Hard to believe that we're now in the third month of 2011 and this is my first blog! Things here have been pretty busy both at MEF and with Dogstar and I seem to be working harder and longer hours than I ever did when I was getting paid to do it!!
I'll be back in the UK at the end of March until 21 April, so in case I don't get around to sending any more updates before then here's a round up of the news from here.
January got off to a really good start - just a few of us had a nice dinner, few drinks and some dancing to welcome in the New Year (apparently I was also seen dancing in the road with some of our street dogs!). After a day of recovery, a friend of mine from India who is a great photographer (Nishit Raj Singh) arrived on 2 January to take a series of photographs for Dogstar and MEF which will be used to promote both Charities. Thanks Nishi! We all had a hectic two weeks going from location to location (lot of it on foot....) to get some good shots. Lots of Nishit's work can be seen on his Facebook page so do check it out. Here's Nishit in the river getting a really good elephant photo:
Something I'd tried to avoid for the 4 years I've been coming to Sri Lanka - climbing Adam's Peak, also known as Sri Pada and the most sacred place to Buddhists here - finally couldn't be avoided any longer when Sam (Dogstar founder) announced she was going to do a sponsored climb to raise funds for Dogstar. Despite worries about a less than healthy knee, I decided to give it a go. The journey up is around 7km with over 5200 steps..... We set off at 1.30a.m. and finally arrived (in dribs and drabs but am happy to report I made it before the others) at 5a.m. It was bitterly cold and we sat huddled together (wearing very fetching fleeces and hats bought at the bottom!) waiting for the sunrise.....we weren't disappointed. The main feature is the perfect triangular shadow cast by the mountain over the surrounding countryside - see the photos below.
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| The team in good spirits before the climb (like my hat?!) |
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| Daybreak |
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| The perfect triangle shadow |
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| Going down was worse than going up....... |
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| .....but the views back to Adam' Peak made it worthwhile! |
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This has been an exhausting couple of months with maximum volunteer numbers at MEF and a busy schedule with Dogstar, so I'm taking a couple of weeks out from tomorrow to travel to Chennai to see my ex work colleague Karen, who will be working there. Am looking forward to leaving basic living for a while and will spend the time relaxing, swimming, reading and no doubt shopping!
Dogstar will be in good hands with my Sri Lankan colleague Aravinda - we've been rushed off our feet since the last week of January looking after 3 young pups whose mum had died. They came to us at 15 days old and the team then had to feed every 4 hours around the clock for the first couple of weeks. Luckily, against all the odds the boys survived and have now been rehomed. Hard work but remarkably rewarding.
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| 24 January 2011 - and just over 400grams each! |
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| Last day with Dogstar - 7 weeks old and almost 2kg! Moe (left) and Larry (right) taking it easy |
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| Larry and Curly waiting for more food! |
2 of our other notable Dogstar cases have been a cat called Bindu (we don't deal with just dogs!) with a badly infected facial wound, and Tiger, a 4 month old pup who decided to fight with a monkey and lost - his ear was almost torn off but after some great work by our vet Dr Prashashini, Tiger's ear is almost as good as new. Here are some before and after photos:
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| Bindu's badly infected face - 25 February 2011 |
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| Bindu 5 days later after antibiotics and twice-daily cleaning |
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| Tiger pre-surgery |
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| Just 3 days later - a remarkable recovery! |
I've now moved away from my room at MEF (living and working in the same place isn't always a good idea....) and am renting a small house about 2 minutes walk from both MEF and the Dogstar House. By Sri Lankan standards it's actually quite nice, by UK standards a little basic - but I do have a hot water shower and the views from the house are lovely. I also have both rose bushes and coconut trees in the garden! In addition, the bills are wonderfully cheap - my electric bill for last month was just over 1 pound Sterling and the water almost twice that!! No wonder I'm viewing this as a retirement option......
Here's the house and the view from the garden:
Well that's the round-up from here. I'm looking forward to catching up with all my friends in the UK, at least by 'phone and if I miss anyone you can always come and visit me in Sri Lanka!
Love to all
Mo xxxx
