Hi everyone! Here's an update on my adventures since coming back to Sri Lanka on 23 July. I arrived in Colombo after a 12 hour flight only to go to a masked ball in the city centre (I did take the opportunity to shower/dress up en route!). Carminie and I joined the "ladies who lunch" set for a dinner and dance - which was intriguing as the only male dancer was the dance teacher from the Womens' International Club where the function was held - and boy was he in demand!! We arrived back to Randeniya at about midnight when I found Sam my Dogstar colleague waiting to meet me with all the news. Two hours (and several whiskies!) later, my body decided to give up the fight to stay awake - the end of 2 very long days.
Then started an extremely busy and hectic schedule at MEF as numerous volunteers came and went. At one point in mid August there were 13 volunteers here - never before have I known more than 6 at once time; maybe the end of the war here has mean people are more willing to travel to Sri Lanka. What a lovely bunch the volunteers have been - the age range was from 18-67 and we had students, teachers, psychologists and even an ex tea planter!
One of the volunteers here when I arrived was a lovely newly-qualified vet called Peter who came out via Dogstar. I think it was a baptism of fire for him as operating conditions, drugs used etc are very different to the UK. However, he did a brilliant job treating many skin problems/wounds, vaccinating several dozen dogs and operating at a sterilisation clinic. We really missed him when he left....... We spent August 4th at Arandara, where one of our restaurant staff lives, operating on 2 male dogs and walking round the village (much of it uphill through rubber plantations) vaccinating against rabies.
Here's a view of Arandara - what a lovely location for house calls!!
And here's Peter operating on one of the village dogs.
The previous weekend I'd gone with another volunteer to the wonderful Kandy Esala Perahera where we joined the vet team from the University of Peradeniya who checked all the elephants due to walk in the procession (about 90) to ensure they were fit prior to the perahera. The team were then on hand with tranquillizer guns in case any of the elephants decided to leave early! Luckily for us, being with the vet team meant we had a fantastic position within the police compound from which to watch the procession.
I think this is probably the best tusker I've ever seen in Sri Lanka!
Here's Rani, one of the MEF elephants, dressed and on parade.By now I'm sure you know that being at MEF means being involved in community projects and not just elephant care. These projects include teaching English to local children and working on the MEF eco-farm. The farm is now trialling methods of producing high quality compost from our elephant dung (much of which is currently used for making pachyderm paper in the factory adjoining MEF). The garden manager, Mr. Karu, arranged for us all to go on an organic compost making course at a research unit near Colombo. Overall it was a fun day out but parts of it - such as the 45 minute slide show in Sinhala - were rather like watching paint dry! Suffice to say, it won't be included as a regular field trip for volunteers.....
Here are our volunteers (and Mr. Karu) before terminal boredom set in!Something much more rewarding was repainting a local orphanage. All the volunteers chipped in to buy paint, brushes, wall posters and hire a van and most made 2 journeys to the temple to do the work. Sadly I was involved in dog work on both occasions, but I'm aiming to start a weekly English class for the 10 boys from 4-15 years old who live there. Will update you in due course.
One of my friends in Colombo is a sari designer and she asked 5 of her friends to model at a fashion show on 14 August. I'd blithely said OK think there would be about 20 people watching - only to arrive at a large theatre seating over 250 people and to find out 2 of the models were ex Miss Sri Lankas! We did our run-throughs on stage to make sure we were all in time with the music, could change outfits quickly (we all wore 3) and to get back on stage in time for the group finale. It was a little nerve wracking as the auditorium was full but as the only non Sri Lankan in the whole place I think I got a few claps for my nerve if nothing else. Below are a couple of shots of me ready to hit the stage - still waiting to be sent the 'official' on-stage shots.
Part of MEF's raison d'etre is to provide sanctuary for old/sick elephants for volunteers to work with hands-on, and one of our regular field trips is to Habarana and Minneria national park (about 3 hours north of MEF) to learn more about the human-elephant conflict which sadly occurs when elephant grazing lands are swallowed up as the human population expands. On 17 August we set off about 6am and went firstly to the village of Habarana which borders jungle, and where MEF have been involved in a project to provide early warning of elephant attacks on crops via a system of warning bells. There are also around 25 tree-houses which are manned nightly in rotation to keep watch for marauding elephants. The problem really was highlighted for us when we met a villager whose tree house had been attacked by a large male elephant the previous night. The only way the man survived the attack was to move up to the highest platform out of reach of the elephant which foraged his crops and rammed his tree-house for over an hour.Here's the damage caused....
From Habarana we went to Minneria and hired a jeep to take a safari to see wild elephants. Sadly, the heavy rains the day before meant we didn't see the usual 200 or so ellies but we did see several family groups including the one below which had several youngsters.
This last weekend I went away with a local family - 15 Sri Lankans, including 4 children to the northern ancient cities of Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa. One of the tuktuk drivers had invited me and I took along our one remaining volunteer. We left here at 4.30am last Friday for the 5 hour drive north by van. The family had prepared all meals en route, so Friday we spent going round the lovely temple complex in Anuradhapura ending up at the biggest temple, where a Buddhist ceremony was being held.
Here's the family group at our overnight stop - where 17 of us shared 4 rooms! I can't sleep under a mosquito net so decamped to the sofa in the sitting room only to have 3 of the men in the party roll out sleeping mats on the floor in the same room. That in itself wouldn't have been too bad, were it not for the fact they woke at 4.45am the next morning, put on all the lights and started chatting animatedly. To say I was not best pleased is a slight under-statement! Anyway, apart from that Nicola and I were treated as honoured guests and are now the subject of several Sri Lankan home videos! We eventually got back here at 1.30am on Sunday after 2 nights of only 4 hours sleep each so I spent most of yesterday chilling out downloading photos and preparing this blog!Below are some more photos of our weekend away...
Buddha statue
water lilies at a Buddhist temple...
lotus flowers on a Buddhist shrine....
Dagoba (temple) at Anuradhapura
ruined temple at PolonnaruwaFinally (well, almost) for those of you who have ever wondered what living conditions are like here, below is a shot of my living accommodation - a little basic, but it's home while I'm here.
AND FINALLY....here's a recent photo of the dogs at the local temple. Despite the socialising and volunteer co-ordination that takes up much of my time (co-ordinating that is, not socialising), Dogstar work is still my main priority and what I enjoy most. So ending on that note provides me with an ideal chance to say do have a look at my blog on http://www.dogstarfoundation.com/ (volunteer blogs) where you can find out more of what's been happening with the dogs/cats since my return and see photos of our patients.
Bye for now. I'll aim to update the blog regularly so please check it out every couple of weeks!Love to all
Mo x
