Morning Bliss

So every morning I wake up to the sounds of about a hundred different bird calls. It is so beautiful. I don’t think I will need my ipod. The grounds are huge and being the tropics, it is full of coconut trees and other tropical looking plants. And I don’t think I have ever felt more relaxed in my life.

Although it has rained every day, it only lasts a short time and then the sun comes out. Everyone is so friendly and helpful. My cheeks hurt from smiling so much. Even if I have seen someone 5 times in one day, their smile is still as big and bright as if we hadn’t seen each other for a week. It’s really beautiful.

I have been here nearly a week and have settled in to my daily routine. I get up at 6.30am and make my way down to the office at 7am to prepare the medicine for the elephants. Each elephant has a particular dosage of vitamins and minerals that is recommended by the vet. I sort these out and put them into dough balls or bread to later give to the elephants. At 7.30am, my mahout, Jaya calls me and we go to my elephant’s sleeping area. My elephant’s name is Lakshme and she is 42 years old. She was the first elephant here as she was a working elephant for Carminie and her husband. She has been in movies (Tarzan) and she was the first elephant to give birth in captivity in Sri Lanka. I’ll talk more about this later.

So the mahout clears old coconut leaves and bark that she has been feeding on through the night. Now comes the worse part of it. I have to clear the elephant dung. Now I’m sure most of you don’t know, but an elephant poos up to 100kg per day! And the mahouts don’t use shovels to clear the dung…oh no…it’s done by hand! Thank god it doesn’t smell because all they eat is grass and bark. But I just can’t get the thought that I am picking up poo out of my head. I never thought I would spend my mornings praying that Lakshme doesn’t poo in the morning because if she does…get ready for this….it is still warm!

So after clearing the area, I now do the best part which is bath and scrub Lakshme in the river. To ensure the elephants don’t get skin infections, the mahouts get the elephants to lie down in the river and scrub their bodies with a coconut shell. I can’t describe how amazing it is to be that close to these magnificent creatures.

MEF provide the opportunity for tourists to come and scrub them, have an elephant bath (where they spray you while you sit on their back) or ride an elephant. Unlike many other places, MEF restrict the number of people on the elephant, and there are never more than a couple of people here at any time.

Now, being the person that I am, I have been having an internal debate in my head about how I feel about it all. And here are my thoughts:

The mahouts carry these long poles with a hook on the end called an ankus. They also sound quite aggressive when they give the elephant commands. I was a bit distressed, and still get distressed when I see an elephant being reprimanded if they disobey a command. The mahouts don’t use the hooks as such. In fact, it is mainly used to simply touch certain pressure points that indicate a command to the elephant. But sometimes the elephants misbehave (which is actually really cute and I find myself rooting for the elephant) and the mahouts get frustrated. They don’t mistreat them, they just give a little nudge with the ankus. I guess like with any domestic animal, keepers need to assert their dominance. Otherwise, the elephant could harm itself or other people and it would most likely then have to be put down.

With the tourism side of things, these are domestic elephants that cannot be put back into the wild for obvious reasons. And most of them have been rescued from mistreatment or taken from owners that cannot afford to keep them (they eat up to 200kg of grass per day!). So while I’m not entirely condoning the exploitation of animals for the benefit of humans, MEF have a responsible policy for managing this and I feel a bit better about it than previously. It also educates people on the plight of the Asian elephant (in Sri Lanka, there were 10 000 in the wild in 1900 and there are now only about 3000 and it is declining rapidly). MEF also educate farmers and others that have domestic elephants on the appropriate treatment and handling of them in an attempt to minimise mistreatment.

I told Sandith I was very interested in the veterinary care and the treatment of the elephants. MEF manage the Mobile Vet Unit (MVU) which is the only one in the country. They run this with the assistance of WSPA and Dr Dangolla, a lecturer in veterinary science. I am particularly interested in observing and monitoring their behaviour. He has asked me to draft a comprehensive elephant management program which I was very excited about. However, he said this is particularly important because they want to start a captive breeding program. This is my biggest internal debate.

