FINALLY a new update!

Sorry everyone for not updating for soooo long; it seemed that everytime someone was going to the internet I had something else to do, was in the wrong van, the place closed before we could get there... life got in the way!

Anyways I am home safe! And there is too much for me to talk about now. Everytime I turn around I find myself starting another story with "when I was in Sri Lanka..." it still seems so unreal!

Since the last time I updated we went to countless temples, saw sea turtles lay their eggs, rode/played with elephants, went on pre-dinner adventures, saw the nicest botanical gardens in south Asia, helped a local family plaster their house, and completely finished the temple wall and the foundation of the Trade Training Facility! It seems impossible that we did so much in such a small amount of time. By the end of our trip everyone was so used to being with each other 24/7 no one knew what we were going to do without eachother once we got home! It is pretty lonely waking up to an empty house when you're used to 14 of your friends there every minute. I once said to everyone that I was pretty sure that our whole group was in love with each other and every person there agreed; not very often will you find a group of 15 strangers get along so well.

This is one of the temples we went to... you can't see it because it's on the top of that gigantic rock!!

We could look over the whole world (or what seemed like it) from the top of it... made me feel pretty small haha.

And what a hike! The stairs weren't only strong in numbers but were slippery, different depths, sloped on strange angles, sometimes incredibly steep, and overall pretty scary.

(I was going to load a bunch more photos but now it doesn't seem to be working for me... so what I will do is load them on another site and put the link for it... sorry to send you all over the internet just to hear a few stories!)

After this temple we went to another one that was a HUGE Buddha that we climbed up (yess, more stairs; these ones were a bit more uniform though luckily) and once we were at the top we were standing on his shoulder. It was pretty tall but the view didn't compare at all to the temple before it.

Once we left that temple we moved on to the "blow hole" which was these two rocks that were located just perfectly so that as the ocean swelled around it the water was pushed up and would spray out the top. It was just like the way a whale would blow water out of its blow hole... guess that's where it got its name from.

I can't remember any specific work stories to put in here because I don't know chronologically what happened and every work day was fairly similar to the last. As it got closer to the end of the month though it got rainier and rainier. It started as small little bursts of rain here and there and then turned into half days of rain that we couldn't even do anything. For a while there it felt like we would never be able to do another day of work and everyone was getting pretty disheartened thinking we wouldn't be able to finish any part of the project completely. Luckily the weather turned around giving us the perfect amount of time to finish the temple wall and TTF foundation. And of course we still had tea time, cricket lessons, volleyball tournaments, and the occassional music session where we would sing and play guitars and bang on drums... it was all very movie-ish.

We had another birthday celebration at lagoon paradise. Greg turned 21 (a very important year signifying the transition to manhood in Sri Lanka) and we threw him a party he will never forget. Since it was so special we all pitched in and got some Gold Label, Angus brought out some of his fine cigars, we bought a huge cake shaped like a key ("key to manhood") and we all had a very good night.

The next day we had a volleyball game scheduled against the police station. Little did we know they thought we were an actual team from Canada and they had a whole tournament arranged with speaches and certificates for all of us to thank us for the hard work we were doing there. We didn't win very many games and they soon found out we weren't a real team but it was definitely a lot of fun!

For a little bit less active journey we went to the def school just outside of town. We weren't expecting to have very much fun or to stay very long since there was usually such a language barier already we thought it would be even more difficult there. But the kids were adorable and again we played volleyball and hung out for hours at the school. They took art classes there and they had such amazing paintings and vases; I'm pretty sure every person in the group bought at least one piece of art (and all proceeds go towards more supplies for the students). Most of us even got to get a picture with the person who made the piece before leaving the school.

