Day 5

Baumi woke us up at 5 something in the morning. He was pacing around the room. I think he wanted to be let out. He licked Melita’s face and she opened the door for him. I fell back asleep.

Today, a whole bunch of students are supposed to come. They are called the Power of One group. I heard that they have their own thing going on so I’m not sure if we’ll interact with them much. Today is also the last day for the Dutch people. It will be sad to see them go.

Our morning chore was shovelling sand for the babies pen. Brad only just learned to drive. He had a hard time backing up the tractor with the trailer. Chris had to jump on to help him with turning left and right backwards.
All the girls stood on the side, all yelling at Brad to turn right/left/stop! haha
There weren’t enough shovels for everyone, but it would have been tiring to work nonstop anyway. We took turns shovelling, trying not to get rocks because the babies need soft sand. After a bit, I traded off my shovel and started to throw away the big rocks that got onto the trailer. I had to hold my breath or inhale dust because there was a cloud of it right above the trailer.

It was quick with so many of us. Lisa hopped onto the tractor and Brad started to drive away.
He stopped so we could put all our shovels in the tractor too. We were planning on walking back, but he told us to get onto the back.
It was a crazy ride back and we lost a lot of sand on the bumpy field. Fortunately, none of US fell off! I was sitting at the very end and was scared for my life for some parts of the ride.
Brad took a while to get the trailer into the baby shelter. He hit the fence while he was backing up but Chris coached him from the side.
Unloading the sand was easy. We lightened the load a little bit. Then, we only had to unhitch the trailer and tilt it forward to let the sand all slide off.
The ride on the tractor was nice because we didn’t have to walk across the field, but it was also a bother because we left our bags by the mud pit. Melita and I walked back to collect our stuff. Some elephants were feeding by the observation deck.
Melita asked one of the mahouts if we could feed his elephant. It was really cool. He let us feed her the rest of the basket. He said she was very old and she had no more teeth. She had tears running down her face and I was concerned, but the mahout said it was because she was old. I wanted to wipe them away from her, but I wasn’t sure if she would allow it.
After we fed her, it wasn’t even 11:30 yet. I had found gold! I could potentially feed four times a day as long as our chores ended early enough. I was really excited to feed the elephant again in the afternoon.

We waited around the platform for the real feeding time. Sri Nuan’s mahout was throwing her bananas every once in a while to keep her behaving. She was leaning against the platform and one of the poles looked dangerously slanted! haha

After lunch, we followed Brad into the field. Our afternoon project was to find big logs for firewood. The elephants get cold at night, especially the older ones. The mahouts run a fire so the elephants don’t catch a cold.

It was pretty tough work. The girls could only carry small pieces even when we worked together. It was almost like the boys wanted to make up for us being weak. They tackled immensely huge logs. Brad was just throwing TREEs onto his shoulder.

At one point, I was holding a big piece of wood against my side. I had to use my hip to help support the weight because it was heavy. All of a sudden, there was a sharp pain on my right forearm. I dropped the log and saw that not only did something bite me, it was still clinging to my arm. I hurriedly brushed it off, trying to convince myself that it was an ant or something.. but I saw what it was. It was a white spider.

A spider had bit me. I’m really scared of spiders. I spent the rest of the day trying to pretend that it was an ant so I wouldn’t freak out. It really took a chunk out of me. I told everyone that I got bit by an ant. Only one week after did I finally confess out loud (to Mabel, my second roommate).

Pom drove the tractor over and we filled it up with wood. We gathered another sizeable pile, then headed back. I headed over to the observation deck for an early feeding time. A hungry elephant trunk greeted me. I recognized her from the tears on her face. She was sniffing around with another elephant.

I thought it was weird that I didn’t recognize the mahouts but I didn’t pay that much attention the first time. It’s also possible that the elephant switched mahouts. That happens sometimes. The mahouts can’t watch their elephants ALL the time.

When the baskets arrived, I followed the mahouts and the elephants. This time, she was fed by the side of the river. When the two elephants were done eating, they were led into the river for their bath.
I saw movement in the corner of my eye and I turned to look at the bright turquoise hat that caught my eye. I IMMEDIATELY recognized the mahout wearing the hat as the one I talked to earlier today. He was leading an elephant that ALSO had tears running down her face. It suddenly occurred to me that the elephant I just fed wasn’t the same one as this morning. I didn’t realize that teary eyes could be so common.

I walked over to take pictures of the elephant. She was just eating out of her own basket.
I took a picture of the basket so I could remember her name.
It was nice to take pictures of Mae Kham Paan. It was the first time I could get so close up to an elephant for a long period of time.

Her tail.
Her eye.
She ate slow and often held food in her trunk.
Angelo, the mahout, picked out two cucumbers and washed them in the river. I was wondering what he was doing and I almost laughed out loud when I saw him take a bite. I guess it’s afternoon snack time for him. I took a sneak paparazzi pictures of him.
Kham Paan was still eating when the other mahout took the other elephants baskets away and led them to their shelter for the night.
Another elephant came to take a bath.
This elephant was a treat to watch. He really enjoyed the water.
His mahout left...
but he was too busy enjoying himself to notice.
The mahout had to go back into the water to get him out.
"Aww, 5 more minutes please."
He's giving his mahout the droopy shoulder, head lowered, dejected look.
Boss is boss! haha
Even after this elephant was done, Kham Paan was still working away at her basket!
Angelo said that she doesn’t like cucumbers, but it was all that was left. Maybe that’s why she was eating so slow. I didn’t mind. I wasn’t in a rush to go anywhere and I enjoyed watching her eat.
I went back to the room to find Melita. I wanted to say bye to Bert so I didn’t take a shower right away. Here’s a picture of our mosquito nets tied up. This is so dogs can sleep on our bed.

I took these pictures from out my window.
This is Michelle’s house.
When Melita finished her shower, we walked over to the volunteers area. It wasn’t 5 yet, but Bert and the other Dutch people had already gone! He told the American girls to say bye for him. I was a little disappointed.

After dinner, we wanted to watch a movie in the conference room but the Power of One group was using it. Chris brought up his laptop and we borrowed the speakers from the Elephant Kitchen. Chris and Emma had a collection of movies they bought at a market. We watched Yes Man and then called it a night.

Duke was waiting on a pile of cushions downstairs. He was sleeping but he woke up when we passed by. Baumi appeared out of nowhere and the two of them followed us back.

Duke walked around my bed, peering up at me the whole time. I could tell that he wanted to sleep on my bed. I didn’t invite him up. I was wondering if he would jump up without permission. After a while, he settled into the middle of the room and curled up. I patted my bed and told him to jump up. He didn’t budge. He was so lazy! or maybe he was already settled in. I had to carry him onto my bed. He’s a small dog but surprisingly, SO heavy.

Melita laughed at me the whole time because I acted like I didn’t want Duke on my bed but I was actually so desperate that I carried him up in the end. I really did want him to sleep on my bed very badly. Last night was fun. I’ve never had a dog sleep with me before!