So the dilemma is that it is (rightly) prohibited to take elephants from the wild for domestic purposes. However, there are very few or no captive breeding programs so people are unable to purchase elephants for domestic purposes. There are currently about 150 domestic elephants in Sri Lanka, most of which are over 50 years, so beyond the age being able to breed. MEF have 3 female elephants that are able to breed and 3 male elephants so they are working with the vet from the university to establish the breeding program. My problem is that I really think these animals should be in the wild. It’s difficult because if you take domestic elephants away, it would affect the economy of Sri Lanka. They have been working animals for 4000 years and are sacred to Sinhalese Buddhists and are therefore also used for ceremonial purposes. How do you change 4000 years of history? And is it right to do so?

The other problem is that if you don’t allow domestic elephants, farmers/keepers may continue to take them from the wild which would perpetuate the decline of wild Asian elephants.

So it is for the above reasons that I am going to help the captive breeding program. I am going to set up daily monitoring of the animals and a database to record when they are in heat and when the males are in musth (almost like a male on heat…yes, we know males are always on heat, but this is a particularly tough time for the males as they become extremely agitated and are very dangerous to be around. All the males here are in that state at the moment and can only be approached by their mahout, and even then, it is done with extreme care). The database will also record their medication records and their feeding records. Everything is a little haphazard in the office so I’m going to try and make it a little more organised. I have already rearranged their files on the computer that were all over the place. They can probably delete about three quarters of the files because they are out of date so I’ll try and get them to do this. So hopefully I’ll help them set this up and they will be able to maintain it after I leave. I also want to introduce more work for volunteers in terms of monitoring the elephants. Volunteers will have to monitor the dung and do a vet check every day. They will also have to monitor the elephants when they are unrestrained (i.e. without their mahout), something I can’t wait to do. So hopefully this will be taken on board and I would have contributed something to the foundation and the elephants care.

So back to my routine (sometimes I wish I didn’t have to analyse everything!). After breakfast, I check the elephants’ feet for foot rot (common in domestic elephants where infections can go deep into the leg from holes in the feet). If an elephant has skin infections (like the older elephants) or deep holes, we treat it with peroxide and iodine to stop the infection getting in. Then I give them their medication. They open their mouths for me, and I place the dough ball or bread on their tongue. They won’t lower their trunk until I tap it and say ‘good girl’. I love it because I am so close to their eyes which are so beautiful. They are ridiculously intelligent and I believe this is evident in their eyes which are so expressive. When I watch them eat, they use their feet, trunks and mouths to rip leaves off and you can actually see them solving problems and co-ordinating their movements to make something work (Lakshme was eating the coconut leaves off the branch so she wraps her trunk around 4-5 leaves and rips them off. She had about 6-7 in her trunk and it wouldn’t rip, so she delicately released the additional 2 which then enabled her to continue ripping and eating. Might not sound like much but when you see it, you can see they are actively thinking to make it work).

After the medical check, I normally go and work in the eco farm. This is probably the most relaxing part of my day. I didn’t realise the benefits of farming/gardening. The eco-farmer, Bandare, does not speak English. So we don’t say very much, but that is what I love. So far I have picked cardamom seeds and planted carrots. I think I’m developing a green thumb.

I then have my lunch and work on my project in the afternoon. I will also be starting to teach the local children English (and to everyone in England, I’m sure I’ll be able to cope so no jokes about my English language ability please!). So the afternoons are also taken up with lesson plans which I normally prepare overlooking the elephants bathing in the river….life is tough!

So then I finish at about 5pm and it’s time to rest and have a ‘cold’ shower. Yes, I have not had a hot shower for over a week, and no matter how many times I stand under the shower head, and no matter how hot it has been throughout the day, I can never get used to the cold water. Then I spray my fragrance, eau de rid to keep the mossies at bay, and do some reading or planning for the weekend.

