dear all team
As a rain forest resque we had good opachunity to resrtro 50 ha of mangrove at Ampara district in sri lanka.we have done iinitial survay 8 lagoon and we select 06 out of it.We have wast opachunity to restro the east coast . We think we can shair more impomation with u later.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Monday, November 26, 2007
Final Posting In Country
I'm finally headed back home late tonight after rattling through trains, buses and tuk-tuks to Kandy and the Temple of the Sacred Tooth (including a poya day procession), the Dambulla caves, Sigiriya Rock and back to Colombo for a Pimm's Cup on the Verandah Bar at the Galle Face Hotel and a lightning fast round on the links at the Royal Colombo Golf Club. There's an amazing number of places to see in a short span of time. As seemingly cliche as their marketing slogan may be, Sri Lanka truly is a land like no other. Pics to come (when I'm not paying rupees per minute).
Temple of the Sacred Tooth
Dambulla
Sigiriya
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Finished and Parting
We've finished up our leg of the project and are parting. The local Sri Lankans back to their homes, Val to the beach, Montse to India and me north to Kandy, Dambulla and Sigiriya. I think we are all looking forward to some hot showers.
Gotta get moving. More thoughts (and photos) to come. For those in the states, Happy Thanksgiving!
Gotta get moving. More thoughts (and photos) to come. For those in the states, Happy Thanksgiving!
Monday, November 19, 2007
We've Been Working on the Mangroves, All The Live Long Day...
A brief update for now. We'll try to post more later, depending on time and access.
Day 5 and Day 6
We finished clearing the plots. In total, we cleared 33 - 20 with young growths where we had to carefully hoe inbetween the trees and 13 new ones. The ground seems to be getting drier at least in some of the plots, making the work that much harder. Never did I imagine I'd be missing the soft muddy turf of earlier. But we labored on and gladly finished on Saturday.
Day 7
Our reward for our labors was visiting Kataragama as well. However, wanting to make sure we that we didn't go soft in one day, we also decided to ascend the Vedasiti Kanda, a small Buddhist temple on top of a large hill. It was a beautiful hike up the steps, but we were drenched by the end...just like another day in the field. We visited Udawalawa National Park (Yala is closed due to recent LTTE actions). Although smaller, we saw some elephants, including some baby elephants at the Elephant Transit Home, peacocks, boars, deer and some birds, including an eagle. It was a full day.
Day 5 and Day 6
We finished clearing the plots. In total, we cleared 33 - 20 with young growths where we had to carefully hoe inbetween the trees and 13 new ones. The ground seems to be getting drier at least in some of the plots, making the work that much harder. Never did I imagine I'd be missing the soft muddy turf of earlier. But we labored on and gladly finished on Saturday.
Day 7
Our reward for our labors was visiting Kataragama as well. However, wanting to make sure we that we didn't go soft in one day, we also decided to ascend the Vedasiti Kanda, a small Buddhist temple on top of a large hill. It was a beautiful hike up the steps, but we were drenched by the end...just like another day in the field. We visited Udawalawa National Park (Yala is closed due to recent LTTE actions). Although smaller, we saw some elephants, including some baby elephants at the Elephant Transit Home, peacocks, boars, deer and some birds, including an eagle. It was a full day.
Day 8
The measuring and planting of our own plots begin.
The measuring and planting of our own plots begin.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Tangalle, Mangroves and Other Notes
We have all arrived and have spent the last 4 days learning about Sri Lanka, the mangroves and our fellows. Unfortunately, although internet access is cheap here, it's not always available, at least during the hours that we have free, so this first update is a little later than planned.
Day 1
After a harrowing ride from Negombo to Tangalle – stopping only for the occasional stray cow across the road or directions, we've all vowed to take nothing for granted in our lives and are grateful every day we reach our destination. At the very least, it gets the heart pumping. After arriving, we had a typical Sri Lankan meal – rice and curry, dahl (lentils) and fish. Luckily they tempered the usual spiciness for those with softer palates, although I was personally looking forward to the heat (luckily I did not have to wait too long).
Day 2
Our first day in Tangalle was quite full. Instead of the mangrove marathon, Dr. Jayatissa broke up the day. First, we had our own general safety awareness, which I must admit, was more
interesting than the Zurich online class. For all you Jack Bauer fans out there, yes, we have a SAT phone for emergencies. I don't think they're going to let me use it for the heck of it, but I may ask Kumara, our Phd candidate, to at least let me take a picture with it. Valerie, on the other hand, was excited to find and take a picture with her beloved Diet Coke.
Anyhow, we spent the morning learning about mangrove trees, their uniqueness, and the economic and ecological benefits they provide. I'll save most stats for my presentation later, but there are only 60 species of mangrove in the world and Sri Lanka has 21 of them on this island. So, we came to the right place for this project!
After the morning presentation, we ate lunch and then headed out to the field for hands-on instruction. We saw some different species, root types, fruits and propagules. Lectures in the field remind me why I used to enjoy biology class. We walked around the mouth of the lagoon which opens and closes every few weeks, letting the seawater enter and the freshwater leave. We also learned about the impact of a recent bridge to the lagoon and the local prawn fishing. The Sri Lankans are still working to rectify the situation, but they've made some progress. Interestingly, the government was very involved in the bridge, which initially surprised me based on the small village involved. However, much of their economy is tied to the environment and fishing, so it makes a lot of sense.
We then returned to the hotel where Kumara then presented the project, its work to date and our involvement. It should be interesting. I think we were all grateful to return to the hotel after being out in the sun in the afternoon. I knew it was hot and humid, but until you experience this kind of heat, it's tough to understand. Basically, we sweat a lot, throw more suntan lotion and bug spray on. Then repeat, sometimes skipping the rinse cycle. Why bother removing a layer that might entice any mosquitoes? At least that's my thinking after getting eaten up the first day I arrived. My compadres might not be as happy with me though…
Day 3
Our third day was our first day of manual labor. After mud-clomping through the bog to get to the mangrove stands, we picked up our mattocks (hoes) and began the task of clearing the existing plots of mangroves (young growths) and clearing new plots for our plantings. The 1st team will be happy to know that they look good to our untrained eyes (I'll let Jaytissa and Kumara be the real judges).
Now, if you've ever pulled weeds out, you have a slight idea about what we were doing. Very slight. Imagine pulling overgrown weeds with an over-sized garden hoe, trying to avoid rows of little saplings while sinking your calf into the mud and trying to maintain your balance. Then you get to pull the weeds closest to the mangrove saplings up. And when you hoe or pull up the weeds, sulfur dioxide trapped in the anaerobic soil is released. It smells like rotten eggs…I should never complain about pulling ordinary garden weeds again ("I hate 'em…I hate 'em."). I think we'll all sleep well from now on. I hope so, since we've got a lot of work to do.
