Peace Palace

Last week I visited the Peace Palace here in The Hague together with my son's class, another class, a teacher and a few other moms. It was great to visit this famous building with the kids.
A young woman guided us along, providing lively explanations about the history of this building, in which the Permanent Court of Arbitration and the International Court of Justice are located.
It was a sligthly peculiar experience for me, as I have been at the Palace more than one for interpreting purposes. It was nice to be there in another 'role'.
We saw quite a lot of statues during our tour. One of Carnegie, one of Gandhi. As we walked along another statue, one of the little boys asked me 'is that Hitler?', I bit on my lip to refrain from laughing and said 'No, he did not contribute to world peace'. 'O, that's right', the boy answered, 'it was the other way round with him.' He probably understood more than I initially thought.
After the tour of the premises, we were treated to lunch, after which the children participated to a workshop on human rights. A fruitful day by all means.

Old footage on Sri Lanka

I haven't written anything in this blog for a long, long time and I apologize for that, as it defeats the purpose of having a blog in the first place.

Times have been hectic at home -both because of happy and sad events-and writing came second.
However, I am now following a writing course in Amsterdam, working on legal translations, having fun with Thomas and preparing myself for a change: two little puppies, named Laïka and Spike, are going to become part of the household soon.

Anyhow, I have just begun writing a story about Sri Lanka. A troubled country, which is very dear to me. I lived there in the 80s and have very fond recollections of the country. I am in the process of doing some research, both online and offline and stumbled across this video: