Day 11

Kham Muen died during the night.

It rained all night but the sky was clear by morning. The park had the same feeling as yesterday. We had a doughy chocolate pastry for breakfast. I tried one, but I didn't eat anything else.

Tiff and Jesse didn't show up for breakfast or morning chores. I checked up on them. Tiffany had a migraine so I took Jesse with me for morning chores. We could chose between poop shovelling or the Elephant Kitchen. They already shovelled yesterday, so we chose to work in the Kitchen. We dumped eight baskets of pumpkins in the wash basin. We did watermelons and pineapples too.

It was my first time washing pineapples. You just let it soak for 5 minutes. Then you swirl it around and put it in a basket. It was fun. I also noticed that the pineapples here aren’t as spiky as they are back home.

I remember the first time I fed Kham Paan pineapples. I was looking in the basket, picking out the next piece of fruit when the green leaves of a pineapple head dropped into my lap. I laughed so hard. I was really surprised! She only ate the sweet and juicy part of the fruit. I watched in fascination as I fed her top after pineapple top.

I love watching Kham Paan eat pineapples. Sometimes she will hold the green and chew off the fruit. Sometimes she will bite off the green and spit it out, then pop the fruit in her mouth. If the fruit part is sliced too thin, she might throw it away. Then Angelo breaks off the head of leaves for her.

Our afternoon project is teaching English to the school children at the village. They piled us all into a truck, flipped up the gate and locked it. The ride was really fun, almost like a rickety roller coaster. Burm was a great driver. Got us there all safe!

We were split into 8 groups (there are 8 grades). The kindergarten kids were the most popular. There’s not much teaching involved. You just get climbed on!

I volunteered for something really special. I went with Caitlin to get a foot massage! The girls are taught how to massage, as early as the age of 7. Since the girls are not certified, they didn’t charge us but we donated 100 baht each.
The masseuse I got was 11, and Caitlin’s was 12. We taught them some English and they tried to teach us some Thai (haha). Halfway through, the overnight visitors came to visit the school and some also joined us for a foot massage. One man was from Holland and he was really tall. The massage lady had to keep moving her chair back to get to a comfortable position with his leg stretched out. We all had a long laugh at that.

After the massage, I joined other children and volunteers in the school yard. Lessons were over and it was bustling with activity. Here’s a game of volleyball.
Lauren was popping flowers with children by the hedge. They showed me how to do it and I got it on the first try! You pick a flower, making sure the inside is clean (of flower guts?). It should be a hollow tube. Hold one end while you’re blowing in air. Trap the air with your other hand, then POP!
The school is divided into two buildings, each with two stories. Here are two classrooms.
Older kids playing table tennis.
There was a snack counter.
I bought 5 different jello cups and two bags of car chips, ketchup and seaweed (Mai translated for me).
Here’s the truck we ALL came in.
I didn’t want to miss feeding time. I tried to find Burm to ask if I could walk back to the Park. It took forever to find him. He said I might have missed it already. I hurried back, passing the overnight visitors. And.. I didn’t miss it! but she was done half the basket already.

You could see a tractor digging a grave for Kham Meun in the distance. The mood was sombre again. We didn’t talk much. He worked on a carving of Kham Paan (Mahouts carve wooden elephants to sell at the gift store. All the money the elephant makes goes to them) as I fed her.

When she was done, I went to wash her basket and he went to get lunch. I walked down to the river to cool my mosquito bites. This is the little slope that Kham Paan stands beside when Angelo eats lunch on that chair. Sometimes he’ll eat on the observation deck with Dam and Mae Tee’s mahout.
Sometimes he’ll eat on this little platform further along the slope. Mae Tee’s mahout ate there today.
It was gloomy all day. The sun wasn’t out and it drizzled on and off. It was perfect for pictures actually, and I took tons. Everyone turned out great because there were no shadows.

