Thomas, Francisco, Ioana, Xavier, Martine, Beatrice, Milos, Alexandra, Alma, Madame Rajaa and Louis AKA Frozen Figures

❄️ Even during these cold days new New kids germinate from the fertile Brussels soils to come and fish for trash in the canal. These days in the special form of bubbels of two.

🏅 Thomas brought his roommate Fransisco and his own Pocahontas style canoe along. Fransisco works on artificial intelligence for windmills for his doctorate at the VUB and Thomas is Brusseleir with english-french roots, the personification of a canal-it-upper. He dreams of a canal in which you can swim and where it is cozier than it is today. Later, his father came to replace Fransisco. In total he stayed on the water for 5 hours, waw!

🧣 The second duo was Ioana and Xavier. They were well prepared and took place in the kayak dressed nice and warm.

🐦 Afterwards two brave ladies took turns, Martine and Beatrice. Martine works for Canal Ecological Corridor on a project to install breeding spots for birds in the canal area. Coming out of the water they had one dream, a hot shower.

👩‍🏫 Next was the Serbian couple Milos and Alexandra. They live and work in Brussels since quite some time, he for the United Nations and she as an english teacher for adults and children.

💚 Alma was the last one to plunge into the water. Due to the cold weather she didn’t find a partner and came alone. Luckily Alessio was the guide and is always motivated to get on the water. It became a cozy trip with still some trash that the others didn’t fish out. Alma works for a company that used to trade in fossil fuels but recently converted to renewables, the future.

🧙‍♀️ A marvelous scene during the day was the visit of ‘Madame Rajaa’. A lady that lives in the neighborhood and works with children. Accidently she passed by and listened to our story. The love for our project and the will to actively improve our world made her go home, change clothes and come back to take place in a kayak as well. She was tremendously surprised and happy to be part of it that spontaneously. Her words: “oh, it has been so long that I did something that spontaneously and fun!”. She rewarded us with an amazing smile, and who knows, maybe she will be back with her children.

🚣‍♂️ And she wasn’t the only surprise guest. Louis was doing some appartment sitting in the big tower when he saw our kayaks on the water. He decided to take his own kayak and join us too.

#kayakkingforacleancanal