Here comes the rain

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  Kegalle, Sri Lanka
Thursday, September 7, 2006

It's Thursday now and it seems like I have been here for weeks, it's been so easy to slot into the routine

Have had a lot of rain here the last 24 hours and when it rains you know it, within minutes the roads and paths are flooded and the rainwater mixes with the local red earth so there is huge rivers of red water gushing down towards the river, during the heavy rain the power to our quarters cuts out but thankfully I did remember to bring my trusty Maglite ( thank you Metronet )

I have had a lay in today and did not get up till 7.30hrs, as yesterday mid morning Rani left MEF (on the back of a low loader) as she has gone to a temple to take part in a Perahera (Buddhist parade with elephants, dancers, fire eaters) the elephants are dressed up in jeweled costumes and ridden by people also dressed up, the elephants have to be checked by the vet before they are allowed to take part and only if he says they are 100 % okay can they participate

Not all the Elephants at MEF are loaned to temples as they are old ex working elephants and basically in retirement here giving the odd tourist ride or spraying water at tourists at bath time (people pay to be soaked in the river!) As Rani is 23 and thus young and very fit she is very suitable to attend the Perahera and she loves people and attention so should enjoy herself and she will have her Mahout Chandana with her at all times , Chandana made sure we washed her extra hard yesterday so she left sparkly clean. I gave her a dough ball before she left and we had a cuddle (the best place to cuddle an elephant is around its trunk) I don't think that I have mentioned the one rule they have here that volunteers (or anyone) are never within contact range of the elephants unless the Mahout or a vet is present, luckily we have plenty of time each day to spend with "our" elephant and also at the moment there are elephants with out assigned volunteers so I can help with there vet checks as well. At the vets check we brush the bottom of there feet (the Mahouts ask them to raise them one at a time) and we look for any cuts or stones that may be trapped underneath, also some of the older elephants have wounds that need cleaning and treating with iodine. This morning during vet check I was massaging olive oil into A.Menikes leg as it's a bit stiff and it takes a lot of oil to massage an elephant J

The Perahera season is coming to a close and tomorrow is the last one until next May, we are going to leave MEF early afternoon tomorrow and attend a Perahera about 2 hours away, I am not sure if it's the one that Rani is at but if it is I will be cheering loudly when she passes. I am really looking forward to seeing the Perahera and we will also be visiting the associated temple, MEF has a lot of contact with temples (at lot of whom have elephants the vets here treat or they loan MEF elephants) as such volunteers are given special access to the temples and shown parts not always open to tourists etc, I am very excited about this and will have to sort out some clothes that are suitable for the temple (no bare shoulders or knees) as I don't wish to offend anyone

I will be taking my camera and hopefully will get some good photos, next week I have arranged for another volunteer to meet me at the river in the morning so he can take some photos of Rani and I having our early morning bath

I took a TukTuk (mad 3 wheeled bike taxi thing that again deserves its one entry) into Kegalle town centre with one of the MEF staff to buy a local simcard, in short I have it and can now text and receive texts at a greatly reduced rate, however it appears that only contract UK mobiles could receive my texts yesterday, Mark has the number if anyone is interested but please bear in mind I do pay a small amount to receive a text and if I don't answer its because I don't carry the phone around and tend to check it in the evenings, or I have replied and your phone can't receive it

I was going to write about Mr Kuru the gardener here today but seem to have ran out of time ,

Hope you are all well

Sam

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