I like taking pictures of her face.
I love her trunk.
She always seems to be scratching herself!
Or has a stick in her trunk.
This is her favourite place to scratch with her trunk.
I don’t know why she was doing this but it made me laugh. She’s leaning on the slope with her trunk.
I love the way she stands sometimes.
Look! This is how I stand. All the time! Seriously. If you knew me, you would know what I'm talking about.
Hello Beautiful.
She walked away and I could only get pictures of her bum, so I put away my camera.
One last shot. Mae Tee and Mae Kham Geaw. The two old ladies on the beach.
Mae Tee’s mahout was by the fence, looking out at the river and the mountains. I showed him the pictures of Kham Paan that I took. This one is my absolute favourite. It’s the same one I used as the banner.
I went to sit by Angelo and I showed him the pictures I took. We talked a bit, but mostly just sat side by side. It was nice. Slowly feeling better and even laughing as we watched Kham Paan’s silly antics.

I had lunch with Lauren and Sarah. Then it was bath time. I noticed that Mae Tee’s mahout had a tattoo on his leg! He had his pants rolled up and there was a gap between his pants and the boot. I couldn’t see what it was, but I’ll ask him about it later.

Wet Kham Paan. She's darker and her markings are more visible.
Water droplets on her leg.
For people that wonder why there are two random upright logs by the mud pit.. Kham Paan will demonstrate for you. Haha
First the sides. Right and Left.
Then the bum.
Next is the head. Up and Down. Behind the ear and in front.
Last is the chin.
Angelo told me that this younger elephant is supposed to be part of Mae Kham Pan’s family, but I don’t see them together often. I also forgot what his name is..
Bye Bye! See you for afternoon feeding =)

Bye Bye Mae Tee!
Dam made a trail of bananas to lure Mae Kham Geaw. Here’s Baumi taking a treat for himself.
Bye Bye Mae Kham Geaw!
Jungle boy is eating bread after bath time. His mahout uses the bread to get him to stand up and walk back into the field.

The bulldozer is finally still. I think the grave is finished.
I stayed to watch the babies bathe. Here they come!
After the older elephants push the babies out of the water, they roll around in the sand. As always, Chang Yim annoys his sister.
The mahouts sit around and laugh at the little ones.
I headed over to the volunteer area to see what the afternoon project would be. We had three choices: clean up the tool shed, clean up the volunteer area, organize the bookshelf upstairs, or throw out the rotten food. I decided to do the latter.

I hopped onto the back of the truck with Kate. Burm drove us out. On the way, we passed by Mai and she jumped on too. During the ride, we couldn’t stop staring at how gross the rotten produce was. Their was a basket with half a watermelon stacked on top of half a pumpkin and they were both soup bowls of fermented liquid grossness. It made us sick, but we couldn’t look away!

All of a sudden, Mai said, “Worms! Go back!” At first, we didn’t know what she was talking about, but then I saw these little white dots bouncing around in my vision. As I focused my eyes, I saw they were teeny tiny green worms that curled up, then sprang into the air. They were exploding from one of the baskets! We were all screaming, and then laughing. None of us had seen something like that before.

We soon got to the field. Burm came out to see what all the commotion about. He had a completely straight face and went to pick up the baskets and empty them like nothing out of the ordinary was happening. We were too girlie for him. Haha

On the way back, a mad bull chased us along the fence until he couldn’t anymore. Then he gave a loud roar. Mai said he likes to jump on people’s backs. haha What a crazy bull.

When we got back, I showed Jesse the worms. Then we went to check on Tiff. She still wasn’t feeling very well. We joined the others waiting for a shipment of pumpkins to come to the Elephant Kitchen. It never came. I think their truck broke down and we were using ours so we couldn’t go to them.

An elephant broke one of the logs of the fence and climbed over. It wasn’t anything scary or dramatic. He was pushing at the log for a long time before it snapped. His mahout gave orders to move back and he would, but every time the mahout turned around, he would approach the fence again.
One time, his mahout left and he climbed over the fence. He moved very slow so he didn’t get very far.
The mahout ordered him to stop and the naughty elephant had to go back.
We brought the food baskets to the platform and the shelters.
To my surprise, Kham Paan wasn’t down by the observation deck yet. I hung out with Dam and Mae Tee’s Mahout for a bit. I fed them, but for some reason, it’s not as engaging as feeding Kham Paan.
Here are some close ups of Mae Tee. She came to the park at the same time as Kham Paan.

