I made it! After about 20 hours of flying and multiple time zone jumps I am finally here. The trip here was long with customs checks at both Dubai and Colombo. I arrived last night to the elephant sanctuary around 9pm, had a quick dinner and went to bed. I was really out of it to say the least.
I was told I could sleep in however long I wanted and just take the day easy. I have to clock here so I had no idea when I woke up this morning what time it was. I decided not to sleep all day so I grabbed a shower and went to breakfast. I can already tell that this month is going to be epic because on my way to breakfast I had to step off the path near the bridge to let an elephant walk by. Apparently by the time I got to breakfast with some of the other volunteers it was barely 8am. That was a sleeping in failure on my part, but it means I have the morning to explore the compound. I spent most of the morning watching the mahouts who work with the elephants, bathe them in the river. I also met the gardener who showed me all of the plants around the compound and in the garden. I tried some random bitter fruit and the bark straight off of the cinnamon tree. There are passionfruit, banana, papaya and avocado trees as well as pineapple plants all over the compound. Most of it is not ready to eat but I'm excited to learn how to cultivate them. Come Monday we are going to prepare the garden and plant more pineapple for the elephants. As for this afternoon, I have no idea what is going on, but I'm probably going to find a shady place by the river and read. Time for rice and curry lunch!
