During the Easter holidays, I travelled to Sri Lanka for ten days to volunteer at the Hikkaduwa Sanctuary for endangered sea turtles as well as teaching English at the local primary school. I’d organised my time there through The Mighty Roar, who run 100% ethical wildlife and marine projects to protect some of the world’s most endangered animals. Even though it was a twelve-hour flight with another couple of hours to the sanctuary, which was on the southwest of the island, I had chosen Sri Lanka for its rich culture, dedicated turtle conservation and tropical weather. I can conclude that the country did not fall short in any of those areas. Furthermore, as much as it was difficult being so far away from my family and in a completely new and unknown environment, I adapted to it fairly quickly as a result of all the interesting and kind people that I met in the programme and the local area.
I stayed in a room with four other men, who were all from different walks of life, as well as a plethora of bugs and mosquitos but that’s another story (I will never forget the size of the cockroaches!!) I was the youngest by quite a few years, which initially felt intimidating, but once we got to know each other, my apprehension ebbed away. We were located in the surfing town of Hikkaduwa which consisted of huge waves and scorching sun in the day and noisy, powerful thunder at night. It was incredibly natural, uncommercial, and almost felt like another world from many of the holiday destinations I’d visited before. In addition, being able to integrate and converse with the local citizens of Hikkaduwa with completely different backgrounds had a big impact on me. It was fascinating and opened my eyes to how blessed and lucky I am in life to have the opportunities that I have taken for granted thus far. This was made especially clear during a trip to the Tsunami Museum where I talked to an incredibly inspiring man who had survived the 2004 Sri Lankan tsunami. The loss he suffered, as well as the impact it had and is still having on thousands of others was heartbreaking. The resilience and community spirit I witnessed in this pocket of the world was extremely inspiring.
Our volunteering not only consisted of being able to interact with the endangered sea turtles in the form of hatching and releasing them, cleaning them as well as scrubbing some of the injured turtles’ temporary artificial homes. We did nightly beach patrols in case any of the eggs hatched so that we could then safely release them into the ocean, which had to be done within the hour. I was lucky to be able to do this a couple of times and it was certainly an experience I’ll never forget. Only one in a thousand survive to adulthood so despite hundreds of them hatching, it’s hard to imagine such a low survival rate. As well as this, we gathered essential research data which helped to change how the industry is run in Sri Lanka. The work we did and the success of the hatchery, contributed towards providing incentives to the government to look at imposing stricter legislations around poaching and ensuring more safe and ethical ways of taking tourists onto nesting beaches. We also cleaned the beaches every single day and then walked a couple of kilometres to take the bin bags to the refuse point… quite the work out in the raging heat! It not only helped the natural environment but also the locals, and they were so appreciative. Another way we raised awareness was the annual 5k run. It made the news with locals lining the streets to throw water on us and cheer us on. It was a great experience and made more memorable as I won it!
My experience wasn’t all work. At the weekend we headed inland to explore some of the beautiful parts of Sri Lanka. We visited an ancient fort in Galle, went to an ethical Elephant Transit Home to see baby elephants as well as seeing entire elephant families in Udawala. We trekked up Little Adams Peak as well as seeing the impressive Nine Arches Bridge, visited a tea plantation and swam in stunning waterfalls. The natural wildlife there is incredible, and we saw so much of it up close and in its natural habitat.
Having the opportunity to help the families of this town every day I was there meant so much to me as their overall kindness and positivity to life, despite the challenging conditions that most of them lived in, was so inspiring and are such powerful traits that everybody should have in life. I highly recommend anyone to step out of their bubble of comfort and travel to wherever they choose with the aim of not only expanding their own horizons and understanding of lesser known parts of the world, but also having the privilege of helping communities such as Hikkaduwa. I am so glad that I managed to experience all aspects of this beautiful country and will treasure those memories forever.
Theo, Year 12
