A Sri Lanka/UK wedding and more..........

As the year draws to a close thought I'd send a final update for 2010 - seems hard to believe that there are only a few days to go until Christmas and only a few more until 2011....very frightening!

One of the highlights of this year was being witness at the wedding on November 13 of my friend Carol to her Sri Lankan fiance Sampath.  All the MEF volunteers were invited to the event (Carol came as a volunteer for the first 2 weeks of November) which was held at Beruwala on the beautiful coast south of Colombo.  After the (usual) hundreds of wedding photographs - some on the beach - Carol and Sampath were welcomed at the wedding hall in traditional style by Kandyan dancers and drummers.  The wedding registration then followed, and finally a traditional Buddhist ceremony - including the tying together of their little fingers to signify the union.   Then came the western part - the disco!  That was brilliant - never knew I could dance for so long...... As is usual in Sri Lanka, it wasn't until the dying minutes that any local women took to the floor so the dancefloor was covered in young local men trying to outdo one another in the dance stakes!

Carol, Sampath and family



Me signing the Register as First Witness



Tying together of the bride and groom's little fingers....

Yet another photo call........

In my last blog I mentioned that my Dogstar work was taking a bit of a back seat - well, that's certainly not been the case since then!  Dogstar now has a nice Sri Lankan volunteer working as my assistant and in November volunteer Paula came out from the UK to work with us for 3 months (she was a volunteer with the elephants earlier in the year).  In November and December we were joined by Dr. Manjula and assistant Bandara from another group working here with dogs - Tsunami Animal People Alliance (TAPA) - to help with surgeries as our regular vet is currently doing an internship at Dehiwala Zoo.  We were also asked to help at a Colombo sterilisation clinic by the vets from the University of Peradeniya as we now have a lot of experience working with dogs in recovery - so Paula, Aravinda and I set off at 5a.m. on November 27 to do just that!  Here are some photos of our work over the past 6 weeks or so.

Simba, one of our younger patients for sterilisation.....good to get them early.

Dogstar cat Dennis with 2 pups who stayed with us for a few weeks before sterilisation and rehoming

Dennis having fun with his pet snake!



4 sisters at our local Temple - all cared for by Dogstar

Paula and me helping in recovery at the Colombo clinic



In February this year we were lucky to rehome Lizzie with a wonderful gentleman, Mr. Somarathna, who has a well kept male dog Tarzan.  Here's Dogstar's Aravinda taking the latest food donation during November.



And here's the same dog just before rehoming looking pretty fed up with life ....this is why our work is so important to me when I see the change in Lizzie from then to now.... 

Me with blind Bumpy and Meg at the local Temple

In early December I spent a wonderful weekend in my favourite place, Galle, down towards the south coast.  Whilst there the Navy was sailing in this wonderful old ship..... 

Galle is full of history and has a number of interesting old churches.  I was fascinated to see the tombstone below - made me wonder just how long in took to get to Bengal in the mid 1800s, why Capt Buckle had ended up in Galle and why he died...

As we take hopping on a plane and arriving at the other side of the world in less than a day so much for granted, seeing this second plaque made me realise how lucky we are.....almost a full 6 months to make the voyage from England to Galle with the loss of a man..... (But didn't take long to start preaching after arriving!).  

I'm aware that the weather in the UK has been pretty dire......here's a photo of me in Galle in December (no jumper required!)

From mid November we had a beautiful pup, Fudge, living at Dogstar house until she could be rehomed.  Sadly, about 10 days ago she developed parvo disease (just after being vaccinated....) and Paula and I were up in the middle of the night for several nights giving her fluids.  On 15 December we lost Fudge and I was particularly distraught as I'd planned to give her a home with me.  She had a very short life - was dumped at MEF and then taken to a Temple but found her way back to Dogstar house, but thankfully she received masses of love from us all in the time she was with us.

Losing Fudge was a very low point, but luckily the rest of the time has been fun with lots of lovely volunteers coming here.  Here are a few of them giving me a lovely cushion cover for my birthday on December 1.  We had a lovely curry buffet to celebrate that event and also the last night of Dutch volunteer Nicole (next to me). 



That brings us right up to date with the news from here.  Christmas Day we're having lots of rice and curry for supper (including my signature dish of prawn curry!).  2 of the current batch of volunteers will be here so they will be joining Aravinda, Paula and me at Dogstar House for supper and no doubt a few arracks to wash it down....!  2 new volunteers have chosen to arrive at 10.35p.m. on Christmas night - normally I go to the airport to greet new arrivals (even during the night...) but this is one occasion when they will have to just make do with the driver!!

