Wednesday 29th of July
This morning we were lucky enough to have the opportunity to go to a tea plantation, this meant getting up at 5:30 and a two and a half bus journey; songs were sung and everyone was in good spirit. We were given a tour and shown how the tea was plucked, including the most expensive tea, Virgin white, in ancient time plucked only by virgins using golden scissors and golden bowls, touched only by the emperors lips. We were given chocolate cake and a sample of sapphire oolong tea (which was delicious) and then shown the tea making process before trying various teas.
As we hadn’t seen any turtles on the beach last night we instead visited a turtle hatchery where they look after turtle eggs until they are born and fit to go into the sea and look after ill turtles until they are better. We saw many turtles as young as only three days.
On with our journey and we were thrilled to arrive at a cafe that served burgers and chips, only to be told we would be having rice… Again! It was pretty heartbreaking but we soon got over it, if only because of the improv chilli eating contest by all the boys and we all left feeling very full and dreading to poo.
We then hit the town of Galle and put our haggling skills to use, Reuben was especially good; reducing prices by more than half. In Galle we visited a Christian Dutch church, which was nice for all as well as those of us in our group with Dutch heritage (Grace, Joe and Morty). On the way out of Galle we visited a fruit shop, it had lots of fruit; ones I hadn’t seen before (like the red banana) and some I hadn’t even heard of before. Grace, Charlie and I (Harri) bought juicy mangos.
We then moved onto a traditional fishing beach where I fished on a pole, catching one fish. James found a huge dead fish and Grace was buried in sand up to the neck by Joe and Charlie.
After another two and a half bus journey and many more sing-songs we arrived at a Sri Lankan restaurant where we had egg hops, hops and curry. The curry was spicy and most ended up eating the hops without. We then headed back to Janoda.
– Love Harri xxx
Thursday 30th July
Projects are slowly coming to a gradual close and they are all looking really great, even if the globe was a bit sabotaged by monkey poo in the warfare. Caz bought Amelia some milo so she was pretty happy, and shortly after the monkey was buried.
After lunch we had a first aid show presentation with our buddies and we taught them CPR and the recovery position using ‘mini-annie’ dummies (which we have now donated to the school) and the ‘staying alive’ song by the beejees before doing some scenarios (shoutout to Austen and Amesh for saving mine and Reuben’s lives after our ‘motorbike accident’) THEN WE WENT TO THE BEACH!!! On the way there Reubs and Charlie got married and we ended up in a mini bus drag race with the other team. We went with our buddies and it was so cool, but we couldn’t go in very far because of the high tides, but we still had fun and rugby was played and we then set up a turtle conservation club at both Tzu-Chi and Weydon.
We arrived back and because we’re sleeping in the KG we couldn’t find the key to unlock the toilets down there so no one could shower. Brooker and Annabel gave me a leg up and I climbed through the window, but it took a lot of wiggling and it was pretty much a near death experience, apparently brooker’s face said it all, along with annabel’s ‘grace please don’t die!’….We’re currently in a team meeting and we’re all singing along to ‘don’t stop me now’ by queen and it kinda doesn’t sound quite in tune but Cazza is busting some sick moves and Charlie has just been called a disabled turtle, him and Harri are writhing on the floor infront of us all in their sarongs, but if that doesn’t sum up team 2, I don’t know what does.
Lots of love Grace xxxx
PS. Hi family, I’m looking forward to seeing you all, but I’m looking forward to a domino’s classic crust cheese and tomato pizza too, hint hint xxx