Day 21: 29/1/12 - Pink Nil Manel on a Sunday off

Sundays in Hettipola have now become a bit of a routine. I love my string hoppers for Breakfast!

Bus Ride to Hettipola (above photo; credits to Reeve Koelmeyer)

The Pink "Nil Manel" - a pink variant of the blue water lily, Sri Lanka's National Flower

an aged, abandoned petrol station in Hettipola

Day 20: 28/1/12 - Fencing

To start the day, we were addressed by an elephant break in in our village. The previous night, one bull elephant pulled a couple fences in towards it, by grabbing onto the uncharged earthwire -the smart fellow he was. He then frolicked through a paddy field, almost oblivious to the firecrackers and shouting thrown at him. He then proceeded down the main road, pushed another fence post down and headed home.

Break in

Damage to Fields

Departure

We took down the report and then had to head on to the next village where we were assigned to monitor half of the fencing around the village, Weheragala. As always, Jayathilaka, our field guide, was a tad late, so we settled in to a little tea shop, briefly. These have become a new love of mine.

We then spent the next 3 hours, looking at the condition of the electric fences around half the village. There were no elephant attacks, but the water level had risen in one of the streams, drowning 3 fence poles and a great length of wire.

With our coordinator missing for the weekend, we have had to settle into doing village work instead of transects and walking up to 6 hours in the hot sun. Quite the work out, indeed.

Oh that strut

3 weeks of scruff

Day 19: 27/1/12 - Walks on Paved Ground

Today was another village day. We had to collect the remainder of the data from the villages - perhaps another 50-70. Tedious, but I suppose its sorta essential that the organization has a detailed survey of how many people are within the fences they put up.

The lovely thing about the village stroll were the little mundane discoveries: old window shutters, a little té kaadé (tea shop), "a sea of puppies" as Reeve called them, the ever lovely paddy fields and lastly a little stream that we returned to that evening to bathe in.

these lovely shutters

Ambe Yaluo (Special Friends)

The Sea of Puppies

The tea shop :)

Siria at his best

Day 18: 26/1/12 - Getting to know the Villagers and Fishermen

This morning was spent surveying the village we stay in. We had to get the gps point of every house in the village. Siria was our guide of the village today, which made for an entertaining morning. But after about 40 houses, the rather sweltering sun got to me and I decided to call it a day. Reeve, the fighter he is, did a total of over 120 houses today. Aren't I proud.

Siria's granddaughter

paddy pests

We got some tea at one of Siria's relative's

These parts and their corn

Afternoon, we went fishing for dinner. I can't say i'm a fan- fish flopping about on the shore till they die. Eeek. But Reeve was utterly contented. And now we have dinner :)

A fisherman in his paddy field

City boy as a fisherman. proud moment!

His first catch. Prouder moment!!

The fishermen with their nets

Little Dilhani again

Boys who also wanted their picture taken

Village bathers

Day 17: 25/1/12- Another Citrus Village, Unfenced

We visited another village where the SLWCS had given families 10 orange seedlings each, to check on their progress. But these were given more recently- say a year ago. It seemed as though this village had a lot more initiative in the project. Plants were still small after just a year but they were well kept and planted strategically against elephant attack. The difference with this village, however, was that they were not surrounded by an electric fence. So they had elephants as occasional visitors. They have more of an initiative as a result.

Jayathilaka and Veroni measuring the orange trees

Caterpillar attack (the eggs)

chicken house :)

recycling! :)

Kitty Cat we found!

We saw the elephant bells once again, this time with old cans and barbed wire. The villagers said they used firecrackers and shouting to scare off elephants when they did come. I think they are, as a result, eager to grow the citrus.

Barbed wire

In the evening, we spotted one lone bull elephant. We went elephant watching with Siria again. He got bored at the treehouse, so he and Chintaka headed to the road for a better view and a chat. This bull soundlessly, within 10meters of them, almost slipped by them unnoticed.

Siria bored on the road