HOPE Club Outing

From Thursday to Sabbath I joined the HOPE Club on an outing to Khao Yai National Forest/Park. The HOPE Club is a community service club formed by students here at Ekamai (Helping Other People and the Environment). I am one of four sponsors ...

Irony. That's me. Although I am I was one of the 'adults', 'sponsors', in truth I felt the students were more 'adultish' than I. Let me explain. I really struggle, as I do everytime I camp, culture shocked. As a result I cry and get frustrated. It's the Thai language, reactions that I am unuse to (panicking when it rains, freaking out about scraps and bruises, telling me things that I am already aware of). Even so the students were 'little brothers and sisters' to me. If they didn't appreciate me presence they were very kind to me up front.

On Thursday we arrived set camp, prepared salt lick areas for the animals and planted 800 trees.
* Setting camp was the first group activity that brought the students together. They (we) set up a huge canvas to cover all the tents and then set up each individual tent. I was invited to campout with some of the girls and that was nice.
* Then we geared up in 'gaiters' and drove out to the sights of the salt licks. These are areas are where the elephants and deer gather to eat and roll in the dirt. You can identify the place cause the land is cut out and dirt - everywhere else is grassy. Here we turned up the dirt with hoes and then 'sowed' salt. It was fun to throw salt at the people hoeing. It made me miss gardening at my old home in Brush Prairie, WA.
* Lastly, we planted trees... there were leeches in the area and their presence caused me to work with great efficency (speed). The holes were pre-dug so all we had to do was stick the trees in and cover them back up with dirt. The trees are used for incense, cleaning out parasites and for the face's complexion - so they are valuable and expensive. I really enjoyed getting dirt in my fingernails and working outside ... I miss hard labor. It makes me feel accomplished.
* At night we went on a night safari... I'm not sure all what we saw but it was great to feel the breeze and see the stars in the sky.

I'll continue later...
เรมเม (Renee)