Our next trip was to Galle; the oldest city that is still up and running in Sri Lanka. It was really tiny and had the most amazing sea wall I have ever seen. We more-or-less just walked around the city and then had lunch. On the way home we stopped at this little surfing place that was a bit sketchy in the end. No one there really spoke english so we had no instructions (other than the bit from people who had surfed in our group before), the water was really rough, the boards were so slippery you couldn't sit on it if it was laying on the shore (literally), and no one was able to stand up at all. But it was still fun and it definitely sparked an interest for me to try it again (Tofino anyone?) plus now I can say I went surfing in Sri Lanka! Still later that night (yep... it was a long day) we packed into the vans around 8:30 and went to a beach that is reserved to help protect the sea turtles during egg laying and hatching. The way they do it is by having guys all along the beach with flash lights and if they see a turtle then they flash their light and signal the group over to see it. Some groups wait until the wee hours in the morning before they see one and some don't see any at all. We were lucky though (as with most other things during our trip it seemed!) and there was one on the beach as soon as we got there! We couldn't see her right away because she was digging her hole. While we were waiting to visit her there was another one just down the beach from us! she was already done laying her eggs and covering them up so we got to pet her and walk beside her as she was going back to the ocean. Most of the group left to go back to the other turtle before she was all the way gone but I wanted to watch until I couldn't see her anymore. So I stayed with two others and we pet her fins, her head, her shell... anything I could because she was so incredible and then we watched as she swam away. It was probably the most magical thing I have ever experienced. After she was gone we went back to the other turtle and watched as she layed her eggs. The guide we were with picked up one of the eggs so we could feel it; it was surprizingly soft and a little bigger than a golf ball... kinda small considering how massive they are. Anyways, everyone was pretty wiped out and so we didn't stay to see her off to sea as well because there's no guarantee of how long she would take to burry her eggs and everything.

The next few days were when we finished our work projects and had to say goodbye to the friends we made at the temple and the TTF. It was so exciting to be finished but extremely sad to say goodbye; we really did make good friends while we were there and I miss them deeply. Our monk even held a ceremony for us with more certificates and a huge lunch and tea fit for royalty. He really did his best to show how much he appreciated us. All I wanted to do was give him a big hug, but seeing as you're not allowed to touch a monk I thought that would be a little inappropriate :P He was the most gentle and genuine person I have ever met and I hope I never forget any part of him.

The next morning we said goodbye to the soccerboys that we hung out with and the people who worked at our hotel (another very sad moment for everyone) and set out for our cultural trip! It just so happened to be another birthday for one of our group members! She had a nice spa day while we planned a dinner fit for gods and a little party at our place for that night. We all wore animal masks and tried to wear clothes to match for an attempted theme party that she was not expecting at all! She was so excited when she saw us all - we couldn't of asked for a better reaction.

The following day we took the train to our next hotel. That night a few of us went for a pre-dinner hike behind the hotel that turned into way more than any of us were expecting. At some points it felt like we were scaling the side of the hill rather than walking. The ground was all litter from the tree and very unstable as we moved along and to top it off a couple of us had thrown out our working shoes and only had flip flops to go up in! But we made it to the top none-the-less, none of us seemed to notice however how late it was getting and our decent was turned into a race against the clock. The sun goes down so fast there that we were literally sliding down the hill at times to try and get down before dark; despite all our efforts it still got dark before we hit the bottom. Luckily an older local fellow saw us as we were going up the hill and kept an eye out for us and when it got dark he came out with a flashlight and lit up the way as best he could. It was very tiring but a great adventure... and we were still on time for dinner! After we ate I had a shower - a very cold shower. I didn't know that you had to push a button before your shower to get hot water but i was filthy from the hike and couldn't NOT shower so I toughed it out and had a glacier-water shower (not actually but that's what it felt like). I could not even stand underneath the flow of water because it almost hurt it was so cold. I felt pretty blonde when I told people that the showers sucked and they told me how to work them :P

Next day we were on the road again. We stopped along the way to visit a tea factory - it was pretty much how I expected it to be: a lot of leaves haha. It was pretty cool actually because more than one type of tea comes from the same plant it just differs by what leaf they use. The tip is the very best and then the black, pekoe, and green come from the next three leaves on the stem.