After collecting our wits about us (or at least Val doing so – behind the rest of us), we walked back to the entrance and hosed off at the research station. Then we walked down and had a delightful lunch with the local family. I got to show my hot pepper prowess by eating a local grilled pepper straight without flinching, winning the respect of some and the envy of others. I personally am loving the food here. It's got enough kick to keep me more than happy, though Val and Montse are on a mission to find something hot enough to make me leap like Val did. But I'm doing the betel, I want my taste buds intact!
Day 4
More work. King coconuts for a snack. Finally got to the internet....
Day 1
After a harrowing ride from Negombo to Tangalle – stopping only for the occasional stray cow across the road or directions, we've all vowed to take nothing for granted in our lives and are grateful every day we reach our destination. At the very least, it gets the heart pumping. After arriving, we had a typical Sri Lankan meal – rice and curry, dahl (lentils) and fish. Luckily they tempered the usual spiciness for those with softer palates, although I was personally looking forward to the heat (luckily I did not have to wait too long).
Day 2
Our first day in Tangalle was quite full. Instead of the mangrove marathon, Dr. Jayatissa broke up the day. First, we had our own general safety awareness, which I must admit, was more
interesting than the Zurich online class. For all you Jack Bauer fans out there, yes, we have a SAT phone for emergencies. I don't think they're going to let me use it for the heck of it, but I may ask Kumara, our Phd candidate, to at least let me take a picture with it. Valerie, on the other hand, was excited to find and take a picture with her beloved Diet Coke.Anyhow, we spent the morning learning about mangrove trees, their uniqueness, and the economic and ecological benefits they provide. I'll save most stats for my presentation later, but there are only 60 species of mangrove in the world and Sri Lanka has 21 of them on this island. So, we came to the right place for this project!
After the morning presentation, we ate lunch and then headed out to the field for hands-on instruction. We saw some different species, root types, fruits and propagules. Lectures in the field remind me why I used to enjoy biology class. We walked around the mouth of the lagoon which opens and closes every few weeks, letting the seawater enter and the freshwater leave. We also learned about the impact of a recent bridge to the lagoon and the local prawn fishing. The Sri Lankans are still working to rectify the situation, but they've made some progress. Interestingly, the government was very involved in the bridge, which initially surprised me based on the small village involved. However, much of their economy is tied to the environment and fishing, so it makes a lot of sense.
Along with Jayatissa and Kumara, there are 3 Sri Lankan volunteers – each of whom have their own positions with environmental organizations here. One of them works on the Turtle Conservation Project and we visited a TCP site nearby. There are 7 species of turtle in the world and Sri Lanka has 5. If we're lucky and there's a turtle landing at night when we're here, he'll get the call and we'll dash out to the site. The TCP researcher actually sleeps in an open hut with a hammock on the beach keeping an eye out for the turtles.
We then returned to the hotel where Kumara then presented the project, its work to date and our involvement. It should be interesting. I think we were all grateful to return to the hotel after being out in the sun in the afternoon. I knew it was hot and humid, but until you experience this kind of heat, it's tough to understand. Basically, we sweat a lot, throw more suntan lotion and bug spray on. Then repeat, sometimes skipping the rinse cycle. Why bother removing a layer that might entice any mosquitoes? At least that's my thinking after getting eaten up the first day I arrived. My compadres might not be as happy with me though…
Day 3
Our third day was our first day of manual labor. After mud-clomping through the bog to get to the mangrove stands, we picked up our mattocks (hoes) and began the task of clearing the existing plots of mangroves (young growths) and clearing new plots for our plantings. The 1st team will be happy to know that they look good to our untrained eyes (I'll let Jaytissa and Kumara be the real judges).
Now, if you've ever pulled weeds out, you have a slight idea about what we were doing. Very slight. Imagine pulling overgrown weeds with an over-sized garden hoe, trying to avoid rows of little saplings while sinking your calf into the mud and trying to maintain your balance. Then you get to pull the weeds closest to the mangrove saplings up. And when you hoe or pull up the weeds, sulfur dioxide trapped in the anaerobic soil is released. It smells like rotten eggs…I should never complain about pulling ordinary garden weeds again ("I hate 'em…I hate 'em."). I think we'll all sleep well from now on. I hope so, since we've got a lot of work to do.
Before Our Work
After Our Work
We should have paid more attention to the pics from the first group. We might have gotten a better clue about how muddy the work really is. My applause to all of those who have done this work before – it ain't easy when you're swinging the mattock, pulling weeds or hauling the debris and inhaling the lovely bog aromas! I think an earlier comment was appropo – we'll be feeling muscles we didn't know we had tomorrow. Montse also thinks that we’re really on Big Brother on tv and you are all watching and laughing at us. Luckily, we’ve got much more camaraderie going on here.
Walking back to the car, Val stumbled across an iguana crossing the road. She played it cool by screaming like a little school girl, jumping up and down and waving her arms frantically as if she were trying to fly away. The iguana might have been more frightened. We saw another one later, but she said the first one was a lot bigger – about 5 or 6 ft with the long tail. But it gets bigger everytime she tells. By the time we get back to our home countries, it will be 10 ft long (of course, none of us saw the first one). However, we have been assured none will not attack us; like the Tamil Tigers, the iguanas respect tourism.
Walking back to the car, Val stumbled across an iguana crossing the road. She played it cool by screaming like a little school girl, jumping up and down and waving her arms frantically as if she were trying to fly away. The iguana might have been more frightened. We saw another one later, but she said the first one was a lot bigger – about 5 or 6 ft with the long tail. But it gets bigger everytime she tells. By the time we get back to our home countries, it will be 10 ft long (of course, none of us saw the first one). However, we have been assured none will not attack us; like the Tamil Tigers, the iguanas respect tourism.
After collecting our wits about us (or at least Val doing so – behind the rest of us), we walked back to the entrance and hosed off at the research station. Then we walked down and had a delightful lunch with the local family. I got to show my hot pepper prowess by eating a local grilled pepper straight without flinching, winning the respect of some and the envy of others. I personally am loving the food here. It's got enough kick to keep me more than happy, though Val and Montse are on a mission to find something hot enough to make me leap like Val did. But I'm doing the betel, I want my taste buds intact!We polished off the day with a "sea bath" in the warm ocean water, heard a couple more presentations, relaxed and then had a nice dinner and conversation. Tomorrow, back to the grind!
Day 4
More work. King coconuts for a snack. Finally got to the internet....
