Today I find myself and other team member Fiona facing an 8-10 hr journey (inevitably going to be faced with numerous challenges) back to Moonridge, Matara and the rest of the team. In order not to overwhelm the little pre schools in the first couple of weeks, we are sending 6 people a day to Hiththatiya, and 3 others to Gandarawatte or Rassandeniya, leaving 3 people off to do chores or whatever else needs doing. Having no particular chores to do and having drawn the short (or not so short depending how you look at it) straw for being off both Tuesday and Wednesday, we decided to use this time wisely – namely hop tailing it onto the first bus leaving Matara straight after school on Monday. We were all desperate to see more of the incredibly diverse and epic Sri Lanka, and these days off seemed like the perfect opportunity to. We ended up in Kandy, the old capital that rests in a natural bowl in the hills 500m asl. It’s a picturesque city that feels more like a town due to its lush and green forested hills, a central lake and prominent history, culture and markets, with only a slight urban buzz to remind you that it is in fact considered a Maha Nuwara – ‘great city’. It was great to have a change of scenery and some time to ourselves. Needless to say, 12 people living together, working together, and generally being constantly on top of each other creates a physical need for such space and time away. So having embarked on our evening 3rd class express journey to Kandy via Colombo, we now had to deal with the unfortunately not so new dilemma of being the resident alien life forms- of which it seems to be considered to be perfectly acceptable to thus be taunted and mocked, stared at, laughed at and have men of all ages daring each other to get closer to us and to see if they could touch us and pull our clothes and hair. Needless to say the result of these behaviours was extreme discomfort, insecurity and an increasing anger to the way in which we were treated. Fortunately though, the oh so usually problematic language barrier we were able transcend and once they gathered the universally applicable message of ‘you touch me again and you die’, we were able to continue our journey in peace and security, and were safely met at the bus stop by the landlady of the guesthouse I had booked.

After not so much sleep we were up with the dawn for breakfast and an exciting day in the knuckles Range Mountains. We had booked a guide and driver and made our way towards the mountains visiting Tamil tea workers and the plantations and various Hindu temples along the way. The knuckles range was stunning and it was really interesting to see how different the lives were of the people who lived in these mountains compared to those of the fishing coastal communities back down near Matara. In fact, pretty soon all the inhabitants of the mountain range knew of our presence due to an accidental blood curdling and mountain shaking scream which was the result of an unexpected leech attack on my left foot (very embarrassing moment that proved to be a point of massive hilarity to the locals and guides).

Once safe and sound back in Kandy town we enjoyed a cultural show featuring over 11 dances from all over sri lanka, including fire walking and the famous Vez dancers who train for several years and have to wear 64 ornaments!

Which brings us to today. Fiona and I must now head the long journey back to base in time for teaching at Hiththatiya tomorrow. And we can’t wait to tell the rest of the group and the children about our little adventure, and we are even thinking about doing a history lesson in English about Kandy for the children. I have enjoyed the hill country and Kandy so much, which is unsurprising considering I am a religious studies student and as so naturally drawn to the increased religious and social diversity present there. We reluctantly left Kandy at 9am and after stopping off at the Pinnewala elephant orphanage we eventually arrived back just in time for dinner. The journey home was thankfully uneventful, most likely due to the large numbers of women and children on the buses, and we can’t wait to go back and explore more of Kandy at the next available opportunity!