Of course this is a time of year when I think very much about my friends and family back in the UK so for those and my friends around the world I wish you all a very Happy Christmas - anyone travelling in the UK please take care while the weather is so bad (or stay at home with a DVD and a bottle of something warming!).  To everyone hope 2011 brings you health and happiness.

Mo x

Mo's adventures have now spread to India (!)

Let's get the usual apology out of the way - I know it's been a very long time and yes, I know I owe a lot of people a lot of emails but life seems to just get crazier out here.  As it's been about 3 months since the last blog, this will probably read like War and Peace!!

We've had lots of volunteers out to MEF to work with the elephants and generally speaking they've been great, worked hard and had lots of fun.  Many of them are exceedingly jealous that I'm able to live and work here (so am sort of watching my back.....).  The job is far busier than this time last year and we're already booked out for many weeks during 2011 - so much so that (sadly) my work for Dogstar is taking a very poor 2nd place. Here's the latest group of volunteers (and 2 visitors from Vietnam) - lucky Paul I hear you say!

We try and take the volunteers on field trips once a month - generally to see elephants in the wild and we've found a great treehouse near one of the National Parks that we rent overnight and where I usually sleep outside.  Something magical when the last things you see at night are the stars twinkling above you and waking up in the early dawn with spotted deer wandering about below.

Home for the night.....

Relaxing with the local brew - French volunteers and local staff



Last week we had a 2 day trip (back to the treehouse....) with the current volunteers to Kaudulla National Park.  Despite the torrential rain, we had an amazing time standing up in the safari jeep and saw well over 100 wild elephant - the biggest herd I've ever seen.  Lots of babies too.... We counted ourselves extremely lucky as most trips we only spot 20-50 elephants.  Not the best photos I've ever taken (well, let's face it I never take great photos!) but hope you get the idea.....

In September I paid my first visit to Galle, in the south of Sri Lanka and boy what a place!  It's steeped in history having been colonized by the Dutch and the British and it has a wonderful laid-back feel.  When I was there only saw about 4 other tourists (which is 4 too many....) but hey you have to share places sometimes.  It has a wonderful array of buildings - from the dazzling white mosque, to the fabulous lighthouse and the Dutch church.  As I love wandering around the backstreets and explore it really suited me and I have another visit there planned for early December just to chill out with the locals.  Found a superb cafe run by a Sri Lankan and his English wife which also doubles as an art gallery and bookshop so will spend time there with a beer or three, listening to some soft jazz and pondering the meaning of life.  Here are some shots from my last visit:

It's meant to be this way........

The lighthouse

 I loved the Vice Squad office - doesn't look like there's much vice in Galle....!!

In October one of my best friends from the UK, Karen, paid a visit to Colombo en route home from India and we had a fantastic time balancing culture and shopping!  Went to some fabulous temples in and around Colombo, feasted on prawns on the beach one evening and I stayed with her at the expense of Johnson & Johnson (well I am an ex-employee!) - nice to have 5 star luxury after my usual very basic way of living! 

Here we are in the hotel ready to hit Colombo's night life...

Buddhist Temple in Colombo


But THE highlight of the blog just has to be my trip to India last month with a group of Sri Lankan friends......I'd forgotten just how amazing the country is and the trip was full of lots of OMG moments.... We got off to an inauspicious start when delayed at Colombo for 5 hours (Sri Lankan Airlines are not what they used to be.....), finally leaving at 5a.m. That meant we missed our connecting flight to Nagpur from Mumbai ...... Soon managed to organise a later flight and got to Nagpur in the evening.  At that point, I'd been suffering from the worst cold/cough I think I've ever had so had a couple of hot toddies and turned in for the night.  Next day we were driven the 6 hours or so to Kanha National Park, which was the setting for one of David Attenborough's films on tiger for the BBC.  Great location......here's where we stayed.

We had 6 game drives during our time at Kanha, and it was always great fun in the jeep as you can see below (what wasn't so much fun was getting up before 5a.m. every day and the torrential rain every afternoon....):

We saw a great selection of wildlife at Kanha including bison like this handsome young man:

The main aim of the trip was to see tiger - and boy were we not disappointed!  Even though it was the wrong season, the elephant trackers did their best and found just the most beautiful tigress resting in a tree - we were then taken by elephant to see her and take photos and got to within 6 feet or so of her. It was just one of the most amazing moments in my life and I can't wait to go back in the right season to see more of these fabulous but sadly endangered animals.



After 3 days in Kanha, we did another long road trip to Pench where we stayed at Pench Jungle Camp in rather nice tents....

Had a few more game drives but sadly no more tigers at close range, although others visiting had more luck - we did spot another making his way silently through the undergrowth but not close enough for photos. 

