February 17, 2010.
The novice monks in Monk School take one English class a week at Monk School. This is not enough, and in every class there are usually at least 5 students who are really struggling with the material. As each lesson builds on the previous lesson, I am concerned that the ones who are behind (e.g., who cannot read) will never catch up. To that end, we have been discussing offering tutoring on the weekend but could never figure out when and where to do it. The novices have a busy day during the week and have to be at their own temples for praying and breakfast in the morning, then again for lunch before noon and for praying later in the afternoon. There is of course the added complication that the novices who most need help do not know English and my Lao is very limited. In our class on Friday, we broke out into 4 groups with about 6 students in each group. I really enjoy small group work because you can really see who is understanding the exercise and who is struggling. In my group, I had 2 students who were clearly not able to do the exercise. Lao students are excellent collaborators, which unfortunately means that when someone doesn’t understand and others do, the ones who do just provide the answer to the ones who don’t. There is a lot of shameless copying. However, I have observed that once students understand that (1) they are expected to try and (2) we will help them and (3) copying is not what we want, then having students who work together well is a big help. So I asked Tricia Feeney (the main GVI English teacher at the Monk School) to tell the class that I would be at the outdoor tables at the Monk School at 1:00 on Saturday. I did not expect anyone to show up but I had to try, and if no one showed I was happy to sit on temple grounds and read a book for an hour.
When I arrived on Saturday, a novice monk from the temple (on whose grounds the Monk School is located) joined me. He was keen to work on his English, so we chatted. Ron joined us a few minutes later. And lo and behold, so did 3 students from my class. I left Ron with the first novice and worked with the students from my class. Two more students joined us. Success! I wasn’t sure how much they were enjoying it (we were really just reviewing material from the last class), but at the end of the session they asked if I was going to be there the next day. So of course I said yes. I then designed a lesson to cover more material from previous lessons. Three students joined me and we had a lot of fun. I brought a small whiteboard and a clock (so we could practice telling time). It was a good session. One keen young novice asked if I would be there again next week, so of course I said yes. I am hooked. I really want to work with the students who are struggling, so Ron is going to run a more advanced session for the keeners (since he is already working with one keen novice) and I will work with the ones who need to start from square one. I am looking for an English-Lao dictionary that has the English word, the Lao word in English script, and then the Lao word in Lao script. I’m told (by several people) that Phosy market should have them. I will look on Friday when I go to get my week’s supply of cookies for morning alms…
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
FAQ: How is the teaching going?
February 17, 2010. Frequently asked question: How is the teaching going?
The short answer is it is going well. I am learning a lot and enjoying it. Students in Laos are very motivated to learn English, which makes working with them very fun.
Here’s the long answer, for those who are interested.
I have been pretty conservative with respect to jumping into teaching. I have never taught before and have had no training, so for the first couple of weeks I was mostly observing the teachers and helping out by reading snippets so the students could hear my accent, and helping the students with their pronunciation. Many of the private schools where we volunteer have Lao teachers who are only too willing to hand over their classes to us, but I was not comfortable with this when I first arrived. I had one experience early on where I arrived on my own at an 8:30 class and introduced myself to the teacher (who I tracked down in a back room). He showed me what he was working on (pointed to the place in the text book) and then said he had to go pick up medicine for someone in his family and asked me to start the lesson. He pointed me to the classroom and headed on his way. Yikes! When he arrived back in the classroom he noticed I was drilling the (obscure) grammar incorrectly (not surprising, as I had not bought into the point of the exercise). So he showed me how he wanted me to do it, then left again!!! He said we were working on efflective pronouns. I have no idea what that is. Many of the Lao teachers work on (obscure) grammar because they can, but I prefer the approach which focuses on effective communicating, including proper pronunciation (so that the Lao students can be understood by native English-speakers).
