Today was the first social outreach of my trip in Sri Lanka. It is when we go out into the community and help different community centers/orphanages/etc on different things from the education on hand washing to helping clean up an orphanage. Today we were placed in an orphanage and our task was to paint one of the buildings that had a lot of rain damage. We had an early morning, starting at 0700. The first half of the day went fairly smoothly, cleaned up the outside of the building and started painting. Jammed out to some Disney music, obviously, and everyone was having a good time. By mid-day it was ridiculously hot, everyone was drenched in sweat, thirsty and getting tired. After lunch we were beat. It was 1400 and we still had a lot of work to finish. So, we sucked it up and finished the job -- hot, tired, and slow from lunch. The only thing that made it better was that I got to chose the music for part II, and since Disney was part I, The Beatles were part II. At the end of the day, we stuck around for some pictures... made a "You're killin' me smalls!" joke at the best possible moment and only one person understood... it made me sad.
When the day was complete, we started our journey to Dabulla/Sigiriya. We usually take a private bus so that all of the volunteers can stay together, however we had too many volunteers and not enough seats on the bus, so three of us volunteered to take the public transportation option -- cheaper but longer. Getting to Dambulla wasn't too bad, a bit cramped but otherwise just a long journey after we finally figured out where the correct bus was located (the bus station is the most disorganized place ever). We passed a funeral procession and interestingly enough, they all wear white here instead of black. I'm not sure why, but that really interested me. No one around could tell me why. They also walk behind the car carrying the coffin instead of driving and in front of the car are a few select people who play drums and a certain type of horn. It was pretty cool to see. Since then we have actually seen quite a few and I can never take my eyes off of them.
When we arrive in Dambulla after 5 hours, it's raining and we have no clue where our hotel/hostel is located. Since this place is a bit off the map, we can't locate ourselves on Google Maps (first world problems) so we chat with a Tuk Tuk driver and he gets us to where we think we need to be. But, when we arrive, the place looks totally abandoned and creepy... and very locked. We finally decide to climb over the gated wall to try and find someone to help us, turns out it is the right place (great.), we get inside and crash after an incredibly long day.
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