The downside of traveling

After being violently sick for the past 36 hours I've come to a couple of conclusions. 1) When you're throwing up, all you want is a nice clean bathroom where you can lie on the floor and curl up around the toilet bowl, something I've taken for granted until now. 2) taking medication doesn't work if you can't keep it down 3) bread and rice is not what i want to eat right now, and 4) getting ill in a foreign, let alone developing country is something i plan on avoiding in the future.  I've been stuck in bed for the past 2 days leaving only to crawl to the bathroom. As of now I've managed to safely consume about a 1/4 of a slice of bread, a spoonful of rice, and a fried egg in the past 48 hours.  On the plus side, haven't been this skinny in a long time! Apparently this hotel serves tap water instead of bottled water with meals which would explain a lot.  Anyone who has traveled to India or similar places knows that tap water is incredibly dirty and to those of us who weren't brought up on it, it can wreak havoc on your insides.  Lucky me.  If my insides stop churning I'll be back to volunteering tmrw morning, fingers crossed.

Some photos....

So we left Galle today and drove 5 hours in the van up to Kegalle which is in the hill country.  On the way we stopped at this memorial site for the victims of the tsunami.  It's located where the train flipped over.  Apparently hundreds of people thought they would be safer on the train so they swarmed it, and then when the water hit it filled all the compartments and they all drowned.  There's this massive bronze carving that depicts a horrific scene. 

We are staying in a hotel for a week because the host family doesn't have enough space for all 3 of us because there are volunteers from North Carolina who don't leave for another week.  The hotel we are at is on Elephant Bath Road, fitting because every morning and afternoon you can watch the mahouts from Pinnawala drive the elephants down to the river to bathe.  Best part is, we can watch them walk right under our balcony.  We were warned not to go down to the river because apparently you have to pay for the privilege, instead broke college students that we are-and on a tight budget-we figured that if we went early enough we could sneak down there. So we walked down to the river at one and snuck into the restaurant that overlooks the river and is owned by the orphanage and ordered some drinks so we kinda looked like we fit in.  Although the restaurant was kinda swanky and we didn't exactly look the part.  But it was worth it, at two, all seventy seven elephants walked through the street and into the river and we got prime time viewing access! The elephants were all playing with each other in the mud and we also saw a three legged elephant, her foot was blown off when she stepped on a land mine in northern Sri Lanka (during civil war with the Tamil Tigers), so sad watching her sort of hop down the road.  It was an amazing sight though, and the three of us (Tiffany, Tom, and I) are unbelievably excited to start work with them tmrw morning! Although i would hardly call ti work ,it's going to be so much fun!

washing in the river

Disco!

Jenn and I at the "disco" bar

You know, it’s weird spending money in a foreign country because it looks so different to US dollars that I find it hard to believe it’s my own money that I’m spending.  Makes it hard to hold myself back, although it does help that everything is insanely cheap…for example custom made over the shoulder bags run around 450 rupees, or$4.50 and I bought a whole bag of laundry detergent for 40 cents! It’s crazy.  Went to Unawatuna again this afternoon and bought my very first pair of Sri Lankan trousers! Now I look just like a local (not really but close enough)! Then we all went to the Fort in Galle, it’s a heritage site which was built by the Dutch and is completely undamaged by the tsunami! Originally all of Galle was built inside the Fort only when it got too big did it expand to it’s current location. At night we went to what the Sri Lankans call “disco” (basically just a night of drinking and dancing) and rented a room at Unawatuna so we could stay the night!  It’s $10 per night, and that gets split between 4 of us! We were ready to have some akkarack (Sri Lankan rum) on the beach!!!! Great night of dancing with all the locals and some tourists.  Then as everyone who knows me well knows, I have to shower before I go to bed….yup still hasn't changed.  So Julian and I get back to the hotel room (we lost Jen and Linzi) and I go to shower and find that the shower head has been ripped out of the wall…..guess that’s what you get for a $10 room (the toilet didn't work either).  But in Sri Lanka, they don’t use toilet paper, they have this mini extendable shower head next to the toilet so you can “wash yourself” instead.  So me in a somewhat altered state of mind decided to use that as my shower instead.  Awesome.  To make things even better, the door wouldn't shut, every time we tried closing it, it would just blow right open again, but we couldn't lock it because Jenn and Linzi weren’t back yet.  So we ended up just holding it shut with a chair….really safe. BUT all was well and we all woke up the next morning went for a swim in the ocean and then had an amazing breakfast, real eggs and sausages and fried tomatoes, a nice break from the curry and rice we've been eating for the past 7 days!  

