Finishing one journey and beginning another

This morning was me and Taylor's last day together. We had breakfast together at our guesthouse which was really pretty. We didn't really have any plans this afternoon other than we had to catch the train at 2:30 so we just chilled around the guest house until 11 when we had to check out. We we wanted to have our last swim at the beach but our insane sunburns made us change our minds. We packed up and took a tuk tuk into galle fort to our favorite cafe. The guys were there waving as soon as our tuk tuk pulled over by the cafe. We didn't been have to order, we'd been here long enough for the waiters to have us Sussed. One of the boys looks as though he's only 15 or 16 and he's so lovely! Whenever he's free he always comes over and tries to speak his best English. He asked if we were coming back to Sri Lanka and we said maybe one day and he said "you must come back to galle". If I were to move to Sri Lanka I would here and marry him (sorry Zac). We said our goodbyes to the guys who worked at the cafe and before we left the manager asked us if we'd seen turtles while we'd been here and we said no so he took us out to the outside balcony area where there was a big concrete tank thing full of baby turtles. We'd bee here for 3 days and not once had we seen them! They were so cute but it was so odd to see them! They said when they get older they will set them free into the ocean. We said our goodbyes promising we would be back one day and then got a tuk tuk to the train station. Taylor was getting off at ambaglangoda and I was getting off only at Colombo but it ment we were still on the same train ride. We got on the train and had such mares with our hugely heavy bags and this really nice guy ended us helping us turn. Turns out the nice guy was heading to Colombo with his mate as well so I felt a little relieved that I had someone to share a taxi with to the airport. We got to ambaglangoda and me and Taylor said our goodbyes. We both cried and all the Sri Lankans stared. As usual. The rest of the train ride back to Colombo was so pretty! We trained back right along to coastline in the late afternoon so the sun was really low in the sky. I had some weirdo man sit next to me asking creepy questions and asked for my address and phone number. Being the skilled travelor I am I gave fake info and he gave me his. When we finally got to Colombo I met the guys outside the train and we got a taxi for 10$ Each to take us to the airport. They had a really late flight as well so we ended up going to the beach and going out for dinner before we went to the airport. The 2 guys were really interesting! They work in the mines in Australia and basically work one week travel one week! They've basically travelled the world and there only in there 20s. They shouted me for dimmer cause they knew I was a poor student which was really nice. We got taxi to the airport and we both checked in and they managed to sneak me into there lounge. At 12:30am I has to board my flight so I said thanks and said my goodbyes and left. Today makes it my last day in Sri Lanka:( I've had the most amazing time both volunteering, meeting some life long friends and traveling some amazing places in Sri Lanka. My list I made before I came to Sri Lanka I managed to tick off all the things I wanted to do other than climb Adams peak but it's just not the season but me and Taylor have promised that we would come back in pilgrimage season and climb it. Although the volunteering wasn't as fulfilling as my last volunteer trip to Cambodia I definitely had such a heart warming experience working in the disabled and babies orphanage. Tribal week was definitely a challenge but gave me a huge eye opener to the kind of lifestyle of the tribes in Sri Lanka. Although this is the end of my journey In Sri Lanka it's now just the start of my 3 week holiday with Zac in Thailand which will definitely be a very different type of holiday. 

Sunburns, food and French boys

This morning I woke up early, surprisingly cold because the air con was on full blast. Taylor was still sleeping so I went down stairs and sat on the waterfront. It was still really early so the beach was basically empty so it was really nice. When Taylor woke up we had breakfast down stairs which was your genuine hotel breakfast with toast eggs fruit and tea. We extended our check till 2 so spend the whole morning lying on the beach and swimming. I have been struggling to get any sort of tan here because I've been putting on sun screen so today I just sunscreen on my face and neck and left the rest. Big mistake. Lying in bed currently and I'm dieing. I can literally feel the heat radiating off my skin as well as I'm a tomato. At 12:30 we can back to the house, packed up and checked out. We walked about 50 meters and checked into the hotel that Christina and her friend had stayed at. It was so nice, one pathway back from the beach and it was full of trees and big loungers everywhere. The place was $30 a night which was 15$ each which made me feel a lot better. We dropped our bags off grabbed money and water and walked to the main road to catch a bus to galle fort where we had been yesterday. The bus literally didn't stop for us, I mean it slowed down enough that we had to gain some

Momentum and jump on while the bus was still moving. We got to galle which we fell in love with all over again. There's no way to explain galle only to say that it's all brick paved side streets that only a tuk tuk can drive down and there's just tonnes of cute cafés, gelato places and surprisingly amazing interior shops and jelwery stores. We made our way up the street stopping in all these jelwery stores that Taylor brought stuff from and we found some really modern but authentic souvenir stores. We had planned to go to a different cafe than yesterday but we walked past and it was full of tourists and the young guy who served us remebered us and called us in. I had thee most amazing oats I think I've ever had in my life. It was oats with dates that I got them to add mango and banna too. It came with a honey syrup and the oats were milky and hot. We sat for hours again using the wifi and lazing on the big couches because the place is just so nice. My sun burn had Definitly kicked in and my whole body was hot and sore. The guys working there just laughed

At me. There was a concert on tonight right outside the cafe that we'd heard about yesterday so we thought we'd go down some streets and shop till evening and then come back to the cafe and have dinner and watch the concert. When we left I asked our waiter if I could get oats for dinner otherwise

I didn't want to eat here and he just laughed and said he could sort me out some oats for dinner. We shopped more and I brought some stuff finally. I brought this elephant dung paper that I had wanted for ages and brought my self a really cute elephant mug. At 6 we walked to the ocean and watched the sun go down over the Indian Ocean. For some reason the place was full of tourists and they just started at us, I don't think they'd seen such sun burnt white people before. We went back to our cafe and sat in our regular spot. Now our third time, all the waiters came and chatted with us and again continued to inform me how sunburnt I was like I wasn't aware. The band started and they were 4 French boys maybe in there mid 20s who were amazing! The small street was packed and the guys sung the kind of chilled music that I love. Me and Taylor both ordered our oats and when they were ready the guys called in from the concert and we had dinner. The oats were amazing just as they were for lunch. We spent the rest of the night listening to French boys sing. One of the main singers had the most amazing voice and both me as Taylor were in love. Taylor ended up buying there CD and we chatted with them afterwards. We got a tuk tuk home back to unawatuna beach around 10 and went Striaght to bed

 