In any case, I spent a couple of weeks watching and learning and helping out on the manual labour front and on the simple things but not taking the lead. I did help the teaching assistants at the Mekong English Centre (aka MEC, formerly the Mano English Centre) with their computers and PowerPoint, and Ron and I introduced the concept of Show and Tell to the MEC. I guess my enthusiasm showed because the main teacher at the MEC invited me to join the Teacher Training classes he is doing for one hour a day for his Teaching Assistants. It has been very useful for me, and now I am comfortable walking into unknown situations and just dealing with whatever comes my way. I am slowly developing the skills to enable learning rather than explain or just involve the students (yes I have been influenced by Scrivener's LEARNING TEACHING). I wasn't sure I would ever be able to walk in cold to a situation without preparation, but I am realizing that I am slowly building a toolkit of activities and even lesson plans and approaches for providing students with clear ideas from which they can go forward and discover patterns. The more I have in my toolkit, the more able I am to (1) assess what the students know at any given point and (2) figure out a next step that reinforces what they already know and allows them to learn more. I am now signing up to work with the Lao teachers (who are apt to hand over the class even when they stay in the room. This has provided the unexpected benefit of helping me to develop skills for including them and sharing the teaching as well as moving a class along). I am much more comfortable and effective volunteering at Big Brother Mouse, too. Big Brother Mouse sets up a space for tourists and English students to converse from 9-11 Monday to Saturday. Last week was the first time I had room in my schedule to go during the week and I loved it so much I went on Saturday as well. A good thing , as I was the only native English speaker there! I was surprised because there was one tourist for every student during the week. I guess the tourists were all sleeping in on Saturday. So it was about ten students and me. It went well and I enjoyed it. I would not have enjoyed it at the beginning of January when I first arrived.
One of the things the students love best is to hear us attempting to speak Lao. Attempting being the operative word. There is much shouting (in an attempt to help us to hear the subtleties) and laughter. However, it is paying off. I tried some of the Lao words I know on the students at Big Brother Mouse and they understood every one of them. Yay!
The short answer is it is going well. I am learning a lot and enjoying it. Students in Laos are very motivated to learn English, which makes working with them very fun.
Here’s the long answer, for those who are interested.
I have been pretty conservative with respect to jumping into teaching. I have never taught before and have had no training, so for the first couple of weeks I was mostly observing the teachers and helping out by reading snippets so the students could hear my accent, and helping the students with their pronunciation. Many of the private schools where we volunteer have Lao teachers who are only too willing to hand over their classes to us, but I was not comfortable with this when I first arrived. I had one experience early on where I arrived on my own at an 8:30 class and introduced myself to the teacher (who I tracked down in a back room). He showed me what he was working on (pointed to the place in the text book) and then said he had to go pick up medicine for someone in his family and asked me to start the lesson. He pointed me to the classroom and headed on his way. Yikes! When he arrived back in the classroom he noticed I was drilling the (obscure) grammar incorrectly (not surprising, as I had not bought into the point of the exercise). So he showed me how he wanted me to do it, then left again!!! He said we were working on efflective pronouns. I have no idea what that is. Many of the Lao teachers work on (obscure) grammar because they can, but I prefer the approach which focuses on effective communicating, including proper pronunciation (so that the Lao students can be understood by native English-speakers).
In any case, I spent a couple of weeks watching and learning and helping out on the manual labour front and on the simple things but not taking the lead. I did help the teaching assistants at the Mekong English Centre (aka MEC, formerly the Mano English Centre) with their computers and PowerPoint, and Ron and I introduced the concept of Show and Tell to the MEC. I guess my enthusiasm showed because the main teacher at the MEC invited me to join the Teacher Training classes he is doing for one hour a day for his Teaching Assistants. It has been very useful for me, and now I am comfortable walking into unknown situations and just dealing with whatever comes my way. I am slowly developing the skills to enable learning rather than explain or just involve the students (yes I have been influenced by Scrivener's LEARNING TEACHING). I wasn't sure I would ever be able to walk in cold to a situation without preparation, but I am realizing that I am slowly building a toolkit of activities and even lesson plans and approaches for providing students with clear ideas from which they can go forward and discover patterns. The more I have in my toolkit, the more able I am to (1) assess what the students know at any given point and (2) figure out a next step that reinforces what they already know and allows them to learn more. I am now signing up to work with the Lao teachers (who are apt to hand over the class even when they stay in the room. This has provided the unexpected benefit of helping me to develop skills for including them and sharing the teaching as well as moving a class along). I am much more comfortable and effective volunteering at Big Brother Mouse, too. Big Brother Mouse sets up a space for tourists and English students to converse from 9-11 Monday to Saturday. Last week was the first time I had room in my schedule to go during the week and I loved it so much I went on Saturday as well. A good thing , as I was the only native English speaker there! I was surprised because there was one tourist for every student during the week. I guess the tourists were all sleeping in on Saturday. So it was about ten students and me. It went well and I enjoyed it. I would not have enjoyed it at the beginning of January when I first arrived.
