A slightly shorter week to be had in Habarana this week, as on Monday we had a small celebration for Pooja’s birthday. All the volunteers gathered as Pooja smashed apart her giant birthday cake to get to the tasty fruit hidden inside, it was a great afternoon.
We headed off to Habarana late in the afternoon. After driving for about an hour along the windy and very bumpy road from Randeniya, we reached a sign in the middle of the road, which translated as ‘road closed’! We thought this was going to add extra hours onto the journey, but thankfully, it was only an extra ten minutes.
Upon arrival we were greeted with friendly smiles, a few high fives and a cup of Deepika’s amazing sugary tea. We then showed the new volunteers around and explained a bit about what we were doing in the area, and shortly after, tucked into a delicious traditional meal of rice, fresh fish from the lake, sambol, dahl, poppadoms and chopped passionfruit leaf.
Day 1
Early on Tuesday morning, right on schedule, Peeder turned up on his bicycle with fresh vegetables for sale. We asked if he would mind us asking a few questions. Peeder is eighty years old and was a carpenter most of his life, but is now unable to do such heavy work, so supports his family through farming. He sells his crops in two villages and earns around 300-400 rupees per day, and always sells out.
We asked Podi about Peeder working at eighty, and whether this was a common occurrence, he said that in Sri Lanka, a lot of men enjoy working and like to work until they are no longer able to do so.
You get to see a lot of things in Sri Lanka that you don’t see in the Western world, like on the back of Peeder’s bicycle, an old style set of scales to weigh the vegetables. Everything is electronic for us these days, but something about seeing an eighty year old man, on a bicycle, with a small amount of fresh vegetables and these old scales, leading such a simple but happy life, really made me smile.
Later in the morning, Podi had arranged for the volunteers to lend a helping hand at the local temple. We arrived to find a group of friendly Sri Lankans rebuilding the steps leading up to this beautiful sacred site. We asked how we could help and formed a line from top to bottom and helped them move a pile of bricks to where they needed them, and remove all the unwanted stones. It felt good to work along side these locals and with all of us lending a helpful hand, the place was a lot tidier in no time.
They were very grateful for our help and wished us a long life. It is moments like this, simply helping people, that remind us all what this project is all about!
At lunch time we sat and taug
ht Sanduni and Sandeli how to play the new game we had bought for them, snakes and ladders! They really enjoyed the game and it was great to see their reactions to going down the snakes and the sheer excitement of going up a ladder.
We also encouraged them to count in English and taught them the words ‘up, down, snake and ladder’ too.
The game was obviously a hit as we saw them playing it most of the day and also teaching their friends how to play.
After lunch a few of the local children came round for an English lesson, always great fun, the children here have so much energy and enthusiasm, as well as beaming smiles! It seems they enjoy learning from us, as much as we enjoy teaching them.
Today, we started teaching times, a lot easier said than done. It is not as simple as we first thought, but we gave it a shot. You forget it’s not simply a case of one, two, three, four… you have to learn past and to; quarter past, half past and quarter to; five past, twenty past, ten to, etc. Tricky!
We had some posters with different objects on and asked the children to name them, sat in a circle and played the memory game and then finished with lots of games, and of course, hide and seek.
That evening, whilst Halina and I were writing up a few notes from the day, we overheard Sanduni and Sandeli playing snakes and ladders in the next room, and they were not only counting in English, but every time they went down a snake, we heard them say ‘down, down, down’, very sweet, and great that they are learning.
Day 2
The second day started with a very cultural experience. We spent the morning with Mahinda, on his land, where he was giving thanks to the God Ganesh, for protecting him and his land through the season.
We were told that farmers, at the start of the season, before they plants their crops, they pray to God and ask that he help and protect their land, from many things, including elephants. They hang a coconut at the start of the season and promise to give it to the Gods after the harvest.
So today, we were giving thanks to God Ganesh, as Mahinda had a successful year. Millawana, an elder member of the village was there to front the ceremony. They had laid out a white sheet, which had five sets of leaves, fruit and burning incense. We all sat around and watched everything being set up. Mahinda asked me if I wanted to help him by grating some coconut, of course I complied and took my seat on, what can only be described as, a wooden stool with a big scary spiky arm sticking out the front. I used this to grate a couple coconuts, then Grant took over and did a few too.
In a huge pot on the fire, he then mixed rice and the coconut with banana and sugar, which they then served onto banana leaves and placed in front of the Gods as an offering. Millawana then took a piece of wood from the fire and sprinkled a powder over the smouldering end of the stick and then wafted it above everything on the white sheet. The smell was incredible!
After giving thanks to the Gods and offering them all that was on the sheet, Millawana picked up half a coconut shell with a yellow liquid in, and blessed everyone in turn. Then Mahinda took the coconut that he had left on his land at the start of the season, removed the outer husk and took the center, he closed his eyes and spoke a few soft words. He then took the coconut high in the air and threw down hard, smashing the coconut to pieces over a rock on the ground, giving to God Ganesh as he had promised at the start of the season.
We were then served some of the coconut rice ourselves on a banana leaf, which was sweet and delicious. We all just about managed to eat the huge portions we were given, only to have our leaves refilled with an equally huge portion! Needless to say, none of us needed lunch today!
As volunteers working closely with this community, we are privileged and very lucky to experience these beautiful cultural events, that many people will never get the chance to see.
On the way back from Mahinda’s land, we stopped outside Nimal’s house to observe three elder ladies of the village weaving Tala tree leaves into baskets. As we showed a lot of interest they began to bring out other items they had made from the same leaves, such as, plates, handbags, storage tubs, in all shapes and sizes. They also told us that they normally last for around 3-4 years, not bad for something made only from leaves!