Off to Unawatuna for the weekend

This morning 4am me and Taylor left for unawatuna beach by train. Unawatuna is a beautiful beach down south on the coast. We took a train to Colombo through jungle and forest which was so pretty and then another 4 hours from Colombo down the coast to galle. The train was so crazy as well went from jungle forest to be training along side the ocean. We got to galle around 10:30am and honestly was not expecting galle to be what it was. The whole city was so colonial which the streets being small little alleyways which felt like we were in France or Italy. We were starved because we hadn't eaten since 4am so our driver dropped us at the coolest looking cafe down one of the main alleyway streets.we walked in and I could believe in was still in Sri Lanka. The place was amazing all old and in wood but every modern. On the menu they had salads which made me instantly happy. I orderd a ice latte and a smoked chicken salad which was the nicest salad I have had hear. It's the fresh cold food that you really miss here because of all the hot spicy currys you have instead. The wifi was amazing, the place was air conditioned with huge long lounger couches. We were in heaven and all I could think about was only about 10 hours ago I was digging my own whole to go to toilet and chucking buckets of water on my self to get clean. The place as well as cafe sold amazing jelwery and home decor. Sri Lanka is famous for there stones and gems and Taylor and I had just been saying we really wanted jelwery from Sri Lanka. We ended up buying each other rings that were pretty much identical. There both blue moon stone a Sri Lankan famous gem. We got a tuk tuk to unawatuna and the place is amazing! I wanted to stay cheap but Taylor wanted to stay and after an hour of dragging our bags around in the sand we finally settled at a really nice and expensive place lol. I wasn't happy but Taylor was sick of looking so I said we'd stay one night here and then look for cheaper tomorrow. We took our stuff up to the room which was soo nice and then go Striaght into our bikinis and went to the beach. Our hotel is right on the sand and we sat right outside our place. The rest of the afternoon we spend lying in the sun and swimming every 20 minutes because the heat here is insaine. At around 5 we went back to the hotel and got ready for dinner. For once we didn't have to dress appropriately and wear pants and shirts which felt great. We walked along the beach and the resteraunts were all very similar but we ended up going to resteraunt Christina had recommended. It was place on the balcony over the water and the food was reasonable price. We had dinner while the sun set and then went back to our place and had dessert. 

Last day at Tribal

This morning we had our favourite coconut noodle thing for breakfast and then went To pre school for the last time :( today we taught the body parts and played games like "heads knees and toes" the kids were cute as usual. At lunch time I have gave out the little magic cards I got from my countdown purchases haha and the kids loved them! We also brought bubbles for the kids which entertained them for about an hour. Me and fay had a photo with all the kids and then said our goodbyes. It's always sad saying goodbye but always weird because they don't really understand that we're not coming back the next day. We walked the dreaded walk home the last time which I am not going To miss. Today was the hottest it's been so far so when we got back we literally just chucked buckets of water on ourselves fully clothed. We got backed and ready to go and went down to the boys to try and let them know we want a tuk tuk. The next hour and a half we spent trying to get a tuk tuk Which me and fay just wanted to go and were so over the locals and there lack of English. We had no idea whether a tuk tuk was coming or not but the grandma called us into the house and gave us lunch while we waited. You have to understand that we were literally sweating before we even sat down and then she brings out hot soup. Like soup is for cold winter nights. That general knowledge applies to everywhere all over the world no matter what country your in. Because we don't have spoons and cutlery in Sri Lanka

She brought out literally 2

Big loafs of bread that shed cut into huge  chunks. I especially was so sick of all the bread we had been eating but with no cutlery we basically had no choice but to use the bread to eat our soup. We couldn't help but just laugh at our self and how sweaty we were eating got soup. The tuk tuk finally came and again the goodbyes were awkward not because are they didn't understand we weren't coming back but because they had no understanding of English so all we could say was "thankyou". I wasn't sure if we should hug her or something but the way they all looked at each other we said just said our goodbyes and got in the tuk tuk. The driver who was 16 took us into town and got us on a local bus which we got there early enough to out all our huge bags somewhere and I secure a seat. The bus was packed but I had a seat right by the window thank goodness otherwise I would have puked all over that bus. We brought a mango and watermelon for the ride home which was the freshed thing we'd eaten all week. The drive home was so pretty I couldn't believe the views. Fay slept the whole way as she does. the drive was really long which I wasn't expecting so we only made it home around 6:30 so the trip ended up around 4 hours. I got back to the house excited to see everyone and to use the toilet and shower haha. I forgot the new lot of

Volunteers had arrived so when I opened the gates I was greeted by a bunch of randoms. All the girls were out in town doing stuff but later when they all got back we all went to slightly chilled to celebrate and say goodbye because we Taylor are off to the beach tomorrow

Morning so we won't see them again. I was so excited to get wifi because being at tribal I was out of reception for 7 days. With in that time Zac had his 21st, it was our anniversay and Zac was getting his teeth done. Andddd I hadn't talked to mum and dad in a week and I felt like mum was proebebly stressing big time.

We had a really nice dinner and it was good to be around tourists and people who spoke English. Me and Taylor have to catch train to the beach tomorrow jich leaves at 5 so we've gotta up early tomorrow. We headed back to the guest house to pack and get ready for unawatuna. We said goodbye to Damika which was really sad and I was quickly able to give him my feedback on trial week. He was really upset and shocked I hear about my experience so we was going to head to the village tomorrow to go and talk to them. Packing it then only hit me that it was my last day in kandy and I wouldn't be coming back. It was sad but i felt like id done my bit and was ready to leave.

second to last day

This morning there was no banging loud music to get woken up too so we were up at reasonable time at 6:30. I'm never one to wake up early usually but for some reason being in Sri Lanka all of us

Are so used to walking up at 6- 6:30. I really like it but there's no way I'll be getting up that early in Wellington when it's freezing in the morning. We got ready and went down to the house and we were given our favourite noodle things or breakfast along with a cup of tea. When I get home I want to figure out what they are because we thinking it's some coconut and brown sugar mix inside the noddle thing but we don't know. We got the bus to pre school but the teachers wernt there. This kids were all there so we knew it must be on but it was only an hour later the teachers arrive. No one really has phones or anything so if some ones you just have to presume there coming and wait for them. Today we taught the kids animal names. We had drawn out copies of different animals and we used broken up leaves and paper to collage onto the animals. After we had lunch but me and fay Chose not to eat it because firstly it was a really weird lookin soup and secondly because today was the hottest it's been since we've been here and we both couldn't manage drinking hot soup in this heat. The last 2 hours were the teachers time to teach so we both chilled. I finished my book which I finished in 3 days. You know the days are pretty chill here when it takes me only 3 days instead of months to finish a book. After class we were dreading the walk home because we were already sweating in the shaded classroom and we now had to walk half an hour in the mid day heat. My legs felt like jelly and my hands were shaking which I though was strange but then fay pointed out the same thing that it was because we didn't eat lunch today. We started walking home and I tried to occupy my mind to make the walk seem faster and to avoid fainting. About 10 minutes into walking which is ages when your walking in this heat, a tuk tuk stopped next to us and inside was our grandma who offered us a ride home. We were stoked!!!!! We got back and went Striaght to the well to splash our sleeves with later which feels like heaven. We made tea ( who

Knows why we drink tea I this heat but we just do) and out grandpa have us a little plastic bag of food. Inside was rotti triangles stuffed with a spicy vegetable filling. These things are my favourite Sri Lankan fooood so me and fay were happy! A man arrived on his bicycle

With a half a jack fruit which i had before in a curry when we did the cooking class. The jackfruit is this hugeeee big spikes green fruit that is Sri lankas like most prized fruit. You see them all on trees but when we go to the fruit market we hardly see them. Our grandma brought us over some which inside is all stringy and yellow. When we made the curry we used the stringy things has like a noodle salad thing and then inside these big chunks are these huge pip things that look like really big broad beans. We watched some of the locals eat in next to us and they chucked away the stings and just ate the big chunks. I smelt it and it literally smells identical to pink bubble gum. We ate it and it tastes just how it smells and it's amazingly sweat! I loved

Mine but fay was not impressed at all. By far was the best lunch I've had here on tribal week! Fay went to sleep as she always does after pre school and I went and sat under the coconut tree in the shade and red my book. After a while fay came out and we had tea and a biscuit. It was so early in the day and we really wanted to do something seeing as it was our last full day. We decided we both really wanted to see the elephants so we went and talked to the boys but they kind of us ignored us. Me and fay were sick and tired of all the lazing around.