The following day we went to an elephant orphanage. It was pretty cool at first but I felt kinda bad because most of the elephants had some chains on and were hanging out in a field. But then we went to their "bath time" when all the elephants went to this river and they got to play and socialize and bathe all they wanted. And we got to be right beside them as they did it! there were all ages and sizes of elephants around but it was mostly teenagers that would come up and see us. They would play with our bracelets and sort of fondle us the same way a pushy horse would (ahem... Indi). If you had asked me before I left what I would be doing in Sri Lanka I never thought I would be saying that I'd be playing with elephants with absolutely no barrier or "herder" between us. This is when I want to be able to load pictures because you just won't understand until you see them! :D And the babies were SO adorable, I could just go on forever.

We went to a gem museum to see where each type of precious stone came from and the different cuts and how they get them. It was very interesting but it was made so much cooler when we went downstairs and actually got to see HUGE stones and hold them. Aunty Bea would be so jealous if she saw all the gems we got to look at by the handfull. A few people designed their own rings and necklaces and a few people bought some as gifts for family members. But I think the best gift was the one that the group bought for our leader. In Sri Lanka a lot of the men have this big gold ring with 9 gems in it (just little ones) lined up three by three. It is thought to represent the 9 planets and protects people who wear them. I don't know the whole story but Devon thought it was really awesome and really wanted to get one for himself. Since the group wanted to do something special for him (because he was an AMAZING group leader) we decided we weren't going to let him pay for it. He now wears it on his ring finger - he is married to all of us! It was so cute when we told him that we were going to do that for him too... we got teers and everything! It was definitely worth it just for that moment.

Next was the botanical gardens... I can't even talk about it because it won't do it justice! There will be lots of pictures when I get them up. Amazing trees, HUGE, and so lush! I think the gardens were one of my favorites of the entire trip... maybe just because I'm a forestry geek though :P

almost done

We went to another huge hike on the top of a big rock to some ruins. It was pretty amazing how much they could build without the technology that we have today - it almost seems like everything is faked just because I can't imagine how they would accomplish it!

And then there was RIDING an elephant! Each elephant (there were two for our group) had a small matress type pad on its back and then a little cage that we would put our legs through and hold onto the top... except for me since I got to sit on her neck! It felt like riding a REALLY fat horse bareback... only with hair like a potbellied pig haha. Again I just can't put words to how much fun that was!

The next day we had some more temples and ruins to go to but I started feeling kind of sick. I couldn't be in the sun for too long or else I started getting dizzy and feverish. I ended up staying in the car for most of that one... and that night... and the next day... and the next night. I would start feeling better and try to eat something and it would get bad again. Or I would take some tylenol and feel aright enough to sleep and then try to wake up just in time for them to wareoff again. It wasn't the most fun but luckily I was healthy by the time we were flying out.

Transit home is a whole story on its own. We all went to the airport and said final goodbyes (since not everyone was going back to vancouver right away) for 1am and then the little group I was with flew to Beijing. Upon arrival they checked everyones temperature before anyone was allowed off the plane. Unfortunately our friend jacquie had a little bit of a fever and they took her leaving us with only a number to call and an hour and a half before our next flight. Long story short when we were trying to find where they took her we missed our flight and then got stuck in Beijing for the next 2 nights. Needless to say it wasn't the BEST time but we did try to have some fun - and we did have a little... mixed in with a lot of angry moments... and a lot of confusion... not my most favorite of places. But it all turned out fine in the end! Jacquie was on the same flight as us and we did eventually land in Vancouver! I still don't like talking about it too much since I just get mad again haha.

And that is the short version of the rest of my trip!!

I hope this loads fine because it took a long time to get this all down haha

Photos to come soon!

much love

Karen

Just a quickie

HI!

Today the announcement officially came out that the war is over!!!
There are people dancing on the streets, every car has at least one flag on it, every window is decorated, firecrackers are going off everywhere, and everyone is excited! We went to the school today to meet the kids that we were donating those english books to that we brought with us and only half of them were there because of the celebrations. But the ones that were there were adorable and we played a bunch of word games to try and work on their english in a fun way. We played hang man and our own version of boggle and we all wrote our names out on this white board; the kids are amazing and I may have a new pen pal! One of the girls who was playing with us asked for my address and so i gave it to her and told her to write me; hopefully she does.

