Millennium

I will be doing a sponsored climb of Adam's Peak, a holy mountain here in Sri Lanka, to raise money for Millennium Elephant Foundation. If anyone feels as much of a connection to this cause as I do, please sponsor my climb for the enclosure here. Or, you know, anyone who didn't get me a birthday present ;)
I have made a donation page connected to my charity's page for easy donations. Even $1 is appreciated, and will pay for a bolt to hold the fence together!
http://www.justgiving.com/eblakeramsey

Being here at Millennium is much different than I expected. I was not prepared for how connected I would feel to our cause here. Frankly, I was not prepared for what the cause was going to be. First of all, I thought that I was going to be at Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage. I expected to be moved by the idea of helping injured and orphaned Elephants, but for the main attraction to be bottle feeding and playing with elephants. As important as it is to help them, all of this would probably be more for myself. The trip was booked selfishly, with my own personal desire to interact with elephants higher on the priority list than any benefit they would receive from me. Not to say I wasn't interested in doing good or helping elephants, the entire purpose of quitting my job and coming here was to make a positive impact in some way, I just didn't realize how important I would find the work I am doing.

So I am not at the Elephant Orphanage, Millennium is a separate elephant habitat from the orphanage, even though they are both in Pinnawala, and Millennium is actually a charity. I do get to wash an elephant in the morning, and the most intimate interaction I've felt since I've been here has been feeding her fruit and stroking her trunk while her large eyes thank me. My Rani is beautiful, and washing, touching, or feeding her is everything I ever imagined; but the rest is so much more. Here at Millennium Elephant Foundation we "rent" elephants who are captive across Sri Lanka and concentrate on giving them a better life. Captive elephants have a hard life, and aw are working toward making it better. We feed them amply, a simple enough idea, but one which is not adhered to with elephants I've seen here outside of Millennium; I should not be able to see an elephant's ribs. We are campaigning to spread knowledge about simple changes that can be made to make captive elephants' lives better, the houda (the chair on top of an elephant's back for giving elephant rides), for instance, is very cruel. The straps holding it on are like a corset, creating internal injuries and external sores. All elephant rides at Millennium use only a padded blanket.

The human/elephant conflict is also a big issue that Millennium has started shifting resources to mitigate. Wild elephants here are destroying farmland in quests for food, which is harmful to both the farmers and the elephants, who are getting killed in retaliation. Farmers' livelihoods are being destroyed by the elephants, and the farmers are killing the elephants responsible. Nobody benefits. The farmers, in a desperate attempt to protect their crops, have built tree houses along the edges of their land, which they use to watch for elephants. They try to merely scare them off, but will kill to preserve their land.

Millennium is kicking off a new project to observe the elephants with the farmers to determine where they mostly emerge, saving the farmland, and creating a tourist attraction out of the tree houses. Outside the farms we will plant a row of crops that attract elephants, bananas, papaya, etc. Between these crops and the farm we will plant things that elephants don't like, chilis, oranges, etc. Tourists will be able to pay farmers to stay in their tree houses and hopefully see wild elephants drawn out by the crops, but the elephants will not enter the actual farm because of the repellant crops. The farmers, not only saving their crops, but making extra income from the tourists, will stop seeing the wild elephants as enemy. Everybody is happy. I think that I will spend 1 or 2 weeks at the conflict boarder while I am here to help with this.

In addition to trying to improve the lives of elephants across Sri Lanka, we are also trying to improve Millennium itself. Our elephants live tied down because we do not have an enclosed area in which they can roam. They can walk around only when their Mahout (elephant handler) is beside them. Although they do get walked around and taken to the river to bathe multiple times a day, it is our dream to build them a fence where they can wander freely. I am doing a challenge, and asking for sponsorship to try to raise money for the enclosure.
http://www.justgiving.com/eblakeramsey

Any help is appreciated, I hope that you all feel this cause is as worthy as I do.

Miss you all!