Tiffany, Tom and I inside the Fort playing Tarzan on the tree roots. Like my Sri Lankan trousers? 

No Subtitles

Have you ever slept under a mosquito net? No? Well let me tell you it’s not all its cracked up to be.  First of all it smells like mosquito repellent which is kinda off-putting when you’re trying to sleep. Secondly, and maybe this only applies to people like me, but you wake up and somehow you are entangled in the net.  How this happens I have no idea, but apparently I’m the only one in the house with this problem. And it’s not just that you’re entangled, but the mesh is so itchy, especially in this weather where you don’t want anything sticking to your skin at night (you just lie on top of your sheets).  I’ve decided to hell with it, bring on the mosquitoes and whatever they carry, Japanese encephalitis, dengue fever, malaria, I’d rather deal with those than the damned mosquito net.  Plus Julian, a volunteer from Germany, woke up to find two mosquitoes who had been INSIDE his net all night long, kinda defeats the purpose don’t you think? 

Today we continued with our Sinhala lessons, we’ve now covered all the numbers up to 1000, the days of the week, the months of the year, family, colours, greetings, simple phrases, and many more.  Also Dineshi showed us the pictoral version of Sinhala by writing out our names for us (like how the Chinese have words with English letters and they have the characters made with brush strokes, except Sinhalese characters are more circular and curve as opposed to the straight lines used by the Chinese). And in the evening we went to  see a movie at the cinema about how Buddhism came to Sri Lanka (part of our culture week)….except the movie is in Sinhala and there were no subtitles….so that was interesting.  I’ll have to admit I walked out of the theatre after trying to stay awake for 3 hours and really felt no better informed about the arrival of Buddhism to the island.  The dramatic Spanish soap opera style acting and the very obvious glue on moustaches/sideburns were rather entertaining though. 

Since when does it rain in monsoon season?

Michael (my host dad) and a loggerhead turtle

Stilt Fisherman

So apparently its monsoon season.  Some of you must think I’m crazy for going to an island during the 3 months of flooding rain.  Although given the weather we’ve had I was beginning to think everyone was lying to me.  We’ve had nothing but sunny skies.  Well this morning the heavens opened and it rained.  And I don’t mean a pathetic drizzle, I mean full sheets of water coming down.  It’s actually quite refreshing as it brings some relief to the heat and humidity.  Although somehow water just poured down inside my room.  Hmmmmm. Don’t think that is supposed to happen.  Just had to move all my bags away from the waterfall from my ceiling.  In the afternoon we went to the turtle conservation project in Habaraduwa.  The project takes sea turtle eggs and reburies them on project grounds so that birds and other predators don’t get to the eggs.  Once they have hatched they are stored in big saltwater tanks until they are big enough to be released without fear of predation.  I think the guide said that there are 7 types of sea turtles in the world and you can get 5 of them in Sri Lanka (Green Turtle, Loggerhead, and the one with the ridged shell are the only ones I remember).  We also witnessed an escape attempt by a 20 kilo turtle (that’s the weight of my luggage) who attempted to launch himself over the side of his tank ninja style.  Alas, he was unsuccessful.  Apparently some of these turtles can reach 250 kilos (no idea what this is in lbs, someone do the conversion, maybe 2.2 lbs to the kilo?!?). That’s massive. On the drive home we stopped to see if there were any stilt fisherman out in the ocean but the water was too rough.  The basic idea though is that fisherman lodge these massive poles in the water and then they sit/stand(?) on them while fishing…sounds uncomfortable but would love to try!

