8th-10th December 2011 - Days 7-9

Thursday 8th December - Day 7

Today we got the train to Kandy from Colombo, we waved goodbye to Yamuna, who had looked after us so well during our time with her, and set off for the second part of the trip.

The train to Kandy took about 5 hours and the views on the way were spectacular - they ranged from city to countryside, towns to slums and everything in between! We were surprised to see

people walking on the tracks and that the doors on the train were permanently open, so people were happily hanging out of them.

We arrived at Kandy station and were greeted by local Senior Guides who we were to stay with overnight. We all went separate ways before meeting up again the next day.

Friday 9th December - Day 8

5 of us met up at the local school, the school in which the girls met for Senior Guide meetings and watched the last school assembly of the year, before the school broke up for Christmas. We got on the school bus and picked up the last team member enroute. We had all had very different experiences in our homestays but had all enjoyed them. The bus journey was very long and extremely bumpy!!!

We arrived in Anuradhapura and after putting our bags in our rooms we had a guided tour of the Sacred city with a coach full of Senior Guides from across Sri Lanka. We visited many temples and other sacred sites for the Buddhist religion.

After a spicy dinner - hot, very hot! - we practiced some songs in Sinhalese and then taught the girls some in Enlgish!

Saturday 10th December - Day 9

We got up at 5am this morning for an early breakfast and opening ceremony for the Senior Guide project we were about to take part in. We made a flagpole out of a branch and used electrical tape to attach the UK flag - the Sri Lankan Guides followed our example and borrowed our electrical tape rather than practicing their lashings, this didnt go down to well with their Leaders! Above us mangos started flying, the monkeys were obviously after target practice as they took one bite before throwing them at us! Breakfast - milk rice, curry and spicy dahl as well as bananas.

The ceremony started after breakfast, 2 hours late - this involved us standing in our team in a long line behind our flag, in the sun. The Leaders carried a chair out, covered in a white sheet and the monk arrived and sat in it. The monk spoke, then the army man spoke, then we sang the song we had practiced the previous night... then everyone left. We had been stood in the sun for what seemed like ages.

We went to Jetavanarana Pagoda and walked round to a section which was covered in scaffolding and planks to make steps. We put our flag with the others in the sand nearby and watched worriedly as the Guides climbed happily up the wobbly steps out of view from the floor.

We insisted on staying near the bottom and joined the chain of brick passing, as time went on we gradually all ended up on the planks, with Nicola being a good 40ft off the floor! :S We passed over 1225 bricks in 4 hours plus plates of cake and glasses of salty lemon juice (yuk!)

After all the bricks for today had been passed we then climbed the 70m pagoda (clinging tightly to the scaffolding as the planks wobbled and bent under our weight). The views were great but we were slightly concerned about the whole health and safety issue of us wandering around a building site at 70m with nothing to protect us.

Lunch time - more spicy food - rice, potatoes, chicken (that only Cat could eat) and more bananas. We were then told it was home time - only our timetable said we were staying until tomorrow... We packed hurriedly as we were leaving in 15 mins and then sat around and waited about an hour for the bus - we love Sri Lankan time keeping. A bus arrived, not ours though, and we were ushered onto it by army personnel - this was not going to be heading home. With no idea where we were going we loaded all our bags on the bus and took our seats near the fans.

20 mins drive later we arrived at an army barracks and were lined up infront of a tank and an armoured recovery vehicle. The Colonel briefed us on why we were there and we were given information about the vehicles before being invited to climb all over the tanks. After we were given drinks whilst a tank gave a demo - filling the air with smoke, fumes and dust. We investigated their toilets - hidden behind a tree...in the middle of the room. We returned to the demo to be invited to ride the tank, sat on top, which we all jumped at (again ignoring the lack of health and safety as we held on to each other and gun mounts to stop us falling off!) After a speedy lap through the mud we were back on safe ground and offered yet more food, which we put on the bus.

We were then invited to a tea party by the Colonel - tea from the back of a pickup truck and more food... we are going to need rolling home by the end of the trip, everyone is so generous!

The long bus trip home was made more interesting by endless hours of singing both by us and by the Senior Guides - we even learnt some songs in Sinhalese. It was the lunar eclipse as well, so lots of hanging out of windows taking photos!

The end of the bus journey arrived eventually and we were taken, in the bus, to Kumari's house. She showed us to the apartment where we would be staying for the next week. It was large and we had two bedrooms, a kitchen and a bathroom to share between us. We all put our stuff down and watched the bus attempt to turn in the driveway, and watched it reverse into a tree in the process. We set up some amazing contraptions using washing lines and electrical wire to hang our mosquito nets (think chairs on beds to reach).

Bedtime