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.
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| This was once someone's business.... |
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| ....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! |
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| You don't see these outside Tesco! |
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| Rice drying in the sun.... |
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| Real coconut - still in its green casing |
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| Rice paddies with mountain in the distance |
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| 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
