Prince Harry in Lesotho (Courtesy AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

I saw this quick news article while I was reading the newspaper over breakfast. Prince Harry who is in Lesotho at the moment with army colleagues from the Household Calvary had his mobile stolen while on a night out. You can read more about the story here. The irony of the situation was that after the Lesotho Defense Force found the culprit and recovered the phone they had a tough time explaining to him that he had just robbed Prince Harry since “to him Prince Harry was just one of those white guys”. If you replace “white guys” with “westerners”, that is probably how many pickpockets in our destination countries as there are inevitably some feel towards our volunteers and other travelers, and highlights how important it is to be aware of your surroundings and follow basic safety procedures in any new place, especially one where you stick out. Consequently, if it can happen to Prince Harry it can happen to anybody!

Do any travelers and volunteers have any safety advice they would like to pass on?

Entrance to the Model Farm

James, the India Desk Officer, and I were able to visit our Eco-Development and Model Farm project in the small village of Ullar next to the Western Ghat mountains in the state of Tamil Nadu. We were able to tour the garden, meet with the volunteers there and even lend a hand with the weeding! It is quite an impressive place with an area for preparing organic fertilizer, a nursery for medicinal plants and a lot of well sign posted local plants. There is even a pond made by former volunteers in the shape of India! The current volunteers are actually going to a market in Rajapalaiyam tomorrow that is frequented by local farmers and will be selling discounted organic fertilizer and explaining its use.

Here are some more photos ……..

Volunteers preparing plantlings in the nursery

View of the compost shed from the second floor of the information building

Here I am lending a hand and weeding the India-shaped pond. Good thing I am a country boy at heart!

One of the mighty pachyderms

After trekking and boating on Saturday, we were able to wake up a little later today for another rainy day filled with elephant rides and a tour of a spice farm.

I wasn’t able to get any photos of the spice farm tour given the rain but I did get a lot of great photos from our elephant trek. You can see some below!

Volunteers waiting for their elephant rides. Sitara, Adib, George and Jenna from left to right.

Mike, Kunaal and Amit about to head out

Here is an action shot from our elephant who we dubbed “Jumbo” because he weighed 2 tons more than the other elephants!

Mike and I dared to venture closer to the elephants for this photo

This weekend brought all the 2 week special volunteers together for some exploring and bonding at the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary in the Western Ghat mountains. It also brought a big change in scenery with the rain and cold of the hills in stark comparison to the dryness and heat of Tamil Nadu!

On Saturday, we broke up into several groups to take in a boat ride on the lake in Periyar and then a trek through the reserve. After a well deserved rest at the hotel (our day started at 5:30 AM!) we had a special performance of kathakal, a traditional dance form from Kerala, in the early evening.

Here are some photos ……..

One group before their boat ride. They are ready to see some tigers!

Unfortunately we only saw some wild boars and a water buffalo

Considering the rain and leeches, I think our volunteer trekkers were “bold and brave”!

The ladies showing off their stylish anti-leech waders

Emma, Vicky and Sitara on our trek

The kathakal dancers and me. I asked if they wanted to have a dance-off but they declined. I think they were afraid of my dancing abilities.