So we are back in Chaing Mai again, and it feels great to sleep in a bed, take a hot shower and hang out in civilization. The two weeks in the Karen Village were.....well.....it was what it was I guess. It was two weeks of roller coaster emotions and lots of confusion. We stayed with a family of four that hosts tours like the one we went on a month and a half ago almost every night. So every night there was a new group of tourists that stayed at the house. The children sang every night and we also heard the same jokes every night. The house was simple but spacious. All made out of wood and concrete, with a metal roof. We slept on a concrete floor with a few blankets under us and a few on top. The family was so wonderful to us. The wife, who we called Pi, spoke very limited english but we had a few nights of playing games and bonding and sharing language through books. She was amazing in that she never stopped moving all day. She got up at 6am every morning, cooked breakfast, then went to the school to teach, then came home and did stuff around the house, then cooked again, and then studied by candle light all night. She had headaches all the time from reading in bad light. The husband Saikam spoke pretty good english and was very friendly but was not around that often and when he was he was with a tour. They had two kids a daughter that is about 11 and a son that is 8. They were amazing children. They often had no supervision, especially on weekends. When the parents were gone they would use huge knives to cut fire wood, to make a fire, so they could make themselves and us lunch. Then they would shower on their own and do laundry. They were so good at taking care of themselves but still played like kids at the same time.
We were a little disappointed with the school. There is about 60 students and three class rooms. There are about 6 teachers and most of them speak a little english but it was very hard to communicate with them. When we first arrived we were told that the children were going camping for a boy scout thing and that we could go along but Sky would not be able to teach until the following week. So his teaching time when from a limiting 2 weeks one week which is almost nothing. We went camping and it was fun to learn about all the medicinal plants in the forest and to watch the kids make their own shelters out of branches and tarps. We made an obstacle course for them in the jungle and and basically just sat around and watched for three days not really knowing what was going on because we could not understand what they were saying.
That weekend we wanted to hike somewhere but our host family did not seem very comfortable with that and one day took us to a waterfall but the other day we were just stuck at the house but locked out and all our stuff was inside. They were so strange about things sometimes. We were always locked out when they were gone, they didn't like us walking around and never told us where they were or when they were coming back.
So teaching time finally came around and Monday was a let the kids rest because they just got off a holiday day. Sky got to teach for only a short time. Then Tuesday was Monk Day. I guess it was a half moon that night or something, so we went to the temple to pray that morning for about 20 minutes. The rest of monk day is apparently set the forest on fire day. The kids just ran around raking up leaves and fallen branches and burned whatever they pleased. We didn't really see the point but they had fun. So that day the kids only got a couple hours of class time. Wednesday was sports day. So they run around just playing basically, no organized games, until lunch. Then they eat a big meal, sit in front of a TV for about an hour and then they try to learn. They were all so tired and unmotivated by the time Sky got to teach, and it was really frustrating. Thursday was the most productive day and Sky got some good hours in. Friday just happened to be the one day out of the year that the kids don't write. That's right, no writing at all, but drawing is okay. So all in all it seemed like going to teach in the village was a big waste of time. The other teachers don't make their students stay in the classroom. Many of them tell the students to just study and then start drawing out plans for their new house or whatever they feel like. I really wonder where all the money that is donated to the school goes. It seems to me that they are just lazy. There are kids that are way too young to be in school that hang out in the classrooms as well as kids that have already graduated and just have nothing else to do. There was one student that was deaf and no one made any effort to teach him how to read lips. He could write but he could not talk and when ever anyone talked to him they spoke gibberish or just made sounds like he did. He acted out a lot in class, surprise surprise. Sky even offered to teach extra on the weekend and they couldn't organize it so it never happened. One glimmer of hope though, was one little girl came by on Saturday by herself wanting to learn more. Sky almost shed a tear.
During the week I was sometimes in the classroom helping Sky and the rest of the time I was walking around all three villages mapping with my GPS. The teachers said that they wanted a map of the area and they wanted to know the distances between. This could be used for education or even for something for the tourists to look at when they came to look at the school. So I made them a nice map with the distances between, the perimeters of the villages, the areas, the male to female ratios, # of houses , average # of people per household etc. The teachers loved it, but when I brought it home to show Pi and Saikam they did not like it at all and got mad when Sky showed it to some of the tourists. Why? Those are questions that tourists always ask. Why does it have to be a secret? So strange.