Jesse came by, I invited him to feed Kham Paan too. He was surprisingly shy about it. Maybe because she wasn’t behind a fence and he wasn’t on a platform. Lek came by to film us.

Lek grabbed a banana to feed Kham Paan but she eats slow sometimes because she has no more teeth. I guess Lek was a little bit impatient. She laughed and tossed a banana at Kham Paan’s face. All of a sudden, Kham Paan turned and pushed Lek with her head and the top of her trunk. The force lifted Lek a bit, and then she fell onto the ground. She missed the mud pit by inches. Angelo yelled at Kham Paan and got hold of her ear to make sure she didn’t advance any further.

Lek got up quickly. I rushed towards her asked if she was okay. She only complained about her bum hurting but I’m sure there was some mental trauma in there too. I was really scared when Ratree grabbed me. Sometimes, you forget how strong they are. This is why you can only be with an elephant if their mahout is there. I never go close to Kham Paan if Angelo is getting her basket, or getting lunch. I hope I never forget how dangerous it can be.

I wasn’t mad or scared of Kham Paan. It wasn’t really her fault. The situation was understandable. However, I let her eat out of the basket for a bit before I started feeding her again. I didn’t want her to think I was teasing her with Lek, or I wanted to take her food. Jesse didn’t feed her again. I think he was really scared. I told him that Kham Paan eats slow and he might have more fun with the elephants at the platform. They would be feeding soon. He agreed and went off.

Seriousness aside.. Look how skinny she is in this shot! Haha
When I take pictures of her eating, Angelo always tries to get her to open her mouth and feed her directly there. I think it’s because tourists love it. Maybe I would love the pictures too, but she’s not very good at it! haha She never opens her mouth wide enough. You need to shimmy it. Sometimes, she’ll close her mouth so you can’t get it in further and then use her trunk to push the rest in.

Chrissie came back. She was back to visit again. It was nice to see a familiar face from last week. We caught up for a bit until Kham Paan was finished her food.

I asked Angelo, “Bath time?”. He said “Yes.” and we walked down to the beach. I never ask him, I don’t know why I did. But guess what? Kham Paan put ONE foot in, decided it was too cold and then headed back to the shelter. So there was no bath time after all. She was dry every except the right front leg where he splashed her. Her decisiveness and his inability to persuade her made me laugh the whole time I washed her basket.

Angelo didn’t work on the wooden elephant during the afternoon feeding time so I thought he might be done. I checked the gift store but I couldn't it. I was hoping I could buy it from the gift store because then I could leave extra money for him. I’m not sure about the culture here and giving money. Maybe he wouldn’t take it from me if it was in person.

I went by the shelter to see if he was there. No mahout was. I just saw Kham Paan with a silly piece of corn stalk on her head. She only eats the leaves. She doesn’t like the skeleton-y top (I don’t know what it’s called. It’s the stuff that’s on her head) or the bottom of the stalk. Sometimes she’ll eat the middle of the stalk.
Mabel and Jesse were watching the babies. I stayed to watch Kham Paan. When Mabel left to watch the documentary in the conference room, Jesse joined me. We ate the jello cups I bought from the village school children this morning. They were so good! Two each wasn’t very satisfying. We decided to go to the village to get some more.

I brought him to the store that I went to with his mother just yesterday. Along the way, we met up with Aaron (a student from the Power of One) and Alissa. They picked up some snacks and left, but Jesse and I sat down and had our snacks. I bought him a sprite, some jelly cups, a chocolate soccer ball and also a pack of lozenges (He’s been coughing a lot since yesterday). I got soy milk in a glass bottle. It’s probably my favourite drink to get in Thailand.

Jesse recognized some mahouts that came by. They were wearing Power of One t-shirts so I was doubtful if they were really mahouts. Later, I found out that all mahouts and staff were given a shirt.

We went back to find Mabel. It was slow going the whole way. Jesse tried to kick the same rock the whole way back. We had to cross some grassy areas, barbed wire and even a bridge (he said you’re allowed to pick it up in some circumstances)! The documentary was still going at the conference room so we went back to watch Kham Paan.