We were told at the start the grandma would take us to so stuff etc but this whole time she never once took us anywhere. We were seriously thinking about packing up and leaving until the grandma came and got us as said she would take us to the elephants. We were so confused but anything was Better than nothing so we packed water and sun screen and followed her. We walked for about an hour through the jungle slowly collecting more and more little kids until we had 7 little girls following us. The jungle was so pretty but not Lush like you would think but very vast and desert like Africa. We walked hundreds of these amazing little tree houses high up in the trees. The girls and the grandma all walked in barefeet carrying our water bottles on there heads. They stoppe every 10 minutes to pick random things off the trees for to eat. Most of the time I felt like we were eating full on plant but sometimes you could get a slight understanding why they would eat it because it would be slightly sweet. I got some of the most amazing film footage on my camera of all the girls walking in a line in the jungle with water bottles on there head. At one point I think there was

A elephant up a head by that all the girls were acreaming stuff but the grandma turned around so Quickly me and fay didn't know what it was. We sadly didn't see any elephants just shit load of elephant poo instead. We saw the most amazing scenery and was walking about around 5:30-6:00 my favourite part of the day when the sun is slow in the sky and the feilds of forest turn orphanage. We walked back via the big lake where the boys from our village were

Swimming. It made me think of the boy who died in the lake just yesterday. We walked back to towards home and dropped us into one of the grandmas sons house. He made us write our info in his address book and he gave us his because we wants us to write him a letter. No Idea how they get mail in these remote areas but I guess it's worth a try. We got home and showered because we were filthy and sweaty. I looked like a local Sri Lankan my legs were so brown from all the dirt. We had dinner, tonight I think we had a proper cooked meal because everyone kept asking "Hondi?" which means "good" I think they were very proud of the meal. It was really

Good! It was a soup thing with bigs of

Homemade hot Dahl (bread) that we dipped it in with. After dinner we hung out with the boys and played cards. Its really nice to talk to them because they can kind of understand a little bit of English. we played music, they smoked and they danced because they were sad we were leaving tomorrow. We found out all about who was brothers and how they were related etc. It was really interesting!

3rd at tribal week

This morning I woke up really early cause my heads itchy, i think I'm being paranoid and think I have nits from the girls Lying all over me. We got up and had these savoury vegetable buns and tea for breakfast. Both me and fay have run out of bottled water and we can't drink the water from the well cause well get sick. I tried to translate if we can boil water and then drink it but they didn't understand. We just have to drink tea all the time to stop us getting de hydrated. We took the bus to pre school and had the First two hours again with the kids. We went back over fruit we learnt yesterday and today we decided to teach colours.we used coloured balloons and blew them up and then the kids had to run over to things that were the colour we called out. The excersise went really well and we got them to draw something that symbolised each colour in there book. We had lunch with them (curry and rice) and then we just watched while the kids got taught by the teachers. At 12 we walked home in the burning heat. The walk home is always a killer. I timed the walk exactly 35minutes from the pre school home. We got back to the house and no one was there, the shop was even closed up which I haven't seen before. The bunch of boys were there and me and fay in the shade to try cool down. Usually the lady gives us food after we get back but she wasn't here so we were kind of hungry. We both were craving fruit so we walked round trying to find fruit on the trees. There's a huge mango tree surrounding the house but all the mangoes looked way to unripe. We picked some off he ground but they were hard as. Some boys managed to get us some passion fruit from one of the trees which was delicious! We noticed the coconut tree and because we hadn't had much water today I was craving some coconut water. Fay tried to climb up the coconut tree but that was a fail and eventually we convinced one of the boys to climb up. He was up before I could even take a photo and he brought down 3 coconuts with him. One he had them down we had the dilemma of getting them open. The boys didn't understand but eventually someone came back with a knife and cut the coconuts for us so we could drink the water. I for some reason expected the water to be cold but it wasn't that was a let down. We drank the water cause we knew it would hydrate us. One of the ladies showed up and went and picked a hard mangoe to the point that it's white and hard inside. I know a lot of Sri Lankans eat it hard here so we tried it. At first it's kind of shocking and really sour and then some how you get used to it, it's kind of like eating a sour green apple. we both started to really like it. The grandma finally arrived a couple of hours later and took us to our little shack to have lunch. It was curry and rice that shed obviously picked up in town. She also have us a rambutan which is basically a lychee but they don't call them that in Sri Lanka. After lunch fay went for a sleep ( shit the girl sleeps a lot) and I went and red my book outside. Some of the little girls came and plated my hair and poked my skin and watched it go red and then back to normal colour. It's crazy how interested they are in out skin colour. Later everyone was back at the shop Doing there usual, eating the tobacco stuff and the leave and white stuff as they do. I went and had tea and just sat with everyone. As it got dark me and fay went to the well to wash ourselves. We found the best time to go is when it's just hit dark because then the  people from the road can't see us. Of coarse the little girls came over and watched us. Pulling the the bucket up with the pully is harder than it looks so the little girls pulled our water up for us. I shampooed my hair and put soap all over me and then the girl said "sit" and she dumped the water on me. It was the most refreshing thing ever although it got none of my shampoo out. The girls continued to help us while we all laughed and the girls sneakily stole some of my body wash to make them smell nice. After washing, all the boys were playing cards outside so we went to join. We played trumpts with them and they actually picked it up which was really cool! We played for ages until this family arrived that we'd never seen before. As soon as they showed up the boys stood up Striaght away and gave there seats to them. For the next hour more and more randoms arrived and this one man who was dressed a lot nicer than the others, I mean had shoes and a shirt on, was talking to one of the boys very firmly. Me and fat sat and watched and it was the most intriguing conversation and I had no clue what they were talking about. We had dinner which was again curry and rice and then we went Straight to bed. The heat and minimal water really tired you out. Feel like I'm on survivor lol 

Can't sleep

It's 12:40 am on wednesay morning and I've woken up sweating and I can't get to sleep! I feel so hot! Fay just woke up making really bad pain noises and has just walked outside! I presume she needs to go to the toilet. She's just come back in from the toilet and turned the light and asked if I have any pain medicine! She says her head hurts and she can hardly talk. I just gave her some noflam for the pain and she says she thinks it's from the chlorine drops we put in our water to try and purify it. She's lied back down and says she can't really breathe but she thinks it's cause she's panacking. I'm sitting with her until she falls back asleep again cause I can't sleep either cause I'm sweating and all my mosie bites are itching! 