We asked if they enjoyed making them, to which they all replied yes, they all weave in their spare time. This must be the case because they were looking at us, not their hands, most of the time we were talking. We asked if we could come back and buy a few of each item and sell them in the MEF shop, and when they sold come back and buy some more? Of course, only if they wanted to, to which they all smiled and said yes, they would love to.
In the afternoon, the volunteers went off to Minneriya national park to see the wild elephants and took three of the local children along, we would love to go every time, but as we are volunteers ourselves we can’t really afford to go every two weeks! As much as we want to!
Instead, Halina and I spent the afternoon with a few children, playing games and making friendship bracelets. I’m pretty sure by the end of the day, every child in the village and every volunteer had a new pink and black bracelet.
Around 5 o’clock, Sumana, one of the ladies weaving the baskets earlier, came around to show us how to weave. Firstly, she took the leaves and passed them through a block of wood with a gap and sharp piece of metal, to cut the leaves into equal strips. Then, in a matter of seconds, placed a few leaves alternately on the ground, lifted some ends, bent some leaves and had the base of what was to become a bag. It would have taken me a week to figure out how to do it!
Today was also Sandeli’s birthday, 9 years old. We bought her a cake and all sang happy birthday. Sandeli then started to cut the cake, only problem was, the first slice was pretty much a quarter of the entire cake, so mum had to take over and we all enjoyed a nice bit of cake. One of the volunteers also bought three small water pistols for the children, which proved rather interesting on day 3!
That night Podi had arranged for the volunteers to stay in treehouses on the farmlands, in the jungle. We 
all jumped on board the trailer, driven by what looked like half a tractor, lit only by torchlight, and headed out into the jungle. We jumped off the trailer and navigated our way through many paddy fields until we found the first treehouse. After they had settled in for the night, we headed over to the second treehouse, where Grant and Caitlin would be staying.
Podi told us, when climbing the ladders to the treehouse, to go slowly and hold the sides of the ladder, rather than the rungs. Being over 6 feet tall, carrying a big backpack and rushing to the top of the ladder with excitement, it was no wonder that a couple of the rungs slid down as Grant ascended! Luckily there was no damage, just a bit of movement, and Grant was fine. Little bit scary but quite funny!
We headed back to the trailer and back to the house. The sky was filled with stars, a perfect night for sleeping in a treehouse.
Day 3
The volunteers all said they really enjoyed their stay in the treehouse, a great experience. That night when they were in the treehouses, Halina and I heard many bats making quite a racket in the tree across the road, apparently there were hundreds having a feast right above Jodi and Kerri, making just as much noise!
That morning we headed out to the farmland to help build a new treehouse, but when we got to the land, there was no farmer in sight. So instead, we took the volunteers on a bit of a tour around the farmland and the edge of the jungle to explain our ideas an show where the elephant corridors were.
We saw elephant dung only a few days old, broken branches possibly from the night before and some huge elephant foot prints on the farmland, proving once again how very real the human-elephant conflict is, in this village.
On our way back, in the distance, we saw Sandu, Sanduni and Sandeli running through the fields and into the water, they were collecting lotus leaves for our evening meal.
Maybe the water pistols we bought wasn’t the best idea, as when we got back to the house we were ambushed by Sanduni and Sandeli, on several occasions!
They bought over a strange green thing, which they broke apart and squeezed out a few seeds, which tasted lovely. They told us it was also from the lotus flower.
Finally the volunteers had had just about enough of being attacked by water pistols and started to fight back. More children started to turn up and join in, and within minutes there was a full blown water fight going on. The children were filling up bowls and bottles, Sandu was even using the hosepipe! Ten minutes and lots of soaking people later, it dawned on us that it hadn’t rained here in Habarana for 6 months, as soon as we realised this we all stopped and went to apologise to Deepika for the waste of water, to which she replied not to worry, it was fine, and she was so happy the kids were all having so much fun. Just in case we weren’t sure if she was being honest, she started spraying us with the hose too! A very entertaining afternoon!
Lunch today, was served on a lotus leaf. Not only did it look amazing, but it is said that it adds a sweet flavour to your food. It was delicious!
After lunch I sat down with Sanduni for half an hour and we switched roles, I got out my notebook and we translated lots of words. For being only twelve years old, her English is outstanding, much better than my Sinhala! I learnt some larger numbers, colours, emotions, family members and some words to do with the weather. Hopefully, both my Sinhala and Sanduni’s English will improve if we do this each time we visit. She would make a good teacher!
Later in the afternoon we went down the road to interview Siripala, however, he was not home. Across the way, was Millawana, the man who led the ceremony on Mahinda’s land, he was also another person we wanted to have a chat to, so Podi asked if he would mind us asking a few questions. We headed down a track next to one of the shops for a bit of shelter from the wind, and set up the camera and a lovely location looking out towards the jungle. Millawana was great to chat to, he had lots to say and had a big smile on his face the whole time.
The driver had come from MEF to pick us up, but just before we left Deepika had put out a delicious spread of tea and homemade cakes, which were amazing! A great send off after another great week.
Our wild conservation project is based in a small village named Weragala, just outside Habarana. Here, people view elephants as a pest and as a danger. With the village being situated between 4 national parks and on a natural migration route for wild elephants, many elephants pass through this village in search of food and water. All too often elephants will trample or eat a farmers crops, damage a house, or even take a life. People of this village have every reason to fear elephants, as for them, there is no compensation given. Our project aims to turn the elephant from being viewed as a pest to being seen as a resource. Through working with the community and educating them on non-harmful ways to defend their land, we hope to restore the balance that once existed between man and his giant neighbour. 
Love, Life & Elephant Tales 
