Sri Nuan rescued as well!
Together with Lee, some bags of bananas and melons we are waiting in the truck till Sri Nuan is brought. After a farewell ceremony with the family she calmly steps on to the truck. When she sees all the tasty food, she seems to forget about her surroundings. Underway we comfort her by constantly talking to her and giving her food. Lee explains our plan to her: first rest for a while with this nice mahoutfamily in Surin, then we will go to Ayutthaya, Lopburi and Sukkhothai. You won’t have to beg, and we won’t even go into the city. People will come to you, to admire you and give you food. And we will swim a lot and relax! I tell her she is going to meet Silver Flower later on, and that she has to take care of her. I tell her Silver Flower is very sweet and she will love to have Sri Nuan as her aunty. But we also will try as hard as we can to find her baby Nhung Nhing, and reunite them. And ofcourse we explain to her what her life will be like at the Elephant Nature Park! Sri Nuan really seems to enjoy the ride. I’m sitting in front of her head. She constantly turns her head from one side to the other so she can look at both sides of the road with her one eye. Just next to me she widely opens her mouth to feel the wind. When you always move slowly, this feeling must be really special. With her trunk she starts sniffing my legs and my face. While the sun goes down and the full moon rises, I realise that we’ve really done it. At least for these two elephants there will be no more training and begging. These two will have a wonderful elephant life!
Continued story by Hanna:
Today it’s Sri Nuan’s turn to be rescued. It was very nice to see her yesterday and to tell her that the next day we would be taking her with us. First our daily ritual of going to the market to buy bananas. The stall where we have bought bananas before is doing some good business today as well. The neighbouring stall has melons to offer, and we take 12 bags of them with us for a total of 2 euro’s. Then we go to the bank because we are still not sure if we can withdraw the money with our Postbank credit card. Unfortunately the credit card still doesn’t work and we decide to wait in Surin till noon. Postbank yesterday promised to raise Antoinette’s private credit within 16 hours, so we hope that they stick to that, otherwise Sri Nuan will have to wait another weekend. After lunch we try our credit card another time, but is still no money… But we have to leave now for Chopon buri where the mahout is already waiting for us at the animal registration office. He calls Lee to tell him if we don’t show up shortly he will go to the city to beg there with another elephant he owns. We still have a small chance, the farmers bank, where we sat for a whole morning in vain last time.
Dirk and Marieken who are making a trip around the world (see www.waarzijnjullienu.nl) and have raised funds for Bring the Elephant HOME, are our guests today. They will accompany us on this special day and are delighted to see the two elephants who we have bought free. What they don’t realise yet is that without them we will not be able to buy Sri Nuan today. After the farmers bank has “rejected” us again, and still very angry with the Postbank because they don’t keep their promises, Dirk and Marieken propose to try it with their banking cards. After withdrawing about 7 times we finally have the rest of the money we need. Relieved we all jump into the minibus and head for the animal registration office.
Because of our delay and a power failure the mood doesn’t seem to be very good. For a moment everything seems to fail because the clerk keeps repeating that we should return on Monday when the computers will be working again. Antoinette’s face shows lightning and thunder. Our Super Lee talks and talks, sends Yuut to make copies, and eventually persuades the clerk to do it all by hand. Through the eye of the needle and at 4’o-clock exactly all signatures have been put on the contract.
The mahout can laugh again when he sees Antoinette’s bare legs and her money, and we as well, cause we’ve made it! We ask him what he will do with all that money, he replies he is going to buy a new tractor to use on their rice field. If he speaks the truth, this might be one elephanttrader less. After enquiring about the whereabouts of Nhung Nhing, there’s a discussion between Lee, the mahout and the clerk. The clerk talks about the elephant underground scene, the mahout about a hotel in Phuket, where he is sure of he will find her. He wants to negotiate about the price for this search. We want to do all we can to find Nhung Nhing so we make an offer. He promises to make some phonecalls and will contact us later on. Then it’s time to go to the village to pick up Sri Nuan.
The same nice truck which we used for transporting Silver Flower is parked in a way that Sri Nuan will be able to step on to it easily. For the last time the mahout once again poses with his shining sharp hook and then goes to get Sri Nuan. Meanwhile all the children from the village have come running for our truck, so it’s time again for chips and posing for pictures. After three cattle’s of cows have passed our truck on the narrow street, finally Sri Nuan comes walking majestically to us with the mahout on her back. The sun is low by now, and the children are finally quiet. The elderly people with their bent backs are sitting front row. The mahout and his wife wash Sri Nuan for the last time. All members of the family bless Sri Nuan by emptying a bowl of water over her. During this ceremony they apologize to her for everything they might have done wrong, and wish her a good journey and a happy life. Then Sri Nuan calmly steps on to the truck where Antoinette and Mr. Lee are already sitting with bananas en melons. The whole village greets us when ride away.
Sri Nuan also seems to enjoy herself in the truck. She opens her mouth widely, puts her trunk inside of it and enjoys the wind and the attention she gets from us. Antoinette enjoys it just as much. What a beautiful sight! When it is already dark we arrive at sort of a garage aside the road. About ten people are sitting around a fireplace and it looks cosy. Sri Nuan steps off the truck easily once again. The temporary mahout climbs on her back to bring her to place in the field where she can sleep. We give her some more bananas, take pictures of her first steps in freedom, and then wave her goodbye. See you soon Sri Nuan, sleep well!