A day of cultural experiences

This Morning we woke up to music blaring from the room next to us. I only managed to get to sleep around 2am after I stopped sweating. We music started at 5am and I went outside to see who had the tele on so loud and the great grandmother was sitting there chewing on her tobacco and bitter obviously def because the volume was blaring. I got up and felt yuck from being sweaty all night so I went to have another wash in the well. Lots of the Guys were around so I washed my self in my clothes but they still stared. I cannot even begin to explain how much people stare here. Like they don't even try to be slightly subtle. I had a wash and got ready for school. We got woken up so early we were ready an hour before the bus comes. The lady wasn't here today who usually looks after us so the boys made us coffee and gave us a plain sweet bun. We got the bus to the primary school and when we arrived no one was there. We thought there was no way pre school was on, surely someone from the house would have told us. With in a couple of minutes one of the ladies came and opened the door and 2 of the boys arrived. We thought maybe today it just started late but after a while one of the teachers came and said there is no pre school today because we are going to a funeral. Her brothers son had died this morning in the river, he was only 6. It took us a while to understand what was happening whether we were going to the funeral with them or what. We finally understood that we would go to the funeral  with them but we must go home first and change into something white. We had an hour to be back at pre school and it takes us half an hour to walk home so we went fast. We got home quickly changed and left again. On our way a tuk tuk driver pulled over and asked where we were going. We told him we had no money and he said it's okay he'll take us so we got dropped Striaght at pre school saving us the Long hot back to the school. We had lunch with all the kids at school and then we all left together to walk to the funeral. We had no idea where it was, we thought maybe at temple or down by the river where he died. We walked for a good half an hour through a small dirt pathway holding all the kids hands. We finally arrived to a house right by a small stream that leads to the lake. There were so many people there sitting under a sort of home made pagola. Of coarse everyone stared, more than usual though as I guess it's kind of weird white people at a funeral. We followed everyone into room where we had to take our shoes off and there was the little boy lying on a big white

Bed dressed in a traditional Sri Lankan outfit. Both me and Fay were shocked. We were not expecting that his body wouldn't be lying there for people to see. The mother was standing by his side distraught talking in Sri Lankan. I was still holding the little kids hands and they just stared the bodies body with such confusion. I felt more than uncomfortable standing there with a whole of family members mourning a child I had never met. The pre school teacher who's nephew it was who died had told me to bring my camera and I thought there would be some praying service or something that she wanted to me to take photos for. She never came into the room where he lay, i don't think she wanted to look. She caught my eye from outside te room and she was hand signalling me to take photos of the boy lying there. I looked at her twice making sure that's what she said but there was no way I could do it. I felt uncomfortable enough  and for some random white girl to take out her camera and take photos of the dead boy would just be.. I don't even know. I couldn't do it but later me and fay thought she just wanted some photos that she could look at when she was ready because clearly she wasn't ready to look at his body today. Me and fay went outside and sat with the teacher and had tea. We forgot how much sugar they put in there tea so we tried to down as much as we could. We sat for the next hour watching more people arrive and go inside. Everyone brought gifts for the family which was place in this massive room. Before we were about to go the teachers brother took us back over to the body where we thought we would have to go in again but instead he introduced us to the boys father. He took our hands and said some words in Sinhalese and then told us how his son died. I thought it  was so strange how open the people were to inviting some random tourists to there sons funeral. We finally said out thankyous for letting us be here and we left. We were ages from our house and had no idea how to get home but instead the teacher took us back to her house by tuk tuk. We went with her and her son who we teach in pre school called gihan who's 5. She first took us to a museum where we learnt about there tribes and te abiriginal people who are now called the vaddahs. It was really interesting actually, the austrilian aboriginal people look exactly like the vaddahs do here. We found out the teachers grandfather is the chief of the tribes here which makes him a pretty important person. She took us back to her house which is in the proper jungle. The house is so lovely and so traditional. We sat under her balcony in the cool shade and there were huge massive trees and banana trees everywhere. Compared to where we stay the Greenery is very lush compared. Er had bananas and tea and we had milk in our tea for the first time since we've been in Sri Lanka. There's cows roaming around and she said that they use the cows for milk and nothing else because they pretty much have no meat on them. Her house and kids are so lovely we wish this was the home stay that we stay at for tribal week. And the house and location is proper jungle. We stayed the whole day asking her questions that we haven't been able to ask because she knows a little bit more English than the other woman we live with back at the house. Me and fay finally tried the mix of leaves and paste that they have with tobacco which basically what all vaddahs entire day revolves around. We first were given the bittle which is this big nut thing along with some sort of leave and then finally the small bit of white paste. I ate all the things together like your surposed to and honestly it's the worst taste and texture I've ever had in my mouth.. I cannot even begin to describe the taste let alone to texture. The lady told that one person has at least 50 bittle a day at 5tupees each. She told us the cost of the leaf, tobacco and white paste and we calculated that they would spend 3,500 rupees every 10 days on this stuff. That's around $35 which considering no one has jobs here that's a lot of money! We've come to the conclusion that instead of smoking this is there same thing that has made them addicted. The bittle, that I realised once I started chewing it is the thing that produces the red dye that has caused the blood looking stains in everyone's mouths and all over there teeth. I was so fascinated in the stuff just because eating this stuff is what everyone does all day. They all have these little pouches or bags that they carry everywhere that holds all the ingredients. Now that I've tried it I can't imagine the textures of there mouths on a regular basis. When we entered yhe property there was the highest coolest little tree house I've ever seen and I asked the daughter if I could climb up. She signalled that it might sway and be dangerous but I didn't care. Climbing up I started to regret it big time with the small ladder steps made from branches making small cracking noise was not comforting but once I got to the top it was amazing! You had a 360 of the pan of the jungle. At night the elephants come out here and just by there house is a dam that the daughter said there are crocodiles. I could have stayed up there forever but we got called for lunch which was this potatoe curry thing made with coconut milk. The meal was amazing and we had to eat with our fingers. They all laughed at me and fay because there's a correct way to eat with your fingers with out spilling half of it and clearly we hadn't mastered it. After lunch at 6:00 a man on a motor bike arrived to pick us up to take us home. The 3 of us managed to fit and he took us home. I haven't been on a motorbike on roads like this since Cambodia and it's such a thrilling experience. It was such a busy day for us we went to the well to have a wash then Striaght for bed . 