One of the things the students love best is to hear us attempting to speak Lao. Attempting being the operative word. There is much shouting (in an attempt to help us to hear the subtleties) and laughter. However, it is paying off. I tried some of the Lao words I know on the students at Big Brother Mouse and they understood every one of them. Yay!
Likely a victim of the Lao sense of humour
February 17th, 2010
There are a lot of Chinese tourists in town. I’m told that the Chinese take a week or two off for Chinese New Year (which makes sense). Tricia (the main English teacher at the Monk School) saw a woman with a rice basket on her head yesterday. This is the kind of basket the Lao use as a serving container for sticky rice. I laughed long and hard and thought “note to self - always ask if you don’t know what something is.” Then I realized, she probably DID ask the Lao vendor what it was. It would be just like a Lao to tell her it was a hat. The Lao have a wicked sense of humour. Tourists beware…
There are a lot of Chinese tourists in town. I’m told that the Chinese take a week or two off for Chinese New Year (which makes sense). Tricia (the main English teacher at the Monk School) saw a woman with a rice basket on her head yesterday. This is the kind of basket the Lao use as a serving container for sticky rice. I laughed long and hard and thought “note to self - always ask if you don’t know what something is.” Then I realized, she probably DID ask the Lao vendor what it was. It would be just like a Lao to tell her it was a hat. The Lao have a wicked sense of humour. Tourists beware…
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Festival at Wat Manoram
Wat Manoram is holding a 3-day festival to raise money to build (or maintain?) a temple. It reminded me of a village fair. They put flags up everywhere and brought in sound systems. There were vendors selling food and snacks like waffles. There were games such as dart-throwing at balloons, some kind of dice game and many of the little kids had fire crackers (which they loved throwing at everyone’s feet - yikes!). There was a big screen showing Tom & Jerry cartoons (it was fun watching the monks enjoying at Tom and Jerry). There were tables where donations could be made and the monks made trees out of the kip bills which they displayed in the temple. There was chanting and praying which the village women seemed to attend. It was a lot of fun and I suspect there will be many tired novices on Monday AM.
Morning alms
On Tuesday I finally decided to try giving alms. I was encouraged by one of the volunteers mentioning that he had seen monks on their morning alms run around 5:45 on the street outside our guesthouse. He reckoned there were 30-40 monks so I bought 40 individual packets of Ovaltine and asked my landlady if I could join her. She told me to meet her at the end of our lane by 5:40 AM and she provided a stool and shawl (to tie as a sash around my shoulder) and a silver bowl for my packets of Ovaltine. It was a magical experience. It was still dark, with a just-past full moon and clear sky so lots of stars. 4 or 5 women from our lane were there with their sticky rice. I loved it! But I was mortified to run out of Ovaltine in the middle of a group of monks. My landlady then told me that 7 temples come up our street, for a total of 130 monks, although not all monks walk every day.
I have since gone to morning alms every day. The monks go by on the other side of the street and then come up our side of the street some minutes later. They walk barefoot. One day I arrived just as the first group of monks did, which was hectic, so now I get up at 5:25 so I can get out there by just after 5:30. I have been getting packages of 3 small cookies, which come in a package of 60 so two big packages of 60 individually wrapped sets of 3 tiny cookies pretty much lasts me a morning (we all go in when the women I am sitting with run out of sticky rice). The women get up between 4:30 and 4:50 to make the sticky rice for the monks. I am thoroughly hooked on this morning ritual, and when to Phosy Market a few kms away to buy 14 bags of the cookies I give out, so I have enough to go all week (I was having trouble finding the cookies in town and it can get expensive to give anything else). I am thoroughly hooked on this morning ritual, and when to Phosy Market a few kms away to buy 14 bags of the cookies that I give out,(at 15000 kip each, which isn‘t much when you convert it to dollars, but it eats into my budget now that I am unemployed) so I have enough to go all week (I was having trouble finding the cookies in town and it can get expensive to give anything else). I am committed to cutting back on my own food expenditures so I can continue to give alms. Next I just have to work out a nap schedule, since I am dragging a bit with the reduced sleep.