Besides that we did have a good time hanging out with everyone in the village. The older men were the most welcoming and laid back. They shared their home made rice wine with us and one old man even taught us an ancient fighting dance. There was a lady that lived next door that often came by and gave me bananas. The kids where fun to play with. We ate many interesting foods like tadpoles, beetles, fresh water shrimp, pig intestines, and frogs. The frogs where the best. They would put a whole fish that had been fried on your plate so you had to look it in the eye before you took a big bite out of it's face. The head really was the best part. Sometimes I had no idea what I was eating but we always had rice. Rice, rice, rice with every meal. Rice veggies and mystery meat but very little fruit. I was horribly stopped up for the first week and a half.
So, the Karen live really nice lives. They live in a beautiful place and their life is simple yet comfortable. They are not what they seem when you come through as a tourist. They have solar power, TV, motor bikes, cell phones and more money than they want you to believe. They get funding from Canada and I'm sure they make a good amount off of the tourists. They could do a lot more for themselves if they wanted to but they would rather rely on handouts is the conclusion I have come to. They even tried to charge Sky and I 500 baht for the ride up to the village in the back of a pickup truck while they were running errands around town anyway. It seems to be how Thailand goes. Everyone just wants your money. I don't regret staying there at all and I will stay in contact with the friends that we made there. Sky is even thinking about going back for a longer amount of time next year. Maybe to another village though. It was overall a wonderful experience and it saved us a lot of money too.
So now we only have a few days left in Thailand and we are spending them in Chaing Mai and traveling back down to Bangkok. Then it will be on to India which we are thinking might be the real adventure of our trip.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Back to the HIll Tribe
So we said goodbye to Phuket. No more smoky haze, lines and lines of rubber trees, and beautiful white sand beaches covered with tourists. No more gibbons. No more screaming high school students at 8am. No more motor bikes. :) We were there for a month and it felt like we were there for a day.
On our way back up to chaing mai we had the bus drop us off near a national park called Khao Sok. We hitch hiked the rest of the 40kms to the park. It was still a tourist area but was very quiet and peaceful. Ahhhhhhh. We paid to get into the park but we camped for free for two nights. This park is part of the biggest nature reserve in Thailand and is 160 million years old. It was said by some scientist to be older and more diverse than the amazon. It looked old with big trees, birds everywhere and vines covering everything. It had wild elephants, tigers, bears, deer, gibbons, monkeys, all kinds of snakes and over 150 different species of birds. Skyler and I took a hike the day that we spent there. We hiked up the side of the main mountain and found a good place to swim in a river all by ourselves. We tried to go off the beaten trail a few times but could never get very far. It was thick and well, you know, there were tigers around. Out of all the amazing wildlife that was there we got to see some lizards, spiders, mosquitoes, birds and some beautiful butterflies. No tigers or elephants but I'm sure that only few are so lucky. The forest was so wonderful just to walk around in. It was very refreshing to get away from the crowded tourist spots and big cities. There was a little town right outside the park for food and drinks. The first night Sky and I hung out at the Spirit Bar which was just a camp fire and a tiny stand selling drinks. The guy who owned it also made money giving tourists dread locks. It was fun and very interesting to hang out with a thai hippy crowd. There were also many Germans around. It seemed like anyone else that was white was German.
The day that we left we needed some money and the ATM was out of cash. We needed money for the bus to get to Sarat Thani because we had already bought train tickets all the way to Chaing Mai. We had a mini panic moment and we were asking around at what our options were and some nice thai lady at a mini mart just gave us the money that we needed to get to Sarat Thani. We had no way to repay her but she just gave us her card to say, send me business. It was so nice of her. So we got to Sarat thani and got on our train okay which was a sleeper. Very nice way to travel. Then at 3am the train stopped and everyone started getting off. We were confused until an english speaking thai man told us that a train in front of us had gone off the tracks and we had to get off and catch a bus the rest of the way to Bangkok. So we got off and waited, and waited. Another train pulled up with another load of people needing to be bussed to Bangkok. We had a train to catch to Chaing Mai at 8:30 so we started to get a little worried that we wouldn't make it. Then finally one bus showed up. Suddenly there was a mob of people all running towards the bus. So Sky and I started laughing and ran as well because we knew that we needed to be on that bus to catch our next train. There was young men pushing old ladies out of the way and I caught and old thai lady by the backpack who almost fell backwards out of the door. It was so hilarious, but we pushed out way through and got on. The way sky explained it was, " It was like we were all starving dogs and a bus full of bacon drove up." We got to our train with 15 minutes to spare. It was a long two days of travel.