Leaving for tribal week

This morning fay and I left for tribal week full if anxiousness and excitment. We had to take a bus but it was air conditioned mini van which was really fast because we slept most of it and the drive was really nice. We were signalled by our co ordinator we were getting off and the bus stopped and we were hit by heat as soon as we stepped off the bus. It was like arriving in Sri Lanka heat for the first time all over again. Our coordinator warned us it would be hot but I never prepared myself for this much heat. We looked around and we had basically been dropped on the side of dirt road which some little shacks around selling fruit but that was it. We had to take a tuk tuk 2km into the bush to dambana the tribal village. I felt like I was back in Africa where the roads are all red durt and the shacks are made out of stick roofs and mud walls. The people here also have very black skin compared to the locals in kandy. I'm guessing it may the sun here that makes them so black or maybe it's because these people are from a different tribe like there not tradational Sinhala people. We got dropped off at what was going to be our new home for the next week. We were warned that no one could speak English so we weren't really greeted by the people at the house we were more stared at. They took us up to the shack that we would be living in. The room had to single beds in It and that was it. We were introduced to the grandmother that would be looking after us. Our co ordinator stayed with us for about 20 minutes to translate for us. Thankgod he stayed because we had so many questions. We were confirmed that no one spoke English apart from a couple of the kids were in school so they new a tiny bit. This meant that we would use signals to let her know if we were hungry or needed something or whatever. RULES: we must be inside and home by 6pm because that's the time the wild animals such as the elephants come out. We have to always be with a local if we go some where because there are snakes Etc and we wouldn't no what to do if we're put in that situation. I no I would just poo myself. At 8am every morning there is one bus that comes pass and that's the bus we will catch to the local pre school where we will teach everyday from 8-12. After pre school we have to walk home because there is no bus. Our coordinator left and the lady sat with us and gave us tea and a sweet bread thing. The tea was so incredibly sweet, there was maybe 2-3 tablespoons of sugar in the tiny tea cup. Staying in homestays like this especially in Sri Lanka you feel like you must accept what ever they Give you and finish it so I managed to finish my tea. Just. We sat around for a while everyone stared and then the grandma signaled us to our room and said "rest". She left and said she would be back in the evening so we got our books and went and sat outside under the shade. Both of us were sweating profusely and all we could do was laugh at how hot is it. I don't think either of us had been in this hot temperate without there being a pool or ocean to jump into. The rest of the afternoon was pretty boring, we just sat outside and the little kids would come and play but we couldn't really do much with them activity wise because we were so hot. Around 3oclock the grandma called us into the house where it looked like she was giving us dinner. It was wrapped in newspaper and it was rice and fish dish. We both didn't eat much I think because we were kind of put off by the smell. At 6:00 we went and sat inside because we knew we went allowed outside. We realised that the rule obviously only applied to us because everyone was still running around. We were siting in the door way playing cards with the kids and the biggest snake I've ever slithered past the door way headin towards the bush. I yelled and pointed and by the time thy looked the snake had slithered into the bush. The little boy ran after it trying to throw sticks at it. Don't know what he was doing! I was freaking out the snake was gonna bite him. at 7:00pm we decided to go to sleep cause we were so hot we didn't know what to do with ourselves. At who knows what time there was loud banging on the door which I ignored the first 3 times. It happened again and this time louder but both me and fay were in our bra and undies. I finally opened the door to a man and his child with everyone sitting behind them in the background staring. He signaled something about food and I realised he was calling us for dinner which we thought we already ate a couple of hours

Ago but obviously not. I said we wernt hungry and we went back to sleep. 

chilled day in Nuwara Eliya

This morning we woke up and the owner of our guest house drove us in the back of his truck to anothe guest house that had nice breakfast surposibly. We went for the western style breakfast which was $6.00 that came up with fruit toast eggs tea and coffee and some Sri Lankan coconut roti. Wel all ate lots because we knew we'd only next be eating at dinner time. After breakfast we walked to a big lake that we had to pay $2.00 for which we were pissed about. We had 2 hours before our driver was picking us up to take us to the train station so way found a nice place to sit and lay on the grass by the lake and we tanned. Viola had henna so we all did Henna which was fun. Everyone who walked by started at us, I mean we're used to people staring at us in kandy but this was new level. People would walk up close to us and just stare as they walk past. Eventually a young girl came over and asked if she could have a photo with me. I think it was the blonde hair that made people so curious. Our driver picked us up at 12 and took us to the train station. We went to buy our return ticket in 3rd class again but this time you couldn't reserve seats and it was only 90 rupees which is just less than a dollar. We knew there would be tonnes of seats so we brought the ticket stoked that is was so cheap. Before I brought my ticket I checked for second class where you could reserve a ticket and it was only 160 rupees but half the girls had already brought there tickets so it was too late. At the train station I met some American couples who one was living in Colombo and other in Bangkok in Thailand. I talked to them for ages and asked out Bangkok and where it's nice to go in Thailand etc. I also told them about me being in Colombo for the day before my flight and they didn't sound like they thought I was a good idea. They said the markets in Colombo are dangerous and I shouldn't be there alone. That got me slightly worried about being in Colombo so I might have to go Striaght to the airpot from the train and just wait in the airport till 1.00am the next morning. They both gave me there business cards if I had any problems I could contact them which was very nice! About an hour behind scedule the train arrived but it wasn't the nice blue one we got on the way, this was the maroon old one that I see all the time around kandy. We found our 3rd class carriage and realised why damikee told us about getting seats. There was no way were getting a seat on this train. People were flooded all down the isles hanging out the doors and there was so fans nor any toilets. Me Taylor and Jess got in at a different door to the other girls. The 3 of us stood in the carrige door way pressed together amongst a bunch of men who did not smell the greatest. I thought about standing in position for the next 5 hours and it made me feel sick! Luckily some local said that in about an hour a lot of the passengers get off so we would get a seat. I was with the two girls who got the most car sick but it was me who had to sit on the edge of the train being sick. Once I was siting on the edge of the train with the breeze i felt fine! The views were so pretty! Eventually the men who were blocking the door ways let us 3 girls sit on the steps and hang out so we didn't feel sick. An hour later a lot of people got off the train and we were able to get a seat which was great. We

Awkwardly sat next to these your guys who had been staring at us at the train station who we finally said something to because we were sick of it. They sat on the train and still continued to stare but this time we just ignored them. The train ride home was just as beautiful as the way there so I didn't mind the long ride. About 4 hours into the trip we re looked at the train scedule and saw our train didn't mention it was heading to kandy, it said Colombo. We didn't think much of it until we heard "Natalie!!!" Been yeld outside the train stop. We turned around and all the girls were out of the train motioning for us to quickly get out! We ended up jumping out of the train wholst it was moving. We got off and were in peradiniya which was about 20 minutes from kandy. We found a man to take us in a tuk tuk back to kandy for 500 rupees so we took it and went back with him. Me and Taylor got him to drop us in central city and from there we caught a tuk tuk too slightly chilled. I was leaving for tribal week tomorrow so it was my last night in kandy so we went to have celebratory dinner and drinks. I ordered sizzling chicken and vegetables that came on a hot plate with rice and it was thee most amazing dinner I've had whole in Sri Lanka. We got shandys cause Taylor had never tried one. We got home around 9:30pm and I packed for tribal week and packed the rest of my stuff because new volunteer are coming in tomorrow so they're going to be taking my bed:(