Anyways, older news: The party on saturday wasn't a huge one; a couple of the people that we work with came to our place and hung out. We played some cards and just sat around for the most part. The boys went upstairs for some cigars at one point (like they normally do) and the girls all got rides on the back of Kinishka's (one of the workers) motorcycle! It was so much fun and I'm now convinced that I need to get one for myself haha. We didn't stay up too late because we had to wake up at 5 the next morning for the elephant tour. I was wrong about it being the orphanage, that's part of the cultural tour later, but it was a sanctuary. It was all safari style with us standing in the back of three jeeps while they drove through the huge land filled with water buffalo, monkeys, and SOO MANY ELEPHANTS! I could have taken hundreds of pictures there... but I held back to a few dozen (or more... :P) it was so beautiful on the property... I think I have more tree pictures than I do elephant ones haha.
Once we got home everyone was exhausted and went to bed for a few hours before making dinner. The head monk at the temple builds little trinkets and draws and takes pictures and so he asked us to all draw pictures of ourselves infront of the temple wall for him to keep for a memory. That's what we did after dinner for the most part and we decided to get them laminated for him so that they stay longer (plus that's what he does with a lot of his things anyways so we thought we would throw that in there as an extra gift to him seeing as he's done so much for us).

The next day (today) it was back to work where we played more cricket at lunch and we sang to the locals this time instead of them singing to us (even though they sang too); since we're all becoming closer friends and everything it was way less embarassing than when we were trying to think of something to sing the other day. It's going to be sad to leave and I already don't look forward to saying our goodbye's.

That's all I have to say for now!! I'm going to walk home and enjoy all the excitement now!

LOVE
Karen

half way!

