could help or support some individuals and make some people very, very happy! (If, for example, your eye site or hearing is restored it’s a great thing). Also the list of things we have done (which you will find in an earlier post), is impressive.

Thanks to a donation of Mr. Jaap Plugge we even have a new fridge, a big one with a big deep freezer, and it’s our own one this time!

We are renting a big house in the village now where we are trying out our ideas and some programs. Thanks to Mr. Georg Höfer who donated the rent for a period of 6 months (42.000 SRS). He came here to run a program with a number of kids from Telwatta and Galle called: Telwatta Photo Kids for which he collected the funds. This is a great success and the result is above expectations tough all what we hoped for up till now!!!!! Georg is not only a passionate professional photographer; he’s a great teacher who is able to inspire the kids in a big way, and we hope you will visit the weblog of this program where you can see the really beautiful results of this program in the form of the pics made by the kids. (See the link on this page)

We are very grateful to Georg for this program which is great fun and a source of inspiration for all of us!!!!
He makes the kids, and us, very happy!!

In the house we started among others to show a few films for children of the village and they enjoy it tremendously!!

During the next few weeks we will have a few meetings with woman rights activists to which we will show a (bit of a controversial) Buddhist film, and which will be followed by a discussion.

There will be inter – religious meetings and we will start in corporation with the Salvation Army a HIV/AIDS prevention campaign.

We hope to get our woman and girls activities started (which is quite difficult to begin with).

We have a lack of funds to do all the things we want to do and we hope that there will be found some generous people who would like to donate some funds for this purpose. (on the moment we have NO FUNDS AT ALL FOR THIS PROGRAMS AND AGAIN BHANTE HAS TO PAY MOST OF IT FROM HIS OWN POCKET, AND THE POCKET IS EMPTY AFTER ALL THE COSTS WE HAD TO COVER DURING THE LAST FEW MONTHS!!!).

Talking about funds: the funds to pay for the OK KIDS English teaching program are all spend, we are even behind in payments!
We stopped intake for people with medical needs because there even are no funds for those we have already!
We had hoped to be able to help some of the neediest children in our society to get some extra food and sponsor their study:
but no funds!
We had hoped to improve our living quarters: but no funds!
We don’t like to go on with this list, but you will “get it” I think.
The bottom of our “money box” is totally cleaned out!
We would like to continue our work but need your help with it!!!
PLEASE HELP!!!!!

We recently got the help from Lianne a Dutch volunteer, but although she has a lot of ideas and is more then willing to work hard to realize them; all kind of activities cost money and we have not got it!!!

We hope that in this New Year we will be able to get some structural financial basis so we can continue our work with the poor people and youth from our area and elsewhere.

Anyhow:
We like to thank all those who supported us during the past year, all those who showed interest in our work and life and we hope that you all may be; Healthy, Happy and Safe in this New Year !

Bhante Devamitta Thera,
Rev. Ariyadhamma Thero,
Rev. Devarakkhita Thero, and
Rev. Narada Thero.
O, yes before I forget them :
Rex and Ariel.