Sunday, November 15, 2009

People, Places and Things - Elephant Camp Part 1

Sweet baby Jesus, my back hurts, I can't get my feet clean and I'm afraid to open my backpack because it's contents probably smells like a sewer. Oh, by the way, Best. Week. Ever. I don't even know how to write about a week at elephant camp, I was originally going to do a day by day entry, I even was keeping a journal so I could remember what I did but it just doesn't seem to work.
So the people, what a mix. We had 25 volunteers there for the week and it was the widest assortment of types, ages, shapes and personalities you could imagine. The largest contingent was Australian, a few from the UK, one lonely American, 2 Canucks and a few French gals. Right, and a German. A German doctor. A loud, annoying, opinionated German doctor. Well there has to be one in every group, the guy who gets on your last gay nerve in the shortest time possible. Luckily it was also a bonding experience for the rest of us. We thought he was on staff but shortly found out he was just starting his second week as a volunteer. Why did we think he was staff? You'd think so too with the way he was bossing everyone around and walking around like he owned the place. All it took was catching someone's eye as they gave an eyeroll or you'd hear them mutter under their breathe "O.K. Adolph we heard you the first time" and a laugh would be shared and bonding would happen. Anywho, enough about him, the best part of the whole experience really was working, eating, laughing and having fun with the rest of the crew.

Our day started with breakfast at 7, chores, and by chores I mean cutting down 10 foot highgrass with machetes, unloading pickup trucks filled with fruits and vegetables for the elephants, mucking out the elephant pens (or poo patrol as we called it), elephant feeding, bathing, more eating, more chores, more eating and in bed by 10 at the latest to get up early and start it all over again. Don't worry though we had fun. Cleaning out the elephant mud pit would end in a mud fight, elephant bathing resulted in water fights and playing a card game called shithead means there was much hooting and hollering and laughing and talking.

I'll be writing more over the next few days, probably until you're sick of hearing about elephant camp. Just wanted to say hey, I'm alive and I think I lost my gay card in the elephant mud pit because no sane gay man would ever post a picture like this one.

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