The boys in Zanskar!

Busy, busy day... Gab riding in the afternoon and Alex and Benjamin had a judo tournament. Those tournaments are always dragging on, so it was 4pm instead of scheduled 2:30pm before Ben was called to join his pool. Fun afternoon though, the boys won both their pools and were so proud of their gold medals. Alex did really well with fancy technic and won all three of his rounds. I'm proud too... But before heading out for the judo, I quickly checked my emails and Brigitte had just posted great news from our guys in Zanskar:

5 minutes ago, after losing the connection 3 times, I finally had Tim on the phone!!!! They've reached the end destination of the Zanskar valley !!! It was a rough last two days, it snowed last night and the snow was so heavy that the ice broke on the river... they almost didn't make it to the village, but after 4 hours of hard rock climbing going around the broken ice, they just managed. They're now sitting in a very small house, with a sand floor where a fire is burning. The sun just slowly set and it is getting colder. They are very spoiled by the cook, he's a great chef!! Spicy food, but so yummie. During the day, he's making tea all the time in all kinds of flavours: sweet, salt, spicy... you name it!
It is very cold, during the day when the sun is out, approx around -12C° but at night the temperature drops below -30°C (a minimum of €30 / sponsor coming up!! ;-), even the drops on their noses freeze up, hahahaha!
Tim and Bram have already concluded that this is, beyond doubt, the most beautiful trip they've ever done together. I think it is just awesome, that they are blessed sharing this adventure together. Memories for life.

The guys (porters, cook) accompanying them are just great, SO friendly and "buddhism is beautiful" Tim said (and that coming out of Tim's mouth, is really something). They're having so much fun together and enjoy every minute. The porters speak english, so no problems communicating!
Tim actually called from a rooftop (you need to get as high as possible to reach the satellites) and he said there are about 20 houses in this village, a monestery of course, there are yaks, sheep and goats walking around and the surroundings look like a fairytale with heaps of snow everywhere. There is also a small shop that they visited, not bigger than 2*3m (hahaha..), and when I asked what you could buy in there (maybe some nice souvenirs, yak milk??) Tim answered: nothing! Well... I guess that's the way it is.

Tomorrow, they'll start their way back towards Leh and they have 3 more nights sleeping in caves, brrrrrrrr. They estimate to be back in Leh by Thursday. Bram sent me a big kisses (moooaahhh) and Brigitte passed on our big kisses and hugs as well!

We'll miss him a little bit "extra" tomorrow... it's my b-day! But we're having a party without him, I have all my friends from the stable over for a big lunch. We'll be 20p all in all. I've just finished cooking and laid the table, so that I can take it easy tomorrow morning. Only need to prepare the aperitief... and voila, the party can begin!!! Cheers to Bram, Tim and Arno, have a safe return to Leh, we miss you!!!

Good night dear friends and family, stay tuned.... love from Jenny
PS Can't wait to hear back from Hella to see how her school collection is going. It's kind of double to sit here and talk about food and parties... but that's the way it is, and that is also the reason why it is so important we try to help the best we can.

ET - "phone home"

Yeaaahh.. after half an hour of trying to set up a connection, Tim got through to Brigitte's mobile phone today, around noon. Brigitte was standing in front of the school, picking up her kiddos Yael and 'little" Bram (guess who he's named after... ;-). Anyhow.. They're having a BLAST (if you can say so about a frozen river trek, hehe), Arno has already taken more than 800 photos, Tim more than 30 film shots. Tim just kept on saying:

Bok (Brigitte's nick name)! You just cannot imagine how beautiful it is, it's overwhelming, so much more impressive than what we had imagined, it beats anything that I've seen and done, the people are so friendly, so warm.. They've been on the "Tchaddar" now for 3 days and were setting up camp, it was slowly getting dark. Still 6 more days on the ice, Brigitte believed hearing on the background of an extremely bad line/connection.. It is ccccoooooolllllldddd, bbbbbrrrrrrrrrr... but doable. There'll be no phonecall tomorrow, since they'll be deep down in a gorge, but they'll try again the day after.

Thank god there was a connection... it sure made mine and Brigittes day!

There are english/french updates you should read, on the site of Maiso l'Arc en Ciel and on their Facebook page, with photos, and a warm personal letter from Danielle and her husband Reid, thanking everybody involved in the support of the orphanage. It includes a personal mention of me and Bram and our project Tenebo (which is all of you and your support!)... so sweet. Their daily perilous situation is tough, with refugee camps in terrible conditions, all the street children, the help needed and not getting. But it is improving, day by day. I admire their courage and discipline.

