Tales from Sri Lanka

Today we have a change in plan. No construction work today (my arms are quite relieved). Instead we head across the road to the turtle hatchery. Here we empty all the turtle tanks, clean them, by scrub them with brushes and dried coconut shells (surprisingly effective) and refill them.

The turtles seem a little perplexed but keep on swimming. I help transfer some of them into different tanks, I learn the hard way that before picking turtles up, it’s best to hold their front fins down, cos when they flap, they flap hard!

Anthony, who has been volunteering at the hatchery for five weeks, cleans the turtles as we clean their tanks. As they aren’t in the wild there are no fish to eat the mould and barnacles that grow on their shells, so they must be given a good scrub regularly.

A few have been injured by fishing nets and have been brought here to recover. Stevie is the special turtle who came to the hatchery with one blind eye in 2004. He was the only turtle to survive the Tsunami, which destroyed the entire hatchery. He was found a couple of hundred meters inland, and had damaged his other eye, so know he is completely blind. He seems to be the favourite turtle, along with Kevin.

Kevin is the baby turtle who is only about five days old. He is soooo tiny, about half the size of my hand. As he hatched a couple of days after the others in his batch, he now has to wait until the next batch of baby turtles hatch, so he can be released with them, otherwise he will not survive the swim out to sea.

When the turtles are first born they have tons of energy and whiz around like crazy. Anthony says this is so they have enough energy to get out to sea. Kevin is looking pretty relaxed now, but if feed properly will be strong enough to hold his own when released.

After cleaning the tanks is done, we head down to the beach to pack away the pump and the pipes and have a little dip. The water is rough, but lovely and warm.

During lunch I decide that it is definitely time to clean some clothes, as they stink! I don’t know why I bothered to bring white clothes along, as I have a ring of brown around each neckline – lovely. There is only so much hand washing in a bucket can do, but at least they aren’t as smelly now.

After lunch it’s teaching time. This class, my bribery is glitter pencils and stickers. Works a charm and we get through the topic of weather with little fuss. I am starting to get to know some of the boys in my class. Dimadoo and Lazantha are the older boys (around 12) who get bored quite easily, but a really good kids. If you can control them, then the rest of the class is pretty good. Sandu is also another regular. He is about 7 and concentrates very hard. They have all decided that they want chocolate today and when I show them my empty hands look a little disappointed, but not for too long as I release them outside to play.

Most of the boys play cricket, which is quite interesting to watch, as the schoolyard is littered with palm trees. Every time the ball hits a palm tree it flies of in a completely different direction and it’s quite funny to watch the boys scramble to chase after it.

Lazantha has brought his kite today, which he loves. It is made out of wire and the plastic off a garbage bag and the tail looks like used to be police tape used to cordon off areas. But not matter the rough materials, it is still a pretty nifty kite and flies well.

Once the kids leave and dinner has been consumed, today fish, which I saw Dudley buy earlier. We have a glass or two of arrack and play cards whilst planning for our trip to Kandy tomorrow.