Art in the Jungle

     This morning while watching the Big Four pursue their full-time job of EATING, I couldn't help but notice that one of the mahouts, Chorn, was carving something. 
     Have I talked about the mahouts?  Each elephant has it own full-time tender (and as you know, Bob has two).  "Mahout" is apparently a word imported from India to describe the tender/elephant relationship.  Here the mahouts are members of the Bunong tribe, the tribe whose property the Project occupies.  One of the aims of the Project--besides the obvious one of rehabilitating elephants--is to insure that the tribal people can make a decent living on their land without being forced to sell it off.  There is tremendous pressure from the Chinese to sell land to be clear cut for rubber plantations.  Apparently, rubber is increasingly valuable.  I thought it was funny when Jack said "Rubber is the new plastic," but it's really not at all funny, especially when one sees mile upon mile of clear cut land that was once national park but has now been sold by the Cambodian government to the Chinese.
      There is a great variation in the mahouts here at the Project; some are very businesslike and impersonal, and some seem to have a genuine emotional attachment to their elephants.  Some are eager to learn English and want to communicate with tourists as much as they can.  Others seem indifferent (though never hostile), or maybe too shy to interact much.

      In any event, it turned out that in recent weeks some of the mahouts have taken up carving little elephants out of spare chunks of  lumber, maybe teak, or maybe something else.  They've been selling them in the lounge at the Project, and 100% of the proceeds go directly to the mahouts themselves.  The sale of one carved elephant is equal to one full day's wage, and so obviously they are eager to carve more elephants.  I photographed Chorn carving and made arrangements to buy the elephant he was carving.

  


And here are the carved elephants to be taken home, Chorn's carving of Easy on the left and Cheam's rendition of poor old  Bob with his 1/2 of one tusk on the right.
   





    And speaking of "art," I had decided to try my hand at DRAWING while at the Project, having launched on this drawing business about three weeks before I left for Cambodia.  Well, and a couple high school art classes lo, those many years ago.  I was rather pleased with my first effort--Gee-Nowl at breakfast; here it is!
     The mahouts were only moderately 
interested in my efforts and made no offers
to purchase.  They also declined my offer to draw in my notepad.