Morning Run

The amount that happens in one day here at MEF, is hard to believe, but I will try my best to go through it all as I think I've experienced most of the 'routine' in the last few days. First up, morning drill -

We are up at 7 every morning to be up the hill to the night beds by 7:30. I fell asleep so quickly and so early the night before but unfortunately woke up on and off every hour once 4AM hit, thanks to the beauty of jet-lag. I am sharing Pooja with another girl right now to train me, and then she leaves on Friday and I take over. As I mentioned earlier, Pooja is a 27-year-old Asian elephant who was actually the first elephant in Sri Lanka to ever be born in captivity. Her mother is also here at MEF. She stands about 6 feet taller than me, has a crooked tail, and a beautiful (and very strong) trunk. First thing every morning, Roshan (Pooja's mahout) goes to get Pooja from her night bed and meets me at vet check. There, I feed Pooja her vitamin ball and all elephants get their feet checked. Pooja actually has foot rot (which is what gets checked for) so instead of just sweeping her feet,  she needs be treated. This involves me scrubbing her feet, spraying them with disinfectant,  rinsing them, drying them with a towel, and finally spraying them again. Because the treatment needs to set, Pooja is off of morning baths right now so she goes straight to her day bed so I can clear her night bed. Yes, this invovles exactly what you're probably thinking - dung count and food count - to make sure she's keeping healthy!

It was quite a shock when I first got here but I have gotten used to the elephants quicker than I thought. They are all very sweet and each have their own distinctive personalities. Earlier this morning, I was bent down filling up a bucket of water when suddenly I heard the sound of chains coming closer (all the elephants have to have them draped over their neck in case of emergency), I looked up and Bandara was 2 feet infront of me, trunk pointed straight at me. I carried on with what I was doing, as did he, and neither of us were phased. It has been pretty exciting though, spending my day walking around surrounded by 9 elephants at all times.

Other activity updates to follow!

XXX Nicky