Safari time!

Hi guys!

So this past weekend I did loads of traveling! But the main point of this trip was to take a safari in the jungles of Yala National Park in Tissamaharama. It was a an 8 hour trip from my home in Panadura. We traveled half the way by bus, stopping in Unawatuna to stay the night on the beach Friday. On Saturday though we hired another van, this time with air conditioning. :) One of the host families set this whole trip up for us, they also traveled along with us. Making sure to stop at the good spots and showing us around. The mother use to run the hotel we stayed at, which her sister now owns. So we got a good deal of 1000 rupees for one night (which equals about 10 bucks!!!). Saturday afternoon after having some lunch we all piled into a rugged old Range Rover SUV with bench seats in the back and no side walls for the jeep tour around the park. It was a 4 hour excursion around the huge park and we saw monkeys, water buffalo, land monitors (which are large lizards that roam everywhere!), some type of deer, crocs, bears, and ELEPHANTS! We were actually very lucky to see one elephant that had two huge tusks, there are only about 12 male elephants in the park and only three aparently have tusks. So we were very lucky! The other elephant we saw was no more then 50 yards from our jeep, she looked a bit pregnant and she was trying to cross the road to get to a water hole. It was VERY cool to bust through this rugged terrane through the jungles. I am hopfully getting some pictures up sometime soon!

After the tour we returned to the hotel for dinner and bed! The next day, Sunday, we woke early to take some breakfast and head out for a boat tour around the lake in Tissa. But before the boat, the host father we traveled with wanted to show us a few temples and historic ruins from the old king. We saw where is palace use to stand around 60 B.C. and also his private Stupa, which is a huge religious monument Buddhists go to pray at. Stupas come in all sizes, but they are all dome shaped and they say that you should walk to the left of the stupa, always keeping it on your left and praying as you go. Many people bring lotus flowers and holy oils to burn as gifts to Buddha.

Later sunday the group of about 8 of us decided to split up and go different ways. Some traveled to Ella in the mountains to do some site seeing and hiking, well as we all know i've already had my fair share of hiking so another volunteer and I took off to spend the Monday holiday on the beach at Hikkaduwa! Utilizing our new local tourist friends to take us surfing again and hang out on the beach. It was a nice weekend, but very tiresome! Maybe i'll try to take a weekend off here pretty soon... haha! Probably not!

Anyhoo... that's all i got for now i guess!

xoxo
Lauren

All of us on the sick jeep ready to see some wild animals!! GRrrr...

This is a stupa.

Hikkaduwa!

I have found my serenity in this crazy world! Its a small town on the south western province of Sri Lanka called Hikkaduwa! I traveled down there for the weekend with 4 or 5 other volunteers and spent a couple of days galavanting on the beach!
So we took another crazy bus ride down to Hikkaduwa Friday night. When we got down there 2 other volunteers were already mixing in with the other tourists visiting this paradise. So we ordered some brews and joined the fun on the beach! The area of the town we stayed was a local hot stop for surfing! The hotels have the beach as their back yard and they served up the most scrumptious food and beer around! The locals drink this liquor called "Arrack" which i think is a cross between rum and tequila. Not my favorite stuff but it was enjoyable to experence the Sri Lankan spirit! We shared the weekend with about 6-8 other tourists vacationing in Sri Lanka for a couple of months! They showed us the local hot spots to eat and drink and be merry! It was LOADS of fun to meet people of all walks of life!
Saturday was by far one of my favorite days of all time! haha! We woke up rejuvinated and ready for the sun. Hitting the beach at around 9ish and laying out almost all day! Later in the evening another volunteer and one of our new friends offered to teach a couple of us how to surf!!! YES SURF! So we found a place to rent a board and they took us out to the small waves. You know me... i was determined to stand on that damn board if it took me all night! I managed to stand and ride a wave all the way to the shore before the sun went down! And I was hooked, i cant wait to go back and practice more!
That night we showered and got ready for a birthday party for one of the local tourists. They hired a 5 peice Sri Lankan band to come play all night long! We danced, had a cook out and drank arrack to celebrate! Before sitting down to eat, I got to experience baby sea turtles hatching on the beach!!! There were about 15-25 of the tiny baby turtles that popped out of the sand on their own and wandered down to the water. Some of them had a hard time finding their way because of all the lights of the hotel, so we gently picked them up and helped them to the water. It was truely AMAZING!

What a weekend! Cant wait to share more! Stay tuned!!!!

xoxo
Lauren

Little tiki huts to get out of the sun and relax in!

