Surin Day 3

I woke up with the sun shining horizontal red rays through the cracks in my room and onto the wall.

Breakfast was bananas, watermelon, scrambled eggs with the works and toast. I made a peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwich. We toast the bread on coals here so they taste really good! (I'm also really tired of fat white bread back home so the whole wheat grain is a nice change). Chris noticed that we had pineapple jam too. I had to make myself another toasted peanut butter sandwich to try it out.

I took the front and back ends of the bread to feed to Fah Sai. She's chained right next to the stairway to my room. Her trunk is always resting on the steps. I feel like she's the gatekeeper and I need to offer her something when I want to pass. I also feed her my banana peel. Even though a banana peel to her is like a cheerio to us, I hope she likes me more!

We played with the baby while everyone get ready to start today’s project work.

Chet took three of us to start hoeing the ground and making holes to plant bamboo. I waited with Meg and Adam to be taken to the nursery. The ladies there also make silk. We didn't get to see the process, but I saw some hanging out to dry.


Sarot, Nong Ning's mahout, rode in the truck with us. Tanai, the mother elephant's mahout, came by motorbike. The six of us formed a chain and loaded the truck up with bamboo plants wrapped in black plastic. I did the counting out loud. The truck can fit one layer of 100 bamboo plants. Chet stacked them as we loaded and we managed to fit 200! The nursery wasn't far from the centre so it didn't take us long to the plant site. I sat on top of the driver's seat again. I love that spot. It gets a lot of wind and I don't have to worry about falling off the truck if it makes a sudden stop.

The other group were almost done making holes when we got there.

Chet drove in between two rows of holes. He drove and stop, drove and stop. Sarot unloaded thirty or so plants each time. It was smart because we didn't have to carry the plants so far. I helped with distributing the plants first. I did two at a time. At first, i was grabbing them with one hand each. The last few, I had to carry them tucked under my arm against my stomach because I was so tired haha. When there were no more plants in the truck, I helped with the planting. I did around 6 plants and then we were done! Many hands make light work :)
 
It was 10:30am when we finished. Next up was corn stalk raking and poop shovelling. Standard ENP chores. Everyone wad just picking up the leftover food with their hands (gloved hands). I didn't want to wear gloves because I had too many mosquito bites on the back of my hands. It would cause them to become irritated and weep (yea.. gross, right?). I used the rake to help loosen up the stalks. I tried to use the rake to swing stuff onto the back of the truck but it was fail.

When we collected every last leaf, I went with Meg, Adam and Chet to the garbage pit. It was huge but all the garbage was on the edge. I had a lot of fun raking the stalks off the truck. It took a lot of force, but it was so satisfying. Chet kept laughing at me (because I'm not so coordinated and sometimes nothing budged even though I was pulling my hardest). I think the VCs often get a lot of laughs at the volunteers expense haha.

The others were shoveling poop off the watering station platforms. We joined them with our rakes and shovels. Dino turned on the hose and we washed the whole area down. It took us a while because the mud (and probably old poop) was caked on.

Before lunch was the daily walk to the watering hole. We made sure the dog stayed behind this time. Right before we got to the pond, we saw a pick up stuck in the mud. It looked deep, but when we all pushed on the hood while it was in reverse, it easily came out of the mud.

Im (one of the elephants) was so naughty today. She kept leaving the pond and then charging back in AT us. Maybe we were just in her way and she wasn't targeting us but she sent me scrambling up the bank a few times haha. Chet had an episode of crazy where he splashed in the water and called himself a mermaid haha.

We had fries for lunch again. It was so awesome. We also had stir fry vermicelli noodles, pineapples, watermelon, eggplant curry, plain rice and other dishes.. But I can't remember. I was just really happy about the fries haha. Sometimes you don't realize how much you need comfort food until you have it. (I MUST get pizza in Bangkok!)

After lunch, Adam, Kenji and I went with the mahouts to cut some bamboo for the elephants. They did all the cutting, we just carried them to the back of the truck. Fortunately, a mahout warned me that the leaves would cut so I only got a few scratches. I put tiger balm on them right away. It itched for a bit, but it's been fine.

At, 1:30pm we left on a walk to the river. It's around 3 km away. The walk was amazing. We went through rice fields and it was so beautiful. With the elephants strolling down the road, it looked straight out of a magazine. I felt like the only things that was missing were pointed straw farmer hats. After the rice fields, we crossed a field onto the road. By that time, the sky was dark and it drizzled a little. The mahouts kept telling us it was going to rain hard core soon.

Right when we got to the shelter, it starter pouring. The elephants munched on the bamboos we cut earlier. Then the mahouts led them down to the river to bathe. I didn't join them. It was still pouring rain and there are leeches in the water. I had a lot of fun watching them bathe in the water and then enjoy cucumbers.

Fah Sai is the biggest elephant we have on the project. She is bigger than the average elephant, but so gentle. She's really clever too. Thong Dee, her mahout, sat on top of her back. He scrubbed her neck and the top of her head. Occasionally, he would tap the top of her head and she would bring up a trunkful of water. It was amazing to watch how carefully and accurately she sprayed water on herself.

Chet offered to drive us all back but Adam, Kenji and Meg decided to walk back with the elephants. It was still pouring and I was relatively dry, so I passed. After we got back, I slept for two hours until Chet banged on floor of my room from below. It was dinner time I was groggy with sleep. I think I answered him but then I fell back asleep for a bit.

For dinner, we had fresh cucumbers and tomatoes (Chet made a rose out of tomato skin but it was so pretty, I don't think anyone ate it), cooked cucumbers and tomatoes with eggs, some kind of spicy vegetable stalks cut inch long, and pork with veggies. We also had dessert tonight! It was a pancake like crepe folded in half with coconut, sesame and condensed milk (?). It was really yummy.

After dinner, Chet brought by instructions on how to make an origami elephant. I tried to help him decipher the instructions but they left a lot of steps out. I tried twice and got decent looking elephants (aka you could imagine them being elephants) of my own design haha. They didn't look like the picture.

I wasn't homesick but I did miss home. The rice fields I saw today got me wondering how much the ones back home have grown since I've been away. I got a 500 baht top up from the cook and made a call to Japan. I used it all on one phone call haha. It seems expensive but It actually costs me the same (if not a little less) to call from Thailand with dtac happy than back home with softbank.

I took a shower. I was writing this up outside but I heard a lot of mosquitoes buzzing in my ear so I went back into my room. Funny enough, I didn't get bit outside but I got bites inside my mosquito net. Two on my left hand and three on my right. The sly things get me when I'm typing on my phone. I hate mosquitoes :/

Anyway, it's 11:45pm. Good night.