Last night was horrible. I was falling asleep when I felt a mosquito bite me in the middle of my forehead. I was so mad. I spent half an hour trying to hunt it down. I killed two (though I'm not really sure if I did kill the second one). I found another but I couldn't kill it. I finally gave up and slept with my sweater over my face. Tonight, I'm going to sleep with my face right next to the fan so maybe any mosquitoes aiming for my face will get blown away.
I was right on time for breakfast but everyone was already there before me. Actually, everyone except for Eleni were finished eating already! We had bananas again (but I was the only one that had any, it will probably explain why I'll get more bites than anyone else later). There was also boiled eggs, pineapples and watermelon. I made a pineapple and crunchy peanut butter toasted sandwich with hot chocolate. Mmm breakfast is my favourite meal with ENF.
I gave the bread end and my banana peel to Fah Sai. After I got dressed and ready for more bamboo planting, I sat on the steps to watch Fah Sai. A mahout had just put a fresh bundle of long grass by my hut. Im tore off all the leaves to eat first. Her sister, Aueng Long, and Fah Sai ate only the juicy bottom of the stalk. It's so interesting that every elephant prefers different food and has a different style/habit of eating.
When she was done her food, Fah Sai was very friendly. She sniffed me all over and lifted her trunk up for me to scratch and pet. Fah Sai is so much softer than Kham Pan.
I was with the first group to leave on the truck. Today, I helped with digging holes using a hoe. Chris, Adam and I tried to dig holes in straight lines but it was so hard to get good perspective. At first, I had trouble aiming for the right place. My holes were very wide haha. I needed to lift and bring down the hoe more times than everyone else just to get one hole done! My hoe had splinters in the handle but I was careful not to touch it. I did get a lot of burrs in my skirt, but that couldn't be helped. I think I got better by the end. Chris was a machine the whole time. She didn't even take a break until we were done.
Finally, the rest of the group arrived with the bamboo plants. They distributed it in the same style as yesterday. I had one more row left to hoe, then I started planting. I had to kneel down to plant each bamboo and then get up and walk to the next hole. The getting up and getting down made me sort of dizzy. My vision was getting black every time I stood up. It was so hot, I had to take it slower. It seemed like it would take forever, but all of a sudden, we were done! We planted 500 bamboos! (and probably dug 700 holes.. we overestimated haha) Now, we just have to wait for two to three years for a sustainable crop. They'll be big enough so the leaves can be stripped and the bamboo can keep growing.
Back at the base, Chet gave us a long piece of wood and some paint so we could make a sign for the bamboo we planted. I asked for a pencil and he gave me his personal pencil case. Every stationary was labeled with his name. It was so cute! I sketched out the first sign, then I don't know what happened. I think we got distracted.
I went with Chris and Eleni in search for more cigarettes. The store they usually go to was out. Unfortunately, nobody seemed to have the cigarettes they wanted. We walked really far. We found a lot of stores. However, they were all really run down and only sold a few items. Most of them only had a couple bag of chips and a small fridge with sodas and beer. I learned that Chris has a bad sense of direction haha. We would have gotten lost if we followed her. They ended up going back to the original store and bought another type of cigarettes. I bought chocolate wafers and sponge cake. We also went to an ice cream vendor across the street. I bought a chocolate Milo ice cream bar. My favourite! I always get this at the park when the ice cream man comes.
We were worried that we missed the walk because we took so long at the stores but the elephants were just ready to leave. I saw a tall foreigner with a brown ENP t-shirt. It was Alex. He had come from Chiang Mai last night.
We all went to the hole together. I didn't go in to wash the elephants, but I tested out the water with my feet. The water was BOILING. When I walked in deeper, it felt so strange because I could feel a layer of hot water over cool water. I had to look down a few times to make sure my legs weren't hurt because it felt so funny.
For lunch, I mixed an energy drink with Aquarius powder. I was hoping the electrolytes boost will help with the dizzy problem I had before.
Lunch was spicy chow mein noodles, spicy vegetable soup, fries, pineapple, watermelon, fresh cucumbers, onions and tomatoes, plain rice and bamboo sprouts. I didn't realize the noodles were spicy when I filled my plate. I thought it was the kind at the park that I really liked. I put a lot on my plate. It was painful, but I managed to finish all of it (at the expense of being able to taste my fries). I'm so glad I can eat spicy food now. It would be hard to travel here if I couldn't. (Even school lunch would be hard! Sometimes the kids eat really spicy things.)
