the elephants send there love

I just walked 2 km to the nearest town, where the "internet cafe" has only ONE working computer. It is probably older than I am.

My new home in Pinnawala is adorable and I have the nicest host family. The woman hardly speaks english but she is SO sweet and is always smiling and patting me on the back.

the elephant orphanage is unreal: SO many elephants! and they just wander around everywhere. there is almost no security so guests can get so close to the animals. When they walk the elephants down to the river to bathe, they walk them right down the street and you have to be careful not to get stepped on! This would never be legal in the U.S.

so far, I havent done to much at the orphanage. Yesterday morning I hung out with the mahouts and helped them scoop food debris into a truck. I had NO idea what I was supposed to do, and it was a little uncomfortable not being able to understand anything the mahouts said...Im pretty sure they were talking about me the whole time...but it was prety cool. A few of them could speak some english and they were really friendly; they kept making jokes and asking questions and teaching me words in sinhala.
but there is not much work for us to do, and we havent done anything cool like feed baby elephants or even help bathe them yet. Hopefully once the mahouts know us better, we will have more to do!

last night we went to BIG festival in Kandy. I left the house at 3:00pm and we didnt get back until 3:00am! I took a tuk-tuk (3-wheeled car) for the hour and a half ride up the hillside of sri Lanka to arrive in Kandy. It was QUITE and experience! and the festival was incredible! there were SO SO SO many people crowding the streets. after dark the parade started: over 100 elephants all dressed in colors and bright lights, sri lankan dancers, and fire throwers. the whole parade is in honor of the Lord Buddha's teeth, which are housed in Kandy. It was such a cool experience. I have lots of pictures (which I will try to put up sometime in the next week). they arent that great because it was night time and it was rainy, but at least is is something!

I would love to hear from everyone at home! Please send me emails and keep me updated on your lives. I will try to respond to them but there is no telling how long that could take. but I would love to at least hear how you are doing!