Day 10

I woke up at 4 in the morning from a nightmare. It was hot and stuffy in the room and I always get bad dreams when it’s like that. I didn't want to wake Mabel up, so I grabbed my bag and went outside. The air was refreshing and almost a little chilly. I guess the room got warm with the windows closed all day and the extra body heat from the dogs. I walked over to the shelter with Kham Paan and the other two old ladies. I shuffle on the rock and watched her shuffle around.

Then something really cool happened! One of the elephants got down on his front knees, sat his bum down, then rolled over and went to sleep. Burm told me that they usually lie down to sleep two times a night, a total of 4 hours. The first time is around 11 o'clock and the second time is at 2 in the morning.

I went back to bed at 5:30 to catch a couple of hours more of sleep. I find 5-6 to be the coldest time of day. It’s also the darkest. The moon is gone and the sun hasn't risen yet. I was going to work at the medical centre again, so I didn’t have to be ready at 8. I woke up at 8:15 and grabbed two slices of bread before they put breakfast away. I was eating one when I saw Kham Meun collapsed in the middle of the field. I gave the second piece to Baumi.
Last night, Kham Meun got past the fence, but he went down just a few paces from the medical centre. Lisa, Jodi, Matt, Pom, the vets and a couple of mahouts were surrounding him. His mahout had an IV drip bag on a tall stick for him.
He still had a diarrhea problem. Dam used a stick to try to push it away from his body.
Every time he tried to get up, the mahouts would help push his side, but he couldn't support his own weight. Especially after spending all day with him yesterday, it was very sad to watch.
All of a sudden, a mahout came from the left (where the elephant shelters are) and yelled something in Thai. Everyone ran over. I wasn't sure what the commotion was about but it didn't seem like I would work at the medical centre today. The feeding platform was getting crowded with people watching and talking. I decided to make myself useful in the Elephant Kitchen.

We washed pumpkins and watermelons in the kitchen. It was really quiet work. There wasn't that many of us and the mood was sombre because of Kham Meun’s state. Matt came in and began to talk to Michelle. She was very visibly upset. I thought that Kham Meun’s situation had gotten worse, but she came over and I found out what the earlier commotion with the yelling mahout was about.

Raaraa was dead. That was all the information we were given. It was so shocking. She's a very young elephant, and relatively new to the park. Just last week, Lek was telling the volunteers stories about her naughtiness because she was such a princess.

I later found out that the suspicious death was suspected to be poison.. that was actually meant for another elephant. The police were called in. An autopsy will be done after monks come to do a ceremony on her body.

After all the work was done in the Kitchen, I walked back to the feeding platoform to see Kham Meun’s progress. They had got her to stand up with a sling. Support poles were erected because she could not bear her own weight yet. The sun was up and it was getting hot. They had a black mesh cloth around the poles to protect her from the sun.

I saw Kham Paan walking to the river in the distance. I actually recognized her before Angelo because he was wearing a black jacket that I’ve never seen before. I had to take a close up picture, and then zoom in on the face to know it was him! haha He was talking on his cell phone. The mahouts here are ALWAYS talking on their phone. Local calls are very cheap and they have lots of plans for free minutes.
After a bit, I went to find Kham Paan. She was under the deck. I ducked under the fence and went across the field to pet her. Angelo said, "Oh my god.. Raa Raa dead." I nodded and that was our whole conversation during Kham Paan's feeding time. There was nothing else to talk about. We both kept our eyes on Kham Meun's make shift shelter and waited for feeding time.

The sounds of monks chanting filled the air. There was a ceremony at the end of the observation deck to bless scarves for saving trees. A girl from Power of One was crying loudly right above us. Together with the chanting, it sounded like we were at a funeral.

Kham Pan kept close to us. When we shifted our positions, so would she. She kept her head in between us, with Angelo to the right of her trunk and me to the left. I was crying. I moved to stroke her side so Angelo wouldn’t see. After a while, she turned and pushed me with her head. She was hungry. That drew a smile from me. It wasn’t feeding time yet, but I gave her four bananas.

Eric came by with some day visitors. He said I wasn’t playing with her today. I didn’t realize that I usually play with her, but I guess he meant that the interaction was different today.

I felt better as I fed her. She was up to her usual tricks again and that always makes me laugh. She kept throwing away the cucumbers I gave her. I know she doesn’t like to eat them until the very end, but sometimes I give it to her to see if I can trick her into eating it haha. When she found out there were only cucumbers left, she started to eat really slow. She’s always like this unless Mae Tee or Kham Geaw comes to eat her food. Then she shoves it all in her mouth so they can’t have any.

We sat on the grass and watched Kham Paan meander down to the beach. This morning, I thought it would be a good idea to teach Angelo more English but I totally forgot after seeing Kham Meun collapsed this morning. Things seemed less gloomy after feeding time. I gave it a go.

I picked up a dried up piece of cucumber that he had broken off earlier. I asked him if he knew what it was. He shook his head. .. and that’s how we started! We covered whatever we came across: watermelon, pumpkin, grass, hand, foot (feet), colours. Since I don’t know Thai, it is hard to teach more complex things. I was really glad that he seemed into it. Most time I would pick the vocabulary, but sometimes he pointed to things and asked me. He knows a lot of words, but the pronunciation is usually very off.

Since we were practicing English, I missed feeding time on the platform. However, when I went to wish the basket, Sri Nuan’s mahout was just getting her basket. I followed him and got to watch tourists feed her. I usually fed her just one or two pieces of fruit. I feel bad hogging up her feeding time if I just got to feed Kham Paan a whole basket (not always true because Eric will bring visitors to feed Kham Paan).

