Why I Went

We each come as volunteers to Millennium Elephant Foundation for different reasons. For the bulk it’s to do a little travel during Gap year before university. Some come to find adventure in a strange culture. Most volunteers are young (under 25), British and female.

For me it has been a completely different experience. I’m a 56 year old American man. A Yank in a strange land. I came to MEF as part of a healing process following the passing of my wife from cancer.

Today ends my one month stay here. By tomorrow morning I’ll be halfway across the Atlantic on my way back to America. But I believe I have a different story to tell.

This was my third visit to Sri Lanka, a land of beauty and mystery. On my first trip in 2003 the very first place I saw (after the Colombo airport) was MEF. From that moment on I have been inexorably drawn back.

What is Millennium Elephant Foundation all about? Well, of course, “Elephant” is its middle name. Your first, last and constant impression is of the gray, four-legged, long-trunked residents of MEF.

But, the MEF experience FAR exceeds that:

It’s watching the water buffalo come to the “tank” as the evening sun sets over the wildlife refuge at Ude Wellewe. It’s sweating your way up the Rock of Sigiriya. Playing with the children of Habarana, where the human-elephant conflict affects their daily lives. It’s saying good-bye to other volunteers as they end their stay and welcoming new ones as they arrive. It’s having time to read in the evenings instead of mindlessly watching the tube. It’s subjecting oneself daily to the tender mercies of Mr. Karu in the eco-garden (Ah, but fresher, more flavorful vegetables you’ll never taste!).

It’s going to the boy’s orphanage in Rambukkana and marveling at their thirst to learn English and to have visitors. It’s sitting outside your bungalow at dusk as the sounds of the Buddhist chants waft across the valley. It’s being wakened in the morning by the sounds of the jungle and Chandana (my mahout) on his new motorbike as he arrives for a new day. It’s being excitedly greeted by the howls of the unofficial MEF dog triumvirate (Winnie, Collin and Stumpy) as the volunteers return Sunday evenings from a weekend away.

It’s the 3 AM start to climb Adam’s Peak so you can make the top by sunrise (I SWEAR it’s straight up! The lights along the path lead directly to the stars.). It’s entering the MEF-sponsored Ten Kilometer race as part of the Sri Lankan New Years celebration, only to find out it is over 12 kilometers and 90 degrees (34 C.) and you never had a chance to win anyway because at least four barefoot, hard-as-nails Sri Lankan lads were efficiently cleaning your clock.

It’s seeing the Southern Cross for the first time. It’s having the local guys invite you, an American, steeped in baseball, to join the evening cricket game. Playing in the meadow, the MEF elephants looking on as thunder boomed in the distance, I wasn’t a tired, worn down 56-year old man. I was eleven again and the cares of the world poured off me as though being washed by a rainstorm.

Its four hour rides in crowded, un-air conditioned buses (But what do you want for 60 Rupees?). It’s seeing with awe and fear the destruction wreaked by the tsunami. It’s being even more impressed by the resilience of the Sri Lankan people as they put their lives back together, with help from around the World.

It’s the morning salute from Mr. Putty, the cheerful greetings from Mr. Jazz, the checking in of Sara and Mr. Sunil as they arrive each day. The good natured teasing with the mahouts. It’s the kindness, concern and caring of Mrs. Samarasinghe, the Great Lady of MEF. It's seeing the golden glow of the setting sun silhouette the enormous Buddha statue looking down on Kandy Lake.


It’s all that and so much more. But, in the end it IS all about the elephants. It’s what drew us all here in the first place. We come to think of our assigned elephant as OURS. Throughout the globe hundreds of former MEF volunteers will think back on the time they spent here and THEIR elephant. Rani was MY elephant. When we said our good-byes there was a lump in my throat and, I SWEAR, a tear in her eye. Next week she will be someone else’s elephant. But, in my heart she will always be mine. Rani brought some healing to me. For that I will never forget her. And as I promised my MEF friends that I will return again next year maybe once again Rani will be mine.