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!
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| Carol, Sampath and family |
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| Me signing the Register as First Witness |
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| Tying together of the bride and groom's little fingers.... |
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| 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.
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| Simba, one of our younger patients for sterilisation.....good to get them early. |
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| Dogstar cat Dennis with 2 pups who stayed with us for a few weeks before sterilisation and rehoming |
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| Dennis having fun with his pet snake! |
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| 4 sisters at our local Temple - all cared for by Dogstar |
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| Paula and me helping in recovery at the Colombo clinic |
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....
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| 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