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Arrived
I've arrived after many hours travel, tired but excited. I'm still adjusting to the humidity, but everyone I've met so far has been smiling and friendly. So, now I'm getting the lay of the land (literally) and looking forward to meeting up with my fellow teammates.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Monday, July 9, 2007
Yikes...six weeks on!
Hi All,
Mark...glad to see you were able to enter your posting - welcome fellow blogger! I haven't been on the blog for a while as you can tell since I am just responding now!
What a fantastic experience. I find myself talking about Sri Lanka all the time. In fact, one of my colleagues is going there in a week to visit her family and I am somewhat envious!
Did anybody manage to catch any of the Live Earth concert this past weekend. There really seems to be a lot of momentum with the message, but it will be interesting to see the response.
Great news for Upul! Congratulations Upul - that is an incredible opportunity. I'm sure you'll be able to keep those ambivalent worms in line!
I've been working on the DVD at the same time as my presentation and finally have the film clips in a format I can use. James the tape is on its way back over to the UK - sorry for the delay. Apparently Canadian cameras don't play tapes recorded on UK camcorders so I had to convert it.
Mark, would it be possible to get a copy of the plot plan from you?
Anyway, I have a week off at the end of July when I hope to finish the DVD and presentation. Once it is done I will send copies on for all.
Hope everyone is well...and I too could use a good "his wings don't match his body - stripes and spots" quote :)
Hope yo hear from everyone!
Cheers
Chris
Mark...glad to see you were able to enter your posting - welcome fellow blogger! I haven't been on the blog for a while as you can tell since I am just responding now!
What a fantastic experience. I find myself talking about Sri Lanka all the time. In fact, one of my colleagues is going there in a week to visit her family and I am somewhat envious!
Did anybody manage to catch any of the Live Earth concert this past weekend. There really seems to be a lot of momentum with the message, but it will be interesting to see the response.
Great news for Upul! Congratulations Upul - that is an incredible opportunity. I'm sure you'll be able to keep those ambivalent worms in line!
I've been working on the DVD at the same time as my presentation and finally have the film clips in a format I can use. James the tape is on its way back over to the UK - sorry for the delay. Apparently Canadian cameras don't play tapes recorded on UK camcorders so I had to convert it.
Mark, would it be possible to get a copy of the plot plan from you?
Anyway, I have a week off at the end of July when I hope to finish the DVD and presentation. Once it is done I will send copies on for all.
Hope everyone is well...and I too could use a good "his wings don't match his body - stripes and spots" quote :)
Hope yo hear from everyone!
Cheers
Chris
Friday, June 15, 2007
new technology baffles p**sed old academic
Dear Alice and Mangrovellers
My first experience of blogging. Hope this makes it to you. Great to see all the pictures and read your text. It already feels too long since we were in Sri Lanka. Some good news about Upul; we made an application for funding for a masters degree which was successful, so he will be joining us to work on fish and worms (possibly ambivalent ones).
Looking for some good quotes from Louise to cheer me up! take care
Mark
My first experience of blogging. Hope this makes it to you. Great to see all the pictures and read your text. It already feels too long since we were in Sri Lanka. Some good news about Upul; we made an application for funding for a masters degree which was successful, so he will be joining us to work on fish and worms (possibly ambivalent ones).
Looking for some good quotes from Louise to cheer me up! take care
Mark
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Sri Lanka Farewell
Here I am after two weeks in Sri Lanka. Two weeks seems like a lifetime ago, and at the sametime, it passed so quickly.
Our last day in the field conjured up some mixed feelings. It was very rewarding to see the results of all of our hard work and I felt priviledged to have the chance to contribute. At the same time, it is unlikely we will have the same group of people all together at once in the same place. Furthermore, I am not sure when I will be back to Sri Lanka to see the fruits of our labour (although hopefully it will be sooner than later!!!). Hopefully we will get updates from Kumara and the future Zurich fellows on how our site is doing.
After we cleaned up the site we all headed back to the guest house for some lunch. After lunch, half the team said their goodbye's. Mark and Paul had to head back to Colombo to catch their return flights to the UK. Kumara, Upul and Dr. Jayatissa also had to get home as well.
The rest of the team got cleaned up and headed out for dinner to celebrate a great trip and Louise's birthday at a nice restaurant up the street. Apart from the visit from the local inebriated expat it was a great time.
The final day saw us up early to collect propagules for the Rainforest Rescue International (RRI) nursary. We were on the
road by 9 and headed to one of the villages that RRI were helping to establish a nursary for. The goals of this nursary project was to empower the citizens to grow their own plants for a variety of purposes. Various shrubs, flowers, trees and other groundcover were planted to help prevent soil erosion during the heavy rains. Another objective of the nursary project was to grow plants to harvest for food and other purposes (ie. bamboo and teak). The last component to the project was to beautify the community and provide an aesthetic effect. The community members that we met took a lot of pride in their gardens, and for good reason. They worked very hard to gather the water each day from the well to water the plants since the government has not hooked up the power as yet.
As Alice mentioned in her posting, life in this village were not without some very significant challenges. Firstly, the village took in Sri Lankans from all walks of life who were homeless or displaced after he Tsunami and put them together in the same area. Naturally, there were disagreements, general cultural clashes and issues of jealousy. Add to this, the fact that the government has still not activated the power or water three months after the first residents moved in and you can imagine how life could be somewhat frustrating. All things considered though, I got the feeling that the residents, although extremely frustrated about the power and water situation are thankful for the support and assistance they have received. There are numerous other communities like this around the country that are a direct result of the outpouring of support of people around the world in the weeks and months after the December 2004 Tsunami and the coordination of this support by a plethora of non-governmental organizations.
After visiting this village, we went to see Dr. Jayatissa and some of his colleagues at Ruhuna University. The Ruhuna campus had a distinct university feel and was beautiful in it's architectural design. The Ruhuna campus was designed by famous Sri Lankan architect, Geoffrey Bawa. I was fortunate to see a couple other designs of his as well. On Thursday evening we joined Benjamin, his wife Vincenne and daughter, Adelaide, for dinner at a hotel and restaurant called THe Lighthouse in Galle. This site was also designed by Bawa and was impecably integrated into the surrounding landscape, or should I say the landscape was integrated into the views from the hotel. I was also fortunate to see his former office which is now a gallery and restaurant in Colombo.
Once I have a chance to reflect on my time in Sri Lanka and am over my jet lag I will enter another posting.
In the interim I would like to thank all members of our team. I enjoyed meeting and working with all of you and will be sure to stay in touch.
Cheers
Chris
Our last day in the field conjured up some mixed feelings. It was very rewarding to see the results of all of our hard work and I felt priviledged to have the chance to contribute. At the same time, it is unlikely we will have the same group of people all together at once in the same place. Furthermore, I am not sure when I will be back to Sri Lanka to see the fruits of our labour (although hopefully it will be sooner than later!!!). Hopefully we will get updates from Kumara and the future Zurich fellows on how our site is doing.
