In this day and age, it's quite uncommon to unplug from social media. If you didn't post it online, it never happened, right? Although my generation is probably the last to grow up without technology tracking our every day moments since birth, I am still just as dependent on it as every other teen tweeting their lunch or frappuccino.
Living on the other side of the word, I am that much more dependent on social media and my constant connection to the Internet. It keeps me from getting lost while driving, allows me to share my experiences at the tap of a button, and to video chat weekly with my parents. Mom needs to see that I'm not missing any meals.
This past weekend I was given the opportunity to disconnect, unknowingly, from the world and live in the moment, something very foreign to me.
We were invited to stay in a Karen village that’s trying to bring back its elephant trainers and their elephants. The Karen people are most well known for 1. Converting to Christianity and 2. Being Mahouts: elephant trainers and caretakers. It's normal for these Karen men to leave their villages with their elephants to work in the city; you've got to go where the money is. Many times, these trainers are away from their homes and families for years, only visiting less than a handful of times. This specific village is starting a new program, they invite foreigners into their village to experience the Karen life and elephant care taking up close and personal. The main goal of the program is to bring elephant trainers back home. We were the first group, guinea pigs if you may, to experience village life and this program.
And. It. Was. Amazing.
I prepared myself for the worst and it wasn’t at all awful like I had imagined. I know that sounds horrible, but realistically speaking, I would love to say I could survive out in the open wilderness, take whatever life throws at me, but knowing myself they way I do, I fall apart at simple phrases like "no running water" or "no wifi". I mean, hello? Are we cavemen? I think not. So in agreeing to this trip, spending the night in a village possibly sleeping on the floor with no electricity, and using a squat pot (go ahead, Google it) I had to pep talk myself for the unthinkable and be in constant prayer. I had to expect that certain things would be difficult, like brushing my teeth or showering.
Brushing my teeth from a window.
I don't want to miss out on experiences because they lack accommodations I'm used to. I’d hate to finally move back home and regret no participating in something because I’d be uncomfortable for a night or two. Quite honestly, the trip was an absolutely wonderful experience and I would do it again, and again, and again, JK, I'm not trying to wear myself out now, but I would go a second time.
We learned about this new program through one of our interns. She has a friend who used to be a tour guide for an elephant conservation camp and understands the struggles many of his friends go through working away from home. He asked if we could be the first group of people to try out what they had planned and we all agreed. The day started with him picking us up Sunday, around 1:30 and driving us outside the city of Chiang Mai to the surrounding mountains, about two or so hours away. When we got to the village, we unpacked and learned how to make traditional Karen clothing.
The entire process of weaving, looping, and looming was very stressful. I broke out into a sweat trying to weave just a few lines of fabric together. I have a newfound appreciation for traditional clothes making.
Afterwards, we learned to pack rice into banana leaves and tie them up with bamboo strips.
We had the pleasure of sitting in a worship service and then sharing a meal together with the family and friends of a father who has been able to come back home after years of working in the city. I am always, always, always, humbled at how huge God is; that we have the same God we worship in different languages and He understands them all. We may have language barriers that prevent us from communicating effectively with each other, but God understands all of our worries, cries, and praises to him.
There were about 40 people in the open space of his home, about 600 people total in the village. For dinner, we ate rice we wrapped in banana leaves, some sort of chicken in gravy, chicken feet and all, and ground pork in a tomato sauce.
Who needs plates?
Once dinner was over, we walked back to the home we were staying in, showered and got ready for bed. How did I shower, you ask? In a decent sized out-house. Inside there was a large basin of very cold water and a small bowl that you scoop up the water in and then pour on your body. Refreshed, cold, and clean, we all decided to lay out in the yard and watch the stars before bed. It's not often we have the privilege to look up at the sky and see it painted with twinkling lights. Not in my neighborhood, not even back at home, but here in the mountains it was breathtaking watching the sky dance for us and even catching a few shooting stars. To think, the Lord spoke and out of his mouth lit up the dark night sky. Simple moments like these have been taken for granted for far too long.
