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Laz in Sri Lanka
Hi,
Just an update of what I've been up to recently - so much has been going on that it's hard to keep up and even harder to keep in touch as I seem to be so busy - which is a great thing. The best invention so far has been the instant messaging either on gmail or skype which has meant that I've been able to have quick little chats with all sorts of people during the day - the highlight being chatting to Ed and Luce in Oz where they have a web cam so their faces popped up on my screen and they were waving and I got to see Anna too - it was amazing, love this techno stuff!!
Anyway, I am now fully working for Adoptsrilanka and having a fantastic time. It is a very varied job - I manage a team of 10 people (9 of which are Sri Lankan and so I'm called Madam Laura!!), I have to go and check the various building projects - which involves me marching onto building sites and examining foundations, checking the grouting of tiles, even discussing the use of dynamite to clear some land to make school playing fields - I really don't have any building experience...not at all...but I can talk the talk and am learning the building lingo fast!!
I have also opened a preschool that we built - a really lovely experience, we were treated like royalty. We turned up and the all the children were dressed up in special clothes waiting for us, there were speeches and then I had to cut the ribbon across the door of the school. Then, we had to sit and drink very sweet tea (ugh!) and eat cake and local food (definitely some interesting tastes and obviously nothing could be spat out - a certain amount of self control was needed to keep everything down!). The children put on a dancing and singing display for us and then I had to light the special oil lamp - lots of ceremony and tradition involved in the whole process. It was definitely a feel good day and fantastic to see the difference that the money and our work had made to these children.
I then spent a day visiting 40 orphans that we sponsor. They all lost at least one if not two parents in the tsunami, and we give money to their carers to make sure they have enough to eat, money to go to school and clothes to wear etc. We have a field officer who goes round and checks the families constantly to ensure that the money is being spent on the children and not on arrak (the local booze). There is a massive alcohol problem in this country so it's important to keep a very close eye on the families. It was incredibly humbling though to see all the children, all very sweet and smiley, and their guardians who couldn't thank us enough for what we are doing. A number of them have totally changed the way they are bringing up the children because of the meetings that they have had with Adoptsrilanka - they are no longer beating their children, getting drunk all the time etc.
Other jobs include finding a new bus for a centre that looks after street children in Bentota. It was terrible going to see where these children live, under the steps at the bus station, in cardboard boxes, very basic wooden huts where they sleep lying on the floor - but the centre is fantastic, if you want check it out on www.rainbowcentresrilanka.com - (you can also check out our website which is www.adoptsrilanka.com )
I am now in the process of trying to buy some land for the Turtle Conservation Project and am helping to design an education and research centre. So, the job is definitely varied and is giving me a massively different insight into Sri Lanka compared to the expat scene.
The expat scene is alive and kicking - in fact it is non stop!! I had the bonus of having Moley coming out to visit me which was such fun and great to be able to actually show someone what I'm talking about, and at the weekend Ben and Nikki totally surprised me by turning up in Galle on their honeymoon, but more about that later!! Went to a great 40th Bday party up in the jungle a couple of weeks ago. We ate at long tables out in the open under the stars and then danced for the whole night, with lasers lighting up the trees and funky tunes being played by a London DJ - no 'quality cheese' out here - I've had to seriously adapt my dancing style!!! Anyway, at 4.30am I was still on the dance floor, by 5.30am i was in a van to Colombo and by 8.30am I was sitting in a small room with 30 people at a U shaped table (so you could see everyone's faces) ready for 2 day intensive Project Planning training course....my foot still tapping to the beat of the music!! Needless to say - the whole experience was rather painful, I died a slow death, whilst sitting next to my boss and trying to sound intelligent and join in the group discussions....arghhhh!! Why do I do it to myself?? he he he he he
Then last week we had the Elephant Polo tournament - well, the sport has to be seen to be believed, it really is most bizarre, the slowest form of polo you can imagine as the players desperately try to urge their elephants around the pitch. Some elephants definitely enjoyed it more than others. On the first day I had probably the scariest experience of my life. I'd just got down from sitting on an elephant (photo opp) when I noticed that one of the elephants on the pitch was behaving rather strangely. On top were his mahout (guy who drives the ele) and an american girl Susie who was the player. Anyway, suddenly the ele reared up on both its back legs, let out a full trumpet and charged across the pitch right towards me and my friends. He threw the mahout off who was badly bruised, and Susie was thrown off too but her leg got caught in the stirrup so she ended up being dragged along the ground. The ele then began to throw her about as if she were a rag doll - I couldn't believe what I was seeing and was convinced that she had been killed, how he managed to miss stamping on her head I will not know. She finally got free from the stirrup and the ele then charged to the other side of the pitch. Susie was picked up and rushed off to hospital (she had a bruised spine, concussion but nothing broken so she was v. v. lucky). Meanwhile, my friends and I had had to do a dramatic dash across the pitch as all the other elephants began to converge on where we were - it really was terrifying as you quickly realised quite how powerful and large these 'gentle giants' were when they are pissed off. The mad ele, called Aby, then discovered a van which was parked on the side of the pitch and he laid into it - totally crushing it, almost knocking it over, charging at the ele handlers - who were doing a rubbish job at trying to calm him down - they threw stones at him which was horrible. In the end it took them over 7 hours to calm him down before he could be put on a truck and taken back to his home. He was OK, as were the mahout and Susie but it could have been disastrous. I had over 100 children there through Adoptsrilanka, who had all scattered, in floods of tears, lost their teachers - it was fairly chaotic. The whole point of the ele polo is to raise money and awareness for the plight of the elephant - however, I'm not convinced that the elephants really get the most out of polo - some of the elephants, to be fair, did seem to love it - they ran all over the pitch, barging other eles out of the way and generally seemed to understand what was going on - other eles were hysterical because they chose to simply not move, which was rather frustrating for the player screaming and wriggling about on top!! Anyway, the tournament continued - a very eclectic bunch of people played - Spanish, Nepalese, Scottish, English, American and even a team from Bangalore who were the eventual winners.
The finals were on Saturday, and when I turned up I headed straight for the beer tent...obviously...and there in the beer tent were Ben and Nikki - I couldn't believe it!! I didn't even know that they were in Sri Lanka - a fantastic surprise and more than made up for the fact that i was not able to make their wedding - we've had a great couple of days, chilling at the beach, enjoying the luxury of their incredible hotel, and partying like mad things at the Mahout Ball to celebrate the end of the polo - about 50 of us ended up fully dressed, in the pool dancing away until the small hours!
That's really all for now - the weather is utterly gorgeous, hot and sunny everyday - I've been on a swimming and tennis mission to try to correct the overindulgences of Christmas and New Year, swimming out here is really no hardship. I swim in the Dutch House pool which has trees overhead - and last week, as I swam, 6 monkeys appeared in the trees and proceeded to have a massive game of tag, leaping about all over the place - it was a brilliant start to the day!!
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