Some things I have learned: We all take our shoes off for this morning ritual. This is easier for those of us sitting and giving out alms. This is tougher on the monks, who walk down our street then head downtown, which means they are covering kms in their bare feet. It is important to be lower than the monks, which is why we sit on stools (or kneel). If one wants to photograph the monks, it is common courtesy to do so from a distance. Too many of the tourists don’t seem to know this and will stand right beside the monks for their photo opportunities. The Lao people will never say anything, but I see many posters around town asking tourists to respect the Lao culture and keep their distance when taking photos.
The monks get up at 4 or 4:30 in the morning and pray before their morning alms walk, after which they have breakfast. The novices will then go to school or work in the temple, then go back to their temple for lunch, which they have to finish by noon. They won’t eat again until breakfast the next morning, They then go to classes or work in the temple, pray in the afternoon (including drumming or chanting).
I have noticed some of the young novices have trouble focusing in morning class, and I can imagine their eating schedule contributes to this. I was working on “how old are you?” with some of the tiny novices in primary school, and was shocked to hear they were 11 and 12 years old! However, some of them come from remote villages and may eat better as a novice.
It’s lovely to watch the orange-robed monks coming up the street. There is one elderly monk who is not well and cannot do the whole walk, so every morning he does morning alms down our street and then heads back with a novice monk on the other side of the street. They are a familiar site now.
I have since gone to morning alms every day. The monks go by on the other side of the street and then come up our side of the street some minutes later. They walk barefoot. One day I arrived just as the first group of monks did, which was hectic, so now I get up at 5:25 so I can get out there by just after 5:30. I have been getting packages of 3 small cookies, which come in a package of 60 so two big packages of 60 individually wrapped sets of 3 tiny cookies pretty much lasts me a morning (we all go in when the women I am sitting with run out of sticky rice). The women get up between 4:30 and 4:50 to make the sticky rice for the monks. I am thoroughly hooked on this morning ritual, and when to Phosy Market a few kms away to buy 14 bags of the cookies I give out, so I have enough to go all week (I was having trouble finding the cookies in town and it can get expensive to give anything else). I am thoroughly hooked on this morning ritual, and when to Phosy Market a few kms away to buy 14 bags of the cookies that I give out,(at 15000 kip each, which isn‘t much when you convert it to dollars, but it eats into my budget now that I am unemployed) so I have enough to go all week (I was having trouble finding the cookies in town and it can get expensive to give anything else). I am committed to cutting back on my own food expenditures so I can continue to give alms. Next I just have to work out a nap schedule, since I am dragging a bit with the reduced sleep.
Some things I have learned: We all take our shoes off for this morning ritual. This is easier for those of us sitting and giving out alms. This is tougher on the monks, who walk down our street then head downtown, which means they are covering kms in their bare feet. It is important to be lower than the monks, which is why we sit on stools (or kneel). If one wants to photograph the monks, it is common courtesy to do so from a distance. Too many of the tourists don’t seem to know this and will stand right beside the monks for their photo opportunities. The Lao people will never say anything, but I see many posters around town asking tourists to respect the Lao culture and keep their distance when taking photos.
The monks get up at 4 or 4:30 in the morning and pray before their morning alms walk, after which they have breakfast. The novices will then go to school or work in the temple, then go back to their temple for lunch, which they have to finish by noon. They won’t eat again until breakfast the next morning, They then go to classes or work in the temple, pray in the afternoon (including drumming or chanting).
I have noticed some of the young novices have trouble focusing in morning class, and I can imagine their eating schedule contributes to this. I was working on “how old are you?” with some of the tiny novices in primary school, and was shocked to hear they were 11 and 12 years old! However, some of them come from remote villages and may eat better as a novice.
It’s lovely to watch the orange-robed monks coming up the street. There is one elderly monk who is not well and cannot do the whole walk, so every morning he does morning alms down our street and then heads back with a novice monk on the other side of the street. They are a familiar site now.
