Day 1 - Saturday 11th June 9.35pm
I'm here, this is it!
It's been a mixture of emotions over the past 24
hours. My final day snowballed into more and more of a rush and panic with
packing, leaving two hours later than hoped, but the traffic was kind and we
were at the airport restaurant with loads of time still to spare. It was nice
to have a relaxed send off without being in a complete flurry, as the goodbyes
wouldn't have felt real otherwise!
I think the most difficult thing to deal with is
all the unknown - I don't know how long I will be away for, what I will be
doing, if I will find my feet doing something I love... Let's see how the
adventure unfolds.
Anyway enough of the yabber, I'm in Sri Lanka!
Ashika is the project manager for PMGY in Sri Lanka, so when he met me at the
airport I immediately felt welcomed and at home. It felt guiltily satisfying when
new volunteers arrived too and I didn't feel their same nerves, instead trying
to reassure them and answer any questions. We spent the next few hours
arranging logistics for the volunteers then met my new big boss Philip,
who runs PMGY back in the UK. Then the long (and slightly odd) drive to
Ambalangoda, taking maybe three hours, occupied by my drivers favourite film
'Letters to Juliet' on the sat nav screen... Well it kept me occupied and
awake!
When we arrived at Ashika's house I was welcomed
with a fresh flower necklace from Ashika's mother Thamari, a Kanthi-style
dinner of chicken, noodles and THE best potatoes in the world! At the moment
it's only me and the family in the house, which feels just like being back at
my Sri Lankan family home in Wadduwa. I took advantage of a refreshing shower
and chat to the family (trying to remember my limited Sinhala repertoire)
before heading into my mosquito net, fan billowing, water bottle at the ready.
Let's see how tonight goes and what tomorrow brings!
Day 4 - Tuesday 14th June 11.59pm
Laying
under my princess mosquito net, helicopter blades failing to cool me down, wet
flannel on my belly, and head buzzing with the three months ahead.
So today we
discussed our role as coordinators with Philip and Ashika (after
feeling like a naughty school kid not up and ready when they came knocking at
11am...). They've also just been visiting the Maldives (as you do) to check out
the weekend trip and potentials of a new PMGY project taking place there, which
is exciting news! Our meeting continued at Hiro's with a chocolate and mango
sundae (as you do), with the elevated experience of my first tuk tuk ride in
over two years. It was good to finally get my head around everything and to
know what we would be involved with over the 3 months. Ashika dropped a slight
bomb on me saying I will be doing the Real Experience trip with him, THIS SATURDAY.
This actual weekend, like in three days! I literally have no idea even what I
will be doing... And there's 34 students from Leeds coming. I'm sure it will be
fun, I get to see the whole country again, I just need to find out the itinerary! And what to take. Ahhh packing, again?!?
I've spent the majority of my time so far with
Callie at my side, who is the other Summer Coordinator. We've had a good laugh
together already so it's going to be weird being away on the Real Experience
trip when she's looking after the volunteers here, what are we gonna do without
each other?!
I really do feel settled into life here and at
the house with everyone. It panics me ever so slightly thinking about all the things
I'll have to juggle successfully, but I'll do my best! I can't wait to visit my
family and Mirissa too, but unfortunately won't have time for a few weeks. Or
even time to visit the beach, ayoooo!
I have begun visiting our volunteering projects too, so yesterday I spent the afternoon with the cheeky
girls at the local orphanage, which is a really lovely welcoming home. The girls wanted spelling tests and English practice before all playing
together on the rickety swings and see-saws. They loved my tikkak sinhala too!
Always a hit with the locals...
This evening we visited the turtle hatchery
project, where they protect the endangered species by nurturing the
eggs away from environmental dangers and caring for injured turtles. We
released some of the healthy newborn babies into the wild whilst the sun set in
the horizon - it was a pretty amazing thing to experience!
Everything else so far has been a blur really,
but STILL NO SUN. I mean, there has been sunshine, but we've not been able to
enjoy it at all!! This is hard coming from a very dreary England. Maybe I should
really start waking up earlier...
Tomorrow we are waking up at 7.30am (that's
bloody early), forcing myself to wash my hair in the cold shower, then visiting
the elephant project, continuing our meetings, and the rest of the day? Who
knows! We'll see what's in store.
(Hopefully a tad ray of sunshine...)
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