Amazing trip to nuwera Eliya

This morning we left at 7:30 am to get the trainstation to get the train to nuwara eliya. There were 7 of us who took tuk Tuks there and brought our train ticket. We paid 400 rupees for 3rd class which is $4.00 for a 5 hour train trip. So cheap! Damikee told us to be there early so we could get a seat on train so we were there an hour before our train was surposed to leave. It had been nearly a week since id seen another tourist so seeing a big bunch of them at the train station was comforting. Of coarse the train was late, as it everything in Srilanka. The train came and it wasn't like the old maroon ones we see everywhere. This one was modern and blue and clearly a lot nicer than what we thought. 3rd class had fans and had a table by your chair so you could eat a meal if you wanted to. The windows were huge so you had really good views of outside. Not sure why Damikke said we needed to be there early because no one stood and there were plenty of spare seats. The train ride was the mod amazing thing I've done in my life. In between the carriages were big doors that stayed open so you could easily walk off the train if you wanted to.ni had a window seat with Taylor along with another family on the otherwise facing us.   Heading out of town we passed some of the poorest little villages who's houses were nearly falling apart. The trains sweeps through little villages and then back into the jungle. Every 15-20 minutes we would stop and more locals would get on and off as well as people with food would quickly jump on with there little baskets and then jump off at the next stop. About an hour into the train ride was when the lush forest hit and the acres and acres tea plantations appeared. The scenery was amazing! I have never seen mountains so green and lush. We trained past small villages that were deep in the jungle where there houses were made of mud and sticks. The woman had children strapped to there back carrying big sacks of sticks on there heads. Many locals stand up and stand out of the edge of the train so you can be basically hanging off the edge. I went to the gap in our Carosal and stood by the door. The train slowed down and basket of nuts appeared at my feat and then followed a man who jumped up on the train while we were rolling. It was insaine. He did his sweep of the train selling his nuts to the passengers and then came back to the edge of the train. He forced me to try some of his food which you could tell was so fresh and then he pushed me to stand off the edge of the train like the locals because he said I would get a better view.. It was scarey but I loved it. I popped my out and all along the train were locals doing the same thing. We passed huge waterfalls and big lakes going over bridges and into long black tunnels. The closer we got to nuwara eliya the more colourful dots you could see amongst the tea fields. As we got closer I noticed the dots were woman in the field in brought coloured cloth with there big sacks on there back picking the tea leaves. The view was amazing with the woman's bright pink and oranges clothes set again the green fields. The train was nearly 5 hours but I felt like I could have been on it for ages! I was scared to fall asleep and miss anything. We finally arrived in nuwara eliya the tea capital of Sri Lanka. I was expecting tea plantations but this was next level. Everywhere you looked was tea feilds. We got off the train an were bombarded with "you want tuk tuk madam" we didn't know where abouts we were or how far to town or anything. We found a nice young guy who offered us 600rupees to nuwara eliya city for all of us in his mini van. That was cheap so we rolled with him. We drove into town which was windy up hill drive through the most amazing scenery. Our driver new almost perfect English so was telling us all about the town etc. He told us that the English first took over nuwara eliya a long time ago so the town has a very English influence. We knew exactly what he ment when we arrived in the city. All the buildings and hotels were big white old cottages with rose gardens everywhere and red telephone boxes. It was so bazaar but so quaint. We decided to go straight to a tea factory so our driver took us. We soon noticed the blanket of must over the mountains as it slowly got Lower and lower. We can see now why Adams peak is not meant to be climbed now in the of season. The mist through out the mountains was so pretty and as we drove deeper into the tea feilds the air got a lot cooler. We got to the tea factory called blue feilds which was a hugeee old blue building( English style) set in the hills. We arrived and a lady took us Striaght to the factory where we gave us a tour of the tea fActory and we saw everything happening. She showed us the process of the tea production from picking the leaves in the field to drying out the leaves to crushing them into small tea leaves. The factory had the most amazing aroma of tea! After wards she took us through to the huge lobby where we're given yea and chocolate cake. We tried the black Sri Lankan tea and the white tea which were both delicious. Two of the girls went to the store and spent up large buying boxes and boxes of us. I had already brought tonnes from the markets so I couldn't afford to get anymore. After the tour our driver took us two 5 waterfalls and then to the most amazing view point on the balcony of the most modern fanciest building i have seen in Sri Lanka as of eat. The balcony looked out over te mountains or tea and waterfalls. We had lots of group photos and then headed back. Our driver stopped on the side of the road where a bunch of woman were tea picking. They were true Sri Lankan woman with big gold nose piercings in bright clothes and big red dots on there fore head. They all had these big sac things that were strapped around there head onto there back that they carried there picked leaves in. Our driver told us the tea fields are owned by the government so the woman work 7-3 everyday and are paid $3.50 for a day of work. They also picked 23kg of tea leaves each a day. The reason for so many woman pickers is they get paid much less than men which means they hire mostly woman. We got back around 5 and our driver took us to a cute guesthouse he recommended that looked out on a amazing park. It was 1000 a night per person which was 10$ so we took it. We quickly refreshened up and then went to a resteraunt about 5 minutes walk called great Indianan which we heard was greatly recommended and was part of this most beautiful hotel called grand India. We got to dinner to early and the resteraunt hadn't opened so we talked to the hotel lobby and tried to use there wifi. 7 of us girls walked in without having working wifi for over a week so we all sat there not saying a word, on our phones. A man came ove and asked to take a photo of us all because he thought it was the funniest thing. Words couldn't even describe how amazing this Hotel. Me and viola used the bathroom and stayed in there for nearly 20 minutes because we had not been in such nice working toilets in forever. Of coarse we stole the toilet paper as well because toilet paper is a rare find here in Sri Lanka. We all went to dinner and again was blown away! We said table for 7 so the man led us through to a different part of the resteraunt and opened two double doors to a huge room with one big table with amazing old wall paper on the walls and candles lit all over the table. We started to freak out wondering how much the food cost here judging by our table but we got the menus and the meals were a shocking $5.00. We all were starving so ordered a starter and main and dessert. I ordered a chicken tikka missala which was heaven because at the guest house we are fed vegetarian. The meals were a amazing and everyone couldn't get over how cheap the food was. Some girls wanted coffee so after dinner we went back to the Hotel and used there wifi once more while the girls had coffee. Our driver had dropped us off at the resteraunt but no one was listening when we explained how to get there so we asked the hotel and they said it was a short 5 minute walk. My arse it was and it was the scariest walk of my life. We walked in pitch black just using our phones as light and we all interlocked arms. Me especially was freaking out the most, I kept looking behind me making sure no one was following us as well as looking on the ground for snakes. Really shows how prepared I am for this tribal week. We got back finally and everyone was knakered. There had been prayers going on all afternoon over the microphone and was still going at 11pm. We're not sure if this happens every night or this is just a special day. We all fell asleep to the Buddhist prayer service which was kind of cool. 

Poya day

Today was a public holiday for Sri Lanka so nothing is open! No buses run no nothing. So we got a taxi who took us up to the babies orphanage today and the way there the streets were empty! Driving there the weather was terrible it bucketed down the whole way there! The babies cried a lot this morning I think because if the loud rain and thunder. We changed and fed them and I cuddled my favourite girl the whole time. She's actually adorable! She has never cried in the 2 weeks I have been with her and her face and arms are so chubby she's just the cutest thing. I know going back home I'm going to think about her everyday in class. Today was sad because I had to say goodbye to the babies:(( I wanted a photo with the babies so bad but we're not aloud to take photographs so I have I remember there faces in my head. A 3 o'clock our driver picked us up to take us home. Because we were leaving to Adams peak tonight we asked him to stop at supermarket that was open for us to pick up some snacks for the weekend. It was crazy, on our way there there were kids standing with flags waving us down and we pulled over to see all these young school girls handing out free sandwiches. We didn't want any but Sri Lankans don't understand and we got 25 sandwiches given to us. Our driver explained "free food in poya day" for the next 15 km we got waved down being given free ice cream, coffee and biskets and free fruit. It was soo crazy to see! And it was free food. We got home and the rain was still pouring so everyone was inside just chilling. We started thinking about leaving tonght and how bad the weather is and wether we should cancel. The internet was terrible so we couldn't get in contact with the peepz at the beach to see what they had planned. For hours we went back and forth what we wanted to do and then finally decided to leave tomorrow morning instead by catching the train and then if we want to do Adams peak we can do tomorrow night. We managed to get in contact with the beach group and they said they are going to try and come. We all went to bed early because the tuk tuk was picking us up at 7 am to get to the train station. 