So now we are in Chaing Mai again. Ahhhhhh, the first hot shower in over a month was the best thing ever. This evening we are getting picked up by a man who lives in the Karen Village that we went to over a month ago. We are going to stay with them for 2 weeks. They said they have a house for us to stay in and that they will feed us while we are there. Skyler is going to teach english and I'm, ah, going to help him i guess and just help out with daily chores that they do around the village. I don't really know what to expect but I'm excited to learn from them. I won't really be able to talk to anyone but I hope that they will show me how they farm and how they make their clothes and how they cook. There will be no Internet or cell phone service so I will be unreachable for two weeks. Don't worry to those of you that might, mother, we are going to be with good people and they have transportation into town if anything happens. So, I will tell you all about it when I get back. Sawatdee Ka!
On our way back up to chaing mai we had the bus drop us off near a national park called Khao Sok. We hitch hiked the rest of the 40kms to the park. It was still a tourist area but was very quiet and peaceful. Ahhhhhhh. We paid to get into the park but we camped for free for two nights. This park is part of the biggest nature reserve in Thailand and is 160 million years old. It was said by some scientist to be older and more diverse than the amazon. It looked old with big trees, birds everywhere and vines covering everything. It had wild elephants, tigers, bears, deer, gibbons, monkeys, all kinds of snakes and over 150 different species of birds. Skyler and I took a hike the day that we spent there. We hiked up the side of the main mountain and found a good place to swim in a river all by ourselves. We tried to go off the beaten trail a few times but could never get very far. It was thick and well, you know, there were tigers around. Out of all the amazing wildlife that was there we got to see some lizards, spiders, mosquitoes, birds and some beautiful butterflies. No tigers or elephants but I'm sure that only few are so lucky. The forest was so wonderful just to walk around in. It was very refreshing to get away from the crowded tourist spots and big cities. There was a little town right outside the park for food and drinks. The first night Sky and I hung out at the Spirit Bar which was just a camp fire and a tiny stand selling drinks. The guy who owned it also made money giving tourists dread locks. It was fun and very interesting to hang out with a thai hippy crowd. There were also many Germans around. It seemed like anyone else that was white was German.
The day that we left we needed some money and the ATM was out of cash. We needed money for the bus to get to Sarat Thani because we had already bought train tickets all the way to Chaing Mai. We had a mini panic moment and we were asking around at what our options were and some nice thai lady at a mini mart just gave us the money that we needed to get to Sarat Thani. We had no way to repay her but she just gave us her card to say, send me business. It was so nice of her. So we got to Sarat thani and got on our train okay which was a sleeper. Very nice way to travel. Then at 3am the train stopped and everyone started getting off. We were confused until an english speaking thai man told us that a train in front of us had gone off the tracks and we had to get off and catch a bus the rest of the way to Bangkok. So we got off and waited, and waited. Another train pulled up with another load of people needing to be bussed to Bangkok. We had a train to catch to Chaing Mai at 8:30 so we started to get a little worried that we wouldn't make it. Then finally one bus showed up. Suddenly there was a mob of people all running towards the bus. So Sky and I started laughing and ran as well because we knew that we needed to be on that bus to catch our next train. There was young men pushing old ladies out of the way and I caught and old thai lady by the backpack who almost fell backwards out of the door. It was so hilarious, but we pushed out way through and got on. The way sky explained it was, " It was like we were all starving dogs and a bus full of bacon drove up." We got to our train with 15 minutes to spare. It was a long two days of travel.
So now we are in Chaing Mai again. Ahhhhhh, the first hot shower in over a month was the best thing ever. This evening we are getting picked up by a man who lives in the Karen Village that we went to over a month ago. We are going to stay with them for 2 weeks. They said they have a house for us to stay in and that they will feed us while we are there. Skyler is going to teach english and I'm, ah, going to help him i guess and just help out with daily chores that they do around the village. I don't really know what to expect but I'm excited to learn from them. I won't really be able to talk to anyone but I hope that they will show me how they farm and how they make their clothes and how they cook. There will be no Internet or cell phone service so I will be unreachable for two weeks. Don't worry to those of you that might, mother, we are going to be with good people and they have transportation into town if anything happens. So, I will tell you all about it when I get back. Sawatdee Ka!