It's Friday after work and we've figured out that we only have 15 more work days; pretty much we're halfway done working! I can't believe how fast the time is flying here.
Continuing from last post when we were at palm paradise:
The food was amazing on the way down... unfortunately we had a few casualties from it! Three people got sick from the food there and couldn't work for the next two days because they couldn't leave the side of their toilets! Luckily I wasn't one of them. Everyone's stomache is feeling fine now but a whole bunch of us are already sick of the site of curry in our diets. For breakfast we eat fruit and jam on bread, lunch we eat rottie (which is like a curry pizza pocket... they were amazing at the beginning but lunch after lunch of them tends to wear down the excitement), and dinner has been a lot of trial and error nights ending up with very small meals all the time. It's hard to eat a lot here though because of all the heat; it's interesting knowing how much your body needs on a regular day and how much you should be eating working as hard as we do yet we can't even make ourselves down that much food.
Our two groups traded work sites on wednesday but when we left the temple the wall was already halfway up! now the foundation is completely done and they're working on a few houses in the area. At the trade school we're still working on the foundation; all the sides are done and now we're just connecting them in the corners. We only have one tea time at the school site but at lunch we play volleyball or cricket with the locals that we work with, or they bring their guitar and sing to us, one day they even read our palms for us! (I'm going to have one true love, three kids; one girl and two boys, I have a good mind and heart... I think that's all they told me) and yesterday they taught us how to count to ten (eca, deca, tuna, hathera, phaha, higha, hata, otta, novena, dehigha!). Anyways it's a lot of work but also a lot of fun. Since it's so hot out we work hard for 10-20 mintues and then have to take a break so noone dies of exhaustion; sometimes we go longer if there's a nice breeze or a cloud overhead but usually our breaks are longer because we work faster than the brick layers or other limiting factors.
The weather here is sunny every day all day and usually around 30... I end every day with a little red to my skin but by the next morning I am back to my typical cinnamon colour that I adopt over summer; however my tan is only on my arms... since i wear a hat all day at work and a sleeved shirt... hopefully our one day weekends will be enough to even it all out!
At night we almost always have a lightning show but rarely ever accompanied with rain. It's really amazing to watch and it completely lights up the sky. I took a video on my camera of it so everyone at home could see.
Tomorrow is our half day of work and then the caretaker at our hotel has his birthday! so we're going to come home and get cleaned up (and probably nap) and throw him a birthday to remember! we're all pretty excited. and then Sunday morning we are going the the elephant orphanage/santuary! sooo excited for that. I still can't believe all the animals they have here that are just running around: water buffalo, monkeys, cows, dogs, cats, monitors, geckos, goats, peakocs! everything is just so surreal still!
Funny story I forgot to mention at the worksite the other day: the locals were really impressed with how hard I was working and how strong I was (compared to the other girls) that they made me queen of the worksite... they made me a crown out of cashew leaves and everything! it was really funny and made me feel pretty good at the effort I've been putting into this.
Everyone here has their own bed and there's 9 single rooms, and 4 double rooms each with their own bathroom with a flushing toilet and a shower (not as bad as i thought it was going to be at all!) which leaves two people stuck in the two beds in the living room... since I'm the nice person that I am I volunteered for one of those beds... bad choice on my part! In the mornings I have to wait to use one of the bathrooms in the guest house... all of which are double rooms so there's quite the line up... I can't change until everyone else is done, and we don't have a ceiling fan... just a floor fan that goes between the two of us meaning we get really hot and then nice and cool allll night... BUT GOOD NEWS! today we're switching rooms! we realized that one of the double rooms had the two people staying in one bed (sharing a mosquito net) and leaving the other bed completely unused... so they're moving into one of the single rooms with a double bed and Jacquie and I are gonig to be roomates! I'm pretty excited for this and am pretty sure I'm going to kick everyone out as soon as we get back haha.
I had an injury on the worksite the other day... we were carrying buckets of cement to build the foundation and i walked into this wooden post... I ended up getting a substantial sliver in my leg but we had a first aid kit on site... we cleaned it up and tried to pull it out but ended up breaking it off and leaving it too deep to get at there. One of the locals broke up a bunch of leaves there and put it on the sliver and made it completely stop bleeding which I thought was pretty cool. Anyways, back at home we performed minor surgery in Devon's room (aka I layed on teh bed while 5 people watched as he pulled it out of my leg). It was pretty deep though so I ended up with a bit of a hole in my calf and a nice oversized bandage to look hardcore afterwards :P Don't worry, I survived and it looks like I get to keep my leg too! (I bet my mom's not laughing at that one)
I'm trying to remember everything to tell you guys but I can't even remember what I've said here!
everything is so laid back, there's no pressure to do anything in a hurry and everything seems so cheep! i just bought a 500 ml tub of ice cream to share with a friend ehre for 120 rupies... which is the equivalent of about 1 dollar! and I thought I was going to lose weight here... hahaha
I felt really bad the other day buying some things from a man on the beach because we all bartered with him (which is expected) but the amount that we cut it down must have meant so much more to him than it meant to us. It's hard to remember that they're having such a hard time right now when everyone is so happy and welcoming all the time.
Anyways I guess I'll quit while I'm ahead and let some other people use the computer now!
talk to you all later!
lots of love
Karen

