Time: Last Night.
Where: A neighborhood Bar
What: An elephant.
Saturday night, and we are out having drinks. A group of what…. Maybe ten of us? We sit around at the table- bottles of beer and blended drinks littering up the table top. The location is a residential area. The bar sits crowded amidst maybe 5 or 6 others- it feels like a secret discovery that we have come up upon. Its almost like a spontaneous village of night life, hidden away from the city- secluded, bright, warm, and happy. The atmosphere is welcoming and cheery- sort of how I might imagine an inn to seem in a scene from lord of the rings. I sip at a beer, and pour my self servings from the pitcher of fruity slushy we’ve ordered. At first, I am quiet, leanihng by and soaking up the warmth, and the feel of the light here- which comes from a combination of two florescent streetlights that rise up high above us, moths gathering around them- and the warm golden yellow that emerges from the bars near by. With in the hour however, my mood will soon reverse- switc hing to something that’s all angles, bouncing energy, shaking heads, and laughter. Soon I will shout, laugh, and fly to in a million pointed directions, feeling both bewildered and amazed at the spinning word around me. Its at this point in time that a man and an elephant walk to the bar.
The elephant has just had a bath, and unlike the other ones I’ve touched, his skin is soft and leathery- slightly most. His trunk was incredibly curious.By the time I saw him, he had walked up to the bar, and in an instant- felt his trunk atop the head of a near by man. Enthralled, I bounce over to him, jutting out my arms and legs in as many ways as I can to travel up to meet him. The elephant stays still, but his trunk moves over to explore. It starts with my hands, but soon creeps up to my face. I look straight forward, and my sight of the night sky gets dramatically interrupted by the sight of an elephant trunk , bombarding up towards my nose. I lean back away from it, but the trunk is relentless. It wants to grasp my face.
OH MY GOD ALKJFGHBNRBNSKFH!!!! GIGGLE GIGGLE ! ! ! HAHAHA HAHAHA ! GHJLAFGH GIGGLE! HA! I exclaim. The trunk continues, attempting to explore the other bodies and faces that stand around me. His owner sells us bamboo sticks (I think) and we feed them to The Trunk. In short time, I want to see The Trunk again, and I find myself poking the elephant’s side. The trunk returns, weaving around me , and then making a beeline for my face again. The trunk attacks. Ewe. Elephant snot.
AH HAH HAH AHAHAHAHAHAHA HAH! I spout again.
And then, to my disappointment, the man takes the elephant away. He is going to the bar next door, for The Trunk to explore, and discover new faces.
“That was the best thing ever!!!!!!!” I belt to the heavens, “When will somebody get me an elephant????!?”
Monday, October 25, 2010
Hey look! I'm actually updating this!
Hey guys. This actually happened around a month ago, but its saved on my computer, so I figure I'll put it up on here.
In terms on a quick update on what I've been doing for the past months ish,- we just completed agroforestry course. Highlights include slaughtering a pig, learning about citizenship issues in thailand (long story short- ethnic minorities here, many of whom were born in Thailand, don't have citizenship, and don't have basic rights- like healthcare, and the ability to move. By this I mean they don't have the right to leave their teensy little villages. Its actually a lot more complicated than this but I dont feel like explaining it right now, so oh well.) Learned about farming. By this I mean I watched people farm at a non profit, and then lived with a host family for 4 days. One day I harvested rice! I'll post some pictures on face book. Its fun. I came in after all the rice stalks (rice is a grass- so just think of big piles of grass here) had been cut. You take these two sticks that are connected by a rope, and you use it to sort of collect a bundle of the rice around the rope, and then you lift the bundle of rice over your head and thwack it over and over again on a block thats on a tarp until all the rice grains pop out. Its a hard image to describe but I think you'll get it from the pictures which will definitely pop up on facebook and might show up here. anyways- you Repeat process. By the end of the day- sore shoulders.
During these four days I trompled my way around, and mimed my way through the Thai language. they dont speak english in Mae Taw, which is the name of the rural province that I visited. it was (as always) a brutal process- but i started getting the hang of it by the end. I can muster my way around in thai fairly well now. Reading is anouther story (test at the end of this week- ahh!)
What else did we do? did I mention that we killed a pig? I have a big long emotional piece of writing that is on my to do list of things to post for this blog. In summary: It was wierd. not as bad as I thought. sent shivers up my spine- yet was strangely beautiful.
For the next course- is the big hiking one. going to villages where thai is spoken as a second language! this will be fun! So now, on top of learning thai- we're getting some insta- Bak-in-yah classes on the side! So far, the language sounds like a series of grunts to me- but then again, I've only had one lesson. Hello is dtah bleug (say bloog while smiling, and you'll pronounce the second word right.) Happy is Ote Choo, sad is Duh Ote Choo. How are you doing is Otechoo wa?
ohhhhh host families. ohhhhh language barrier. so crazy.
We also compared western perceptions of "Nature" to Thai perceptions of nature. This I thought was really interesting. For class, we all brought/ drew pictures of our favorite natural places, and our professor had the THai staff drew pictures of their favorite natural places. We all brought them in and hung them up in the morning and compared.