Saturday, January 31, 2009
On Vacation Again :)
So my gibbon adventure is over. :( Tomorrow I get to talk to a science class at skyler's school about the gibbon project and that will be fun, but I'm done working with those silly apes. I moved in with Skyler for his last few days. Volunteering was so fun and ended so quickly. I even got to go to a Muslim Wedding. This was a strange experience because I did not know the couple that was getting married. Most of us volunteers didn't. So basically we showed up and said a quick sawadtee ka to everyone and then we were led upstairs to eat a feast. We did not eat with anyone else from the wedding. Then we went outside to take a million pictures with the bride and groom and then said goodbye. I felt kind of like a prop, but the food was good. This was the groom's only wife but they are allowed to have four. So that was interesting.
Also a few days before I left another volunteer named Scott got lost in the forest. He was camping with a thai staff member, Yan, in the forest and they were drinking a lot. He wanted to go hunting for snakes because this is what they had done before. Yan said no because they had to get up early to track the gibbons and went to bed. Scott, being the smart drunk that he is decided to sneak away and go snake hunting by himself. He ended up slipping, falling down a hill and hitting his head. His flashlight broke, he didn't know where he was so he stumbled around all night. The next day he walked down the mountain dehydrated and hallucinating. They found in at about 5pm in bad shape. The next day he was fine and went back to work but he never heard the end of it. Poor idiot.
Skyler and I have been exploring Phuket this weekend. We went to see the big Buddha in south phuket. They just built it and it really is huge. There is a gong there that will make a very loud and crazy noise when you rub your hands over the center of it in a certain way. It all has to do with how moist your hands are and how fast you do it. Skyler and I were two of the few people that could do it. The locals were very impressed. They just didn't understand that there was a science to it. Instead they believe that it is a spiritual thing, so there was even a Thai mother telling her children to wai to Skyler after he did it. Wai is when you put your hands together in a prayer like position in front of your face and it is used to show respect. There was also a great view of Phuket Town and the bay. We could see other islands close by too. I wish I could show you but this computer will not allow me to upload photos.
Now I am looking forward to moving on. Skyler and I think that we are going to boat over to Railey which is on the other side of the Gulf of Phuket. There we can relax on the beach and go snorkling, kayaking and all kinds of fun adventurous stuff. We also will go to Krabi and try to find a temple we heard about that has over a thousand steps leading up to it,or something like that. We hope it will not be another temple surrounded by a market. Whatever we do I'm sure it will be fun.
Also a few days before I left another volunteer named Scott got lost in the forest. He was camping with a thai staff member, Yan, in the forest and they were drinking a lot. He wanted to go hunting for snakes because this is what they had done before. Yan said no because they had to get up early to track the gibbons and went to bed. Scott, being the smart drunk that he is decided to sneak away and go snake hunting by himself. He ended up slipping, falling down a hill and hitting his head. His flashlight broke, he didn't know where he was so he stumbled around all night. The next day he walked down the mountain dehydrated and hallucinating. They found in at about 5pm in bad shape. The next day he was fine and went back to work but he never heard the end of it. Poor idiot.
Skyler and I have been exploring Phuket this weekend. We went to see the big Buddha in south phuket. They just built it and it really is huge. There is a gong there that will make a very loud and crazy noise when you rub your hands over the center of it in a certain way. It all has to do with how moist your hands are and how fast you do it. Skyler and I were two of the few people that could do it. The locals were very impressed. They just didn't understand that there was a science to it. Instead they believe that it is a spiritual thing, so there was even a Thai mother telling her children to wai to Skyler after he did it. Wai is when you put your hands together in a prayer like position in front of your face and it is used to show respect. There was also a great view of Phuket Town and the bay. We could see other islands close by too. I wish I could show you but this computer will not allow me to upload photos.
