Hard Lessons

So, my thoughts about elephants has been totally turned upside down, except for the fact that they are awesome: they are WAY smarter than I thought, capable of training me in a few minutes to constantly feed them goodies and NO SLACKING. But the most important lesson was a very hard one to learn at first because I had to be witness to an unbelievable amount of cruelty, most specifically in a short movie that I saw on how baby elephants are "trained" to obey, for the rest of their lives, IF they survive the incredibly high mortality rate for babies and the very common result of insanity (in elephants! who ever suspected). The movie in question regarding most specifically elephants that supposedly "paint" wonderful pictures, sort of prodigies. But in essence they are cruelly beaten with metal hooks (the classic instrument of the mahout). My dream of becoming a mahout has dissappeared and now I realize that NO elephant should ever be made to work or perform, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. This is the same with any wild animal show, where the animals never do things because they want to but because they are forced, through cruel programming as babies. Anyway, moving right along, this knowledge was obtained by living closely with them (and I mean closely since there is one chained under the hut on pilings that I am staying in, and in the late afternoon now he is scratching his butt and shaking the whole building very alarmingly) and it has been an amazing and beautiful experience. I will be here a few more days and then move on to the coast perhaps. Anyway, hope you enjoy some photos and I will attempt to include a video... Love to you all.