After we cleaned up the site we all headed back to the guest house for some lunch. After lunch, half the team said their goodbye's. Mark and Paul had to head back to Colombo to catch their return flights to the UK. Kumara, Upul and Dr. Jayatissa also had to get home as well.
The rest of the team got cleaned up and headed out for dinner to celebrate a great trip and Louise's birthday at a nice restaurant up the street. Apart from the visit from the local inebriated expat it was a great time.
The final day saw us up early to collect propagules for the Rainforest Rescue International (RRI) nursary. We were on the
road by 9 and headed to one of the villages that RRI were helping to establish a nursary for. The goals of this nursary project was to empower the citizens to grow their own plants for a variety of purposes. Various shrubs, flowers, trees and other groundcover were planted to help prevent soil erosion during the heavy rains. Another objective of the nursary project was to grow plants to harvest for food and other purposes (ie. bamboo and teak). The last component to the project was to beautify the community and provide an aesthetic effect. The community members that we met took a lot of pride in their gardens, and for good reason. They worked very hard to gather the water each day from the well to water the plants since the government has not hooked up the power as yet.
As Alice mentioned in her posting, life in this village were not without some very significant challenges. Firstly, the village took in Sri Lankans from all walks of life who were homeless or displaced after he Tsunami and put them together in the same area. Naturally, there were disagreements, general cultural clashes and issues of jealousy. Add to this, the fact that the government has still not activated the power or water three months after the first residents moved in and you can imagine how life could be somewhat frustrating. All things considered though, I got the feeling that the residents, although extremely frustrated about the power and water situation are thankful for the support and assistance they have received. There are numerous other communities like this around the country that are a direct result of the outpouring of support of people around the world in the weeks and months after the December 2004 Tsunami and the coordination of this support by a plethora of non-governmental organizations.
After visiting this village, we went to see Dr. Jayatissa and some of his colleagues at Ruhuna University. The Ruhuna campus had a distinct university feel and was beautiful in it's architectural design. The Ruhuna campus was designed by famous Sri Lankan architect, Geoffrey Bawa. I was fortunate to see a couple other designs of his as well. On Thursday evening we joined Benjamin, his wife Vincenne and daughter, Adelaide, for dinner at a hotel and restaurant called THe Lighthouse in Galle. This site was also designed by Bawa and was impecably integrated into the surrounding landscape, or should I say the landscape was integrated into the views from the hotel. I was also fortunate to see his former office which is now a gallery and restaurant in Colombo.
Once I have a chance to reflect on my time in Sri Lanka and am over my jet lag I will enter another posting.
In the interim I would like to thank all members of our team. I enjoyed meeting and working with all of you and will be sure to stay in touch.
Cheers
Chris
Friday, May 18, 2007
Tsunami, 2 years on - my thoughts
One of the most interesting parts of my time in Sri Lanka has been learning about the Tsunami and how it affected the lives of ordinary Sri Lankans. We hear many stories about the loss of lives as well as people's livelihoods and the struggle for the country to re-build its infrastucture.
It seems like many of the people who lost their homes have been moved into new accommodation, similar to the one we visited yesterday - picture above.
Like many new housing communities there are a multitude of problems. Many of the developments are a significant distance from the coast where there was cheap and available land. The problem is there are often no schools or shops nearby, and the fisherman cannot live with their families as it is too difficult for them to travel to the coast every day.
A number of local community organisations have also talked about a culture of dependency that has developed post the Tsunami. The help that was provided in the immediate aftermath of the crisis by all the international aid agencies met an urgent need. However 2 years on, there seems to be a culture in some parts of the community in which support is expected to be given. Some of the organisations who were providing micro-finance (small loans) to local communities, are finding that people expect to be given a new bike, fridge, sewing machine, rather than having to earn it.
Also, as there was little coordination among the aid agencies, many of the fisherman who lost a boat ended up receiving two replacement boats. As this happened all along the coastal area, there is currently over-fishing, which was not a problem before the Tsunami.
Overall the resilience and positive attitude of the people, despite all that has happened to them is amazing. I wonder if we would be able to recover so well?
Am now enjoying a few days in Galle and Colombo before heading back home.
I hope you have all enjoyed sharing our Sri Lankan experience with the three Zurich fellows.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Presentations
Every evening of our expedition we have at least one educational presentation on subjects such as Climate Change, Mangrove forests, eco-systems and bio-diversity. We have also had a real insight into the work of some local NGO's, who have many vital conservation and restoration projects throughout Sri Lanka. They also run re-housing projects for the families who lost absolutely everything in the Tsunami, and this morning we had the opportunity to visit one of these sites. Unfortunately the houses still do not have power or water and we spoke to some of the community members to hear their views, they were very hospitable and invited us in for some tea.
We then visited a University in Matara and had a talk with Dr. Jayatissa, who is an expert on Mangroves and is involved in the research of our project. Afterwards we headed towards Galle, and was able to view one of Rainforest Rescue International's nurseries.
Tonight we are lucky enough to be taken out by Benjamin Van der Auwera, the assistant director of Rainforest Rescue International, who will show us around Galle and share information on their organisation.
Last day in the field
Our last day in the field was spent measuring and planting as many propagules (mangrove seedlings) as we could. The 42 plots (3.6 metres squared) have been designed with different densities of plants, so part of the process involves measuring the distance between the plants before we planted them.
This process had to be quite exact to ensure the validity of the research findings over the span of the project - 3 years.
We left the field feeling very satisfied with what we have achieved. A local team of 8 Sri Lankan biology students will continue finishing the planting in the next 2 weeks.
We look forward to seeing the progress of our work when the next Zurich team of fellows arrive in November.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Cricket Losers!
Howdy!
After an exhausting day in the field planting mangroves and digging holes, we had an extremely competitive 'friendly' cricket match arranged with what we originally thought was going to be 6 year olds! When the local Sri Lankan team turned up with over 50 supporters and consisted of fit, lean 18 year olds that played everyday we knew it was going to be tough! We ran around like half cooked, headless chickens while the Sri Lankans looked cool and were scoring one '6' after another! When it came to our turn to bat, we hardly had the energy to put one leg in front of the other, but we had our sweat droplets of pride and managed to score over 60 runs to their 104. It was a thoroughly enjoyable day and we finished off with my presentation to the team, which I have been told was like a roller coaster ride!
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Plots ready for planting at last !!!
(Photo: Some of our volunteers sampling the water and mud around our plot area)
After another day fencing and levelling our area is now ready for planting. The preparation process has taken longer than anticipated but we now have 75 metres square ready for planting 2,000 mangrove plants.