Sadly, our time at Pench came to an end after meeting some amazing people there..... Then off to Nagpur to catch a flight back to Mumbai......rather more populated than where we'd been but stayed in a great hotel and I loved the buzz and feel of the place (despite not being a townie...). Couldn't really leave without doing some shopping so did a mix of market/local shops and a great shopping mall...

Here's one of the rather more precarious places to live....

......and where Mo did what Mo does best (shop!).

It's only 2 weeks since I left to come back to Sri Lanka, and whilst my love affair with here continues there are just so many things about India I miss and need to experience all over again (so much so that I'm already planning the next trip!).

Well that's the round up of the past 3 months - am waiting to see what the next few have in store as am pretty much having a ball just now. 

Thanks to everyone who keeps in touch with news from the UK - whilst I miss you all, I wouldn't change a minute of what I'm doing right now.  I think I'm blessed to be spending my time with the majestic elephants, some inspiring volunteers and to have such close and caring friends in my life from many different countries. Just how good can it get?!

Love to all

Mo x

The latest round-up from Sri Lanka

Why do I always have to start with an apology?!  I know many of you may have given up hope of hearing from me again, but things here have been verging on the frenetic for the past couple of months.  Dogstar work never gets any less and coupled with an increase in MEF volunteers, the days just seem to fly past and I seem to be juggling tasks all the time. 

Generall, our volunteers are a lovely bunch and I currently have 12 to try and co-ordinate and look after.  Duties currently range from responding to calls at past 10 at night to remove large spiders, to travel guide, confidante and general sorter outer of problems.... Bookings for placements are good this year and we have volunteers booked through until next January so my workload is unlikely to drop significantly.

We have a lovely new male elephant at MEF - Saliya - who, with his mahout Vijay, is proving to be a big hit with both volunteers and tourists. Here he is below, complete with tourist!

Somehow it's very easy to became blase about these wonderful creatures when you're working with them all day - it's usually only when I'm doing something like writing about them that I realise just how great they are and how lucky I am to be working with them.

The volunteers and I went on a 2 day trip recently - firstly to Habarana, to look at human-elephant conflict and then on to Trincomalee up on the north-east coast to do preparatory work for 2 projects. The first of these is teaching English in an area which is only just starting to recover from the effects of the long Civil War and the Tsunami and the second will involve coastline conservation. We had a really good time - in Habarana it's very sobering to listen to accounts of elephant attacks (2 people have been killed in the last year by wild elephant), but Trinco was much more fun, visiting a local village where a school would be established, bathing in sea that was as calm and warm as bathwater, and wandering along the beach watching a fishing community at work.  Here's a selection of photos of the beach:

 

In the Fort area of Trinco is a wonderful Hindu Temple which is set high up on a hill - it was very hot while we were there but the views down to the sea below were amazing!  Hindu Temples are always very colourful as you can see.

Devotees leave prayer messages written on tiny scraps of paper which are then tied to a sacred bush - here's the one from Trinco.

Here are the views down to the sea:

The last thing you may expect to see in the middle of a large town like Trinco is a herd of deer, but there are numerous groups wandering the road and living up in the Fort where grass is plentiful!

Sadly, evidence of the war is still around - from the plentiful roadside checkpoints to damaged buildings along the main highway.  Here's a soldier having a quiet rest, and some ruined buildings that are testament to just how awful the Civil War here was.

This was once someone's business....

....and a family used to live here.


It's not all doom and gloom here by any means - the animal and plant life here still amazes me.  On the way back from Trinco we saw a lovely grey langur monkey

At Kandy recently, I took a photo of a beautiful lotus flower.....

The little fellow below was an inquisitive visitor when we moved the Dogstar office into a new house we are renting -

There are also things here which I take for granted now but which I would never see in the UK - (in order below) cows in the main street, rice drying, real coconuts, rice paddies and (a photo taken when our driver had to visit the local hospital for anti-rabies shots after being bitten by a cat) smartly starched nurses!

You don't see these outside Tesco!

Rice drying in the sun....

Real coconut - still in its green casing

Rice paddies with mountain in the distance

Haven't seen socks this white in a long time! Very proud of their uniform too.

Not all wildlife is the sort you want to see all the time - last week (and for the first time since I've been here) we found a deadly snake on the garden which was quickly dispatched - seems you die in an hour from this one's bite ....don't want to see another for a while.

Well that's only one half of the job.......the other half is of course Dogstar work.  Rather than give you an instant cure for insomnia, if you want to find out what's been going on with the dogs check out my latest blog on the Dogstar website (http://www.dogstarfoundation.com/ - volunteer blogs).

I do hope that life with you all is good and thanks to those of you who keep in regular touch - whilst there are many things I don't miss while living here, I certainly miss all my friends!

Love Mo x