Day 2 (Tuesday)
**My new favorite thing: Gardening.
Leaving a job where I didn't have to move any muscles except my fingers, I
am really enjoying work that engages my whole body. Today I weeded, watered,
and helped dig a foundation for a hut. "Dig" may not seem overly
tiring, but the ground is so hard we need to break it up with an extremely
heavy metal bar before we can shovel it away. I wielded the iron bar, (I think
there's a name for the tool, but I don't know it. It's taller than I am and the
end is like a flathead screwdriver,) lifting it above my head, bringing it down
as hard as I can and then pulling down to lever the dirt apart. It's so
exhausting, but so satisfying. I love being outside all day and surrounding
myself with nature. I lovingly watered the okra that I planted yesterday and
talked to it so that it would feel encouraged to grow. I was disappointed that
my time was cut short by being sent to teach English at a nearby school.**
After cleaning Rani and her bed, Annebob and I do the "vet check"
which involves brushing off the bottoms of her feet, checking for any
abrasions, and feeding her a vitamin ball. Today is my turn. I am a little nervous
as I am approaching a raised elephant foot, yup, definitely big enough to
squash me like an ant. But I really enjoyed it. I give the vitamin ball and
Annebob gives her some reward fruit. She was telling me yesterday about
elephant body language. Ears out, cheeks red, and eyes wide is aggression, or
as we call it "RUN!" Curling the trunk under and resting it in your
hand is trust. As Annebob feeds the fruit she leaves her hand out. Rani reaches
back to sniff for more papaya. Not finding any, she begins to pull her trunk
back, but first curls it under and rests it in Annebob's hand. Nobody here has
had their elephant do that, and this is the first time for Annebob. I am
watching--as are about 6 others--as Annebob's face lights up and she is nearly
overcome with emotion. As Rani ambles away, Annebob is turning toward us,
completely speechless. Everyone here just witnessed such a touching moment,
it's very difficult to describe. I can only hope that this will happen for me
before I leave.
I do a little gardening today, but my time is cut short because Shala and I
are on the schedule to go teach English at a nearby school. It's actually less
teaching and more playing with the kids while incorporating English. It is an
after school daycare of sorts, with children of all ages from 5-11. There are 8
kids of varying English proficiency. I start out by asking them their names and
ages and then having them all tell me what color shirt they are wearing. Then
we move on to me saying a color and they have to point to something that color.
For an hour Shay and I come up with various activities and have so much fun
with the kids. I enjoy playing with them and seeing how each of them start to
come out of their shell over time. My favorite game was probably a Simon
says-esque game where someone would say a word or command and everyone would
act it out. This way they get to associate the words with actions, not letters
on a page. We also had fun throwing a ball around a circle, and when you got
the ball you said something about yourself.
"My favorite subject is English."
"My name is Deshena."
"I have one sister."
"My favorite color is orange."
The time was quite enjoyable, but an hour of it was mentally and physically
wearing. So much running around with them and attempting to entertain/teach
them all in a way that incorporated a wide range of ages and English fluency.
Shay and I are pleased with the hour and look forward to seeing them again, but
happy to get back to the bungalow, which I now call home.
Day 3 (Wednesday)
**My new favorite thing: emotional release.
As I was painting the office today I started to feel very strange, and I
didn't know what was wrong with me. I ate a couple of biscuits (yes, I call
cookies biscuits now because I'm so surrounded by people from the UK) because I
thought maybe I was low on calories in the 7 hour break between lunch and
dinner (watch out, soon I'll be saying dinner and supper). I didn't feel any
better, and continued to decline. My painting got slower and slower and I
started to feel light headed. I tried sitting outside in the fresh air for a
bit, but nothing worked and my head started to spin. When I went outside to
wash a brush off in the sink, Jade asked me if I was feeling any better and as
I started to say "no" I got a lump in my throat. I told her that nothing
was making me upset, but that I had just gotten a surge of emotion. Then, for
no reason--and taking me completely by surprise--I just leaned down and cried.
She spoke soothingly to me as I stood there emptying my emotional stores. After
a 3 minute cry, I immediately began to feel better. My head cleared and I was
able to work again. As it turns out, this is not an uncommon phenomenon here,
and multiple other volunteers have experienced similar unprompted emotions.**
Today is a quiet day because most of the volunteers are in Colombo extending
their 30 day visas and buying supplies (supplies!) We decide to power through
painting the office while they're gone and surprise them when they come home. I
also do a stint in the fruit shop selling fruit to tourists so they can feed
the elephant who gave them a ride. As I am watching a guy get splashed by his
elephant in the river, making bets with myself if he will buy a plate when he's
done, I sketch out an idea for a t-shirt design. We are trying to come up with
more fund raising ideas and designing and selling t-shirts is the newest one. I
will attempt to upload a sketch of my idea for you all to critique. I showed my
rough sketch to the tourist and not only did he like it, but he bought a plate
of fruit (totally knew he would.)
At the tail end of dinner all the Colombo volunteers return, exhausted from
a long day. (Leaving at 6AM) Ilsa is distressed that the pocket of her new
pants has torn, so I offer to sew them for her after dinner. Armed with my
sewing kit and a headlamp, I bring her pants back to life. Everyone is joking
about how I am so prepared for everything. After the pants are sewed up and I
offer to patch up a cut on Bert's leg (open wounds get infected quickly here
because the bugs aggravate them) they start calling me Dr. Liz.
Day 4 (Thursday)
**My new favorite thing: pasta.
Today for lunch we were given pasta and it was glorious! There is a
restaurant just across the street from Millennium that is associated with us
and serves us all our meals. In fact, I think we're the only people they serve.
I guess restaurant is a bad name for it then, but it's the best I've got. Meals
are served buffet style, lunch and dinner are almost always white rice with 2
types of curry/Dahl on the side. I didn't realize how much rice I was eating
until they changed it up. Of course, now this has set off a whole slew of
cravings from home (what I wouldn't give for some pancakes with maple syrup),
so perhaps I should have stuck with the white rice twice a day for 10 weeks.**
Today our project work continues, and I am able to work a little bit on the
garden, which I love so much. I'm going to be an expert gardener when I
get home. The yard will be unrecognizable, and I might even learn to
love bees and other terrifying pollinating bugs (I'm clearly not there yet). I
also work the fruit shop today and decide to make a phrase book to keep there
"Would you like to make a donation to the Foundation of 200 rupees and get
a plate of fruit to feed the elephant?" in a bunch of languages. I'm
already not a salesman--my complete absence of sales skill is actually a
running joke with one of my coworkers--so put me in the fruit shop with
tourists who don't even speak my language and just see how much fruit I'll
sell. I'm actually surprisingly successful when they can understand me, but
miming the process of feeding fruit to an elephant, while fun and rather
amusing, is not a patented sales technique. Perhaps asking where they're from
and butchering their home language is the key.
Today is a very sad day, tonight we say goodbye to Kevin and Judy. All day
we are so sad and keep giving them hugs and well wishes. Everyone is sad to see
them go, but the day is given a brighter note by the fact that midnight marks
Shay's 22nd birthday. (Shay makes everything brighter). After dinner,
throughout the partying for Kevin and Judy, the night is punctured by Shay's
voice, "guys, guys...2 hours and 15 minutes until my birthday!"
Shay's birthday struck, as expected, at midnight, and although we were all
waking up at 5am the next morning, we couldn't let her birthday start in bed,
so we stayed up for it to celebrate. Her birthday will continue upon waking--in
4.5 hours--with piling into a van and driving to the beach. The weekend starts
early this week.
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