Elephant Village
Sunday, January 31, 2010.
A few of us went to the Elephant Village today for “one day of Mahout training.” It was great and very relaxing. Laos used to be known as “the land of a million elephants” but now elephants are an endangered species. Asian elephants are smaller than African elephants but are still huge and eat constantly. They also love fruit and other cultivated crops, so can be quite a problem for farmers. If they don’t eat the produce, they trample it which is of course still a problem. The 800 or so wild elephants still estimated to be in Laos are in danger because they are separated from each other by urban areas and so in-breed, leaving them less strong and more prone to disease, etc. They also have a hard time finding enough food. And poaching is still an issue with wild elephants, despite the fact that they are endangered.
Elephants have been domesticated for manual labour for a long time, but most recently have been used for logging. Often they were underfed and over-worked, with drugs being used to enable them to work longer and harder. Injuries happened and were often not properly addressed. So domesticated elephants have had a rough time of it, and now that logging is winding down, the fate of the domesticated elephants is unknown. It costs a lot to feed an elephant so people can’t just take them in. And they are domesticated and would not do well in the wild, even if the wild elephants had it good (which they do not).
The Elephant Village was set up to provide a home and gentle work for domesticated elephants rescued from the logging industry. There are nine female elephants there, and each has their own mahout (it is not common for an elephant to respond well to multiple mahouts). They vary in age from late 20s to 71. One is blind in one eye, one is blind in both eyes. They have scars that tell of the rough life they have had. In the elephant village, they are turned out (hobbled with about 40 meters of chain) in the jungle to eat and relax on the other side of the Nam Khan from about 16:00 until about 7 or 8 AM. I’m told that elephants sleep twice in that time, for about 30 minutes each - I think around 10 PM and 3 AM. As with any herd animals, they each have their buddies amongst the other elephants. In the morning their mahouts fetch them and bring them back to the Elephant Village on this side of the Nam Khan and clean them and feed them and tack them up. From as long as 9:00-4:00 they give rides, are used for trekking, give “training” lessons and get bathed by tourists. They get treats throughout the day. This gives them regular but easy exercise and daily handling. Their mahouts are with them the entire time.
When we arrived the elephants were tacked up and ready to go. I wasn’t sure about using the “benches” that are strapped onto the elephants with ropes (I still don’t see how it can feel balanced for the elephants) but was pleased to see that the ropes were in clear rubber tubes so they would not chafe the elephants. We mounted from a hut/platform. Each elephant took 2 tourists and their mahout (who started out on the elephant’s neck). We went down the river bank, into the river, along a sand bar in the river then back out and back along a dirt track. I was impressed with how balanced and careful the elephants were. They handled the uneven terrain on the banks and the drop into the water very slowly and competently. I could see the drop but didn’t really feel it. Their feet are impressive and can handle uneven terrain very well. We each got to ride on the neck/back of the head for awhile. It was wonderful. They have very dry, tough skin and thick black hairs/bristles on the top of their heads. They flap their ears when they are happy, which I was relieved to notice they were doing. When we got back to the camp we got off our elephants and were given water and coffee in a gazeebo in the shade, then were told some basics:
Never approach an elephant from behind. They need to see you.
Never run or move quickly
Always approach slowly and make sure the elephant is ok with you proceeding (their mahout will tell you when it is ok). If the elephant is showing signs of unhappiness, stop.
To mount the elephants from the ground when then are not tacked up, you give them a certain command and tap their right front leg. They will lift their right front leg to a right angle and you hold onto the back of their ear and step on their bent knee to hoist yourself up. This is somehow easier than it sounds. The elephant used for training was very accommodating (she was completely motivated by food and just kept looking for the sugar cane, which of course we kept feeding her).
All commands should be said short, sharp.
To get them to go you tap with both legs behind their ears (knees relaxed) and give a command.
To get them to stop you squeeze with both knees and lean back and give a command “How”
To get them to go backwards you lean back and give a command.
To go right, you tap with left foot and lean and turn to the right and give a command.
To go left, you tap with right foot and lean and turn to the left and give a command.