Now I am looking forward to moving on. Skyler and I think that we are going to boat over to Railey which is on the other side of the Gulf of Phuket. There we can relax on the beach and go snorkling, kayaking and all kinds of fun adventurous stuff. We also will go to Krabi and try to find a temple we heard about that has over a thousand steps leading up to it,or something like that. We hope it will not be another temple surrounded by a market. Whatever we do I'm sure it will be fun.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Frankinlindsey
So, about a week ago Skyler was taking me to work early in the morning on his room mate's motor bike. The driving around here is pretty crazy. Not as bad as in Bangkok and Chang Mai but there still doesn't seem to be many rules followed. So, when we were half way there Skyler had to slam on the brakes. We think that he used the front break to much because all I remember is the squealing of the tires and seeing the front wheel turn and bam! Face on pavement! I jumped up grabbed my face and all I could see was blood dripping down and I could feel that one of my front teeth was chipped in half. I started yelling at Skyler (not that it was really his fault) out of shock and confusion. Skyler had scraped up his leg and elbow but other than that he was okay. He stayed very calm and after a minute to breath I calmed down as well. He grabbed the first thing he could find out of our backpack, which just happened to be my dirty underwear, yeah, and put it over my nose which was bleeding. He checked out my face and pushed on my nose to see if it was broken, and we could tell that is wasn't. The rest of it looked bad because your face can bleed a lot but it really only needed first aid treatment. The people that saw the accident were very nice and called the police and ambulance but honestly, we did not need one and did not need to pay for one. So, we jumped back on the bike and finished our journey to the Gibbon Project. Those sweet concerned Thais thought that we were crazy. When we got to the Project we informed the staff that I was not going to be able to work that day, as if they couldn't tell. We got out my first aid kit and Skyler cleaned up my face which was scraped and bruised but did not look as bad after all the blood was cleaned off. Then we got on the bike again and went back to Skyler's school and they took us, in the Principles van, to the hospital. There, I only had them fix my tooth, which means give me half a face tooth, and they did a very good job. I was only in the hospital for 1 hour and my pearly whites were just as they looked before. They were still a little loose but I felt much better. The hospital was the nicest hospital I have ever seen. There was live music in the waiting area and it was super clean. It really looked like a fancy hotel more than a hospital.
The whole ordeal was a bummer, especially because Jessika and TJ were visiting us and I missed out on hanging out with them as much as I could, but I was very lucky. I was not wearing a helmet because we only have one, and by law the driver has to wear it. It was a great day to be alive! It has been a week now and you can hardly even tell that it happened. All my scabs are already gone and I only have one tiny scar. We think that I fractured my nose a little but, I have not been in much pain at all and what do you do for a fractured nose anyway. If I went to a doctor for it they could only really give me pain killers. I told the Gibbon Project that I could go back to work the next day, and I really could have, but they made me rest for a day.
So, now I only have three more days of working with the gibbons. :( I have learned so much and next week I will be giving a talk to some environmental science students at Skyler's school. I'm going to try to go diving this weekend and for the few days that Sky is teaching and I have nothing to do I'm going to the beach. Ahhhh. I also want to volunteer at a homeless dog shelter that is down the street from where I will be staying for a day or two. Our days on Phuket are going fast and I'm going to miss it but I'm also excited to move on to the next chapter of our travels. Love you all.
The whole ordeal was a bummer, especially because Jessika and TJ were visiting us and I missed out on hanging out with them as much as I could, but I was very lucky. I was not wearing a helmet because we only have one, and by law the driver has to wear it. It was a great day to be alive! It has been a week now and you can hardly even tell that it happened. All my scabs are already gone and I only have one tiny scar. We think that I fractured my nose a little but, I have not been in much pain at all and what do you do for a fractured nose anyway. If I went to a doctor for it they could only really give me pain killers. I told the Gibbon Project that I could go back to work the next day, and I really could have, but they made me rest for a day.
So, now I only have three more days of working with the gibbons. :( I have learned so much and next week I will be giving a talk to some environmental science students at Skyler's school. I'm going to try to go diving this weekend and for the few days that Sky is teaching and I have nothing to do I'm going to the beach. Ahhhh. I also want to volunteer at a homeless dog shelter that is down the street from where I will be staying for a day or two. Our days on Phuket are going fast and I'm going to miss it but I'm also excited to move on to the next chapter of our travels. Love you all.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
The Gibbon Project
So I have been working at the gibbon project for a while now and I have learned a lot. Not just about the gibbons, but about how the government works, and how animals in Thailand are treated in general.
So, the Gibbon Project. Gibbons are an endangered species in Thailand. There are some in the wild in other areas of the country, but they disappeared completely from Phuket island in the early 1980s. Back then it was legal to keep wild animals as pets in Thailand. In 1994 there was a law passed that made it illegal to own all wild animals, except for elephants. So many residents now had illegal pets and didn't know what to do with them. So the Royal Division of Forestry created the gibbon project as a place for these gibbons to go. This story is what is given on our information boards on the education center.
