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
Monday, May 18, 2009
Friday, May 15, 2009
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
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
Sunday, May 10, 2009
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!!
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!!
Thursday, May 7, 2009
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
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
Saturday, May 2, 2009
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
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!
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!
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