Day 2

May 22

Today our task as group A was to cut corn. Group C had done it the day before and said it was hell. We were all expecting the worst... And even dreading it a little. We loaded into the back of a truck and sat. For a long time. Maybe 40 minutes. There are no seats. We just sat in the bed of the truck. And the dirt on the floor of the truck would fly up and go in your face and eyes too. We had a bunch of Thai people with us too. We dropped maybe 5 women off at one place so they could plant banana trees. We then continued on with the men. There were maybe 5 of them. Later we found out one of them didn't show up for work.
We finally stopped and got out of the truck. Our group leader today was Can. Mix went with another group.
Can told us all to grab machetes from the bucket an follow him. Yes... Machetes. We were going to use machetes to cut corn for elephant food. It's quite heavy actually.
A lot of the field was already cut in the front so we followed Can down a path to get to the uncut corn.
The way the field is lined up is that there are multiple rows of corn on each patch of land and there are many square patches with what is like a moat surrounding them. Then, down the middle of the patches there is a single, long pathway you can walk to get to all the patches. This path is very thin and you can pretty much stand on the whole width of it with both feet next to each other. It is pretty much necessary to have this piece of tiny walking land though because on all the other pieces of land there are either corn stalks or stubs of cut corn stalks. Both of them make it very difficult to walk.
Our how to use a machete lesson was literally, "use the sharp end to cut." And "cut corn as close to bottom as possible." And then, "like this" and he showed us how to cut one. Then, "okay go!"
It was actually really fun cutting the corn! Machetes are handy little tools. They're really sharp. We hacked away at corn for a while then. When we were cutting it, we had to put them into piles. The bottom stems had to all line up. You didn't want to make the stack too big because we were going to have to carry them to the truck later. The field ends up getting cut down but there are just piles of corn stalks every which way. Finally, we got to the last area of cutting the stalks and we went to take a break.
While we are doing this task, realize that we not only were wearing tennis shoes, a hat, gloves, and sunglasses, but we also needed to wear long sleeves and pants to protect from the stalks scratching us. It is like 90-100 degrees here. You pretty much just sweat a bucket load a day. Maybe 7. Even though it was hot, having that protection from the leaves and the sun was great. I didn't have a hat or gloves so I took it from the ones provided. The hat had a rim all the way around but it also had fabric coming down the sides of the neck and snapped in the front. Super handy for when we had to carry the corn on our shoulders to the truck. My nice dry wick and breathable clothing was also amazing. You sweat no matter what but I felt like my body was staying cool.
We took a break to drink water and have biscuits to give us energy. I didn't like the biscuits too much. It was a cracker with creme or something in the middle. Like those cookies Jenn used to love but round. They didn't taste bad but I felt like it made my mouth more dry. After a pretty long break, we went back out and started carrying the stacks to the truck.
We couldn't put them directly into the truck though so we had to put them on the side of the road. The truck blocks the whole road so it couldn't be parked there for the whole time it took us to bring all the corn over.
After a little bit we were pulled in to eat lunch. They had packed watermelon, green mango, some type of mixed rice, and bananas for us to eat at the sight. I ate a little spoonful of rice and a lot of fruit. I hated knowing I had to go back out and work. When I would eat noodle soup with Sonam and we would continue trekking right away it made me feel like I was going to hurl. So I wanted to avoid that feeling.
At this point, Claire was already feeling dehydrated and Can gave her some rehydration packets. We sat for a while after we ate as well. Like maybe an hour. We were also given really good biscuits this time. They were bite sized coconut cookies with jam in the middle of them and sprinkled with sugar. They were seriously amazing.
Carrying corn seems easy and it kind of is, but at the same time it's difficult. I realize that is not an intelligent statement. The task of carrying the corn is simple. The problem is actually doing it. The men we were working with who do this everyday would carry 3 or 4 stacks at a time. It was crazy. They're like my size but way thinner. Like what! The stalks are so tall. And, when you put a bunch of them together they are actually really heavy! The men had gone and tied the stalk bunches together while we were still eating lunch.
We all carried the stalks different ways. The men all carried them on their shoulders I think... Or back. I don't know. The piles were so large it was hard to tell exactly how they were carrying them. A lot of the girls were carrying it in front of them. I found that made it difficult to move and made it seem heavier. I rotated between carrying them on either shoulder and draping it across both shoulders, kind of on my back, and grabbing parts of the corn on either side by my ears. I couldn't fit my hands around all of it though so its good it was tied together. I pretty much was boss at carrying the corn since I was the only one from my group who hoisted it on my shoulders. Annnd I'm pretty sure we all felt like bad asses cutting the corn with our machetes. Ha. What!?!
I don't even know how many trips we made. It felt like you had to walk 2 or 3 minutes to even get from where we were putting the corn on the road to where we had laid it out and cut it and were taking it from. It was a rather tedious task but I actually really enjoyed it.
I definitely wouldn't want to do it all day everyday like these workers though. I'm not sure how much they get paid, but I don't think it's very much at all. I want to say we heard the mahouts get $150 a month maybe?
After we helped them carry the corn to the road, we were told to take another break so the workers could load the corn into the truck. The corn all got stacked up into the back of the truck. Can told us that we were riding back on top of the corn. We legit had to climb all the way up the front of the truck to sit on top of the corn. The corn was at the top of the truck and we were on top of that! It was crazy.
At one point Sophie asked Can if we needed to lay down or if we just sat up there (so we wouldn't hit our heads on tree branches and other things). He just looked at her and so matter of factly said, "no, you just take a seat. There's no need to lay down." It was kind of funny. Sophie was like, "yeah, well where are the seats!" It's just a different world. They didn't want help loading the truck. We would be more in the way than a help.
