Despite a 4 month silence my Sri Lankan adventures have continued.......apart from a 3 week break in the UK in December! Just where time has gone I don't know, but it's been very busy here working with both volunteers and dogs....
My Christmas Day in Sri Lanka was a delight, with the morning spent visiting one of my small English students and then on to a local orphanage. Pictured below is Muranga, who I think looks pretty delighted with his Maisy Mouse present!
The little boys from the orphanage seemed a little overcome by having presents given to them and at first were even reluctant to unwrap them! I'd like to thank my lovely friend Mandy in the UK for her kind donation of clothes and toys for the boys, which were very welcome.
This little boy of 4 looks a bit bewildered by it all.....
From the orphanage, I went off to join friends in Colombo for some Xmas partying (any excuse here!!) and we were incredibly lucky to see a turtle come up onto the beach during the evening. It was certainly off course as that's miles from their normal nesting sites.....luckily some locals managed to steer her in the right direction back to the sea so hopefully she found her usual nesting ground.
Sprucing up for the New Year meant getting some furniture both for my room and for the Dogstar office. My wardrobe came in an open truck, but our filing cabinet came courtesy of our Dogstar tuktuk - here's Sampath (right) our driver making sure it's secure!!
The dog work has continued apace and on 1st January our local Temple asked us to see a small pup who had been left there. Very tiny and far too young to be away from mum, we took her - Maisey - to our local vet who gave her some supportive therapy. She stayed overnight in my room but sadly at 5a.m. on 2 January she died. At least she was warm and had some company.....but some tears were still shed....
I hope you are keeping up with my Dogstar blog too (http://www.dogstarfoundation.com/ - volunteer blogs)! Dogstar had a wonderful start to 2010. On 4 January we became a registered UK Charity (of which I am a Trustee) and then in early February, Dogstar were awarded WSPA membership status which is a tremendous achievement for a small outfit.
Following their assessment of us on 3 January, WSPA asked if we would like to visit TAPA - Tsunami Animal People Alliance - who work down towards the south coast. It was a wonderful opportunity for us to learn from a great team who work in a lovely location - as you can see below (Unawatuna beach).
The team work 20 days in one location and then have a well deserved break before moving on up or down the coast as required. They see around 20-30 dogs a day for sterilisation/vaccination - here are a couple of dogs in surgery.
To illustrate that it's not only the beaches in Sri Lanka that are beautiful, below is my friend's place in Pamukkada where we had a party to celebrate her daughter's birthday on 11 January. Just gorgeous as the sun goes down....
There was further celebration later in January when friends of mine from Colombo got married. I was invited to the homecoming on Day 2 (weddings take place over 2 days here) and it was a nice occasion. As the only westerner there I had plenty of company from people trying to practice their English, and even got to have lunch with the bride and groom (who normally eat alone). I think Lakshika looks absolutely stunning....
Never missing an opportunity to dress up, I donned another sari for the event.....
Away from the celebrations, there was plenty of volunteer work to do. Now the war here has ended numbers are increasing and we're having some really nice people join us - if you're tempted (as one of my ex work colleagues, Geoff, has been) to come here I can always send details!! The last weekend in January a group of us went off to climb Sigiriya - below - also known as Lion Rock. It's an old fortress and looks pretty imposing from a distance....
Climbing is actually not as hard as it looks as there's a series of walkways.....an hour or so later we managed to reach the top. I laughed to see a sign there saying 'Noise may provoke hornet attacks' but it's not that funny - the next group of our volunteers who went a week later actually WERE attacked and a poor fellow tourist ended up in hospital as a result of all the stings...
There's a new museum there which is very interesting but which is also surrounded by lotus pools - I particularly like these temple flowers which seem to photograph so well.
Moving on from Sigiriya, we went to nearby Dambulla to the cave temples. Despite the fact that the Golden buddha looks a bit tacky, the cave temples are lovely - and there are plenty of monkeys for company too!
Going back to Dogstar for a moment (I try and get a plug in here and there...) we had a vet, Kate, volunteer with us from mid January for a month. Whilst here, she sterilised another 13 animals for us aided by Sam and me. Here she is operating Sri Lankan style!
My latest Dogstar 'project' is Pippa, a poor little stray I found in a nearby village in mid January. She looks very sorry for herself, but I'm glad to say that with regular feeding and medication she's now coming on a treat. Our MEF volunteers love her and there's no shortage of volunteers to do the feeding run!
To end my adventures for this edition, several of us went down south on February 5/6 to the lovely beach area of Mirissa (which is probably even lovlier than Unawatuna) to go on a whale watching trip. Although sightings weren't guaranteed, this area is now supposed to be one of the best sites in the world to see blue whales - and we weren't disappointed (if a little wary when one of them came close to our boat which rocked perilously....). Below are a couple of Sam's photos (my camera just didn't do them justice).
I confess to feeling incredibly lucky to be having these experience and adventures at my time of life! The downside to life here is missing my friends in the UK but am able to keep in touch via email etc. I'll be making another brief trip from 10-31 March so will hope to catch up with some of you then.
In the meantime, I hope you enjoy reading about life here in Sri Lanka.
Love to you all - take care.
Mo
xxxxx
