I read the book Turtles All the Way Down by John Greene. The book was pretty good. He had a lot of good one-liners. This is not a one-liner, but I really resonate with what the passage says. This is how I view life.
“I started thinking about turtles all the way down. I was thinking that maybe the old lady and the scientist were both right. Like, the world is billions of years old, and life is a product of nucleotide mutation and everything. But the world is also the stories we tell about it.” – Aza Holmes, page 257. This is one of my favorite lines, but I believe it goes further than this. The world is also the stories we live. I try to live every single second of life!!!
Marking off the bucket list! I spent the weekend with elephants in Seblat, Indonesia. I was so excited! I camped with two of my colleagues (Abdul and Rendra) on a beautiful river. We had a great time. Cooking on the fire. Playing music. Living life simple. The sunset the last night looked like the rainforest was on fire. Of course, the topic of conversation the whole weekend was coronavirus–but WOW the elephants were AMAZING!!!
I saw one of these a few months ago. I went to the bathroom in a native healer’s house–of course without my cellphone so no picture–and right in the middle of the house was a well. YES an open well with a bucket you used to pull up water. I was so excited to see this well-also in the house, but not middle of the house. This is where we got water for for cooking–yes the water is orange. I was so excited Rendra had to take a video. Getting Water From a Well Inside a House in Seblat Indonesia
Saturday I spent with the elephants, mahouts, and conservation people. I did work! You can see in the pictures below I was working. My goal there was to find out what the mahouts and conservationist think about issues related to conservation in the area and who they think is responsible. This was my first time touching what my colleagues called a semi-wild elephant. I was completely geeked out! First Time Seeing an Elephant in the Semi Wild Bengkulu, Indonesia
The elephants have space to roam around and pretty much do what they want, but they do have a mahout that takes care of them and makes sure they do not get into trouble. The mahouts work 22 days and have 8 days off to stay with their family. The reason they are in the conservation area and have mahouts–they are separated from the wild elephant population (~100 left in the wild). There are 11 elephants at this conservation center. They hope to build a corridor from this area to the larger conservation area. Rendra is holding a large elephant poo!
This is a lot of photographs of elephants (First Time Touching a Semi wild Elephant Bengkulu, Indonesia), but when you get to see them up close can you ever really have too many photographs? This is Nelson. Video of Nelson the Elephant Bengkulu, Indonesia You can hear me in the background saying I do not want to ride one, because I do not feel right about it…..
…but the guys kept insisting that the only way I would know what it was like to be a mahout was to get the experience. I gave in and road Dino. Let me tell you it was not like riding an elephant at the North Carolina State Fair when I was a kid. There was nothing to hold on to and nothing to keep me from sliding right off. NOTE: This elephant killed someone before coming to the conservation center. Yep–I did know before I got on.
I was not able to participate in the elephant bath, but it was still fun to watch. The elephant turns on its side and the mahout gives it a wash.
I started with a quote from John Greene and I will end with a quote from the book. “You’re both the fire and the water that extinguishes it. You’re the narrator, the protagonist, and the sidekick. You’re the storyteller and the story told. You are somebody’s something, but you are also your you.” – Aza Holmes, page 257.
I am my me!!!!!!