Since I have been working here I have learned that Thais are wonderful people but are very proud of their country and the fact that this is an organization is run by them and not foreigners. Which they should be, but their story is not really true. There was a man from America that studied primates and came to Thailand to start the gibbon rehabilitation project to try and save an endangered species and reintroduce these animals into their natural habitat. If you ask the Thai staff what happened to him you will get different answers like, heart attack, or an accident out in the forest. If you do the research though, you will find that he was shot and that a week after he was shot, his wife died in a car accident. I in no way think that any of the people that I have been working with would have had anything to do with this, but someone didn't like the fact that an American was running the program (theory) so they got rid of him and now it is run by the Thais.
Regardless, the project and the people that are running it now have a good thing going. Even though it is illegal to own gibbons we know of many all over Phuket that are kept as pets. Locals will walk around the beaches with a baby gibbon and have tourists pay to have their pictures talked with them. Others are kept in bars and forced to smoke cigarettes and drink beer because it is fun for the tourists. Many of these gibbons are injected with drugs to keep them awake because they naturally fall asleep at about 4pm, and that would be no fun for the tourists. Others are just kept as pets because they are cute and people like them. The problem is that when they reach a certain age they can get aggressive, no matter how domesticated they are. So people just kill them or shave down their canine teeth and keep them in small cages. So why don't we just notify the police and have them taken away? What usually happens is that they just don't care, or they will find these people and ask them how much they are willing to pay them to keep their gibbon. Basically saying if you pay me off I will keep my mouth closed. That is how the police work around here. Even though there is a law, they know that the gibbons bring in money and that will help the economy/government. Some kind souls that understand and our just tourists or residents will sometimes buy the gibbon for a large amount of money just to bring it to our project. The only problem with that is, the seller now knows that he can make money off of selling gibbons and will just go get another one. How does one get a baby gibbon you might ask.
Sorry I get quite passionate about all this so this may be a long blog.
In order to get a baby gibbon, which is all people want, poachers will go camp out in the forest over night. Every morning they do their territorial calls so that is how they are found. If the poachers find a family with a gibbon they have to shoot the sisters, brothers and the father first because they are all protective of each other. Then the mother will climb as far as she can up in a tree to try to protect her baby which is always wrapped around her belly. The poachers then shoot the mother and she will fall to the ground from a great height. 1 times out of three the baby does not survive the fall, so the poachers will have to try again. So for every gibbon you see on the streets of Thailand there are on average 15 dead ones in the forest. That is why gibbons are endangered.
So when we get gibbons at our project we first put them into quarantine. There we do blood tests. They can have hep A, B, or AIDS or herpes. They can have anything we have. Once they are found to be clean we send them to the rehabilitation center. There we have to teach them how to be gibbons. They have been living with humans most of their lives so they do not know how to relate to other gibbons or survival techniques. We have to teach them how to drink water in the wild and how to swing instead of walk. The forest floor is very dangerous for them so they must learn to stay in the tree canopy. We then try to pair them with mates. This is hard because they are like humans and are very picky. When they choose a mate it is for life and the way they chose is through singing. So we have to try and figure out who is singing together and then move them close. We then try to put them in the same cage and teach them how to share their food. Once they are okay with each other have a baby, we wait until the baby is a certain age and then move them to a cage further away from the rehab site. After a period of time we then move them to a cage that is way up in the canopy for a while. After that we release them into the park which is a non-hunting area. We still feed them for a year after that, giving them less and less as the year goes on. In 16 years they have released 5 families and there are currently 3 with one family getting close. It takes about 10 years on average to release a family and there is only one ranger in the forest that comes once a week, so there are still poachers to worry about.
It is a sad story, but we are making progress. It is all funded through donations and volunteers like me. The government gives no help and even makes it harder for them. They will not allow them to open bank accounts in other countries to receive donations. People can still donate online but there are so many fees that the bank takes out that if you donate 1500 baht the gibbon project gets about 500 baht.
The realities are a little hard to deal with but I love working around these apes. They are so much like us in so many ways. They all have personalities and they can sense your mood. I'm so attached to them already. Even if I'm cleaning ape poo it is one of the best experiences that I have had. So, if you know anyone who is going to Thailand tell them not to get their pictures taken with gibbons, or monkeys, or lizards or any wild animal. It supports a bad business. They can also report it when they see it, and who knows, maybe someone will do something about it.
