Welcome to Sri Lanka

Safe to say that delirium hit me as soon as we touched down in Colombo. After traveling for 36 hours, including one amazing stop in London (a long post I wrote up but seems to have dissapeared) I had just about had it. I tried my best to keep my eyes open for the drive from the airport but after about 20 minutes they gave in and I didn't wake up until 2 hours had passed and I was arriving at MEF. Immediate observations from the car ride? There are little to no rules for the road and every millisecond someone is honking. One of those things where I just had to grasp the fact that this is how it's done here and therefore trust my driver and everyone on the road so as to not completely freak out. Also, Tuk Tuks are everywhere! Once I'd seen my first couple it quickly became very normal. Palm trees are everywhere too. I've never seen such dense areas of palm trees. Like forests back home, row by row of pine trees, but instead, palms.
Once I arrived, I was met by the Coordinator here who took me on a tour around the estate. First stop was The Bungalow so I could drop my 50-pound knapsack and be shown my room. As we walked around the grounds, I was slowly introduced to the other girls working here, who were busy doing things, and met Pooja! The 27-year-old female elephant who I will be caring for over the next 6 weeks. The grounds are really quite beautiful. River flowing right through the middle, plenty of trees providing a lot of shade, a huge vegetable garden, and vast areas where the elephant night beds and day beds are located.  As well as the, currently under construction, Enrichment Field.
Once I was finished the tour I had every intent to go back to my room, unpack and sleep until dinner. I got as far as unpacking when I was asked if I'd want to join a couple others on a trip this weekend which meant going into Rambuckana at the time to buy train tickets. What an experience. We first walked out to the road to catch the bus which turned out to be the most crowded bus I've ever been on. People literally sitting and standing on each other and dripping with sweat. 15 minutes and a couple heart attacks later, we arrived in town. Walking through town there were people bustling around,  dust everywhere, store shops open selling anything from flip flops and patterned pants to rotis and fruit. We ended up having trouble at the train station and discoverimg what we wanted was sold out, so we headed back to grab a Tuk Tuk instead of the bus again. I learned from the other girls the art of bargaining which comes in handy when picking a driver.
Dinner was as expected - chicken curry - very delicious. I had had enough at that point and rolled down to my room, setup the bug net and was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

First full day action to come soon!

XXX Nicky

Ps. Uplaoding pictures seems to be slowing down the process right now so I will work on that!