Well, preparations are getting serious. I've gotten Jack's wish list of items he could use for the elephants. Stuff like eyewash, for example.
I have a friend who is an exec with Drs. Foster & Smith, a mail order pet supply place headquartered in Rhinelander, and they GAVE me 6 bottles of eyewash and eyewash pads to take with me. The local clinic is going to give me latex gloves for--oh, I don't know, doing unspeakable things to the elephants, I guess. And I'm still working on some other stuff.
The quandry over gifts to take to the local people is starting to resolve itself. We'd thought of reading glasses, knives, scissors, caps, ladles, and oh, I don't know what-all. The best suggestion, I thought, was Swiss Army knives. I was thinking American though, so I modified that to Leatherman. But fortunately I asked Jack's opinion, and he said they're just too complicated and something simpler would be more welcome. Apparently, the residents of Mondulkiri province don't have much use for bottle openers, for example.
So now Mitch at our local sporting goods supply store is looking for a good price on some small "Buck" knives.
Maybe it's true about "It takes a village . . . ."
I hate to say it but it would seem the old question- "what do you give someone who has everything" would also apply to those on the other side of the fence. Without being expert on the daily activities of these people it is a hard question. I guess I would say don't try to change them or save them, but maybe just give them better tools to do what they do best, if that's possible of course. good luck with that one.
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