So, the Gibbon Project. Gibbons are an endangered species in Thailand. There are some in the wild in other areas of the country, but they disappeared completely from Phuket island in the early 1980s. Back then it was legal to keep wild animals as pets in Thailand. In 1994 there was a law passed that made it illegal to own all wild animals, except for elephants. So many residents now had illegal pets and didn't know what to do with them. So the Royal Division of Forestry created the gibbon project as a place for these gibbons to go. This story is what is given on our information boards on the education center.
Since I have been working here I have learned that Thais are wonderful people but are very proud of their country and the fact that this is an organization is run by them and not foreigners. Which they should be, but their story is not really true. There was a man from America that studied primates and came to Thailand to start the gibbon rehabilitation project to try and save an endangered species and reintroduce these animals into their natural habitat. If you ask the Thai staff what happened to him you will get different answers like, heart attack, or an accident out in the forest. If you do the research though, you will find that he was shot and that a week after he was shot, his wife died in a car accident. I in no way think that any of the people that I have been working with would have had anything to do with this, but someone didn't like the fact that an American was running the program (theory) so they got rid of him and now it is run by the Thais.
Regardless, the project and the people that are running it now have a good thing going. Even though it is illegal to own gibbons we know of many all over Phuket that are kept as pets. Locals will walk around the beaches with a baby gibbon and have tourists pay to have their pictures talked with them. Others are kept in bars and forced to smoke cigarettes and drink beer because it is fun for the tourists. Many of these gibbons are injected with drugs to keep them awake because they naturally fall asleep at about 4pm, and that would be no fun for the tourists. Others are just kept as pets because they are cute and people like them. The problem is that when they reach a certain age they can get aggressive, no matter how domesticated they are. So people just kill them or shave down their canine teeth and keep them in small cages. So why don't we just notify the police and have them taken away? What usually happens is that they just don't care, or they will find these people and ask them how much they are willing to pay them to keep their gibbon. Basically saying if you pay me off I will keep my mouth closed. That is how the police work around here. Even though there is a law, they know that the gibbons bring in money and that will help the economy/government. Some kind souls that understand and our just tourists or residents will sometimes buy the gibbon for a large amount of money just to bring it to our project. The only problem with that is, the seller now knows that he can make money off of selling gibbons and will just go get another one. How does one get a baby gibbon you might ask.
Sorry I get quite passionate about all this so this may be a long blog.
In order to get a baby gibbon, which is all people want, poachers will go camp out in the forest over night. Every morning they do their territorial calls so that is how they are found. If the poachers find a family with a gibbon they have to shoot the sisters, brothers and the father first because they are all protective of each other. Then the mother will climb as far as she can up in a tree to try to protect her baby which is always wrapped around her belly. The poachers then shoot the mother and she will fall to the ground from a great height. 1 times out of three the baby does not survive the fall, so the poachers will have to try again. So for every gibbon you see on the streets of Thailand there are on average 15 dead ones in the forest. That is why gibbons are endangered.
So when we get gibbons at our project we first put them into quarantine. There we do blood tests. They can have hep A, B, or AIDS or herpes. They can have anything we have. Once they are found to be clean we send them to the rehabilitation center. There we have to teach them how to be gibbons. They have been living with humans most of their lives so they do not know how to relate to other gibbons or survival techniques. We have to teach them how to drink water in the wild and how to swing instead of walk. The forest floor is very dangerous for them so they must learn to stay in the tree canopy. We then try to pair them with mates. This is hard because they are like humans and are very picky. When they choose a mate it is for life and the way they chose is through singing. So we have to try and figure out who is singing together and then move them close. We then try to put them in the same cage and teach them how to share their food. Once they are okay with each other have a baby, we wait until the baby is a certain age and then move them to a cage further away from the rehab site. After a period of time we then move them to a cage that is way up in the canopy for a while. After that we release them into the park which is a non-hunting area. We still feed them for a year after that, giving them less and less as the year goes on. In 16 years they have released 5 families and there are currently 3 with one family getting close. It takes about 10 years on average to release a family and there is only one ranger in the forest that comes once a week, so there are still poachers to worry about.
It is a sad story, but we are making progress. It is all funded through donations and volunteers like me. The government gives no help and even makes it harder for them. They will not allow them to open bank accounts in other countries to receive donations. People can still donate online but there are so many fees that the bank takes out that if you donate 1500 baht the gibbon project gets about 500 baht.