So boys and girls.. keep it up and stay tuned, xxx Jenny

Zanskar calling home..

Halloooo... No big news, but here's a short update from Brigitte:

Tim managed to call home yesterday, but of course at a time when Brigitte was in the swimmingpool (of +40°c.. mmmm) with her daughter Yael and her whole class for swimming lessons. But Brigitte had anticipated getting a call and left her mobile phone with son Daan, who was home sick. Tim called around 11 am yesterday, they were just about to set up camp site for the night.  It is EXTREMELY cold (however no digits communicated yet..). The river is frozen to about 95%, which is great news, takes away a lot of the worries we had, that the guys would have to trek along the edge of the ice... puuuhhhh. Besides that everything is just awesome, beautiful and they're enjoying every second!

Photo is Tim and Arno with Bram in Chamonix, camping in november 2006, with Mt Blanc evening panorama.

At the school "de Tweemaster" the director has translated the latest developments of la Maison l'Arc'en-Ciel, into Dutch, and emailed parents at the school for update. Great job... and it is paying off, donations from the children are rolling in and our action has caused quite a stir and gets both attention and publicity! YEAH !!

Take care, stay tuned... xxx Jen

News for and from The Rainbow house in Haiti

Good Morning! It was one of those evenings when you were looking forward to a good night of sleep, ending up not getting much at all! Gabriella had a nightmare and could not go back to sleep, finally ending up in my bed, with Benjamin who were already sleeping there. Then Ben woke up, not feeling well, so I thought, here we go, stomach bug coming up. But it didn't happen, he fell fast asleep again, but I stayed half awake for hours, with my antennas out, to be prepared with a bucket when shit hits the fan ;-) Which of course never happened. Bon, c'est la vie! The kids felt just great this morning, but I'm a zombie. But what am I complaining about... Still no news from Bram and Co, but no news is good news and I knew it would be like that. Just have to be patient and see if they succeed to make a satellite phone connection one of these days. Instead, I'm pleased to be able to post great news about project TENEBO with more donors joining our cause. My sister in law, Hella, has been in contact with her children's elementary school in Naarden, "de Tweemaster", suggesting they take part in donating help to Haiti. No other parent had so far pursued the matter (sadly enough..), so after some brainstorming, the school sent out the following newsletter to their 250 pupils last friday:

Action for Haiti: Children helping children!!!

Watching the growing amount of actions, we don't want to sit on the sideline, but also reach out holding hands.

Giving money would be easy, but so much more rewarding by creating the donation together with our children. We're thinking of small projects that you can do from home, such as: dropping off your empty bottles and donating the deposit, baking cookies/cakes and selling them in your community, walking by the doors of your friends and neighbours with a lantern singing a song (idea and text by Merel Schrijver, 7 years), donating your weekly pocket money, selling drawings and other selfmade items, collecting donations in your own small association or any other idea you might think of. It doesn't have to be big, with many small helping hands we can create a lot.

We've explicitely not chosen one of the bigger help organisations as target, but would like to see the amount collected, be directly donated to an orphanage in Haiti, where we know for sure it is desperately needed and more than welcome. http://www.maisonlarcenciel.org/

Hella baked 70 muffins with the kids this weekend, decorating them to an almost "uneatable" version, but they were beautiful and all sold out, creating another €50 for Tenebo! Go "de Tweemaster" Go !!

I also received a new message from Maison l'Arc en Ciel and Diane yesterday: "Hello Jenny, thank you for everything, I am following Bram and his friend on your blog....I did the french summary of his adventure on MAEC FB group today. I had a short skype conv. with Danielle this morning she and Robert visited 4 camps of refugees yesterday, the only word she could find was terrible...they feel they are not doing enough, Unicef called them back this morning, they will have 6 more children at the internal program (5) babies and a 15 year old teenager. They will also use their volunteers of the external program to try and help the camp the best they can. We will have a skype conf-call at 7:00pm our time, I should be able to update FB and the website tomorrow. Mèsi Anpil and take care !"

If you want to read her excellent french summary of Bram's adventures and Tenebo, visit their website and click on "contact us" and look up their FB page! It is so well written.