I didn’t have much (any) control on my training ride but the elephant’s mahout did (from the ground) and as we were just walking the same path around the yard, it was fine - fun to try. I challenge anyone to succeed in stopping that elephant when she knew where the sugar cane was and consistently made a bee-line for it. ;-)
The mahouts carry a hook (a stick with a nasty blade like a large nail) on it for keeping the elephants in line if they get out of control, but they didn’t seem to need them (good) and I do understand that they need to be able to put a moody elephant in her place immediately, should the need arise. I was told they tap the elephant on the forehead with the “nail” and since none of the elephants had a mark on her forehead, I was reassured that they were not misused. The elephants were all clean and had no marks on them (except for old scars and wounds) and seemed well-taken care of.
We then had a lovely buffet lunch over-looking the river, which was very pleasant. There were kids spear fishing in the river for the entire time we were there, and it looked like back-breaking work. They were bent over the entire time - whew!
After lunch and after two of the elephants came back from a trek they were on, we each got an elephant and rode her to the river bareback for a bath. The mahouts rode behind us and stood on the elephants’ backs when we got to the river - most impressive. I was again impressed with the elephants’ balance as we went down the bank, especially since I was riding the 71-year-old blind elephant. She used her trunk like a cane as she made her way down the uneven river bank. Her mahout sang to her, which she really enjoyed. I could not be sure she was actually blind, but remembered the descriptions and histories of the different elephants and couldn’t see any others that fit the bill. When I asked, sure enough - it was her! She hunkered down nicely for her bath and was very polite throughout the whole thing.
When we finished with the elephants we could see some being taken back across the river for turnout (not all - some had more tourists booked). It was early - still maybe 1:30 in the afternoon? We heading up the Nam Khan by boat to a waterfall which was largely dry but still impressive and had some pools for swimming. It was interesting to see that that Nam Khan was largely undeveloped and we did not see garbage in it (phew). We did pass families going about their daily lives - fishing, washing, etc.
All in all, a lovely day in Laos - sunny, relaxing, nothing hurried, nothing rushed, lots of hanging around in the sun with elephants. A nice way to spend a Sunday.
A few of us went to the Elephant Village today for “one day of Mahout training.” It was great and very relaxing. Laos used to be known as “the land of a million elephants” but now elephants are an endangered species. Asian elephants are smaller than African elephants but are still huge and eat constantly. They also love fruit and other cultivated crops, so can be quite a problem for farmers. If they don’t eat the produce, they trample it which is of course still a problem. The 800 or so wild elephants still estimated to be in Laos are in danger because they are separated from each other by urban areas and so in-breed, leaving them less strong and more prone to disease, etc. They also have a hard time finding enough food. And poaching is still an issue with wild elephants, despite the fact that they are endangered.
Elephants have been domesticated for manual labour for a long time, but most recently have been used for logging. Often they were underfed and over-worked, with drugs being used to enable them to work longer and harder. Injuries happened and were often not properly addressed. So domesticated elephants have had a rough time of it, and now that logging is winding down, the fate of the domesticated elephants is unknown. It costs a lot to feed an elephant so people can’t just take them in. And they are domesticated and would not do well in the wild, even if the wild elephants had it good (which they do not).
The Elephant Village was set up to provide a home and gentle work for domesticated elephants rescued from the logging industry. There are nine female elephants there, and each has their own mahout (it is not common for an elephant to respond well to multiple mahouts). They vary in age from late 20s to 71. One is blind in one eye, one is blind in both eyes. They have scars that tell of the rough life they have had. In the elephant village, they are turned out (hobbled with about 40 meters of chain) in the jungle to eat and relax on the other side of the Nam Khan from about 16:00 until about 7 or 8 AM. I’m told that elephants sleep twice in that time, for about 30 minutes each - I think around 10 PM and 3 AM. As with any herd animals, they each have their buddies amongst the other elephants. In the morning their mahouts fetch them and bring them back to the Elephant Village on this side of the Nam Khan and clean them and feed them and tack them up. From as long as 9:00-4:00 they give rides, are used for trekking, give “training” lessons and get bathed by tourists. They get treats throughout the day. This gives them regular but easy exercise and daily handling. Their mahouts are with them the entire time.
