We were standing on a veranda overlooking a wide river. Cameras clicked away and laughter was heard, the sort of silly laughter you only hear from adults when they’re seeing something truly exceptional.
“Normally we only get to see this on the tele,” Ineke remarked, her grin ear-to-ear.
Down in the river were two dozen adult elephants and another dozen babies, throwing water about with their trunks and generally frolicking as if it were they, not us, who were having the time of their lives. Dear reader, I can guarantee you our group took no less than several hundred photos of these elephants, so see them you will.
We were just outside the city of Kandy, a popular town among travelers, at an elephant orphanage. Elephants from all over arrive here, typically because they’ve been maimed by sadistic owners or their parents have been killed by poachers. After watching the babies feed and the adults meander about in their feeding spot, we shuffled past the “poo paper” factory (made from elephant dung) down to the river to take in the spectacle. It was only 9am.
We were on our “cultural excursion”, that day built into any Habitat work schedule that lets the group experience something of the country. After the slow drive over windy roads to see the elephants, we continued on to a tea factory. Surely you’ve tasted Ceylon tea, no? We got a firsthand look at how the tea is sorted and processed into ten different types and then drank some cups of “pure tea” (leaves from the same plantation).
Eventually we ended up in Kandy proper, a charming place wedged between rolling hills. We visited the Shrine of the Tooth Relic, which I assure you is much more impressive than it sounds. It’s a 500-year old Buddhist temple dedicated to an artifact that supposedly belonged to Siddhartha himself. It’s set along the banks of a small lake in the center of town.
Though this outing came a little earlier than we had expected, it was great fun and it gave everyone the chance to reflect more on the first two days of work as we prepare to get back to it tomorrow.
You have our attention
Enjoying black tea at the plantation
Outside the shrine in Kandy