Those of you who look further than local news may be aware that large parts of Thailand are presently under water because of flooding. Other places are threatened. The Philippines has just had a close call with a mega typhoon Megi which destroyed 600.000 tons of rice. Indonesia faces a rice shortage. The typhoon is now headed for China. Meanwhile things on the other side of the world look to be getting a whole lot wetter too.
There follows a message from Ewa and Michelle of Elephantstay in Thailand
We are in disaster mode, the flooding has meant evacuation of us all as well as the elephants. Have spent the last three days wading through rising water carting stuff into the huts, hopefully the water wont get higher than in 2006. when the water came to just a couple of inches short of the floor of the huts. We have been working until mentally and physically exhausted. The mothers and babies are in the Kraal, some of the dangerous elephants are up near the Kraal, the water hasn't reached to the road yet. The other elephants are about a mile down the road, where they went in 2006.
Michelle and I are lucky as our wonderful friend, Wimon, who has the driving business, has generously let us stay in her home stay. That is Michelle and I, Paul, (our expat volunteer who lives at the Kraal) our two dogs, Buddy and Little Girl, (Buddy has been a problem as he is getting old and feeble and we are on the second floor and his bladder is not working too well), Munchie the cat, Boonlua the monkey who did not want to come, so we had a bit of fight getting him into the cage we bought for his temporary stay outside and so I have to spend time holding his little hand for comfort, Stripe his rabbit, and the bird, Rosalie One Wing, so all in all it was quite the evacuation just for us, let alone for Pi Om, where sand bagging his house gave him a couple of days to try and get his stuff out of the house. They ended up knocking out a wall at the back to remove stuff and get it into his new house, which was still not finished. So he has had his plate full with supervising and coordinating all the elephants, people and all. A very stressful time for all. On top of that we have already had to turn away a number of people, over 300,000 baht so far, so it has been devastating on all fronts. Last time we were out for 34 days, this time we are praying it wont be for so long. As soon as things are settled and everyone is relocated, we are going to try and run the program in a modified form as we cant afford to keep sending away people and losing out on so much income.
Pi Om mentioned he was going to take Boon Seuhm, Natalie, Plai KonKha and some other killer elephants to Bangkok to see the Prime Minister, as this state of affairs is unacceptable. What the government and so many people don't seem to realise, is Pi Om could easily sell all his problem elephants and just keep the ones that are easy and make money and then we would not have to worry about a thing, but of course he wont do that. Close to half the elephants don't make any money at all yet they need to be looked after by people who know what they are doing and need to be given a life that is safe and secure and where they will get the care they need and deserve.
So pray for us if you can as we need all the help we can get.
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