Unawatuna

Today Denishi began to teach us some simple (although i don't really know how simple it can be considering it makes no sense at all) Sinhala.  Apparently I’m pretty good at memorizing foreign words (although somehow that’s never helped me with Spanish) and picked up the basic vocab quite quickly.  Go me.  Whenever there’s a word with a “th”  in it you have to bite your tongue when you say it, feels like I’m talking with a lisp. After dutifully attending to our lesson, Tom, Tiffany and I hit up the beach at Unawatuna, the tourist beach.  We took our first tuk tuk ride there! Tuk tuks are like little three wheeled motor vehicles with a bench on the back that you can just about squeeze three people into.  It’s a little scary careening down the road  without any doors to keep you in the vehicle but its good fun.  Unawatuna is like a completely different world, all tourists in bikinis and shorts as opposed to in Galle where women are required to cover their knees by wearing long skirts/trousers/saris as a sign of respect.  Us volunteers just wrap a sarong around our waist when we are in town and voila! problem solved.  But anyways, as I was saying, Unawatuna is gorgeous beach with sea turtles in the water(apparently they bite if you get too close), and the water is so warm its like taking a bath in the ocean!!! It’s even warm enough for you mum!

Arrival in Galle

Fisherman

Some people think that I am a bad driver...those people need to come to Sri Lanka.  The road lanes here are merely suggestions as drivers prefer to carve their own lanes in the tarmac.  No joke I almost died 4 times on the car ride, BUT I made it! A man picked me up at the airport, unfortunatly I didn't understand a word he said to me, but I got in the car anyway...in hindsight this could have turned out badly.  The movie "Taken" running through anyone else's heads right now?? After 24 hours in the air or in airports and a 3.5 hour car ride from Colombo to Galle, I am now safe and sound in teh home of Michael Ferraira (the country coordinator for the program) and his family.  I also met the 6 other volunteers who are living with him, 2 of whom (Tom and Tiffany) are joining me at the elephant orphanage next week! Michael was telling us about the 2004 tsunami and all the damage it caused.  There was 30 feet of water in some parts, and shockinly, even though they live a stones thrown away from the ocean, very few Sri Lankans know how to swim.

Open air market in Galle

But I love it here already, the people are so warm and kind, although Michael did warn us of a number of scams to avoid.  Tom, Tiffany, Lindsay (from Scotland) and I spent the afternoon with Michael's daughter Denishi exploring Galle and the colourful spice markets.
*On a side note, the airport in Abu Dhabi is gorgeous, everyone should have a layover there at some point in their lives. 

Suba Gaman

So now that we've managed to avoid the end of the world (thank you Rapture), it's time to fly halfway around it.  My flight leaves in 4 hours.  Hard to believe that I'm currently sitting in rainy Chicago and in two days I will be in Colombo, Sri Lanka where the weather forecast is 90 degrees.  Finally some sun! Although i arrive at 3 am local time so I guess i'll have to wait a couple of hours.  Some hotel corespondent is supposed to pick me up at the airport, i'll keep my fingers crossed on that one...

Gangaaraama Temple in Colombo

As they say in Sinhalese, "suba gaman" or Bon Voyage!

Counting Down

It's official, my flight to Colombo, Sri Lanka leaves in exactly 13 days, 1 hour, 7 minutes. I've been vaccinated so many times my arms are like pin cushions and I'm loaded up on Malaria and Typhoid meds. I'm a walking talking pharmacy and raring to go.  Trying to pack three months of my life into a 44 lb bag on the other hand is presenting somewhat of a challenge.  How do you stop your packing list from taking on a mind of its own? Camera ✔, Student Card ✔, Visa ✔, Passport ✔, I'm definitely going to forget something...
The plan as of now, and somehow my plans never go according to plan, is to leave from Chicago on May 21st and arrive in Colombo the following Monday morning.  My first week consists of a culture and language program (3-4 hours of Sinhalese practice every day!) through which I get introduced to Sri Lankan culture, before I move to Pinnawala to play with the ELEPHANTS! Five short weeks later I fly to London to spend some quality time with the fam and then on July 16th I fly to Madrid to meet up with my ΓΦΒ twin Molly to backpack through Cordoba, Granada, Valencia up to Barcelona (at least thats the plan).  Finally my summer ends with two weeks relaxingin Majorca before flying back to my Junior year of college (how did two years go by so fast?)

Some Sinhalese for all those following at home...

Hello: “Hello” (shouldn't be too hard)

Bye: “aayu-bowan”

Yes: “owu”

No: “naeh”

Please: “karuna kara”

Thank you: “stuh-tee”

Excuse me: “sama venna”

How you say any of these words I couldn't tell you...guess I'll figure that out later.