Adam's Peak

Hi guys!Sorry for not writing and depriving you of life in Sri Lanka! I've been a busy little bee!Loads to tell you all about this past weekend! So... where to start?Saturday morning 10 volunteers including myself set out early morning for the mountains and a town called Dalhousie. We road the local public bus from Panadura (my town) to the capital, Colombo where we were suppose to take the train up to the mountains, but arrived to late to get a seat. As soon as we looked confused on the next step to take, we were approached my a local man offering to take us where we needed in a private 10 passenger van. I guess this happens regularly to tourists like us, I'm glad there were other volunteers there to barter him a good deal and make sure the offer wasnt some crazy scandal. But we made sure the van was safe to get into and the man wasnt taking us off to some weird jungle somewhere... haha! It was a bit more expensive to travel this way then by bus, but it was a 6-7 hour trip to the mountains and if we took the bus we might not get a seat as well. And standing that long was not an option for me! I was very glad we took the van because the roads in the mountains were a bit scary we found out!! they were only wide enough for one vehicle, but busses, vans, cars and trucks alike squished on these roads that had no gaurd rales and a shear cliff on one side! OH MY GOD it was scary. anyhoo... we got to Dalhousie, found our hotel for the night and had some dinner.The mountain we were there to climb is called Adam's Peak. Its a mountain that is more that 2500km high and over 5000 steps to climb to the top. It is believed that this mountain is the footstep of buddah, Adam, and some other religious figures i cant remember. millions of people come to climb this mountain to worship him between the months of december and may (go figure we choose the pilgramage season to climb, one of the busiest times of the year!). the best time to climb is during the night to reach to top by sunrise and experience something magical. well... we started our acent around 11:30 at night all excited about the hike... only to find out that everyone else and their mom had the same idea we all had. SO... it was a brawl trying to move anywhere. Squished in like sardines and not to mention the sri lankan men that couldnt resist any oportunity to grab our butts or make comments to us. it was one of the most frustraiting and belittleing things i have ever experienced. I cant even explain to you how i felt. I delt with it though, trudged on cause how many times will i be here to climb this amazing mountain. from the bottom you could see the trail lit with lights all the way to the top, the only way i can describe it is that it looked exactly like the last scene of Mamma Mia where the mother is climbing the path up to the chaple for the wedding, how beautiful the lights made the mountain look! We climbed for about 7 hours until i couldnt take the locals and their games. i was another 3 hours from the summit and to me i had just broken down. so just as the sun was rising i was on my way down with 2 other volunteers, exhausted beyond belief! but the trip down was just as vicious at going up. i was afraid for my life at one point where so many people were trying to go down while others were trying to go up, people shoving and pushing their way through. it was so nasty!!! but we arrived back at the hotel around 8 or 9 in the morning and was immediately served breakfast and a cold drink. thank god!As the rest of the pack trickled in, only 2 of us conquered the peak! We finally made it into another private van to take us home around 1pm and off we went for another crazy ride over the mountains! only... every other van/bus/truck or car had the same idea we had! there were traffic jams and problems getting out of Dalhousie. we waited in traffic, inching forward every 20 minutes or so... we hadnt moved more than 4 miles in about 4 hours! so by 6 pm the driver turned the van around and attempted to go another way. only the road he wanted to take closed in 5 MINUTES! he was weaving around these switchbacks like it was his job! speeding i dont know how fast on these mountain roads, i though for a minute that i was on some crazy rollercoaster in universal studios!!!!! people were grabbing "oh shit" handles left and right! i though i was going to die... but luckily we made it in time and we were all alive! HAHA! for the next 4.5 hours i was in and out of sleep, not remembering much of that part of the drive home. i was running on my 40th straight hour of being awake! but we made it, safe and sound. i finally layed my head on my pillow around 11 pm that night. and oh... on top of ALL of this extravaganza... i was jet lagged, sick with a fever and cough/congestion. kinda misserable actually. but worth every minute!what a crazy couple of days i was thrown into my first weekend in sri lanka! i slept in the next day, did some laundry, read my book (by the way... i'm on the 4th book of twilight! bella just had that monster of a baby! i cant believe this shit!) and took naps! it was a good day of recooperating. i needed some quality R&R!!!!stay tuned for more from Sri Lanka!!xoxoLauren

This is the crazy van we rode in all weekend!

Switchbacks through the mountains!

