Blog

This day was special because we’ve got invited for breakfast at the Cabinet of Minister Debaets. She encouraged our School to School project and asked a lot of questions. Actually, Brussels recently signed a pact with Chennai, so this makes our visit very delightful. After the visit we went to the park nearby the Botanique. This well-maintained garden brought us beautiful views of nature. Of course, we took a lot of pictures.

In the afternoon we spend time with the boarding school of Don Bosco Woluwe. The youngsters took us out to bowling. This was our very first experience of the game. First it was difficult, but the students taught us how to do it. Mr. Jagadeesan, Mrs. Sharmila and Leena even scored a strike!

After bowling we were treated by delicious (but not spicy) Indian food: palak paneer, chappati, chicken gravy, pakoda and greens, raitha, pulav. Everybody enjoyed, even the students ate a lot! After our dinner together, we shared some traditional dances with each other. We taught them bhangra and folk. The Belgian students taught us the Vogeltjesdans and Macarena. We’ve laughed a lot and talked much with our new friends. We discussed about our culture, bindhi, marriage, love and family. And they were eager to learn some Tamil words. And we learnt some Flemish and French words too: “Hoe gaat het met jou?” “Goed” “Merci” “Un, deux, trois”.

On Thursday we made videos with the students. We were divided into two groups. Leena’s video contains interviews about school life and Indian and Belgian dance. Hani’s video is made of similarities and differences in India and Belgium. In the afternoon we went to Oxfam for a workshop about climate change in Bolivia. We learnt more about the people who live there and the difficulties they face because of drought and deforestation. We did also a role play about the Bolivians who live in the Eastern Lowlands. It helped us to know the importance of conserving the forests.

Maria brought us to the supermarket and explained us about typical Belgian food and fruits. We bought Mussels and vegetables to cook with it.

In the evening we played football with the girls football team. We ran a lot and were chasing the ball, and even kicked a ball and helped our teammates to score a goal.

Pretty tired we returned home for a good night sleep.

The next day our teacher Mrs. Sharmila took a class on nutrition and digestive system with a ppt. It was great to be a Belgian teacher for a day. They were surprised about the way we eat in banana leaves. We learned about the balanced diet in India and Belgium. We also discussed about marriage traditions in India. After class we Skyped with our classmates and Mrs. Vidya, who were in India. We were very happy to see them and they had a lot of questions about our stay in Belgium.

We finished our morning with a practical class in Chemistry. It was interesting and we learned how to separate different mixtures of liquids and solids (decantation, filtration, paper chromatography, sublimation).

During lunch we had the chance to meet Lieven Boeve, the head of the Catholic Schools in Flandres. He was interested in our experiences in Belgium. It was a great talk. 

In the afternoon the students guided us around in the center of Brussels. They showed us some popular places: Manneke Pis, Justice Palace, Great Market, Town Hall, … We even ate some delicious waffles and Leonidas chocolate.

These last days we will remember with much joy.