A lot of mahouts were standing around. I don’t usually see them after five o’clock, but everyone was invited to a performance by the Power of One group tonight. They yelled Nani Nani at us because Jesse was wearing a Manchester United shirt.

I told Jesse that “nani” meant “what” in Japanese. I taught him some Japanese words, like good morning, yes, no and thank you. He learned really quick. Young minds are the best. In the middle of our impromptu lesson, we heard the dinner bell. He was so hungry, he ran off ahead of me to get in line for food.

We found Mabel in line for food. The documentary just ended. We ate quickly so we could bring food to Tiff and shower before the performance.

The show was really great. Everyone from the Power of One group performed. They did choreographies to many songs (ex. Thriller, Zombie), they did a skit, traditional dances, story telling, individual song writing.. It may not have been very well rehearsed because they only had a week but they were so enthusiastic!

The VCs and Lek did the Elephant song. They sang it faster and faster until only the Thai people could sing along with them.

One of the massage ladies is actually a professional dancer. She was a treat to watch. I loved her costume. She reminded me of a peacock.
The best was a surprise guest appearance by the mahouts. Some of the mahouts dressed in traditional costume. They tried to show us many different tribes. They even wore women’s costumes. Lek helped them translate so we could appreciate and understand how much they were doing for us.
I wish I took a video! I forgot that I could use my phone. This is a bad picture because of the huge post in the middle (The performance is traditionally done on the feeding platform every year), but it is of the first song. There are four dancers facing each other. On the floor is a tic tac toe grid made of four bamboo sticks held by four people. They would move the sticks in and out, tapping them together or on the floor to follow the beat.
The dancers had to jump left, right, or diagonal but sometimes there was miscommunication and they would jump into each other! That made the audience laugh quite a bit.

The first song was just one mahout chanting. The second song had more people singing and a variety of musicians.
You can see Angelo in the back. He’s sitting on the fence. haha He was so shy! He wanted to take pictures on the side but Kat dragged him into the middle with everyone. She wanted all the mahouts to be on stage.
At first, a mahout in costume was on the plastic makeshift drum, but he was too slow. An older mahout shooed him away and took over.

I think the teddy bear was an inside joke. I have no idea why it was a part of the performance.

Two Thai students asked for my email. I thought it was so funny. I didn’t spend that much time with them during their week here because the group was always together doing their own thing. I don’t think they’ll be emailing me. They’re at least five years younger than me! Haha

During the performance, I saw Duke go up the ramp to the conference room. Mabel took Jesse back to his room and I went upstairs to get Duke. He was asleep on one of the chairs. He looked so cute! I don’t normally prefer this type of dog but he’s really grown on me. I guess that happens when you sleep him every night (because he sure doesn’t acknowledge me during the day! To be fair, he is less cold to be during the day now. I see his tail wagging sometimes.).

I saw Angelo and I flagged him down. I asked him if he gave the sculpture to the gift store yet. He said no. I asked him to bring it tomorrow because I wanted to buy it from him. I think we understood each other. Then, Kat came and started translating for us. She told me that he’ll show it to me tomorrow.. ? There was obviously some kind of miscommunication now haha but I left it at that. I’m sure it’ll be okay.

Baumi was in front of Chris and Emma’s old room again. He followed us into the room. This time, a light coloured brown dog with a white patch on his back came in. The three of the dogs didn’t really get along. Then there was this power and submission thing where one dog growled and the other whimpered and all of a sudden Baumi and this dog were best friends.

We shut the new dog out because we didn’t want fights in the middle of the night. He went off but when he came back, both Baumi and Duke left our beds and went back the door. Duke was there to guard our room. When I opened the door, it was clear that it was not the same for Baumi. He left to be with the new dog.

Both dogs stood by the door. I think Baumi wanted the other dog to be able to come in too. They would wag their tails when I told them to come in, but they were hesitant because of Duke. He kept growling at them. I had to carry him to bed. We left the door open just in case they wanted to come in, but they chose to sleep together outside.