Yesterday it was 100 days since we left Sweden. Yesterday was also the day my grandmother was buried. Now she sleeps well, my beautiful grandmother.
Yesterday was also the day we got to meet a huge magnificent creature. The elephant Nungchal .
Mondulkiri Project is about helping the poor, indigenous people of Mondulkiri, and help the elephants in Mondilkiri province to survive and not to die out. The poor, indigenous people have no education, so the only way they know they can get money is by cutting down the forest and sell the timber . And by letting tourists ride on their elephants. There are a few schools that they can let their children go to, but they don't see the point in a school, because they can not "eat a school." They need food, and to get food every day they have to work every day, even the kids of course. And also the elderly, even if they are sick, otherwise they get no food to survive the day.
What Mr. Tree does to help is that he has agreed with the families in these villages about renting their forest. That way they get money without having to cut down the forest. He also rents an elephant, Nungchal , and plans to rent more . But it is expensive, $ 500 a month, so so far he has only one elephant. Nungchal used to work as a " trekking elephant". She was carrying tourists who wanted to do elephant riding. Elephants need to eat 200-300 kg of food every day, their favorite is bamboo. They spend about 22 hours out of 24 on eating. As everyone knows, this is not possible when the elephant has to work all day.
So when Nungchal came to Mondulkiri Project around a month ago, she was too skinny. Now she has spent houndreds of hours eating and has become really nice and fat.
To get the money to hire the forest and the elephant Mondulkiri Project organizes "Elephant Days" and " Jungle Trekking " for tourists. That's what we did yesterday. We paid $ 40 each as a contribution to the project and had a full day with the elephant in the jungle, and lunch.
Lunch was prepared by a Bunong family. (Bunong is the name of the indigenous people). That family has been offered an alternative to their old jobs (cutting trees and logging) through Mondulkiri Project. They get paid to stay in a newly built jungle house, and their job is to look after the house and prepare lunch for the tourists that do the Jungle Trekking  and the "Elephant days".
Mr. Tree is working together with an Australian man named Lee. It was thanks to Lee that the project could start, because he had money. It is Lee who used his own money, the thousands of dollars needed to start the project, and to rent the forest and the elephant now when they still do not get enough money from the tourists.
Lee is now travelling around Cambodia putting up posters and stuff at different hostels and guesthouses around the country, to attract more tourists.
Like I said it is a new project. It started in Oct. 2013 and the elephant has only been here a month. So I really hope it succeeds, because it would be so good for everyone. Both the Bunong people and the elephants.

Här ser ni Alex och Mr. Tree. I bakgrunden är skogen som han hyr av Bungongfolket.
Here's Alex and Mr. Tree. In the background is the forest that he rents from the Bunong people.

 

Väl inne i djungeln fick vi se henne, den stora skönheten.

 

Elefanten Nungchal

 

 

 

Vi spenderade flera timmar med henne och 99 % av tiden åt hon.

We spent many hours with her and 99% of the time she was eating.

 

Det kan aldrig bli för mycket bambu ;)

You can never get too much bamboo ;)

 

Vid lunchtid gick vi tillbaka till djungelhuset där vi hade startat, och åt lunch som den vänliga Bunong-familjen hade lagat. Vi åt bland annat en slags auberginröra som hade tillagats i en bambustam.

At lunchtime we went back to the jungle house where we had started, and had lunch cooked by the friendly Bunong family. We ate a kind of eggplant stew that had been cooked in a bamboo stem.

 

Det var nånting nytt för oss.

That was something new to us.

 

 

Efter maten var det dags för siesta i de geniala hängmattorna. Jag somnade direkt och sov en timme.

After lunch it was time for siesta in the ingenious hammocks. I fell asleep straight away and slept for an hour.

 

 

På eftermiddagen gick vi in i djungel igen för att fortsätta vandra med Nungchal. Det var dags för hennes dagliga bad.

In the afternoon we went back into the djungle to keep walking with Nungchal. It was time for her daily bath,

 

Vi hjälpte till att tvätta henne i forsen precis bredvid ett vattenfall. Det var runt fem på eftermiddagen så solen värmde inte så mycket längre, och vattnet var kallt. Men det var enkelt att inte tänka på det när man hade en sådan enorm, vacker varlese framför sig.

We helped wash her in the stream right next to a waterfall. It was around five in the afternoon so the sun wasn't so warming anymore, and the water was cold. But it was easy to not think about that when you had such a huge, beautiful creature in front of you.

 

Tack Mr. Tee, Lee och alla Bunong-folk som är inblandade i det här projektet! 

Thank you Mr.Tee, Lee and all the Bunong people who are involved in this project!

 

 

Idag ska vi gå in till Sen Monorom och fösöka hitta såna där hängmattor som vi sov i efter lunchen igår.

Today we're going in to Sen Monorom to try and find those hammocks we slept in after lunch yesterday.

 

Chiao.