As part of the program, MEF will send me to Habarana, a small village where the elephant-human conflict is rife. They have introduced something as simple as bells to alert villagers when wild elephants are coming. The elephants are starting to learn that the bells signal nearby humans and tend to move away. This is a cheap and effective way to solve the conflict and it means less elephants and people are killed.

MEF will also send me to a national park where I hope to see elephants in the wild. I can’t wait for that.

And I am really excited about going out on the MVU. Sri Lanka has Pera Hera which is a celebration every poya (full moon). The elephants attached to temples are used in these processions. The MVU goes out before each Pera Hera to make sure the elephants are fit to take part. This one might be to mark the occasion that Buddha first stepped on the island but I’ll try and find out more. I’m also hoping to go out on one of the calls to help treat an injured or sick elephant.

I plan on taking the train to Galle this weekend, which is an old Dutch fort. And then spending a night in Unawatuna, which is coastal town, 10 minutes outside Galle. The train is 6 hours so first class it is!

Hope you are all well and enjoying the start to the new year. Thank you to everyone for your kind messages. Remember I love hearing from you. Even if I can't reply, I just want to know what you are all up to. Even though I don't mind my own company, I am a little lonely being the only volunteer so it's good to hear from you.

Take care and love to all!

From chaos to the most peaceful place on earth

‘What the hell am I doing?’ ‘What have I got myself into?’ These were my thoughts all the way from Brisbane to Sydney, Sydney to Darwin, Darwin to Mumbai, and especially in the taxi from the airport to my hotel. More on that in a moment!

Saying goodbye was of course awful. My sobbing attracted stares and Thurstan even had to shush me. I cried all the way to Sydney. Luckily the flight was not full so the man next to me hastily moved to another seat the moment the seat belt light went off so as not to sit next to the crazy, sniffling girl for an hour. Then we changed to the international flight in Sydney and there was no turning back.

Now I’m trying to think if any other captain for any other airline would provide cricket updates throughout the flight. That’s what our Qantas captain did. And the Indian kids were rather excited as India’s form was much better than the first test. India could well be more fanatical about cricket than Australia.

We arrived in Mumbai at about 6.30pm and a balmy 30 degrees celsius (for the benefit of my North American friends). I was fortunate to meet Karen who was my neighbour for the international flight. She is studying her masters in mental health and was selected to study the management of health in a developing country at grass roots level. She has been posted to a village that is so small, it’s not on our lonely planet map. She was spending a couple of days in the chaos that is Mumbai so we shared a cab.

Now, to those who I have travelled with to Egypt and Morocco, you thought they were crazy drivers. They’ve got nothing on Mumbai drivers, who I’m sure have the most acute sense of spatial awareness on the planet! I swear we came within millimetres of other cars, but not once did I see an accident.

I don’t think there is anything that can prepare you for this drive. We passed high rises, billboards, cafes, restaurants, and then slums with corrugated iron walls and roofs and these appear to be the deluxe ones because we then saw people eating and sleeping on the street, with cardboard or tarp for cover. And then it was more high rises, billboards, cafes etc and then more slums. So just when you think you are prepared, with all the warnings in the literature and accounts from other people, the craziness and devastation still hits you with full force.

I know homelessness is a part of any major city in any country in the world. However, nothing compares to the sheer scale of poverty in Mumbai. It was actually in the plane on the way out to Colombo during daylight hours that this truly became apparent. Slums have been erected right next to the air strip with only a small, easy to climb fence separating the two. These slums went for miles and in the distance, I could just see the high rises through the smog. How does one deal with this visual snapshot? What was even more staggering was there were men sitting on a hillside waving as the planes went by, with massive smiles on their faces. And then there were kids who had created a makeshift cricket pitch and were laughing and playing as if they were the luckiest kids and happiest kids on earth. They just don’t seem to have the unhappiness or depression that is so profound in western culture. They seem to get joy out of the little things that we often overlook because we are too busy or in too much of a hurry for no real or at least significant reason.

