Category: Field Stories

By Chandni Navalkha The community study I am charged with here has been about trying to learn what daily life looks like, and how people’s lives and livelihoods have changed from two decades ago when Cynthia Caron, then a graduate student at Yale, came to Pitekele. People still remember her – they often ask me … Continue reading Things Change and Things Stay the Same

By Luke Menard We are now well past the three-month mark on our time here in Sri Lanka. Surprisingly, some aspects of our experience already feel as though they are beginning to wind down. Whenever we have internet access, you’re sure to find us frantically applying for jobs (resumes available upon request!) that will keep … Continue reading Pas saha Gini: Pitakele’s Newest Tea Garden Takes Shape

By Juliana Hanle The spot-winged thrush sings early and the magpies follow. Purple-rumped sunbirds make the same weeping sounds as sap boiling in burning twigs. The yellow-browed bulbuls are loud and sweet and the black-hooded oriole's call bounces thick as honey. The dark-fronted babbler is barely audible, the black-naped monarch hisses and trills, and the endemic, … Continue reading Birding in Pitekele and Other Adventures

By Chandni Navalkha We get around a lot of ways here in Sinharaja – via tuktuks, three-wheeled vehicles imported from India; on scooters or motorcycles driven expertly by friends; and most often, by foot. Perhaps my favorite mode of transportation is travelling in the back of a tea lorry, cramped amongst sacks of fresh green … Continue reading The Tea Lorries of Pitekele

By Juliana Hanle We've fertilized, applied compost, trimmed the bananas, built a trellis, weeded, and installed new planting beds. We cut the wild orchid growing below the pitcher plant slope behind the research station, and pruned the dill, roses, and kirihenda. We cut back the tree of life and harvested papaya. We rid much of … Continue reading Gems in the mud