We are not sure if there will be enough time for us to plant all these mangroves however there is another group of Earthwatch volunteers, a group of locals volunteers, who are following us. So we are confident all the planting will be completed by the end of May.
The time is going fast and I have already been in Sri Lanka for one week. I have finally settled into Sri Lankan time which is not dissimilar to Fiji time or African time - where things do not happen quickly. There is always lots of discussions before even the simplest decisions can be made.
Tonight after dinner we are going turtle watching at a local beach. This turtles are expected to come up to the beach between 9.00pm and midnight to lay eggs - quite a special experience to witness.
We have arranged to play cricket against a local team from the village near the mangroves tomorrow afternoon after our planting is finished. I have been made coach of our very international, but generally inexperienced team. Being Australian and knowing a little about cricket helped in the selection process.
I am hoping I do not suffer the same fate the Pakistani coach suffered when his team lost at the World Cup. If this is the last blog you receive from me, you may have to send in the ICC (International Cricket Committee) investigators !!!!!
Saturday, May 12, 2007
A Day of Enlightenment, A Day of Rest
Back again...this will be a short one...I promise...errrr maybe not!
Yesterday saw us up at 3:00 AM for our trip up to Yala National Park. Yala is about an hour and a half from our guest house. We spent from 7:00 until about 1 in the park after which we had a packed curry and rice lunch and headed to one of the local Bhuddist temples called Kataragama.
The tour through the National Park was incredible. We had such fortune with the various birds and other animals that we encountered. We saw a young male elephant (shown above) leisurely snacking on some grass on his own. We also managed to get a real close up of a Crested Hawk Eagle voraciously chomping down on a frog. He was very protective of his freshly caught meal which allowed us to get some great photos. The Crested Hawk Eagle is an absolutely beautiful bird and we were lucky to see it.
Some of the other animals we saw included a Painted Stork, a Sri Lanka Jackal, a hare, some crocodiles, and a variety of others. It was worth the early start to be able to experience so much of Sri Lanka's wildlife in only six hours or so. Our only regret was not encountering a leopard. They are extremely elusive animals and with only 30 in the park we were not surprised that we didn't come across one.
At the end of the safari we visited a beach (shown above) where the Tsunami hit. There were ruins of two of lodges that I saw where 47 people were killed. Being at this site gave me a very erie feeling, trying to imagine a 25-30 foot wave coming in to where I was standing. Partly because of the ruins, damaged trees, boats where boats should not be and along with the other debris (such as sandles and tea cups) scattered about. But it was also erie for an undescribable reason. This might sound strange, but it was almost as if there was tension in the air to the point that someone was waiting to yell or scream...but could not. Like when you lose your voice in fear. I don't know if that accurately describes it, but that is the best that I can put it into words.
The beauty of this beach was extremely paradoxical knowing what took place only two and half years ago. It was a long beach which came to a point at the south end where there was a tall rock atoll or outcropping. The water was various shades of blue and the waves were crashing in like thunder. The sun was shining bright and then there was the tension I described above. You'd really need to be there to understand exactly what I am trying to describe.
After the beach we headed back and had our packed lunch and then off to Kataragama. This place was very busy. It was a large grounds with various different venues for worshipping. The main Pagoda was actually very tranquile despite the bustle of the surrounding area. We each took our ceremonial flower as our offering to Bhudda and lit incense which is also part of the tradition. The flower offering symbolizes the fact that although, at this point in time, the flower is very beautiful, alive, and lush, as with everything, it will not last. In fact it will begin to wilt as we stand there. The flower, and it's look and scent, along with the insense are also meant to help worshippers cleanse their minds before worshipping. It was an almost surreal experience except for the fact that I am athiest so even beginning to understand the Bhuddist philosophies was incredibly difficult to do. We did show our respects though and pushed on back to Tangalle for dinner.
We had dinner and a few pints again at the guest house up the street from us. I decided to try something completely different and had fish and chips! It was very different given the amount of curry and rice we've been eating. Actually, Paul, our resident Benthic Ecologist made a good point today - if you were a westerner coming to stay, you would really miss out on the full Sri Lankan experience if you only ate at the hotels and guest houses. We've been eating lunch each day with a family near our project site and the food has been unbelievable. I've really increased my spice tolerance over the past week or so! I guess curry for breakfast will do that!
Today was a great day as well. We finished the fenceposts and fence wire and also collected some sediment samples to establish a baseline for the fauna in the area where we will start planting tomorrow. The fencepost work was messy. Actually, that is an understatement, I was covered head to toe in mud...in fact, I had mud in my eyes, ears and nose as well. Alice and some of the others did a great job today finishing the fence wire and Louise helped Paul and Kumara collect sediment samples. At the end of the day we all got to go to the lab and check out a polychete (like a worm but with legs and hair-like things out the side of it, for eyes (for lack of the correct terminology) and some pollyps. If that doesn't paint a very vivid picture...it kind of looks like a centipede but it lives in marine and estuarial environments.
We had an earlier day today because we had such a long day yesterday and because we need to rest up for our friendly cricket match against the local primary school tomorrow. It should be an intense match, given that we have an Aussie on our side and they just beat the Sri Lankans in the West Indies for the World Cricket Championship! Hopefully she can teach us all how to play in time for the match :) ! Later this evening we'll be going back to the Rekawa area to observe sea turtles laying eggs.
Hope all's well with everyone there...or wherever you are.
Mom - just wanted to wish you a happy Mother's Day. Hope the flowers arrived okay.
Mike, if you're getting this...happy belated birthday!
Cheers
Chris
Yesterday saw us up at 3:00 AM for our trip up to Yala National Park. Yala is about an hour and a half from our guest house. We spent from 7:00 until about 1 in the park after which we had a packed curry and rice lunch and headed to one of the local Bhuddist temples called Kataragama.
The tour through the National Park was incredible. We had such fortune with the various birds and other animals that we encountered. We saw a young male elephant (shown above) leisurely snacking on some grass on his own. We also managed to get a real close up of a Crested Hawk Eagle voraciously chomping down on a frog. He was very protective of his freshly caught meal which allowed us to get some great photos. The Crested Hawk Eagle is an absolutely beautiful bird and we were lucky to see it.
Some of the other animals we saw included a Painted Stork, a Sri Lanka Jackal, a hare, some crocodiles, and a variety of others. It was worth the early start to be able to experience so much of Sri Lanka's wildlife in only six hours or so. Our only regret was not encountering a leopard. They are extremely elusive animals and with only 30 in the park we were not surprised that we didn't come across one.