Going to sleep was another adventure. In the room we were staying, one of the beds had a mosquito net over it.
I was excited because I've never slept in one before but also fearful that I would wake up with west nile virus or something. Luckily I woke up bug bite free, but unfortunately I also didn't get much sleep. For some reason I kept tossing and turning all night, never really falling into a deep sleep. At one point, right before I was about to doze off, I heard noises like something trying to get up the ladder-esque stairs. Naturally my mind wandered to all the scary movies and stories I'd ever seen and read and thought, "This is it, this is how it ends", with no cell service to call for help, I was quite sure life was over. Then I heard my roommate rustle and asked if it was her making all the noise, she said it was a chicken under the house. That response was good enough for me until the next morning when she mentioned that her worry was what was making the chicken flutter. I’m glad she kept that to herself until morning.
We started the next day surprisingly with French toast, eggs, bananas, and real honey with a bee inside it.
I wasn't bummed at all, but I did prepare myself for last night’s leftovers for breakfast. The Thai's consider our breakfast foods like French toast, pancakes, and waffles as dessert. A typical breakfast meal for them is rice, egg, a vegetable, and hotdog or ground up meat, same things they would eat for lunch and dinner. I can't say I disagree with them. Being in the classroom, back at home, after my students had eaten French toast soaked in syrup always led to disaster.
We ate, chatted about our night (who snored, who didn’t), and then got ready for our day with elephants! This experience allows its customers quality time with elephants. We learned to find them in the rainforest, bring them back to their field, check to see if they're healthy (poo and all), fed them bananas and sugar cane, rode them through the village to the water hole, and then bathed them.
Our elephant's name was Mae-kah-paw.
She is a gigantic 34 year old creature. I learned to climb up her truck onto her back. We rode her about 40 minutes into the village, through the forest, and to the water hole. At the halfway point, we got off to stretch our legs. When I tried to get back on, I felt stuck; I was trying with all my might to pull myself up. Megan was already on and she was trying to help me but I couldn't move. I couldn't stop laughing and I heard all the trainers and our guide cracking up. He kept telling me to stop laughing, in between his laughs. Turns out, our tour guide was holding onto my pants which was the reason why I couldn't get up the elephant. They were laughing at me because I had no idea he was the reason I was hanging on the elephants head. Those Thai’s and their jokes...
We got to the water hole and they had the most beautiful lunch spread out on banana leaves for us!
We rode our elephants back and fed them some herb balls made of different seeds and bananas we mashed together using a foot pedal hammer. To end our experience, we reviewed all the things we learned about our elephants, like how elephants only sleep four to five hours a night, in 40 minute intervals, how they use their trunks to determine if the path they are on is safe, and how female elephants call the shots in a herd (that’s what’s up). We rinsed off, packed our bags, and headed home, after a most exciting 28 hours. Close to home, cell phone reception was restored and we were once again connected to the world at a click of a button. Out of the mountains and hill tribes and back on the asphalt roads that lead to my definition of civilization, we were no longer back in time, living in a village with limited electricity and elephants roaming the dirt roads. It blew my mind how communities like this village are completely functional, on the mountain sides hours away from the nearest gas station. I totally get that life has evolved from wagons and horses to cars, outhouses to indoor bathrooms, candle light to electricity, but to see that many people still live like they’re in the 1800’s is quite fascinating (don’t get me wrong, some homes had satellite dishes and people walked around talking on their cell phones, they aren’t living in the stone age, but they aren’t driving to the grocery store to get their dinner either). My appreciation for how far civilization has developed is baffled by the happiness of the Karen people who live life just as easily without all the conveniences I have at my disposal. This was a wonderful experience and it’s important to be reminded of just how much we have and how much we don’t need to be happy.
But, of course our day wasn’t over when we were dropped off home from our trip. My roommate and I managed to lock ourselves out of the house and I had to climb through the bathroom window that is probably seven feet high, to get inside the house. From now on, I will always keep my house key on me when we leave the house.
No comments:
Post a Comment