There is no doubt though that their life is a difficult one. Especially when you see the other extreme to Mumbai and that is the conspicuous extravagance of the rich. When taking a cab to Chowpatty beach, Karen and I saw an outdoor function area set up for what appeared to be weddings and possibly other events. There appeared to be no expense spared as a horse and carriage not unlike what one imagines Cinderella had for the ball, parked out the front. The contrast was remarkable.

Mumbai has such extremes as well as everything in between. But the city seems to work and it has a charm that I don’t think is mirrored anywhere else in the world. I have learned a lot in just two days and I now obligingly impart some useful tips for anyone who dares to visit:

• Trust your taxi driver. As much as you fear for your life, he has probably saved it 5 times over with his manic but knowledgeable driving skills. And tipping for the pleasure of saving your life is very much appreciated, especially when cab rates are as low as 5 pounds of a 1.5 hours trip!
• Take your passport with you where ever you go. For some reason, India has made ID necessary for everything from buying something at the department store, to using the internet. There are signs everywhere at the internet café warning against the use of terrorist related sites as well as pornographic sites, which carries an equally severe punishment of imprisonment. So watch out guys (or girls)!
• 5-10 minutes normally means 45 minutes to an hour. Just take this as gospel, as Indians rarely deviate from this well known fact!
• Don’t look at anyone selling anything more than once. They will follow you and you will end up buying it.
• Don’t even look at the stray dogs more than once. They will follow you too!
• Men, you are apparently free to pee wherever and whenever you have the desire. It is not uncommon to find a man against the fence with a puddle around his feet. In fact, our taxi driver did it half way through our journey into Mumbai.
• Men, you are also free to cough up a lung and spit it out on the street. It even appears that the louder and more disgusting you are, the better!
• Ladies, it is best to say you are married when asked (and you undoubtedly will be, normally before ‘what is your name?’ and ‘where are you from?’). So Thurstan, we are now married, you are my loving husband and soon we may have some children because that is normally the very next question. Congratulations dad :)
• Visit Chowpatty beach at sunset. It is an amazing spectacle, partly due to the pollution which helps create every shade of red and orange in the sky. The open air food stalls are a delight and the men who work there take great delight in watching you eat. For a mere 15p, you can sample 6 pieces of the local delicacy (crunchy bread like shells filled with chickpeas and a sweet and spicy soup like sauce…yummy!). I am also pleased to report that we are still solid, even after tempting fate and having ice in my drink. Just trying to toughen up the guts in preparation for the next five months.
• Elephanta Island is amazing and for a mere one pound fifty pence, the local guides are not too bad. Of course, I have no idea if the tales of Shiva and the demons are true, but he made a great story teller in any event. The only downside is you witness just how smoggy the city is because as you depart the Gateway to India by boat (which is quite a spectacle), the harbour disappears within a mere kilometre. This brings me to my next tip…
• Don’t blow your nose for the first time while sitting in a café, with other people. The stuff that comes out of your nose is so disgusting, you wonder how you are still alive after breathing it in for an entire day. I’m sure the unlucky couple saw the revulsion that I expelled from my nose. London has nothing on Mumbai for snot discolouration!
• Don’t be surprised to see men in suits playing cricket. It appears to be the favourite past time and a common lunch time activity. It was great watching them play with the backdrop being the gorgeous High Court and University buildings. Mumbai’s architecture is really beautiful.
• A cheap hotel room is cheap for a reason. Opt for a private bath and unless you want to squat in the communal toilet or have a baby wipe shower for three days rather than use the festering shower, pay the 20 pounds rather than the 5 pounds. You won’t regret it.
  Try local food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. This place is a veggie’s dream with more than half of the menu catering for vegetarians. And the curries are delicious and ridiculously cheap.
• Take plenty of insect repellant. Total bite count so far is 36 bites. Let’s hope those malaria tablets are working!
• Laura and Rach, I am pleased to confirm that wobbling the head is widespread. I am yet to master it without looking like a moron. For those that have not read Shantaram, the author refers to the practice of Indians moving their head as they talk and greet each other. It is very endearing and seems to be used in a variety of scenarios.
• Finally, the best thing to do is have a laugh. People are extremely friendly. And although you are tempted to be sceptical and assume everyone is out to rip you off, it is best to keep a positive attitude and enjoy yourself. Of course, there are some that are out to get you. It happened within 2 minutes of getting off the plane as the pre-paid taxi guy tried to charge 380 rupees when only 330 rupees was written on the receipt. I kept asking what this ‘surcharge’ was for and he finally relented and gave my 50 rupees back. Of course, this is the equivalent of 65p but it’s the principle and besides, that is the cost of a veg thali!