This is the madness I delt with for 8 hours climbing this mountain! uggh.... gives me anxiety just thinking about it! All the locals are bundled up because the elevation has dropped the temperature a considerable amount! I was fine... but I guess it was a bit chilly! Brrr...

The spectacular view from the top of Adam's Peak! BEAUTIFUL!

Family, Volunteers, Culture

Ok so i know you guys are wondering about the situation I'll be living in for the next three months... well here's the low down real quick!

I live in a town called Panadura with the Pieris family. Lal (dad), Chandra (mom), Erandra(son, 23), and Manoj (son, 20). They are all very very nice, hard to understand at times though the oldest son speaks the best english and he may be leaving soon to go to college in Australia (go figure). The house is large and very nice. I have my own bedroom, though they can hold up to 5 volunteers at a time. I am by myself right now, but i hear that there are 2 more volunteers coming this month, one from America! The other volunteers are all VERY nice! I have a Dutch girl next door, and two British kids down the street. But there are about 6 more volunteers that live about 4 hours south of us, one of them being another American girl from Penn. We do a lot of traveling together as a group which is nice to kind of hang out with english speaking people and do some cool traveling.

The hospital is a quick 5 mintue walk from home. Me and another volunteer go together, and this first week we are starting off in the pediatrics ward. There isnt much to do but follow the doctor on her rounds in the morning and once again in the afternoon. There are about 4 interns that are also following her every move, so its hard to hear what she is saying most of the time during her exams. And she also flips from explaining in Sinhala then to english, so i only catch bits and peices. Its hard...
The hospital is very limited on what equipment they have available. i've noticed that sanitation is not a high priority on their list and techniques are just different from home. hopefully i can snap some pictures to show you what i mean, but taking pictures outside is somewhat forbidden because of all the terrorism going on. hope this answers some questions!

love and peace from Sri Lanka!!
stay tuned....

xoxo
Lauren

Travel Extravaganza!

Hi all!

So a few things i meant to cover last time:
1.) its HOTTTT!!! like i mean i shower twice or three times a day i sweat so much!
2.) nasty street dogs all over the place. kinda weird, they arent exactly the ones you want to cuddle up with at night that's for sure!
3.) i've never had so many people stare at me before walking down the street!
4.) i'm beyond tired... woke up at 4:00 am this morning completely jet lagged!
5.) curry isnt bad... but isnt cheese pizza either! oh how i could go for some portland pie right now!

I'm traveling to the mountains and doing a hiking trip this weekend at a place called Adam's Peak with about 10 other volunteers... so i cant wait to come back monday or tuesday and update you on everything. Hopefully i can get some pictures up and share everything with you!

Love from Sri Lanka!
LA xoxo

Sweat, Heat and Curry!

Hi everyone!

I hope that you have all found your way to my blog! This way I can write more (they restrict how long e-mails can be) and I dont have to e-mail everyone! You can also show whoever you want as well, share the wealth from Sri Lanka! So after my 29 hours of traveling I MADE IT! I'm here in once piece with all my luggage and most of my wits about me! I'm a little jet lagged, but there is no time to stop and rest! I have been GO, GO, GO since i stepped foot in this country! I was very nerve racking traveling by myself to this country. Usually blending in is a bit easier, but not here! Not that i wasnt a specticle anyways being the only while girl for miles, but i had quite the time trying to manuver my luggage around the airport looking for some taxi service which was suppose to take me to my hotel! jeesh wasnt that a site! But i found it, and they got me there safely. I actually arrived on their Independance Day, so there were roads shut off and detours to take. After settling into my room in Colombo, I took a shower and hit the hay.
Today I got up nice and early (3:00am! My sleep cylce is messed up!) took my time getting ready, a desk officer from Projects-abroad picked me up around 9:00 and we made the voyage down to Panadura which is the town i'll be living in for the next 3 months! He gave me the tour, introduced me to my host family that I'll be staying with, and then took me to the hospital i'll be working at. Holy smokes... what a difference in medical care. Gurneys or "stretchers" look like the army ones you see in the show *MASH*, completely metal and no matress! I only got a glimps of the ER and boy was that a site as well! I havent actually had an official tour of the facility yet because the doc wasnt there, but tomorrow i'll get to see what it's really like! I cant wait!!!! So curry and rice isnt so bad!!! I have actually had good experences with it so far. Though i'll let you know in a couple days how my bowels like it! anyhoo... i guess that is it for now.

Way more from Sir Lanka when i get a chance!
STAY TUNED.....

xoxo
Lauren