Alone in the Jungle

This past week was my solo week at the elephant camp. Melissa, who was with me my first week, left to go back to Florida already. I wasn't planning on going to the camp because I wasn't sure how it would be by myself. While I'm at the camp, I feel like I miss out on so much going on back at the volunteer house. All the girls go out to dinner, make plans for the weekend and just get to hang out while I'm alone in the jungle.

I wanted to work at the children's home for the week with a couple of girls from the volunteer house, but the minimum was a two week commitment. I still wanted to come back to the elephant camp my third week, so I wasn't able to do that. So off to go to the camp I went , but only for half of the week and not before going to the Western store to buy some Peter Pan peanut butter and Frosted Flakes or Frosties, as they are called here.

This past week, I tried coconut for the first time! The coconut water was pretty good; however, I didn't like the inside part. There were three coconuts total and I got to feed them to Souk Chai when we were finished! When I gave him a coconut, he tried to put it in his mouth but it was too big. So being the genius that he is, he proceeded to put the coconut on the ground so he could crush it with his foot then eat the smaller pieces. It was really cute to watch. Elephants are such smart animals.

The river water was too high this past week to bathe the elephants in, so we had to use a water hose. Souk Chai likes to pick up the hose with his trunk and put it in his mouth to drink. My mahout always says, "Yum yum!" My job during bathing was to spray Souk Chai and keep the water running on him. My mahout still handed me my scrub brush though...Like I could continuously spray Souk Chai with the hose and scrub him at the same time?!  Whenever I tried to, my mahout would take the hose from me and spray it himself. It's way too difficult to do both jobs so I just stuck with the water hose.

I went to the resort nearby to eat lunch and Skype with my parents Tuesday. However, the wifi connection was bad and it kept cutting out. I couldn't even see them, but they could see me which I just found weird. Then that afternoon the water and electricity went out in the entire camp and village. It was crazy. Jin said this had never happened before. I sat outside in the hammock and read a bit then decided to write some postcards. Luckily, the water and electricity came back on about an hour later. I was so glad. There was no way I would've been able to sleep in that heat.  Too bad Wednesday morning the electricity went out again! I couldn't even take my usual afternoon nap because it was too dang hot in the room.

Last week during the show, we got to watch a proposal! A guy came riding in on an elephant holding a bouquet of flowers while the elephant held a basket of flowers in his trunk. Two other people walked ahead with a banner that said, "Marry me, please?" The elephant walked right up to the girl in the crowd and handed her the basket. The guy climbed off the elephant, got down on one knee and proposed. It was the cutest proposal! I now have high expectations for my future proposal. So to my future husband, if you're reading this, good luck!

Surprisingly, my solo week at the camp wasn't too bad. I actually enjoyed being at the camp alone. But I am very glad to be back in the city with electricity and air conditioning!