The Jungle

This was our first weekend outing and was a way to get to know all the other volunteers so we could help and support each other during the the challenging projects we had.We stayed in massive tents, sleeping 8 people.  There were many 'team building' activities on Saturday (starting at 6am!), including falling off a high platform and being caught by the rest of the team, jumping into a lake from a 20 or 30 feet platform and zip wiring across a lake.

Unfortuantely I was really ill and had to go to the doctors in the morning because I had a fever and major stomach cramps, which I  think was caused by drinking the local water. At the doctors, he didn't speak very good English and then gave me 6 different pills to take and gave me no description as to what the were. Apparently it is common in Sri Lanka for doctors to give out loads of medication to people without really knowing whats wrong with them. They think the more the better!

The dozens of pills given to me

I felt dosed up all day on too many medications, but I managed to get myself up and jump off the 30 foot platform into the lake. I felt like I was still asleep when I did it, but it definately woke me up!

In the evening, everyone was drinking the local alcohol of sri lanka, called arrak, and we had a barbeque with the Sri Lankan red cross society. I couldn't drink because I was still ill from my stomach infection. However,  I had a great evening dancing and watching performances from the Sri Lankan.

A dramatic performance by a group of Sri lankans

They asked us to perform something to them, but we had nothing prepared, so we just stood up and sang 'my heart will go on'. It was awkward because not many off us could sing or knew all the words, but I think they enjoyed it.

Dancing with the locals

I had a dance-off with one of the locals, which was so much fun. I found it hard keeping up with his energy because Sri Lankan dancing is really fast, but I think I was a pretty good competitor. I wanted to introduce the Sri Lankans to some British songs, especially some genres they probably have never heard before, such as techno or drum and bass. We danced for them and they tryed to copy our dancing.

On Sunday, I was still felling ill but I didn't want to miss out on anything else so I went on the trek up a really high mountain in the rainforest. It was amazing and the views were so good.

We did some climbing with harnesses and swam in some beautiful waterfalls.

Here I am underneath a waterfall

 There must have been a forest fire at some point, because on the climb down the other side of the mountain, a large part of the forest was largely empty and my hands were black from touching the trees.

Although I was ill and couldn't take part in many of the activities, I had an amazing experience.