At the end of the safari we visited a beach (shown above) where the Tsunami hit. There were ruins of two of lodges that I saw where 47 people were killed. Being at this site gave me a very erie feeling, trying to imagine a 25-30 foot wave coming in to where I was standing. Partly because of the ruins, damaged trees, boats where boats should not be and along with the other debris (such as sandles and tea cups) scattered about. But it was also erie for an undescribable reason. This might sound strange, but it was almost as if there was tension in the air to the point that someone was waiting to yell or scream...but could not. Like when you lose your voice in fear. I don't know if that accurately describes it, but that is the best that I can put it into words.
The beauty of this beach was extremely paradoxical knowing what took place only two and half years ago. It was a long beach which came to a point at the south end where there was a tall rock atoll or outcropping. The water was various shades of blue and the waves were crashing in like thunder. The sun was shining bright and then there was the tension I described above. You'd really need to be there to understand exactly what I am trying to describe.
After the beach we headed back and had our packed lunch and then off to Kataragama. This place was very busy. It was a large grounds with various different venues for worshipping. The main Pagoda was actually very tranquile despite the bustle of the surrounding area. We each took our ceremonial flower as our offering to Bhudda and lit incense which is also part of the tradition. The flower offering symbolizes the fact that although, at this point in time, the flower is very beautiful, alive, and lush, as with everything, it will not last. In fact it will begin to wilt as we stand there. The flower, and it's look and scent, along with the insense are also meant to help worshippers cleanse their minds before worshipping. It was an almost surreal experience except for the fact that I am athiest so even beginning to understand the Bhuddist philosophies was incredibly difficult to do. We did show our respects though and pushed on back to Tangalle for dinner.
We had dinner and a few pints again at the guest house up the street from us. I decided to try something completely different and had fish and chips! It was very different given the amount of curry and rice we've been eating. Actually, Paul, our resident Benthic Ecologist made a good point today - if you were a westerner coming to stay, you would really miss out on the full Sri Lankan experience if you only ate at the hotels and guest houses. We've been eating lunch each day with a family near our project site and the food has been unbelievable. I've really increased my spice tolerance over the past week or so! I guess curry for breakfast will do that!
Today was a great day as well. We finished the fenceposts and fence wire and also collected some sediment samples to establish a baseline for the fauna in the area where we will start planting tomorrow. The fencepost work was messy. Actually, that is an understatement, I was covered head to toe in mud...in fact, I had mud in my eyes, ears and nose as well. Alice and some of the others did a great job today finishing the fence wire and Louise helped Paul and Kumara collect sediment samples. At the end of the day we all got to go to the lab and check out a polychete (like a worm but with legs and hair-like things out the side of it, for eyes (for lack of the correct terminology) and some pollyps. If that doesn't paint a very vivid picture...it kind of looks like a centipede but it lives in marine and estuarial environments.
We had an earlier day today because we had such a long day yesterday and because we need to rest up for our friendly cricket match against the local primary school tomorrow. It should be an intense match, given that we have an Aussie on our side and they just beat the Sri Lankans in the West Indies for the World Cricket Championship! Hopefully she can teach us all how to play in time for the match :) ! Later this evening we'll be going back to the Rekawa area to observe sea turtles laying eggs.
Hope all's well with everyone there...or wherever you are.
Mom - just wanted to wish you a happy Mother's Day. Hope the flowers arrived okay.
Mike, if you're getting this...happy belated birthday!
Cheers
Chris
P.S. I've added some pics to some of the previous blogs.
I
I
Friday, May 11, 2007
Fenceposts and Fur Elise
Back for another post. Today was a great day...we managed to accomplish a lot. Today's tasks were to finish preparing and leveling the plots for planting the mangroves and putting up a fence to keep the cattle at bey. Apparently cows really like mangrove leaves and our work would be all for not without the fence.
We started by hauling heavy concrete fenceposts by hand through the lagoon land...did I mention the fence posts were nearly 75 kilos each and we were walking/stumbling on soft marsh land. Next we dug 1.5 foot holes and installed the posts. After that was finished we strung up the plastic wire connecting the posts. All in all, after another pretty long, hot day, we accomplished the task at hand and had lunch with the same family. It was really tasty! I like this culture too...I get to eat with my hands...without getting in trouble!
Yesterday was a pretty long hot day as well. We prepared all but three of the remaining 27 plots!!! Once we got our 'system' going it actually went pretty quickly. We were all extremely exhausted after the day was out. Not so exhausted that we couldn't hold the first event in the inaugural Coconut Cup. This event was the Mudrunning challenge. Five fierce competitors stepped up to the line to sprint the 40 meter dash in mud up to their knees. The first place medal went to Paul "the Swampstomper" who was the hands down favourite given his occupation as a benthic ecologist and the many hours he's spent trapsing around in mud up to his knees. Second place was awarded to Mark "the Doc" Huxall. Third place is still undetermined. We have video evidence and it was definitely a photo finish between Benthic Benjamin, Chris "Crazy Canuck" Robertson and Peyal the Pride of Sri Lanka!
The next event will be the 40 meter mud hurdles, followed by the sliperly slalom and the last event will be a friendly test match between the Mangrove Maniacs and the local Rekewa Rekers cricket teams.
As you can see, although we work hard...we play harder!
Tomorrow is our day off so in about 5 hours from now, (yes...that is about is 3:30 am Sri Lankan time)..we will get in the bus and head for Yala National Park in search of Sri Lankan wildlife. Afterwards we hope to see one of the local temples and then out for dinner for Louise's upcoming birthday.
We are also looking forward to visiting one of the nearby beaches to see if we can spot some turtle hanky panky (don't worry...that is just sea turtles coming ashore to lay eggs!) and of course, as I mentioned, the cricket match between one of the local (primary) schools and the Earthwatch project team.
Highlights of the past couple days:
The Coconut Cup (even though I didn't win!)
The food...especially the onion sambol and the Dal.
The feeling of accomplishment I have felt when reaching our daily goals in the field.
Kumar and Opal's 'enlighting' (pun intended) talk on Bhuddism.
Lowlights...
The bread truck that drives by every 10 minutes or so playing Fur Elise (similar to an icecream truck) selling baked products out the back.
Anyway, I should get going since I have to get up in a few hours.
I'll post again soon - next time with a picture.
CheersCrazy Canuck
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Learning to love mud
Today was spent levelling the 38 plots we shall be planting with a variety of mangroves seedlings over the next 10 days. It was hot tiring work - but sure beats spending time at the gym.
All the plots will be planted with a variety of species, to determine which one best thrives in this environment. One of the really exciting things about this project is that the results of the research - which will be over three years - is groundbreaking and will be used both in Sri Lanka to assist in the management of their mangroves as well as for the managment of other mangroves areas around the world.
