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Published: August 2nd 2008
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I've had a few tellings off recently for not keeping up to my blog....... so in anticipation of an update I might as well publish this one that I had apparently saved and forgotton about - I've had a lot going on!! - from February! Yep, the last time I wrote was in February!
I'd finished off the last one with the line "is it officially lying to say that you're full just to avoid eating flattened frog?"
I really hope it isn’t…because when I was invited for breakfast at Tia’s house the next morning…the frogs were back! That’s one of the things I love about this place….there’s no waste……
This week started with uncharacteristically rainy weather - all day! But it’s still better than English rain as it’s warm, and you dry out quickly. Unfortunately one aspect of the wetness involved me trying to run to get out of it to the shelter at the top of the camp…and doing a big skid. Right in front of everyone!
The 2 volunteers that started yesterday were back again. One was working with Birdie and our 7 month old baby elephant Em and whilst walking through the forest
with them came across a great big boggy patch and, just as I'd earlier demonstrated did a pretty good sliding tackle. Em seemed to think that this was a great game and decided to follow suit. Why wait until just after you’ve been given a shower to roll around in the mud?
On Tuesday it was one of the volunteers birthday and he and his wife decided to ‘treat’ the mahouts to English style food at a little party in the evening. This meant: French bread & Brie - which I was personally VERY excited about - crisps, doughnuts, cookies, and banana cake. I was a little worried about the mahouts having a complete sugar rush and 20 minute elephant rides being completed in 5!
It was a brilliant evening, marred only by the fact that the mahouts LOVED the ‘English’ food and we couldn’t get the bread and brie away from them - I only got a smidgen! There was almost, also, an addition to my bloopers: we’d bought a birthday cake and when I went to light the candles decided it would be a good idea to turn the lights off for maximum effect…Great idea, until
you try to walk across uneven elephant dung strewn sandy land. As I slowly made my way across the uneven ground towards the house made of bamboo and pineapple leaves I started to have a few doubts about carrying a cake stubbled with lit candles…..
All worked out well though and we even treated the assembled mahouts and families to a random shuffle of ‘English’ music….Kylie, Bob Marley……(who said my ipod is ‘random?’) and taught them to play Snap!
As we were staying overnight at the camp we were taking the elephants to the forest where they spend the night sleeping and eating. I was accompanying (i.e. being the packhorse for - camera, check, shoes, check….) the volunteer working with Su Da. Su Da is the most chilled out elephant. She has a look on her face (really!) that say’s ‘ok man, I’ll be there in my own time, just let me chew this bamboo for a while….’ She also has an (already mentioned) quite flat head. I love her really!
On Wednesday it was the Chinese New Year so it was decided that it was better not to stay at camp and train with the elephants
pig skull
just lying around as they may get spooked by the fireworks being let off. What is the point I letting fireworks off during the day? The first lot we heard were at 6am!! So we went to the forest to collect the elephants and the volunteers walked with them, rather than ride in case they did get spooked, to the lake for their morning wash. As Em is so young he and Birdie, his mum, don’t go to the lake but have their morning ‘bathe’ at the elephant bath. This meant that we were the first to see Birdie and Em in the morning. I don’t think Tia would agree with me but our ‘encounter’ with them was hilarious. They were in a spot in the forest just before Su Da’s parking space and when we saw them we went all gooey and over baby elephant Em. He was standing underneath Birdie, which made such a cute photo. Unfortunately this gave Em time to spot us as potential playmates and we didn't get the picture. Instead as we started to walk away (a fter being told off by Tia!) he followed us. This is all well and good but we’re talking about a
The 'serious' Pa-Kam ceremony...
with me going 'shhhuuussshhh' in the background! 200kg elephant….so Tia told him to go back. He pretended to go back, but as soon as Tia turned his back he started to follow us again….. and this kept happening in (what we thought, not so sure about Tia) comedy manner! The last time Tia chased him all the way back to Birdie…and the next thing I know is that I’m almost knocked to the ground….not by baby Em, or mum Birdie, but the volunteer who had heard Em trumpet, and (so she thought) the thunder of baby elephant feet, and had jumped on to me to be ‘rescued!’
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