We ended up sitting on top of the corn but we had to duck a lot so as not to get hit by tree branches and power lines! I'm surprised no one has ever gotten clothes lined by a power line before. They come up pretty fast! We didn't get back to camp until about 3:30pm. We were supposed to pick up banana trees but we didn't have time to do that. I have bruises on my shoulders from carrying the stalks around on my shoulders though. None of us complained and we actually didn't think it was too bad. Next time, I will bring my iPod probably. We don't really talk while we are doing our work because I think it takes too much concentration of us. Chrissy and Sophie fell a few times. Chrissy actually fell across the walk way and ended up getting mud from both moats. I slipped at one point but I caught myself on my knee. I'm surprised I did because I thought it would be a disaster since I was also carrying the stalks on my shoulder.
It was really hard work but I really liked it. It's funny because coming in to the program I thought that I would be working around or with elephants all day long. This isn't really the case. When we are eating or hanging out or sometimes even working (like with the poop job) the elephants go by and you sometimes get to interact with them. Other than that though we basically are working for the elephants! We scoop their poop and gather their food and prepare their food and plant their food. Taking care of elephants is a chore!
It was kind of exciting though around 430 or 5 we got to see the corn truck drive by and deliver corn to each elephant. It felt like we had actually done all that work for something important and worthwhile.
The rest of the evening we had free time. There is dessert every evening and its pretty good. It's usually something in coconut milk. I loovve coconut milk. One night there was tapioca in it. Another night there was a bunch of different jellie things and beans and such to put in it as well as tapioca.
There are 450 dogs here. They got most of them after the flood in Thailand in 2011. They start going crazy at certain times and all bark. It's so loud and really ridiculous. One evening at dinner there was a dog fight. It was terrifying. Certain dogs have red collars which means they might have rabies and aren't really dogs you should pet and are a bit crazy. This dog just went up and bit the leg of another dog. It was really chomping away! And then people are trying to break up the fight but its really scary. I just wanted to stay as far away as I could!
They still sometimes get calls saying dogs will be killed but if you want them you are welcome to take them. There are a lot of cats as well. Liz, a vet student from Texas, is doing the vet student program and has been assigned to taking care of kittens. They don't have a mom and they need to be fed every hour during the day and every 4 hours during the night. They also have to be peed and pooped and require a lot of attention. She likes it but is happy to be switching over to the elephants in a few days.
Most of the evenings we have had free nights.
There are a lot of really strange bugs here. Jenn, maybe you wouldn't want to come here... Last night we saw a spider the size of my hand on the wall. There are also these huge flying seccada like things that make a super loud noise. It sounds like 100 of those grass cutter things with the blade. They are freaky looking too.
The elephants make a lot of noises as well. They squeak and grunt and make dinosaur noises. They actually recorded elephant noises for Jurassic Park. They also trumpet. And honestly, it took me a while to register the fact that when I heard trumpeting it wasn't a band but it was actually elephants.
I know this says Day 2 and it is the work we did day 2, but so much has happened that it is hard to separate all of it. I've crashed every night so keeping up with the blog has been difficult. I honestly think when I get home I am going to be exhausted. Traveling all the time is tiring and hard! And I didn't build in too many rest days! Got too greedy trying to pack as much in as possible. Really, really hope I'm not sick the whole trip!!! I'm also not complaining because this is one of the best ways I can think of to spend my money. It's just amazing. I'm so glad mom and dad taught me how to save and made me do so.
Anyway, we watched a national geographic documentary one night called "Vanishing Giants". I think it was actually last night after Jody spoke.
There used to be 100,000 elephants in Thailand and now there are only 5,000. Elephants are highly respected and feared and a symbol of power in the Thai culture but they are not treated in this way. In 1989 there was a ban on logging. This ban left most working elephants out of a job, abandoned, killed, sold to Burma, or other things. In Thailand, domestic elephants are considered live stock and there is only a small fine for killing them. The elephants are endangered and they aren't even being protected. For domesticated elephants, tourism is the only work left and they essentially depend on it to live. Without work the elephants are left to die.
A lot of elephants still work the streets and do street begging. They can make a lot of money for their owners, way more than the person could make working a real job. The street begging cashes in on people's fascination with elephants. It's actually really sad and terrible. Elephants are not allowed to be in the city (they cause bad accidents and many other issues) but the police only give a small fine and they don't care too much so the people do not try to hide the fact they are in the city with an elephant.
Being a Mahout used to be a job most people looked down on that didn't pay very much money. A mahout is basically someone who looks after an elephant (at least that is my understanding of it). There are some schools that are trying to make being a mahout important again. One man feels that having a connection with the elephant is very important and a strong bond allows the mahout to communicate better with the elephant allowing him to lead the elephant.
Pijan (sp?) is a way of training an elephant that is domesticated. It is something thy is rarely talked about but that happens with all elephants between the ages of 2 and 4. A rope is placed over their neck and they are led into a cage in which they barely fit. If they struggle they are beaten with sticks that have nails on the ends of them or stabbed in the inner ear which is really a sensitive area for them. They can spend 3 days and nights to maybe even 7 days and nights or longer in this. It is supposed to break the elephants independence. They use many tactics such as sleep deprivation, hunger and thirst to coax them into submission. Males tend to fight harder and it is difficult to train them.
Elephants in Thailand are being used a tools, not cultural icons. Lek is looking to help Thailand an its tourism business move away from exploitation and move toward a more natural way for the elephants. Lek's name in Thai (its a nickname) means small and she has a really big heart. We haven't gotten to talk to her yet because the day she was supposed to talk she came down with a bad fever. I hope we get to hear her speak before we leave! She is a reminder that one person can really make a difference.