Herrroooo family and friends

Today is our Sunday and we're just chilling at palm paradise; it's the resort that the baller older groups stay at when they volunteer... it is amazing and has a beautiful beach in front of it, a wonderful restaurant and everything like that... but our place is already home to me. It's closer to the village and has a lot more of the cultural experience I wanted, we're a lot closer together as a team because our rooms are closer and cooking our own meals and such, pretty much just better!
Everything here is a lot like Cuba and I find that I talk about that trip a lot... makes me want to go back even more now!
Yesterday was the parade and it was a lot more amazing than I thought it was going to be; all the little kids in it were adorable, the costumes were so elaborate, the women are so beautiful, and the dancing is amazing... not to mention the ELEPHANT that was in it!! all dressed up and about 4 feet away from me!! there was a bucket of water (i guess more like a garbage can) beside me and i was taking a video of the people dancing as they went by and turned around to see an elephant spraying people all around me! it just about got me too but i just made it out of the way and then the next spray was a little less intense haha sooo good
afterwards we went to this little village that DWC build as their first project because we were invited to see the lanterns they had made for the full moon festival. We watched kids playing and took ttons of pictures with them and tried to have as much conversationw ith them as we could... all the kids can write and read english really well but a lot of them can't speak it because they don't have the oportunity to and often they're picking up the accents of their teachers, but the occassional kid will walk up and surprise us with perfect english!
everyone is so hospitable... at the parade they gave us "welcome drinks" even though we weren't at their house we were just infront of a couple... at the village they served us all tea... and don't forget this isn't just a couple cups... it's serving 15 people... and they don't even think twice about it!
I don't know what it is about everything here... but the kids, the monkeys, the dogs/puppies, the cows/goats, the kittens are all SO adorable... and every time I see a baby something I think of Monseur l'oeuf and how soon it will be coming!!
anyways, I could probably write forever about everything but I want something to talk about when I come home and there are more people waiting for the computer
I'll update again soon and keep up on my adventures!
Love you all SO much
Karen

ps happy mothers day to all you women in my life!! that includes you too now Annie!!

safe and sound

HEY EVERYONE!!

I love Sri Lanka! we have all settled in and got straight to work... but it turns out it is the full moon festival this weekend and so we get friday and saturday off! therefore... only a two day work week this time.
We're in two different groups: one working on the temple wall and one building the trade school. This week and next week my group is working on the temple wall. The first day was a lot of work: digging, scooping, shoveling, back-breaking work in smoking hot weather... the locals didn't seem fased by it at all though and there we are taking breaks from the sun every ten minutes. We expected today to be even more work but we didn't do any digging; instead we were building the wire framework for the pillars to be built on... it was more like an art project all morning! but then we ran out of supplies so we sat down while people went to get more... then it was tea time... we finished tea and they still weren't back... so we waited and played with some of the kids who go to school there... then we had lunch... then we talked to the head monk and he showed us his pictures and gave us bananas and we ate fresh mangos off of the tree there... and then we worked for about ten minutes when they had found something to do... then it was tea time again and time to go after that!! what an amazing day!!
It won't be like that all the time though haha we definitely enjoyed it while we could.

Tonight is our friday so we're going to get some drinks and play volley ball on the beach go for some swims.. tomorrow is the first night of the full moon festival so we're oging to go into town and enjoy the festivities!!

We have every single day of our trip planned all the way to the end! but I'm not going to tell you anything about it until it happens.

This is just a quick check in to tell you all Im here and safe and loving it!! :D

Talk to you all soon
Love Karen

Lasts

Tonight is the last night for a lot of things:
a guaranteed nice hot shower
sleeping in a comfy bed without a mosquito net around me
doing laundry in a machine
drinking water from the tap
eating food I can readily identify
watching television
using a microwave
ultimately... being in Canada!!!
flight leaves in 12 hours! :D:D and I am SOOOOO excited!
I am going to miss everything here (but only when I get the chance to inbetween working, laying in the sun, swimming in the ocean, playing in the sand... you know; Sri Lanka things)
LOVE YOU ALL!!!
Karen

Getting Ready

Today is the first of the month and I cannot believe that it has come this quickly! It seems like only yesterday I was in my kitchen eves-dropping on my roomates conversation about a volunteer experience in Sri Lanka; now it is less than 36 hours until I will be in Vancouver airport getting ready to embark on this journey myself. Right now I'm just trying to write out a quick last minute to-do list so that I don't forget to do a single thing before I leave (I can now cross off "create a blog" from that list :)
I want to thank everyone again for all your support and encouragement while I was getting ready for this trip and I hope that I can update you all regularly on what is going on and all the new experiences I've had!!

Much love
Karen

Ps there is also a blog that will be updated by our group leader at www.developingworldconnections.org
just follow that link and click on the left bar that says "DWC Blogspot" once there click on the sri lanka link. I don't believe that there is anything about our group up there yet but there is the last groups updates and ours will be there shortly!