Our natural places were all big open empty spaces. Many were very scenic- taking pictures of things that were far away. For example- a picture of this mountanous back drop, or this high up view. They all were in public places- like national parks. They all were vacation spots. A lot of us wrote romantic little notes below our photos of natural places- things like- "Here, it is perfect. I have no worries. The stars are all around me...." Our nartual places lacked signs of a permanent human presence as well. Hardly any people in the pictures. The people who were in the pictures were smiling.
In the thai pictures of "favorite natural places": (the thai staff all drew their pictures. we had the option to either print off a photo or draw. for some reason there were only 2 illustrations in the western group.)
-They all included rice paddies. Even the one of the giant tropical river with massive coconut trees and wild flowers had a little rice paddie in the corner. They all had houses. They all had domestic animals. People were present- but they were working. (little stick figures wearing farmers hats or holding ploughs)
We were asked what was dangerous about these places. we said getting lost, and wild animals.
Over all - Nature thailand is seen as something that includes people. There is no romantisism. Attitudes towards it are very pragmatic- this began when teak (teak is a type of tree used for hardwood) trade exploded back in the day (like the late 1800's I think. I might be wrong on that though). There is also a huge fear of spirits that live in the forest. Wild animals aren't a threat- but spirits are a big one. ok. This is a blog post. I have another one I wrote about a month ago about getting drunk and seeing an elephant that I'll put up right after this.
Cool Beans!
In terms on a quick update on what I've been doing for the past months ish,- we just completed agroforestry course. Highlights include slaughtering a pig, learning about citizenship issues in thailand (long story short- ethnic minorities here, many of whom were born in Thailand, don't have citizenship, and don't have basic rights- like healthcare, and the ability to move. By this I mean they don't have the right to leave their teensy little villages. Its actually a lot more complicated than this but I dont feel like explaining it right now, so oh well.) Learned about farming. By this I mean I watched people farm at a non profit, and then lived with a host family for 4 days. One day I harvested rice! I'll post some pictures on face book. Its fun. I came in after all the rice stalks (rice is a grass- so just think of big piles of grass here) had been cut. You take these two sticks that are connected by a rope, and you use it to sort of collect a bundle of the rice around the rope, and then you lift the bundle of rice over your head and thwack it over and over again on a block thats on a tarp until all the rice grains pop out. Its a hard image to describe but I think you'll get it from the pictures which will definitely pop up on facebook and might show up here. anyways- you Repeat process. By the end of the day- sore shoulders.
During these four days I trompled my way around, and mimed my way through the Thai language. they dont speak english in Mae Taw, which is the name of the rural province that I visited. it was (as always) a brutal process- but i started getting the hang of it by the end. I can muster my way around in thai fairly well now. Reading is anouther story (test at the end of this week- ahh!)
What else did we do? did I mention that we killed a pig? I have a big long emotional piece of writing that is on my to do list of things to post for this blog. In summary: It was wierd. not as bad as I thought. sent shivers up my spine- yet was strangely beautiful.
For the next course- is the big hiking one. going to villages where thai is spoken as a second language! this will be fun! So now, on top of learning thai- we're getting some insta- Bak-in-yah classes on the side! So far, the language sounds like a series of grunts to me- but then again, I've only had one lesson. Hello is dtah bleug (say bloog while smiling, and you'll pronounce the second word right.) Happy is Ote Choo, sad is Duh Ote Choo. How are you doing is Otechoo wa?
ohhhhh host families. ohhhhh language barrier. so crazy.
We also compared western perceptions of "Nature" to Thai perceptions of nature. This I thought was really interesting. For class, we all brought/ drew pictures of our favorite natural places, and our professor had the THai staff drew pictures of their favorite natural places. We all brought them in and hung them up in the morning and compared.
Our natural places were all big open empty spaces. Many were very scenic- taking pictures of things that were far away. For example- a picture of this mountanous back drop, or this high up view. They all were in public places- like national parks. They all were vacation spots. A lot of us wrote romantic little notes below our photos of natural places- things like- "Here, it is perfect. I have no worries. The stars are all around me...." Our nartual places lacked signs of a permanent human presence as well. Hardly any people in the pictures. The people who were in the pictures were smiling.
In the thai pictures of "favorite natural places": (the thai staff all drew their pictures. we had the option to either print off a photo or draw. for some reason there were only 2 illustrations in the western group.)
-They all included rice paddies. Even the one of the giant tropical river with massive coconut trees and wild flowers had a little rice paddie in the corner. They all had houses. They all had domestic animals. People were present- but they were working. (little stick figures wearing farmers hats or holding ploughs)
We were asked what was dangerous about these places. we said getting lost, and wild animals.
Over all - Nature thailand is seen as something that includes people. There is no romantisism. Attitudes towards it are very pragmatic- this began when teak (teak is a type of tree used for hardwood) trade exploded back in the day (like the late 1800's I think. I might be wrong on that though). There is also a huge fear of spirits that live in the forest. Wild animals aren't a threat- but spirits are a big one. ok. This is a blog post. I have another one I wrote about a month ago about getting drunk and seeing an elephant that I'll put up right after this.
Cool Beans!
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