Same same but different

In the morning I went to babies along with a bunch of other girls. On the bus ride into town my jandal broke so I walked around the city with one shoe on. It was gross. The babies were extra cute today but there were way too many volunteers. Some ended up going to the toddlers so there went as many people. The same baby I always look after, when I got there I went to pick her up and there was pee all over her bed and her nappy was full with it coming out the sideS. It's sad that she probebely slept like this and they still hadnt changed her 9:00am the next day. While we were all giving the babies there bottles the nurse brought through a brand new baby which was sooo tiny!!! The girl had had the baby out of wedlock so she didn't tell anyone because she knew we family wouldn't help to support the baby. She brought it here to the orphanage and hopefully one day when the baby is a bit older she can take her back. After the babies were in there cots asleep the co ordinator took us to the "pre school" area which is a little room out by the garden. In there were maybe 5-6 sitting doing nothing. The lady asked us to "teach" but the kids spoke no English and were too young learn any so we sat there not being able to do anything. I thankfully was heading to day care so I left with in half and hour and walked to the bus stop. The little shack next to the bus stop always has tools in so I thought I would go ask if they have any super glue for my jandal. I got there and showed them my broken jandal  and they said yes yes and sat me down and went into his little tool shed. They heated up wire and wound it round and some how fixed my shoe. I asked then if I could give me money and they just shook there heads. It was so different to see because everyone here ask for money for the slightest gesture. I went to give them 100rupees which is $1.00 and they there head so I just left it on the table. I took te bus back to kandy and got there nearly an hour before I was surposed to be there because it was raining so hard I didn't wanna walk around at the markets to kill time like usual. I got to day care and all the kids were having lunch. Some one had brought tennis bawls so I taught one of the little boys how to play hand ball. Once he got it he loved it and he wouldn't let us stop. We played for an hour and the little girls sat with me while we played. A bit later bronwyn came and brought with her skipping ropes and some balls with a hoop. The girls took all the ropes but had no idea how to skip. I tied to of them together and tried to get a big rope going with the kids jumping in. Everyone was too shy so the girls ended up just teaching themselves how to skip. We played more hand ball with the boys and then near the end of the afternoon we thought we'd try play duck duck goose with them. The kids picked it up really quickly so that entertained them for ages. At 3 we left and I said good bye to all of them because I wasn't going to see them again because I'm off to tribal week next week. It was sad:( but hard because they didn't no I wasn't coming back. I took the bus home and quickly got showered and freshened up from the baby vommit and dirty clothes and then me and Taylor took a tuk tuk into the city to go to natural coffee to get some wifi to try and organize our trip. We got there and some of the volunteers had just Arrived so we all went up stairs together and had coffees. I tried to call the people from the beach to find out there plans but we couldn't get through. At 6:00pm we got kicked out but decided to go to slightly chilled the bar because we were craving some western food. The owned by a German man and his Chinese wifi so the resteraunt is mostly Chinese food. We took a tuk tuk there and almost all he volunteers were there when we arrived. The bar was amazing! It felt like resteraunt in Fiji with the big wooden ceilings. The view was amazing as well we had a view out to kandy with the big sitting budda in the distance. Most of the group had already eaten so me and Taylor ordered together. I still feel sick from the other day but I thought some nice Chinese food would be good instead of curry and rice. I ordered the chicken fried noodles because the girls had already ordered it and it tasted yum. I decided not to drink and get a ginger beer instead to settle my stomach. Our meals came out and the noodles tasted amazing! I had 2 mouthfuls on food and then felt sick. I guttered I couldn't eat it. We sat outside with everyone and chatted. This was my first time in 2 weeks that I have seen tourists other than the volunteers from my group. The place was packed of volunteers all young. Whenever we go out we are surposed to let damikee no so that the cooks don't have to prepare as much food. No one new that everyone was going so no one texted him. At 7:00pm we realised and texted him but we knew it was too late because dinner always arrives at 7:00pm. Damikke was not happy at all so everyone finished there drinks that thought we should get home. On our way out the door spotted a guy who looked a Maori and got way too excited because I haven't seen a kiwi since I've been here. Me and Taylor

We're to scared to ask him so we left and went to get a tuk tuk. Weirdly there were none outside ( there's always tuk Tuks everywhere) so we went back up stairs to  ask if they could call us one. They said to wait 20 minutes so went and sat down at the bar. What do you know the Maori looking guy came over and started talking to us and we went to join them play pool. Turns out he's a phillipino who lives in Melbourne hence why he had the kiwi fashion style. He was with another guy and funnily this guy from Melbourne was the uncle of the other guy. But he was 22 and his nephew was 21. It was interesting! They just looked like two mates travelling together. We played pool with them for a while and found out there travelling Sri Lanka and India for 2 months together. We gave them tips on good places to go etc and then at 9:30 we thought we better leave cause we have a 10pm curfew. We got back and we're too scared to talk to Damikke and couldn't get hold of Eric and the group from the beach so we don't know what's happening with our weekend plans now considering we leave tomorrow night.

Babies and daycare

This morning we left for the babies at 7:30am. The babies were really happy today! Everyone now has there favourite babies so we all head Straight to them when we arrive. I cuddled my favourite little girl the whole time. We gave them

Bottles and played with them on the mats. The baby's were tired so were asleep earlier than usual. When they go to sleep we get send to the visitors room until they wake up at 1:30. I had lunch with the girls and then I took the bus to the day care. There were a lot more children than there were yesterday but I had brought plenty of stuff so I was okay. I set pieces of paper out on the floor and celetaped them down so that they couldn't move around. It took me a good 20 minutes to get the children to fit in front of the piece of paper, they just didn't under stand. I mixed up the paint Which really watery so I knew with using there hands the water paint was going to get all over there clothes. In the morning I had drawn up my family l members using stick figures and drawn my house and  also found out the Sinhalese words for family and draw. I thought id have it sorted and the kids would understand but they couldn't understand my terrible Sinhalese and they didn't understand my

Drawing. One of the ladies managed to kind of explain what they need to do and then finally they had it. I don't think they understood the meaning of drawing there family members because they all drew just them and there mum and dad. Surely they had brothers and sisters! One of the boys was so cute and he obviously understood me and drew him self and his siblings along with his house before any of them had even finished drawing there houses. After everyone was done they were a mess with paint all over them oops. We lay all the paintings on the  ground and I got all the kids to stand around them and I took a photo. At the end of the day when I left the kids were shocked that I said they could bring there paintings home, I think they thought I was going to take them all. I'm going back again tomorrow so I need to think of something again to bring the kids as an activity to do! I haven't been a child in so long I can't rmemeber what were games and crafts I used to do.

