Diaspora Sri Lankans and Crystal waters - Queensland

Happy 10th Birthday  ECO-V!!!! - Thank you for all the members volunteers, and well wishes who have been supporting us to come this far!

We meet lot of Sri Lankans from all communities while we are here. Most of them want to do something for the country and they want to promote Sri Lanka and our rich heritage. There are quite a few who look at negatively about Sri Lanka and appreciate their life here. We don’t blame any one but they should not forget that most of them are sons and daughters of our country who have been educated with poor tax payers’ money. They can have their own vision but please do not criticize and compare. Try to pay your debt to the poor people who paid for your education. We need all brilliant people who have left the country if country has to develop.

Dimuthu and Niru

I met this amazing young couple Dimuthu and Niru who are trying to do something to promote our culture and heritage in Australia. We shared a common interest mainly love for your motherland and its heritage and eco friendly life style with minimum impact on mother earth. It does not matter where you reside or what you do. I am grateful to my new friends Dimuthu Dias-Mendis who is the founder of “Ariona” www.ariona.com.au and her husband Niru Mendis, who took the trouble to give me this great experience at Crystal Waters – A permaculture village (www.crystalwaters.org.au). Dimuthu is promoting our Auyrveda treatments at Crystal waters village while dedicating her time to Ariona to promote Sri Lanka.



Crystal waters



Free roaming Wallabies



“Crystal Waters” is in Brisbane, Queensland. It was such a wonderful place to live. I was lucky enough to spend a night at the village and visit around the village meeting some like minded people learning and sharing their experience. Over two hundred residents of all ages coming from many cultural backgrounds live on 85 private one acre plots. Two community plots are owned by a co-operative of residents containing buildings for community events and for the operation of businesses. Residents are engaged in a wide variety of social, cultural, environmental and spiritual activities.  Many homes are built from an interesting array of eco-friendly materials. Mud brick, pole- frame, rammed–earth, recycled and straw bale dwellings are found on the community. Most homes has the common features such as compost toilets (which reminded me our early days at village based life style), solar passive design and energy saving devices. The land is a sanctuary for wildlife. Meeting with free ranged wallabies and possums and eating home grown organic vegetables was wonderful experience .

 

community centre

 

Max and me

 I also got the opportunity to meet Max Lindegger whom I knew through Sarvodaya in Sri Lanka. He is the creator and Director of the Oceania/Asia secretariat of the Global Eco-village Network. He is a primary partner in the design and development of the Crystal Waters. Learning more about permaculture concept, sharing Sri Lankan experience (Max was very passionate about Sri Lanka and Sarvodaya) and looking at his bee keeping was a wonderful experience.
It an amazing experience to watch Rainbow lorikeets and Crimson Rosella that were sitting with us. They were trying to grab our cookies when we were chatting at Max and Trudies’s balcony facing the lovely landscape in their garden. I was always thinking about our village life style where people live with nature with a minimum impact on Nature. I think we had that life before the TV and other electronic devices invaded us. Can we go back to that life style again?? I think up to certain level we can if only you are ready for a behavioral change!

I thank Dimuthu and Niru for giving me this lovely experience!! May your all good dreams come true!