When I got back to Kham Paan, I saw her trying to climb up the slope to reach some garbage. Angelo threw her a watermelon to distract and we cleaned up the plastic and garbage on the hillside. He`s been careful to remove garbage from the beach since he saw me go into the river to pick up that plastic bag.

I took more pictures of Kham Paan while Angelo went to get lunch. When I took this picture, that greedy old lady was sniffing around another piece of garbage. You can see Angelo standing up with his lunch plate to shoo her away.
Good Elephant! haha
I showed Angelo pictures that I took since I came. Ones of Hope mounting his Auntie, Kham Paan’s trunk and also the picture of his foot (probably my favourite non-elephant picture that I’ve taken so far) that I took yesterday. The foot picture made him laugh even more than Hope’s pictures.

I put my hand in my pocket and almost got burned. I opened a pocket warmer (from Japan) this morning when I was outside watching Kham Paan after my nightmare and I forgot about it in my pocket. I showed it to Angelo. He asked me if it would stay warm forever. He wanted to sleep with it! haha If I feel that it’s cold at night, it’s bound to be worse for him. I gave him the pocket warmer. I tried to explain to him that it probably wouldn’t be hot by the time he went to bed. The pocket warmers I brought only last 18 hours.

I ate lunch with Mabel, Tiff’s family and an overnight guest Mabel made friends with. We had to put two tables together and grab some extra chairs/benches.Tiff’s parents and her brother’s family came as day visitors today to celebrate her birthday with her. Her sister and friend were going to stay as overnight guests. They were really nice people. They actually brought her cake! but I missed it (because I was with Kham Paan, of course haha).

I saw Kham Paan wandering around on the other side of the fence. She was waiting for bath time. I excused myself and went with her to the river. Some tourists came when she was almost done so Angelo kept her in the water for a bit longer. I always feel that I have to be so patient when visitors come because it`s there only time with her. I have to remind myself not to be greedy. It’s not like she’s MY elephant. haha

For the afternoon project, I saw the senior vet on the platform and I asked if he needed any help. He’s very funny. I always chat with him and he says the same thing. "very beautiful"in Thai, or "beautiful woman". The first time was flattering, but I’ve see him saying it to every woman he sees! Now I just laugh at him when I see him because I know what he`ll say.

I went over to the Elephant Kitchen. Burm and Sarah were cutting green bananas off from the branch. Lauren was putting them away. I took the in between job of filling the baskets and dragging it over to the banana shelf. After we were done, Burm took us to see Kham Meun in the field.

Walking across the field was very hot, but the air immediately cooled under Kham Meun’s makeshift shelter. An IV drip was propped against one of the support stands. They wanted him to finish a whole box and he had 8 more to go.

He was standing on his own now and happily eating lots of grass. Mabel fed him at the side, trying to get him to move little by little so he would have more room.

The rest of us went to get more sandbags for him so he could lie down on them and get back up easier. There were a whole pile of sandbags at the medical center. We rolled a wheelbarrow like cart over and loaded it up. We only got 5 on because the wheels got so flat we were afraid it wouldn’t get across the bumps and dips in the field. We made two trips. It was really heavy. Burm and Kham Meun’s mahout did most of the lifting and placing.

For the last task of the day, we brought the baskets from the kitchen to the feeding platform. When I got back to the kitchen, Burm told me Angelo picked up Kham Paan’s basket (actually at the same time that I noticed it was gone, I always look for her basket!) and I should go feed her. Lauren said, “See! Everyone knows that she’s your elephant.” The comment made me feel nice inside. haha

We sat at the wooden table and benches at the side. As we fed Kham Paan, we went through the list of words again. He showed me that the pocket warmer was still hot.

Bath time was unbelievable. Angelo gave Kham Paan some commands and I saw her spray water for the first time. I was standing near her head and it felt like it was raining. I couldn’t stop laughing every time the water droplets hit me. I was just SO happy. She would spray left, right, then up.. left, right, then up again.

When she walked back to the beach, her trunk searched inside the nearby pails. Angelo filled one up and she continued to spray water into the air. I loved it. This was the best moment I’ve had since I’ve come here. It honestly made my day and I told everyone about it all night!

Sleepy?
Kham Paan went to scratch her bum on the posts. The visitors started to come to watch the other elephants bathe. Eric found me and gave me his address so I could mail pocket warmers to the mahouts.

I went with Mabel back to the room to change out of my wet clothes. Then I went to watch Kham Paan in her shelter. She was waiting for five o’clock corn stalks. Some of the mahouts were still there, but I couldn’t see Angelo.

I brought Tiff and Mabel to the village cafe/convenience store that Lisa brought us to for New Years. We bought some snacks and drinks and sat down to talk. Like Emma, Tiff used to work on a cruise ship and it was really interesting to talk to her about it. She also traveled a lot and had many stories about her and Jesse.

We headed back at six so we could get a shower in before dinner. We bumped into Lauren, Sarah and Alissa on the way and stopped to chat for a bit. On the pathway home, Tiff wanted us to pose in front of a house she thought was interesting. And guess who showed up.. Angelo! He looked different. He was all clean and in non-Elephant clothes (He wears the same clothes every day so Kham Paan can smell him). It was great timing. haha I asked him to take a picture so Tiff could be in the picture too.

We showered, had dinner, and then cake for Tiffany from the park. She got a massage and we played cards with Jesse. We played crazy eights, then Burm taught us pig and shithead. It was a fun night.

Of course, Duke was waiting downstairs for us to go home. We couldn’t find Baumi. I hope it’s not because I splashed him with water during afternoon bath time. I felt bad about that. We left the door open a bit because it was so hot last night and we thought maybe Baumi would come by later.