! ! ! Brigitte just mailed me a little update from Tim and the boys:

The satellite phone connection is seriously bad, Tim phoned 4 times yesterday and got disconnected 4 times. But this morning I received one phonecall, and after being disconnected twice, we managed to talk for 3 minutes. Everyting is AWESOME, they're enjoying everything, the nature, the adventure and the local population. It's cold, but blue skies and only -5c° when the sun is out. Temple visit on the schedule today, offering the necessary prayer flags for good luck and respect for the mountains. Tomorrow at 6 am europe time, 10 pm zanskar time, they start the actual trek up along the frozen "Tchaddar". Hope for satellite contact in the coming 12 days, is most probably equal to zero. But they will keep on trying! We'll find out. Love Brigitte

Keep up your spirits Bram, Tim and Arno, we're many cheering you on at the moment! xxx Jen

Finally in Leh !

Brigitte, Tim's wife, got a phone call today from Tim, reassuring us that they'd arrived safe and sound in Leh. Leh, in summertime a popular destination for treks, climbing, mountain bike and motorbike tours, is empty from tourists. Just the locals. It's winter time, not many go to this place at this time of the year. Strange, but I can understand this ;-) They're staying in a very basic guesthouse, and by basic I mean BASIC: no running water, electricity or beds. They sleep on the floor, so an excellent opportunity to try out their sleeping bags and pads.. There's hot tea though, served by the owner. Hopefully they find a beer in some bar, but this is buddhist territory... so who knows? Hot tea with yak-butter... yummie! What else do you eat here? Kashmir kitchen buddhist style, I've not come across that cook book yet ;-) Anyhow, the boys are having a great time and out to discover Leh with its ancient culture and many temples. The sky is BLUE and with a snowwhite mountainrange in the background, it sure is stunning.

With Bram in India, Seb in Sweden, Benjamin sleeping over at Maugan's; me, Alex and Gab will camp out in front of the tele with a chicken stirfry and a good movie. 100% coachpotatoes. Enjoy your weekend, love Jenny

News from Dehli !

Excellent morning news, there's an email from Tim from last night:

"Hey Jen, Everything ok! Just woke up, 3 am local time. We're staying in a small guesthouse in the middle of a buddhist neighbourhood in New Dehli with Tibetan refugees. No beer ;-) is allowed here.... Very very poor, unimaginable, but intriguing and we have a great time the 3 of us. The London - Dehli flight was delayed for hours and the trip through Dehli to our guesthouse took us 3 hours! We're now getting into a taxi in thick fog, an estimated 2 hours to get to the local airport. Hmmm, I wonder... I think this might be the last time I'll be able to use my internet GPRS, in Leh it will most probably not work. I'll try to keep you up to date!! Big kisses from Bram and of course from Arno and myself too !"

Time difference between Paris and Leh is +4 1/2h (10 am paris - 2:30 pm leh). I've incl on the sidebar a link for the local weather forecast. Take care, xxx Jenny

New Dehli Stopover...

No news is good news... well, that's typical Bram not giving me a call or sending me a sms, or even better, sending me an email from an internet café. Because I'm sure there are PLENTY of them in Dehli. Well, some things never change. "You cannot teach an old dog to sit" is a swedish saying ;-) They guyg should be sound asleep, probably after a few cold Singhas (is that the indian beer brand?). Tomorrow they fly to Leh, then rest for two days and get used to altitude. Time for sightseeing too and hopefully time for an email...

In the meantime, let me post some news from and about the Haiti orphanage, the Rainbow House! I'm proud to announce that we have now 12 sponsors and rumours travel that we might have a school in holland picking up on our initiave and joining. That is just AWESOME! There were bad news this morning on CNN about looting picking up, especially targeting orphanages, since they think they might find food and drink there. Hard to imagine that a situation get so desperate that you turn to stealing and using violence against already such vulnerable children. Total anarchy. I hope it was just an incident, it seems help is now trickling into port-au-prince, hopefully avoiding more violence.
I also received a new message from Diane who's in daily contact with the Rainbow House, I'll finish todays entry with her kind words. Tenebo.... xxxx Jenny
"Quote": It's a small world - Hello Jenny, got up and read your message of the day, one of my best friend, and also my boss, is in New Delhi for 4 days this week, she left Montreal on monday night and is flying back tonight or tomorrow. What is so special about this, she was there only 4 days, first time in her life, she is the one who asked me 6 years ago to find an ONG she could send a corporate donation, that would be safe and to make sure the money would be used for the cause, that is when I reconnected with Danielle in Haïti, Elise was the catalyst between me and the MAEC. Elise and Bram are crossing each other in India, without even being conscious of this, like all of us they are part of the '' grand team '' of people helping the children of the MAEC. Elise is an amazing woman, I now know that Bram will reach his goal safely ! À bientôt from Quebec Canada ! X0X

