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Published: September 7th 2008
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I'm almost caught up! Now all I have to do is try and get back into the habit of keeping up!
Whilst I've been catching up with writing my blog I've been reading back things that I'd jotted down in my notebook. It's interesting to read back my feelings from when I first moved to the camp. On one day I'd just written a highlighted note 'lunch - bugs!' I'm pretty sure that I won't have indulged... I'd also written about making a cup of tea by and having to boil the water for it in a wok. I can't believe I went to so much trouble, so much easier now I've got a kettle!
Foodie Dreams
When I first moved to the camp I didn't have any transport and obviously didn't get to Tesco's much. There are lots of musings about the kind of foods I'm missing. I was having 'lustful' dreams about jacket potatoes and hand carved ham!! I've sorted the potato crisis but still haven't come across any nice big chunks of ham, or that really nice wafer thin ham you get in M & S......nooo...now I won't be able to get that out of
my head, I'll be hallucinating about Marks and Spencers. Like the time when I was on the back of a motorbike and I thought I saw a sign saying 'Tea Room,' it actually said 'Techron' and was a petrol station...I was in a bad way! We took Mrs Noi's cat to the vets the other day (it was closed) to see if she was pregnant again (we don't know) and as we stopped outside the vets I saw a sign advertising farang food......chips and gravy, mushy peas, chicken casserole.....I think I might be paying them a visit!
So to now.....
The baby elephant at the camp, Em, has gone to elephant school. He was weaned from his mother a few weeks ago and has now packed his trunk (sorry..) It was quite entertaining watching the mahouts trying to get him into the back of a truck. For some reason they didn't have one with a ramp so they were trying to get him to stand on a table first and then get into the truck. Em seemed to think it was just a game though and he'd get his front legs on the table then shimmy around it
with his back legs. They took him off for a while to practice, enticing him with peeled bananas and words of encouragement when he managed it.
Tai Tai Elephant Garden
We're taking volunteers to a different camp at the moment, Tai Tai Elephant Garden. It's only 5 minutes away and I've quite liked going off to 'work' each morning and having that life separate from 'home' life. The camp is much bigger than the one at Khao Chee Chan, with 40 elephants, and in beautiful surroundings. We're considering the possibility of moving the project here full time as there are more options for routes for the volunteers to ride the elephants. It's very picturesque, right in the middle of the countryside and with little ponds dotted around. The owner of the camp and all the mahouts have ben so helpful and have even given us the use of a small 'volunteer house' for the voulunteers to relax in and around when they're not training with their elephants. It's a beautiful little solid wood house next to a pond, surrounded by banana trees and with....this is the best bit.....an indoor, western (oh yes) toilet. I unashamadely admit that I
Practice!
They were trying to get Em into the back of a truck by him standing on a table first, but he kept standing on the table with his front legs then circling round the table with his back legs still on the floor. So here they are getting him to practice climbing onto the table, enticed by bananas! have my eye on it. I wonder if they'd let me live in it if we do decide to keep the project here...I've already decided where to put my fridge and plant my veggie garden!
A River runs through it.....
It's the rainy season here at the moment, with September usually bringing the highest rainfall. It's actually not too bad as we don't get days where it rains continuously. When it does rain it rains really heavily but usually only lasts for an hour or so, and we often just get rain at night. Rain at the camp at Khao Chee Chan was never much of a problem as it's on a slope, but Tai Tai is a different story. With heavy rain the village gets a river and the rest turns into a bog. This week I've been stuck ankle deep in mud, suctioned in place by my flip-flops, and the only way to get around in the village is to wade through the river. Thankfully because it doesn't rain continuously it dries out quickly, several times a day.....it rains, we have a river, it gets hot and sunny, it dries out, it rains we have a
river........
The volunteers stayed over at the camp one night, for most of them the next day being their last at the the project with the elephants. It's always very emotional for people when they have to leave, it's amazing how attached you become to your elephant even after only a week of working with them. The mahouts at Tai Tai have also developed a little custom where, as well as well as presenting their volunteers with a ring they have made from the tail hair of their elephant, they are also tying string bracelets (I'm sure there's a proper name for them) around the volunteers wrists. The volunteers are usually presented with a few of these, from their own mahout and some of the senior ones, and they are given to protect the wearers from harm - I was given two by Tia's mum when I had my motorbike accident - and the 'tying ceremony' is accompanied by prayers. If the volunteers aren't feeling emotional already at leaving the camp this usually does the trick!
The last of the volunteers have now left and we have a couple of weeks without (the rainy season put's people off
contradictions
on the left a huuge house, on the right tin shacks! I think) so I'll be spending more time revamping the website. I usually go back to Mrs Noi's house and use the computer each day after camp to keep up with emails and sneakily enjoy the luxuries of a flat screen TV and power shower. Ah, I've just dashed all those images of me struggling away at the primitive camp...... On days when there are no volunteers it's not unuasual for me to rock up at Mrs Noi's on the back of the motorbike still wearing my pyjamas, ready for a shower and a change of clothes. I get caught out sometimes though when I don't shower straight away and Tia turns up - working on Thai time - at 3pm instead of 6 to take me back to the camp! When he does take me back so early I usually end up thinking 'what's the poiny?' as my house has usually been taken over by mahouts watching a DVD or playing cards and I end up perched on a support beam trying to work out the best route into the bedroom!
Relocation, Relocation????
A new partner has become involved with the elephant camp at Khao Chee Chan
and is throwing his weight around causing problems. He has asked me to set up a 'rival' project for him, which I would never do, and has given me two options: either I do it or I can no longer stay in the village...he's given me 30 days to move out. To be honest I'm not too bothered whether I stay there or not, but it does give me the insecurity of not knowing where I'm going to live (I think it might be a tad too soon to broach the subject at Tai Tai!). I've been shown immense kindness by Mr Boonserm - also a partner at the camp - who has offered me a house on the land where he lives. I had a quick look at it from the outside and it's amazing. It's made from solid wood - not pineapple and bamboo - and has (so I'm told) a bedroom, kitchen and (nirvana) indoor toilet. Today (Sunday 7/9/08) I've got the keys from him and Tia's going to take me over to have a look inside. From the outside I already love it, there are 3 ponds on the land, banana and mango trees and the
house has a small veranda with a bench and tables and chairs outtside in a small garden. My only concern with it is that it's quite isolated in that there are not many houses around and there are no shops. On the plus side this gives me an opportunity/excuse/reason to walk to get to the bus, I really need to do some exercise! Soo...we'll see!
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