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
First long day in the sun
We had our first full day preparing the mangrove site we are rehabilitating. Have had to learn how to walk in mud - sometimes knee deep - without getting stuck or falling over.
The main task of today was to mark out the plots where we will be planting mangroves over the next 12 days. We are all learning alot about mangroves and the best conditions for them to survive.
Driving to and from the site you can still see the impacts of the Tsunami - 2 years after the event. There are many graves along the coastal areas and areas which have not fully recovered. The local people are great - very positive and happy for us to be here working here with them.
Hope to have some pictures up on the site in the next few days.
The main task of today was to mark out the plots where we will be planting mangroves over the next 12 days. We are all learning alot about mangroves and the best conditions for them to survive.
Driving to and from the site you can still see the impacts of the Tsunami - 2 years after the event. There are many graves along the coastal areas and areas which have not fully recovered. The local people are great - very positive and happy for us to be here working here with them.
Hope to have some pictures up on the site in the next few days.
First update
“Well…finally” you are all saying. Yes, it is Wednesday and I am posting my first blog (ever) from Sri Lanka of all places. We have had a jam-packed first few days.
Obviously, I arrived safe and sound (although a little late). No flights are allowed in or out of Colombo airport due to some recent unfortunate incidents so my flight came in about four hours later than scheduled.
I met up with Louise on my first day and we hired a taxi to go to the Pinnewala Elephant Orphanage. This was a cool introduction to Sri Lanka. We saw the baby elephants get fed and then they marched them all up the hill, across the street and into the river for a bath. Ian and Elaine, you’ll have to get used to this soon won’t you? We spent the afternoon there, had a bite to eat and headed back to the Brown’s Beach Hotel to meet up with our Aussie cohort…Alice.
We all went out for a nice drink on the beach and then for a light dinner at a nearby restaurant. That is the one thing about the heat…it seems to take away your appetite (unless you’ve been slogging in mud up to your knees all day…but more on that later). After nearly nodding off a few times at dinner, I headed back to the hotel for some much needed sleep after 30-odd hours awake.
The following day we met up with the Earthwatch crew at the hotel and packed on the bus for parts unknown (literally). There were two Earthwatch groups meeting at the hotel and the first group nearly accosted us and took us to study monkey’s in the interior instead of mangroves on the coast!!! We just barely made it off the bus before it departed and caught up with Dr. Mark Huxhall, our Project Leader and headed off to Tangalle.
The trip to Tangalle was one of the most exciting drives of my life. Driving in Sri Lanka is like no other driving experience I’ve had – Costa Rica, Carribean, Africa and the UK included. It reminds me of Brownian motion …cars, bicycles, tuk tuks (covered, three wheeled, two stroke carriages), and trucks all randomly moving with some sort of force field around them that keeps them from colliding (for the most part). I think the Bhuddist influence on the culture prevents the type of road rage you’d expect in Toronto from people driving in the same fashion. Apart from the line down the centre of the road, it really does not seem like there are any rules of the road…and even the centre dividing line is more like a guideline than an actual rule. At any rate, we arrived safe and sound in Tangalle, had a quick intro to the team and retired to bed. The team is a real united nations envoy with people from Canada, Australia, England, Belgium and Sri Lanka. Everybody is really nice and very motivated.
Sri Lanka, being 6 degrees north of the equator is extremely hot and humid with daytime temperatures above 30C and the evenings and overnight do not cool down much at all. I think it is particularly humid this time of the year because we are approaching monsoon season…in fact, I think we are having a monsoon right now. The rain is literally coming sideways. Given the heat and humidity it is important to drink plenty of water, especially when we are in the field. No worries there though, I have been drinking Fern bottled water for the most part and you’ll be happy to know that “it has been purified and bottled by most scientific methods protecting its natural biological values”. I’m not exactly sure which scientific methods, but it tastes pretty good.
Despite the heat, we have been eating various curry dishes for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I had never really heard of curry for breakfast before (except perhaps after a night out in London!), but it is quite good. The food so far has been one of the many highlights.
So yesterday (Tuesday) we had our mangrove marathon. We went out and learned about the various types of mangroves that are present in Sri Lanka, the benefits that they provide to the ecosystem and the pressures they face. I will spare the details at this point because I am running short on time and want to wrap up. After the mangrove marathon we went for a swim, got cleaned up, had a bit of a class and then went out for dinner.
Today was an exciting day as well. One of the things I recall writing on the application for this amazing opportunity is that I would really look forward to getting my hands dirty. Well…today, I spent the better part of the morning and into the afternoon knee and elbow deep in mud and benthic matter. We set out to prepare the plot areas where we will be planting the mangroves. Our team managed to plot out and properly level 15 of 30 plots. It was very physical work involving the use of large garden hoes to level a plot of mud so that we can plant the mangroves. While the “earth” was extremely soft, it was also mucky and your feet sunk in sometimes up to your knees making it hard to get a good footing or any leverage for pulling and redistributing the mud. I am pretty sure I’ll be feeling muscles tomorrow that I didn’t know I had.
We had a nice break about mid-morning where we ate fresh pineapple, mango, and drank coconut water. It was a very refreshing break.
After a hard day slogging in the mud we went for lunch nearby. It was prepared for us by a local family. It was traditional southern Sri Lankan food and extremely tastly. We had a chick pea curry called Dal, curried tuna, and two types of bread. One was called Roti but was not like West Indian Roti at all. It was prepared with wheat flour and coconut and was pretty hard - not like the floppy west Indian roti we are used to eating. It did a great job of sopping up all the curry sauce. The other bread was made with a local cereal and looked like chocolate cake, but tasted more on the savoury side. It is actually fed to diabetics (like myself) to help control blood sugar. It has a high fibre content so it slows the uptake of sugar into the blood. I thought this was a really cool coincidence. They also prepared woodapple juice which was a bit sweet for my liking.
After lunch we headed to the beach to clean up and cool off after being in the heat and mud all morning. This is probably a good place to digress and talk about the Sri Lanka people for a minute. My first impression is that they are a kind, compassionate, hard working and laid back people. As an illustration I will use our side-tracked laden ordeal to find a beach. We started in the town of Rekawa, near our mangrove site and asked a few of the locals where a good place to swim would be. They gave us 'directions' and off we went. Now , when I say directions, I don't mean, "drive two sets of lights north on Yonge Street, make a left at Richmond, past three sets of lights and right onto Duncan street..." So we got sidetracked a number of times along the way. What was interesting is that every time we got lost, we would stop outside a house and honk the horn, bordering on friendly and incessantly, and the resident would stop whatever they were doing, come out with a big smile on their face. Dialogue between our driver and the resident would ensue in Sinhalese and then we'd be off to the next fork in the road where this was repeated. I think if I started honking my horn outside of some stranger's house in Toronto, the reaction would be somewhat different.