When we arrived the elephants were tacked up and ready to go. I wasn’t sure about using the “benches” that are strapped onto the elephants with ropes (I still don’t see how it can feel balanced for the elephants) but was pleased to see that the ropes were in clear rubber tubes so they would not chafe the elephants. We mounted from a hut/platform. Each elephant took 2 tourists and their mahout (who started out on the elephant’s neck). We went down the river bank, into the river, along a sand bar in the river then back out and back along a dirt track. I was impressed with how balanced and careful the elephants were. They handled the uneven terrain on the banks and the drop into the water very slowly and competently. I could see the drop but didn’t really feel it. Their feet are impressive and can handle uneven terrain very well. We each got to ride on the neck/back of the head for awhile. It was wonderful. They have very dry, tough skin and thick black hairs/bristles on the top of their heads. They flap their ears when they are happy, which I was relieved to notice they were doing. When we got back to the camp we got off our elephants and were given water and coffee in a gazeebo in the shade, then were told some basics:
Never approach an elephant from behind. They need to see you.Never run or move quickly
Always approach slowly and make sure the elephant is ok with you proceeding (their mahout will tell you when it is ok). If the elephant is showing signs of unhappiness, stop.
To mount the elephants from the ground when then are not tacked up, you give them a certain command and tap their right front leg. They will lift their right front leg to a right angle and you hold onto the back of their ear and step on their bent knee to hoist yourself up. This is somehow easier than it sounds. The elephant used for training was very accommodating (she was completely motivated by food and just kept looking for the sugar cane, which of course we kept feeding her).
All commands should be said short, sharp.
To get them to go you tap with both legs behind their ears (knees relaxed) and give a command.
To get them to stop you squeeze with both knees and lean back and give a command “How”
To get them to go backwards you lean back and give a command.
To go right, you tap with left foot and lean and turn to the right and give a command.
To go left, you tap with right foot and lean and turn to the left and give a command.
I didn’t have much (any) control on my training ride but the elephant’s mahout did (from the ground) and as we were just walking the same path around the yard, it was fine - fun to try. I challenge anyone to succeed in stopping that elephant when she knew where the sugar cane was and consistently made a bee-line for it. ;-)
The mahouts carry a hook (a stick with a nasty blade like a large nail) on it for keeping the elephants in line if they get out of control, but they didn’t seem to need them (good) and I do understand that they need to be able to put a moody elephant in her place immediately, should the need arise. I was told they tap the elephant on the forehead with the “nail” and since none of the elephants had a mark on her forehead, I was reassured that they were not misused. The elephants were all clean and had no marks on them (except for old scars and wounds) and seemed well-taken care of.
We then had a lovely buffet lunch over-looking the river, which was very pleasant. There were kids spear fishing in the river for the entire time we were there, and it looked like back-breaking work. They were bent over the entire time - whew!
After lunch and after two of the elephants came back from a trek they were on, we each got an elephant and rode her to the river bareback for a bath. The mahouts rode behind us and stood on the elephants’ backs when we got to the river - most impressive. I was again impressed with the elephants’ balance as we went down the bank, especially since I was riding the 71-year-old blind elephant. She used her trunk like a cane as she made her way down the uneven river bank. Her mahout sang to her, which she really enjoyed. I could not be sure she was actually blind, but remembered the descriptions and histories of the different elephants and couldn’t see any others that fit the bill. When I asked, sure enough - it was her! She hunkered down nicely for her bath and was very polite throughout the whole thing.
When we finished with the elephants we could see some being taken back across the river for turnout (not all - some had more tourists booked). It was early - still maybe 1:30 in the afternoon? We heading up the Nam Khan by boat to a waterfall which was largely dry but still impressive and had some pools for swimming. It was interesting to see that that Nam Khan was largely undeveloped and we did not see garbage in it (phew). We did pass families going about their daily lives - fishing, washing, etc.
All in all, a lovely day in Laos - sunny, relaxing, nothing hurried, nothing rushed, lots of hanging around in the sun with elephants. A nice way to spend a Sunday.
Lao P.D.R
Lao P.D.R. (People’s Democratic Republic) is affectionately known as “Please don’t rush” by the locals.
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