So the time came to leave and I got on a plane to Colombo. I noticed the difference immediately. Instead of slums surrounding the air strip, it was farmland and palm trees.

My driver picked me up in the MEF/WSPA truck (Millenium Elephant Foundation/Wildlife Society for the Protection of Animals) and we set out on the 2 hour drive to the elephant sanctuary. It started to get dark but the humidity was so high, I was so relieved the truck had air con, which the driver, Ashoka, allowed me to have on high (poor dude was probably freezing!).

Sri Lanka is still a very rural country with most people living (probably by choice) in rural areas rather than the larger cities. This means that while nearly every part of the country is inhabited, there is so much greenery and a rustic charm that is irresistible.

My driver spoke little English but I managed to find out the sanctuary has 10 elephants, he is one of their drivers and that is his only job, he has a 12 year old son named Asanka, and he was married but he said his wife went to Kuwait and never came back :( I don’t know what happened but he said the middle east is a bad place so I’m guessing she was caught in a bomb attack or something like that. So then in the next breath, he asks if I ‘want water’ and he will ‘make stop’. And he said this with a huge smile after telling me his wife was gone! The friendly nature and smiling faces of Sri Lankan people is unbelievable. I am in love with this place and it’s only been 30 minutes!

When we arrived after a harrowing, but no where near as bad as Mumbai, drive, I met Carminie (MEF founder) and her son Sandith (Assistant Director). I was exhausted so they showed me my room and I went to sleep almost immediately. And yes, I still hadn’t showered since I left but that would have to wait until the morning.

I am the only volunteer here because tourism is so low due to the tsunami and recent bombings in Colombo. So they are allowing me to stay in the family home rather than the volunteer bungalow which is detached a little bit away from the house. They didn’t want me in there alone. The house is beautiful and I guess it’s what they call a colonial style house with beautiful antique looking furniture. My bed is a four poster bed with mosquito net of course. I have my own bathroom and some guests to keep me company like 3 frogs and some geckos. I did have a scary hairy spider visit me but thank goodness it hasn’t been back.

They let me unpack and settle in for the first day. What I’m about to do finally hit me when I was sitting on the patio sipping my tea and the mahout (elephant handler) and his elephant strolled past! WOW! I fought the urge to run up and continued sipping my tea and took in my surreal surroundings.

I have my meals at the restaurant across the street which makes Sri Lankan and western meals. So when I get sick of curry for breakfast, I can switch to cheese and tomato omelette.

Local transport is bus (which crams in as many people as possible) or tuk-tuk, a three wheeler. I braved the tuk-tuk into the closest town, Kegalle. Now the roads are not the smoothest and the suspension on these things is non-existent. So what you get is a white woman bouncing around uncontrollably all over the back of the tuk-tuk, trying to find a stable position. Everyone else who went past in one seemed to stay still! I’m sure my driver deliberately went over large potholes as the spectacle would have been quite amusing. I mastered the stance on the way back, probably much to my driver’s displeasure, so it was much more enjoyable.

The towns are very cute. They have everything you need (including tyre replacement centre due to the potholes), everything is just on a smaller scale. I can’t wait to explore more of this beautiful place so I spend my evenings planning excursions to as many places as possible.

Sorry for the rambling. There is just so much to tell!