After lunch, I changed into something clean AND something that covered my knees too. It's getting to be a challenge to find something clean. I can do my laundry here, and for free too! But I should have just enough clean clothes and I can't be bothered.
Alex and Dino walked us over to the Elders. They were sitting in a small sheltered raised platform by the office. We had a little question and answer session with them. It was very interesting to hear them talk about the past compared to how things are now.
It would have been nice to keep talking to the Elders but we had to help the family living across from us plant grass. Alex drove us past the bamboo grove we planted this morning. The holes were already in the ground. We had to put 4 bamboo looking sticks top way up and then fill the holes. It was hard to tell which way was up at first but I learned a few tricks like looking at which way the leaves grow, where the roots are coming out and which way they grew. It was fun work. At first the sun was blistering hot but afternoon clouds soon took over. At the end, we had to hurry because the elephants were waiting for us to walk with them. When we finished all the work the owner of the rice field offered us all drinks. I had a sweet bottle of yellow drink. It tasted like Gatorade. It was so refreshing!
I put on my long sleeves and sprayed on a good amount of mosquito repellent. When I came down the stairs, Alex handed me a treat. It was like hard green mochi with coconut shreds inside, wrapped in a leaf. We walked with the elephants into the forest. I felt bad throwing away the leaf that was used to wrap my desert. Even though it was a leaf haha.
The walk was long and quite nice. There was no panic with the baby and I only got sprayed with dirt one time. I was prepared for mosquitoes this time but I still moved my legs and arms around (probably like a broken puppet). The mahouts kept asking if I was getting bit and offered to put mud on me (as a joke).
We had free time before dinner again. I was so drained from the work today. I had to take a nap, even though it was only 20 minutes.
We had told Chet that lunch was too spicy. I was so surprised to see chilis in every dish except the white rice, fried dish and fresh vegetables. We had mushroom tempura, morning glory with chilis, omlette with chilis, pineapple curry with chilis, fresh tomatoes, onions and cucumbers and white rice.
Ever since I woke up for dinner, I felt super gross and sticky. I couldn't stand it. I ate quickly so I could take a shower right away. When I returned my dishes to the kitchen, the mahouts offered me a drink. Actually, I heard them call my name when I headed to the platform for dinner. I thought they might want to give me a glass of beer or whisky so I pretended not to hear them. I told them I'll come back after a shower and escaped haha.
After my shower, I played scrabble with Meg, Eleni and Dino. Dino won. Kenji tried to fold the elephant I was working on yesterday. He was able to decipher some of the instructions that I didn't understand. We waited for the movie room to be available. Alex was going to play "Home", a documentary on elephants, for us. However, when we were all ready to go, we found out the projector was missing from the room. The movie canceled, we all sat back down to spend the rest of the evening just talking and drinking.
Chet asked if we could work on the sign. He wanted the sign to be finished today if possible. I guess he wanted to make sure it had enough time to dry. The paintbrush he gave me had dried hard. It was like painting with a stick. I had no control whatsoever. I tried using my fingers but I was so uncoordinated. After a while, I realized that I was using my left hand! It was much easier after I switched over.
Sarot (Nong Ning's mahout) and Thong Dee (Fah Sai's mahout) joined us on the platform. They sat at the dinner table with kenji translating in Japanese for them. There was noone to translate in Thai. Dino was helping me and Chet was dancing around, singing to his phone's music on speaker.
I asked Chet to tie my hair for me. He ended up braiding it haha. Chris and I confronted Chet about the added chilis, he said it was only for decoration. When we thought about it, we realized it was true. Dinner wasn't spicy at all. Just colourfully red haha.
I made two identical signs with Chris and Dino helping me (but I was the only one that got my hands dirty haha). When I finished the signs, I unsuccessfully tried to wash my hands. It was still sticky with wet paint even after I scrubbed it with a brush. I ended up using my failed elephants from yesterday to wipe the thick paint off my hands.
I joined the conversation as kenji left the group for a smoke. I was stuck with translating the best I could. It was so interesting to be speaking Japanese to a Thai person! To a mahout! Haha I never thought that would happen. Sarot talked to me a lot too. It was nice because he would talk directly to me like I understood, instead of speaking to Thong Dee (even though he was the translator). I told them I'd be back in December but they both called me a liar! I guess many people say they'll come back but they get caught up in other things and they don't have a chance to come back.
Everyone left by 10:30pm except for the three of us. I stayed to talk to them until 11:00pm, then I called it a night too.
All photographs taken by Alex Godfrey.
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