The realities are a little hard to deal with but I love working around these apes. They are so much like us in so many ways. They all have personalities and they can sense your mood. I'm so attached to them already. Even if I'm cleaning ape poo it is one of the best experiences that I have had. So, if you know anyone who is going to Thailand tell them not to get their pictures taken with gibbons, or monkeys, or lizards or any wild animal. It supports a bad business. They can also report it when they see it, and who knows, maybe someone will do something about it.
Friday, January 9, 2009
The mad train dash, then Gibbons
So leaving Bangkok was pretty crazy. We spent the day at Koh San (sp?) road at the market and then went to this huge temple where the largest statue of the reclining Buddha is. It was pretty enormous. Our train was leaving at 7:30 so we thought we would give ourselves 1 1/2 hours to get back to the hotel to get our bags and then to the train. Woops! Five o clock traffic does not only exist in the US and Bangkok is huge. We took a tuk tuk half the way home, then the sky train and then had to walk. Skyler left a shopping bag at a 7-11 where we stopped to get a quick food fix. So here we are with our huge backpacks on, running through the city. Jessika and TJ were awesome and ran with us the entire way. TJ may be the reason we got our bag back. Then we had to jump on the sky train to catch the subway that took us to the train. We got on the train with minutes to spare. Lesson learned, but when it was all over, looking back on what we must have looked like running with our packs on, it was sooooo hilarious! The train ride was the best one yet. They had a bar with Christmas lights, playing britney spears and boy band music (music wasn't so great). We slept all night then caught a bus to Phuket in the morning.
So now I am at the Gibbon Project. The place I'm staying isn't the nicest and isn't close to anything but the people are very friendly. I have a great roommate from whales who is here for the same amount of time that I am. I got a tour and there are over 40 Gibbons that we care for, and I'm supposed to memorize all of their names. Yeah right! I haven't even gotten the peoples names yet. They are like little people with their own personalities. Some just want you to pet them, some want to bite you, and some just moon you or try to scare you because they think it is funny. Most of them have very sad stories and some are still in pretty bad shape. There are a few families that have been successfully released though and I got to go observe one of those families today. I love watching them. They are like little hairy acrobats. They are soooo loud too. Every morning they hoot yell and they all have their own "song". No sleeping in here on days off. I start at 6:30 or 7:00 almost every morning and get off between 2:30 and 4:30 depending what part of the project I'm working on. It is a really great organization and I feel good about what I'm doing. Skyler is also very excited about teaching. He is staying in an apartment with another teacher about his age and they get along great. He teaches 4 classes a day, 5 days a week. It is not easy for us to see each other with no transportation but he came to hang out last night and was invited to go spend the night out in the forest with us before my stay is over. So it is turning out to be a great experience.
So now I am at the Gibbon Project. The place I'm staying isn't the nicest and isn't close to anything but the people are very friendly. I have a great roommate from whales who is here for the same amount of time that I am. I got a tour and there are over 40 Gibbons that we care for, and I'm supposed to memorize all of their names. Yeah right! I haven't even gotten the peoples names yet. They are like little people with their own personalities. Some just want you to pet them, some want to bite you, and some just moon you or try to scare you because they think it is funny. Most of them have very sad stories and some are still in pretty bad shape. There are a few families that have been successfully released though and I got to go observe one of those families today. I love watching them. They are like little hairy acrobats. They are soooo loud too. Every morning they hoot yell and they all have their own "song". No sleeping in here on days off. I start at 6:30 or 7:00 almost every morning and get off between 2:30 and 4:30 depending what part of the project I'm working on. It is a really great organization and I feel good about what I'm doing. Skyler is also very excited about teaching. He is staying in an apartment with another teacher about his age and they get along great. He teaches 4 classes a day, 5 days a week. It is not easy for us to see each other with no transportation but he came to hang out last night and was invited to go spend the night out in the forest with us before my stay is over. So it is turning out to be a great experience.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Back in Bangkok
Hello Bangkok, again. This Bangkok experience has been much better. We are staying in a nicer and cheaper place. Jessika and TJ are here which is wonderful! It has been so great catching up with Jess and the two boys bonded quickly by having a night out away from the girlfriends. Skyler is having his teeth worked on because it is sooooo cheap here and we are about to go get our train tickets down to Phuket. Jessika and TJ won't be able to travel with us :( because they have to wait for a friend but they will be in our area so we will see them again. Until next time, love you all.
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