Thomas Traherne

During my visit to the M Museum in Leuven I noticed these poppies through a museum window. They reminded me of the poppies in the moat at the Tower of London. When I got home I looked up the website that was advertised to find out more about them:

Poppies for Peace is based on an initiative taken by ceramic artist Anita Huybens (1949-2008):

“For quite a while I wanted to do something dealing with amputation and the loss of one’s abilities as a consequence. Losing a part of your body and learning how to live that way … is painful and difficult, I know. An encounter helped to enable me to, as well as dare to, work on this theme. On one of my Raku-firing days Mic Billet told me about his Apopo-project. A group of ‘inspirators’ worked on developing a method using rats to track and deactivate landmines in former warzones. Thus, it was possible to prevent the trackers and the local residents from having more limbs torn off. This story coincided with the amputation project which had been in the back of my mind for a long time. It emerged as the image of a field full of poppies.

Poppies remind us of the battlefields in WWI during which the bodies of so many were shot to pieces. Poppies remind us of the symbolic meaning which the British attached to them in order to make sure that the dead would not disappear into oblivion. Poppies remind me of my childhood, when I gathered a bunch of them for my grandmother who accepted them as a great present. Because of all these intense experiences, I grew towards the decision to make a field of 1000 ceramic poppies…it’s as if I feel compelled to do this …now, in this life I can still live.

Apopo is an initiative of researchers in Belgium and Tanzania. They developed a totally new method to train giant pouched rats and involve them in the tracking of landmines. The rats are first trained in order to recognise the scent of explosives in order to later detect mines in fields.

At present Apopo is active in Mozambique. Since the operations started, 280 hectares have been cleared of landmines. 280 hectares of farmlands, villages and roads can again be accessed by the locals.

Spending the funds:
‘vzw Klaprozen voor Vrede’- ‘Poppies for Peace non profit’ collected enough funds in the past years to finance a first bushcutter. This appliance is first used to free up the overgrown areas after which the rats can do the tracking. In later years a second bushcutter could be purchased. At present, the funds raised by selling the ceramic poppies are spent on the intensive training of the rats and their supervisors. A realistic figure : €5000 is needed for the training of one single rat which is the revenue of selling 100 poppies.

The photo quality suffers a little because I had to photograph the poppies through a glass window.

We were both a bit slow to emerge from sleep due to the previous day being so long. When we arrived at the breakfast room we found it was stocked with all the basic needs for a no-frills breakfast. After enjoying breakfast, we decided to step into the hotel’s garden quadrangle and found that we could not return because the door had locked itself as it shut!! The quadrangle was completely enclosed and all other exits were also shut. After a few minutes we were able to flag down an amused member of staff who fortunately was able to open the door.

After our escape we made our way to the tourist information centre where we picked up several information leaflets and gleaned additional information from the lady behind the desk. We had a drink of tea in the market square whilst deciding our plan of action for the day. After Mr C had booked a Town Hall tour for later in the day, we briefly visited the church of St Peter before making our way to the M Museum. The museum was a very interesting art gallery and we found the electronic guided tour system was a lot more advanced and discreet than we are used to in the United Kingdom. The current exhibition was a display of silver objects, some of which were from St Peter’s church. After a break for lunch we completed the M Museum tour which was a display of art and silver housed within St Peter’s church. We finished looking around the church with only a few minutes to spare before it was time for our guided tour of the Town Hall.

The Town Hall tour was excellent and our guide explained many interesting facts and features, one of particular interest is that the statues on the higher levels increased in height to give the building a sense of height. After the main tour, a few of us stayed behind for an additional tour of the attic, reached by a spiral staircase, where we were able to view the original stonework which had been copied and replaced with more durable material on the outer edifices of the building.

After our busy day we returned to the hotel to freshen up before returning to the city for our evening meal. I had rabbit with prunes for my main course. Whilst dining we chatted with a Finnish chemistry professor and his Chinese student who were preparing for an eight minute talk in the Catholic University next day. I once again observed the white robed monk I saw  the previous evening passing by. When it was time for dessert, I asked how many scoops of ice cream would be served because the menu was unclear. I was informed that all the dishes had three scoops unless I wished for less so I ordered one scoop. When the waiter served the dessert he said, “Here you are miss” and as I looked down I noticed that the serving bowl seemed to have two black (Disney-like) mouse ears protruding from the side. On closer inspection I found Minnie Mouse hiding underneath my ice cream… The amused waiter was enjoying himself and referred to me as Miss for the rest of the evening.

After our evening meal we once again retired to the hotel, where I once again had a nice glass of Rose wine before retiring to our room for a good night’s sleep.