Orphanage la Maison l'Arc-en-Ciel, Haiti & Tenebo on their way

Bags are packed, passport, money, kissed the kids goodbye, a last lunch together, and we're ready to get into the car. Bram's flight is out of Lyon at 6pm, so I'll stop and get some swedish groceries at IKEA first, it's right next to the airport. Lingonsylt, kalles kaviar, bilar.. this is stuff only the swedish know how GOOD it really is ;-)

Yesterday I had this warm reply from the orphanage in Haiti that we've chosen as a Tenebo project for this trip. It feels so good knowing that they appreciate that Bram, Tim and Arno take these children with them all the way to Zanskar, and so much more motivating to keep up this blog, posting hopefully photos and their travel experiences as they get going. It would be great if you guys (Tim, Bram and Arno) could make a little film when you reach Zanskar, and send a message to these children, I'll make sure it'll get posted on the FB page as soon as I get it. Hopefully this blog will be conveyed to the orphanage in a way so that the children and the staff know that we're thinking of THEM.

I'll finish todays entry by wishing the staff and children of La Maison l'Arc-en-Ciel "bon courage" and "tenebo" (together) we're strong. Here's the reply from Diane, spokeswoman for the orphanage:

La Maison l'Arc-en-Ciel is going to Zanskar valley ....incredible !!! Bonjour Jenny,
Thank you for choosing La Maison l'Arc-en-Ciel, yes the logo, the spirit of Joy for life and the smiles of the children, may be the companions of Bram, we will consider this '' un privilège '', and please keep us posted on his adventure. As you can read in the discussion section, Danielle the co-founder tries to write the progress and the needs since the earthquake, and we just heard that another one occured at 6:03, short and hopefully with no damages.
May Bram reach is goal, safely, and do not hesitate to ask any questions or comments, we will be glad to hear from you.
Please confirm that I can translate and share your request to the french members of FB and also on the website...!
Mèsi Anpil Jenny

TENEBO goes up the frozen river of Chaddar for Haiti!

A new adventure, a new horizon opening its door, starting tomorrow January 21! Bram, leaves with companions Tim and Arno, for the frozen river "Chaddar" trek in the Indian region of Ladahk. An 19-day trip, to experience an almost forgotten world, hidden far into the himalayas, called the Zanskar valley. The extreme and long winter, closes the acces to and from this valley for 8 months. Except for a window opening up the access in the middle of the winter for 2 months, when the river freezes up enough to allow the people of Zanskar to travel down by foot to do their trades in Leh.

The Chaddar trek is risky, with extreme temperatures and unpredictable ice conditions, requiring experienced guides from the Zanskar valley to stipple out safe routes and as porters. There will be 9 guides/porters accompanying their little group of 3p. Sounds a lot, but imagine that these guys need to carry logistics, supplies, tents, etc for a whole week, incl. for themselves. All very basic camping, in caves, along the rives. Temperatures have been known to drop to -60°c under the most extreme circumstances... but most likely the temperatures will only.. vary around -30°c. I have posted links to a photo gallery site and a film documentaty on the blog (see right hand side of blog) with beautiful footage from the Zanskar valley.

Tim has done a great job and is bringing all technology incl. a satellite phone, so hopefully I'll be able to receive news as they go, to post on this blog. Arno, who's a skilled "free-lance" journalist writing excellent travel journals for a dutch motorcycle magazine, will hopefully put together a complete story for us to enjoy upon their return!

Of course we're all looking at the destruction of Haiti and its people at the moment and I know our hearts go out to them. Bram will take the TENEBO cause and flag with him on the trip, and for you who want to support it, you'll be asked to donate the equivalent in euros of the coldest temperature measured during the trip. The donations will all go to an orphanage in Port au Prince, Haiti, for children who have lost parents to AIDS, "la maison l'Arc-en-Ciel" (the rainbow house), you'll find the link on the blog. There's also a Facebook page you can follow by joining their group. You'll find it on my FB page. Of all the many organisations to choose in between, we chose this one cause its direct acces and possibility to follow their progress first hand. No in between organsations. Please join the cause, I know it'll motivate Bram to go even further.

I will end todays entry by wishing Bram, Tim and Arno a fantastic trip, I think it'll be amazing the world you'll discover so far away and so very different. Have a safe trip. Peace & love everybody. xxx Jenny