We’ve had a fabulous two weeks here at the wildlife
Sanctuary. This place has such a feel-good, wholesome vibe and it creeps into
your bones and into your soul.
The staff are collectively some of the friendliest people
I’ve come across-everything is accompanied with a smile, a laugh, a wave,
things get done and nothing is too much trouble. The sanctuary is only 4 years
old but already it employs about 50 members of staff who, apart from a handful
of Thai staff who have been transferred from the main site in Chang Mai, are
all local Cambodians from the village nearby. It is a thriving, breathing,
living creature that grows in front of you: We’ve only been here two weeks and there are already new
flower beds, more trees being planted, improvements made on the huts, a new
enclosure built in readiness in case any more animals are rescued and need an
immediate home. It is exceptionally clean, it is tidy, there are fruit and
vegetables growing everywhere (the long-term aim is to be self-sufficient), the
elephants wonder freely under the watchful eye of their mahout.
There are different teams that work here.
The staff that work with the animals genuinely seem to adore
the animals they work with. They are so gentle, so affectionate, it’s actually
beautiful to see, and reassures you that these creatures are in good hands.
Below: Little Nout, a rescued macaque with severe attachment issues.
Naughty little monkeys!
The gardening team are a wonderful bunch of giggly girls who love any kind of attention, especially if you show an interest, or try some of your dodgy Khmer out on them. They adore Brodie and always end up in hysterics when he’s around as he’s always trying to make them laugh. They are affectionate and lovely, and so inquisitive. They cover up from head to toe to avoid getting sun on their skin, and to avoid getting blemishes on their hands (they investigated my callousy hands with horror!). But when I say cover up, I mean they wear woollen gloves all day with a polo-neck jumper, covered with a denim jacket, and a scarf on top!! And then they work in the sun all day!
The kitchen staff are machines. They’re up at 5.30 to clean
and prepare, and they are still working when they serve up our dinner with a
cheery smile. The food. Is. Amazing. I’ve grown rather porky since being here
as I can’t help but go back for seconds (or thirds. And yes, on occasion
fourths!).
The maintenance team work their socks off. They remind me of
busy bees in a hive, swarming around the job at hand, working away until it’s
done.
The Rangers are probably one of the coolest things about
this place. They are local boys who have been trained by an army general to
protect the 25,000 acres of wildlife reserve from poachers or loggers. Some of
them are even ex-poachers. There are still huge problems with both issues here
and they are vital to its success-even since we’ve been here, they caught two
men attacking the bottom of a tree with a chainsaw, and one of the dogs got
caught in an animal trap on one of our walks, so this is an immediate and
ever-present threat. The rangers do an amazing job of protecting this already deeply-degraded
forest.
Crucially as I mentioned before, the staff here are almost
all local, and this is a huge factor in raising local awareness of the issues
surrounding the forest and the need to conserve it. This is a wonderful
initiative and we are extremely grateful to have found ourselves here and to be
part of it.
Here are some piccies of what we've been getting up to...
The Khmer Academy (aka Brodie's new friends)
This is Bro's new boyfriend...it started with a bum scratch, and the B-man gets a free 20 minute head massage and nit-pick which sent him into a weird zombie-like trance!
Yes I do have photographic evidence of this for future blackmailing purposes.
One of our tasks was tying orange scarves around trees. Yes I know this sounds ridiculous. We do this is because the Cambodian people are mostly Buddhist and these scarves are in fact strips of old monk robes which have been blessed by the monks themselves. The local people are afraid to cut down trees that have been blessed by the monks, so it is a way of protecting them from being felled. And I think they look rather pretty!
Nick doing another monkey impression...
Khmer lessons with Nick and Samban
Our names written phonetically, first in Thai and secondly in Khmer (the language spoken in Cambodia). I think the writing is beautiful
These 5 words are all pronouced as "Gai" with a slightly different intonation, however, they mean (in order)...Trigger > Chicken > Close> Guide > Ignore. Sounds to me like you could get yourself into quite a pickle if you happened to prounounce them wrong...
These are some basic phrases in Khmer...Samban was rather insistent that we pronounce "tukadow" (hot water) correctly and spent a good 5 minutes getting us to say "tuk-a-DOW"...when we asked him why he giggled and said "because if you pronounce it wrong it means "penis water" (semen). Right then...might not be asking any waiter for a hot water any time soon...
Cutting sugar cane
Teaching an English lesson at school
Destroying a perfectly good plant for the sake of looking pretty...
JUNGLE SPEED!!
An English lesson with the Rangers
If you would like to volunteer at the Cambodian Wildlife Sanctuary, or at the Elephant Nature Park in Thailand, have a look on their website
here for more information.
