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Published: February 8th 2006
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The day of snakes and amphibians. And our introduction to leeches. Another day of rain. We are again reminded the monsoon is officially over. Rain in the tropics is different; the temperature is 77 degrees Fahrenheit. When you get wet you don't really get cold, you just get wet. When it is not raining the humidity is very high, so rain or not you are always damp. The ground is so porous that the water gets soaked up leaving few puddles.
First, the lecture - cobras, vipers, and other reptiles and amphibians by Mr. Anslem de Silva. After tea, it is into the lab to see and handle snakes and lizards. Bare handed he milks a Russell's viper. Yes, it is a very poisonous snake. About 300 people a year die of snake bites in Sri Lanka.
It is still raining, should we cancel the field trip? During lunch the rain stops, the field trip is on. We head across the road and down past the cricket field to a riparian section on campus, tall grass, trees, and a steam bed with flowing water, brown with the runoff of all the recent rains. First, we overturn a few logs, then we head up stream heading toward the road and waiting van. We have L-shaped sticks with which we continue to poke the ground. Tall grasses, yes. Insects, yes. Leeches, yes. Snakes, no.
The bus takes us back to our Bungalawa. A troupe of Macaque monkeys are in the trees around our place. We had been told to lock our rooms and close and latch the windows whenever we left our room. People are not the problem, monkeys are the problem. The monkeys will take things from the rooms, especially shiny things like cameras or laptop computers. Houses under construction have "scare monkeys" on the roof. These are like "scare crows." The "scare monkey" looks like a person making the monkeys think people are around. Otherwise, when the workmen return tools and supplies are missing. Professor Kulasooriya told us that when he forgets to close a second story window, monkeys will enter his lab and play with his microscopes.
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