One of the striking observations I made during the trip to the beach was the amount of damage from the Tsunami. There were abandoned buildings with significant structural damage, rubbish and debris littered the side of the road, numerous graves from the many people who were killed and all of the trees had a distinct lean in the direction away from the ocean, obviously from the sheer power of the waves that came in during the Tsunami.
Anyway, I should run, I don't want to be late for our class on benthic matter which will be put on by Mark's PhD student, Paul.
Cheers
Chris
Obviously, I arrived safe and sound (although a little late). No flights are allowed in or out of Colombo airport due to some recent unfortunate incidents so my flight came in about four hours later than scheduled.
I met up with Louise on my first day and we hired a taxi to go to the Pinnewala Elephant Orphanage. This was a cool introduction to Sri Lanka. We saw the baby elephants get fed and then they marched them all up the hill, across the street and into the river for a bath. Ian and Elaine, you’ll have to get used to this soon won’t you? We spent the afternoon there, had a bite to eat and headed back to the Brown’s Beach Hotel to meet up with our Aussie cohort…Alice.
We all went out for a nice drink on the beach and then for a light dinner at a nearby restaurant. That is the one thing about the heat…it seems to take away your appetite (unless you’ve been slogging in mud up to your knees all day…but more on that later). After nearly nodding off a few times at dinner, I headed back to the hotel for some much needed sleep after 30-odd hours awake.
The following day we met up with the Earthwatch crew at the hotel and packed on the bus for parts unknown (literally). There were two Earthwatch groups meeting at the hotel and the first group nearly accosted us and took us to study monkey’s in the interior instead of mangroves on the coast!!! We just barely made it off the bus before it departed and caught up with Dr. Mark Huxhall, our Project Leader and headed off to Tangalle.
The trip to Tangalle was one of the most exciting drives of my life. Driving in Sri Lanka is like no other driving experience I’ve had – Costa Rica, Carribean, Africa and the UK included. It reminds me of Brownian motion …cars, bicycles, tuk tuks (covered, three wheeled, two stroke carriages), and trucks all randomly moving with some sort of force field around them that keeps them from colliding (for the most part). I think the Bhuddist influence on the culture prevents the type of road rage you’d expect in Toronto from people driving in the same fashion. Apart from the line down the centre of the road, it really does not seem like there are any rules of the road…and even the centre dividing line is more like a guideline than an actual rule. At any rate, we arrived safe and sound in Tangalle, had a quick intro to the team and retired to bed. The team is a real united nations envoy with people from Canada, Australia, England, Belgium and Sri Lanka. Everybody is really nice and very motivated.
Sri Lanka, being 6 degrees north of the equator is extremely hot and humid with daytime temperatures above 30C and the evenings and overnight do not cool down much at all. I think it is particularly humid this time of the year because we are approaching monsoon season…in fact, I think we are having a monsoon right now. The rain is literally coming sideways. Given the heat and humidity it is important to drink plenty of water, especially when we are in the field. No worries there though, I have been drinking Fern bottled water for the most part and you’ll be happy to know that “it has been purified and bottled by most scientific methods protecting its natural biological values”. I’m not exactly sure which scientific methods, but it tastes pretty good.
Despite the heat, we have been eating various curry dishes for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I had never really heard of curry for breakfast before (except perhaps after a night out in London!), but it is quite good. The food so far has been one of the many highlights.
So yesterday (Tuesday) we had our mangrove marathon. We went out and learned about the various types of mangroves that are present in Sri Lanka, the benefits that they provide to the ecosystem and the pressures they face. I will spare the details at this point because I am running short on time and want to wrap up. After the mangrove marathon we went for a swim, got cleaned up, had a bit of a class and then went out for dinner.
Today was an exciting day as well. One of the things I recall writing on the application for this amazing opportunity is that I would really look forward to getting my hands dirty. Well…today, I spent the better part of the morning and into the afternoon knee and elbow deep in mud and benthic matter. We set out to prepare the plot areas where we will be planting the mangroves. Our team managed to plot out and properly level 15 of 30 plots. It was very physical work involving the use of large garden hoes to level a plot of mud so that we can plant the mangroves. While the “earth” was extremely soft, it was also mucky and your feet sunk in sometimes up to your knees making it hard to get a good footing or any leverage for pulling and redistributing the mud. I am pretty sure I’ll be feeling muscles tomorrow that I didn’t know I had.
We had a nice break about mid-morning where we ate fresh pineapple, mango, and drank coconut water. It was a very refreshing break.
After a hard day slogging in the mud we went for lunch nearby. It was prepared for us by a local family. It was traditional southern Sri Lankan food and extremely tastly. We had a chick pea curry called Dal, curried tuna, and two types of bread. One was called Roti but was not like West Indian Roti at all. It was prepared with wheat flour and coconut and was pretty hard - not like the floppy west Indian roti we are used to eating. It did a great job of sopping up all the curry sauce. The other bread was made with a local cereal and looked like chocolate cake, but tasted more on the savoury side. It is actually fed to diabetics (like myself) to help control blood sugar. It has a high fibre content so it slows the uptake of sugar into the blood. I thought this was a really cool coincidence. They also prepared woodapple juice which was a bit sweet for my liking.
After lunch we headed to the beach to clean up and cool off after being in the heat and mud all morning. This is probably a good place to digress and talk about the Sri Lanka people for a minute. My first impression is that they are a kind, compassionate, hard working and laid back people. As an illustration I will use our side-tracked laden ordeal to find a beach. We started in the town of Rekawa, near our mangrove site and asked a few of the locals where a good place to swim would be. They gave us 'directions' and off we went. Now , when I say directions, I don't mean, "drive two sets of lights north on Yonge Street, make a left at Richmond, past three sets of lights and right onto Duncan street..." So we got sidetracked a number of times along the way. What was interesting is that every time we got lost, we would stop outside a house and honk the horn, bordering on friendly and incessantly, and the resident would stop whatever they were doing, come out with a big smile on their face. Dialogue between our driver and the resident would ensue in Sinhalese and then we'd be off to the next fork in the road where this was repeated. I think if I started honking my horn outside of some stranger's house in Toronto, the reaction would be somewhat different.
One of the striking observations I made during the trip to the beach was the amount of damage from the Tsunami. There were abandoned buildings with significant structural damage, rubbish and debris littered the side of the road, numerous graves from the many people who were killed and all of the trees had a distinct lean in the direction away from the ocean, obviously from the sheer power of the waves that came in during the Tsunami.
Anyway, I should run, I don't want to be late for our class on benthic matter which will be put on by Mark's PhD student, Paul.
Cheers
Chris
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