Week 2

Today I woke up not feeling very well. I felt really sick last night and didn't sleep very well. I thought about not going but I wanted to see the babies so I went. I slept on both the bus rides which is an achievement because the bus rides are Hectic and never comfortable. I got to the babies along with the other 5 girls and I showed them around the place and told them about changing there diapers Etc. The babies were really smelly today because they hadn't been changed in a while so we changed all there diapers and put them in clean clothes. We gave them bottles and put them all on the floor on the mat and they all played together. At 11:30 after we managed to get them in there cots asleep so me and 2 other girls left to go to our next placement. They were going to the boys orpahnage but they came along with the co ordinator to drop me off. We got off the bus and the day care was like right there on the other side of the train tracks. It was a huge old church which looked really cool! The co ordinator dropped me off and I went inside to side To this huge empty church that had a row of cots and that was it. All the day care woman in charge were just sitting around and the children had run up to meet me at the door. They had never had any volunteers the day care before so I think they were a little confused what to do with me. They said I can 'play' with them but church was literally empty like no books no games no nothing. I ended up trying to teach the kids hand games which was difficult because neither of us could understand each other. More girls showed up as school finished and I ended up with 6 girls sitting with me staring at me waiting for me to do something. They brought out there English books and I taught them some English and I tried to learn all there names. They all laughed and giggled every time I said some thing in Sinhalese. At around 3 I felt sick and tired and had run out of all the kiddy games that I knew. They Sang to me and I  sang incy wincy spider and twinkle twinkle. I talked with the lady at the end and asked if I could bring some stuff to do tomorrow but she didn't under stand so I'm going to do it anyway. I left the kids and went to the markets trying to find paints and paper for the kids tomorrow. I found some power paint that you just mix with water. I then went to the shopping mall and found a big pad of nice white paper that the kids can use. I am going to get them to paint there family members tomorrow using finger painting. I think it will be fun!

Sunday chilling

This morning early a lot of the volunteers left for the beach so I was going to spend the day at the pool with one of the girls but the weather wasn't very nice today. We decided to go to a coffee shop that all the volunteers had raged about that had really nice coffee as well as good wifi. Me taylorand bronwyn went in the morning and spend a good 2 3 hours there. The place was so nice and quiet with nice air conditioning and a really pretty view of the lake and temple. I got to update my blog so that mum and dad and Zac could get online and read it. I ordered a really nice banana espresso coffee that was really good. After we went to a fair trade shop that had some really cool stuff like Jewelry and yoga stuff etc that was all really well made and authentic. We then went to this cafe called aroma for lunch. We were craving western food sooo much so we found this place that was so nice inside. I ordered fresh papaya juice and a tuna sandwich it was yum! The girls ordered dessert which was amazing as well! It was so good not having having curry and rice! It's going to be another week before I can maybe have something remotly western again. After lunch we went to the Markets and supermarket as got heaps of fruit. We got home and everyone was coming back from there weekend trips. Everyone sounded like they had such amazing trips. The girls who went to tricolmee had such good weather and they said the beach was amazing! Me and Taylor might go there for our last week. I skipped dinner tonight and went to bed early because I feel really sick. I think it might be the lunch I had today:(

Sigiriya day trip with the gang

Today we went to sigiriya abouta 2 and a half hour drive from Kandy. The driver picked us up at 6am so we could get there early in the morning so we weren't climbing in the heat. We got there in the morning at 8:45 and brought our ticket. It cost us 3900 rupee which is 40 NZ which was in expensive but we had driven all the way there that I wasn't going to not climb it. The view of the rock from the bottom was amazing! We started the walk and realized it was all stairs. The distance wasn't far but there were so many stairs and there were heaps of Asians that we had to walk slowly behind. We stopped along the way and took lots of photos. The stairs were tiny and we were literally on the edge of the rock all the way up. Once we made it to the top the view was absolutely amazing! We had a 360 view all around which was just forest and big Buddhas sticking up everywhere. We spent the next hour exploring the top of sigiriya. We found a cave that was on a cliff race and was really windy. Once we got into the cave it was sheltered and we had an amazing view. On our way down we went down another way and walked through some really cute pathways. The top of the cliff reminded me of what you would see on Manchu peechu. When we got down we drove to to danbulla to get lunch. We read a sign that said there was western food so we went to the resteraunt but it ended up only being curry and rice. We had lunch and then drove home. Me and Eric were in the front with the driver and I had to sit I'm the middle seat which was so uncomfortably and hot. By the time we got back I felt so car sick. Everyone decided to go to the pools afterwards but I stayed behind because I want to spend the whole day there tomorrow while everyone leaves to go to beach for the week. It's going to be weird everyone going there's only going to be a few of us left:( I'm so over the meals we are getting for dinner it's always curry and rice. I'm craving some yum fresh salads and fresh meals

Projects

Today I went to the projects. In the morning I took the bus with fitzi and Megan to the disabled orphanage. We had meditation again in the morning and then got split off into our groups. I got put in the peace group today which was disableds but were a bit better In that they could actually speak Sinhalese instead of grunting. It was there groups turn to do pampering which was fine because I was now a pro from doing it on Tuesday. I was able to make them look a lot better this time because they weren't moving around while I out there makeup on. Most on them actually looked really pretty. This time we used blush and lipstick and also put Hindu dots on all of them. We painted here nails and all of the woman were so great full. Because they were a lot more developed than the last group at the start of the week they all said "thank you very much auntie". After the group session they all went out to eat but I wanted to get straight to babies because I don't know the eating part. One of the co ordinators came for me to bring me lunch and help me get to he babie orphanage but I got it Sussed so she just dropped me a snack and then left. I left the disabled and went and got some yummy lunch from the food coart next door and went and brought some babie wipes for the babies.i went to catch a bus to the babies which took me a good 45 minutes because I couldn't read any of the Sinhalese on the buses. I eventually got on the bus which was packed. I got so hot and sweaty and for the whole bus ride I had people pushed up against me while we drove up through the mountains. I got off the bus and did the walk to the babies which was so nice doing by myself. The Babie orphanage is up in the mountains so the walk there you have the most amazing rain forest views. As I walked up to the steps of the orphanage it started pissingg down!!! I got inside and all the babies were alseep so I sat for half an hour and watched the rain. When one baby wakes up and cries they all wake up so I picked up the smallest baby who I think is a new born and she smelt. Dammikee had never given me diapers to take to the orphanage like they usually do so all the babies had just ripped up sheets as there nappies. Of coarse the thin cloth forest absorb anything so all the babies had wet beds and pants. I got the sister to teacher me how to tie the cloth nappies and then changed them all. A lot of the babies had really weird poo and the nurse did not look impressed so I think a lot of them are sick. We gave them all bottles and then the nurse called me over. She told me to pull up a chair and grab the new born. She was holding a big long injection which I thought she wanted to me to hold the baby while she gives her a jab but she turned on this venterlator machine thing and gave me the mouth piece to hold to the babies mouth. Holding her you could tell in her breathing something was wrong. She was so hot and sweaty and breathing really quickly which not a very clear airway it sounded like. I sat on the chair holding her and putting the mask up to her mouth and I felt so sad. I had some quick tears and then managed to hold then in. After an hour sitting there with the venterlator the nurse finally turned it off and I put her back in the cot. It's then that I wish I could understand the language so I knew what was going I and what is wrong with her. At 3:00 I left and took the bus back into Kandy and decided to go to these local markets before I went home. They had so many weird and cool things. They were selling gold fish in plastic bags in water for 200 rupees which is 3 dollars. I brought my self a little elephant necklace and then went home. The bus ride home nearly took me an hour but I finally got home before dark. There's only about 8 -10 of us in the house tonight be cause a lot have already left for there weekend trips. Tomorrow we leave at 6:00am to sigiria! I'm very excited!