What do you mean you can't see it? It's an elephant son....
Even though they don't have trunks it is not easy, in the grand scheme of things, to tell if your mahouts are going blind, when it comes down to it everything they use for their daily work, from the beasts themselves to the dung they sweep, the food they eat - there's nothing too fiddly about elephants.
So it was only when Lyn Hammett, our volunteer mahout English teacher, began her monthly visits did we begin to notice that some of our guys would be better off in a cave or waving a white stick about; had been, for years, finding the correct elephant each day through smell and the correct house each night through pure blind luck - though seeing some of the stuff they wear on their days off we ought to have guessed there was more than just an element of being sartorially blessed.
Some might thing that it doesn't really matter if the mahouts can't see too well if they're going to live in the forest, bank notes are colour coded, as are beer bottles and snakes; however, we're a modern camp, we like our guys to have a taste for foreign languages, to sign contracts and insurance documents and, eventually, slowly, get the hang of these here computer thingies (Tony, Pumpui's weekend (when he's not in school) has just received a lovely laptop computer from the www.elerescue.org project.
So from this an idea grew a larger project, Lyn has some contacts at Thailand's premier opticians, Top Charoen, and we have contacts in places where eye tests really matter, in schools: traditionally even bright pupils have been diagnosed not-so-clever or trouble makers all for want of being able to properly see the board.
We invited Top Charoen's mobile clinic to visit our polo pitch and set up camp while arranging the kids from local schools, this time particularly our old friends from Doi Sa Ngo, to come and get their eyes tested...
Opticians from Top Charoen branches in Bangkok, Mae Sai and Chiang Saen took part...
...the Doi Sa Ngo kids still dress up in their formal Akha dress for special occasions...
...and somehow the test glasses don't look too far out of place.
The mahouts also got in on the act.
Lung Lun looking particularly dashing in his pair of the free sunglasses that Top Charoen bought for all the guys with jobs in the sun.
...and a group photo with the traditional tall and pale person from another world photoshopped into the back.
So it was only when Lyn Hammett, our volunteer mahout English teacher, began her monthly visits did we begin to notice that some of our guys would be better off in a cave or waving a white stick about; had been, for years, finding the correct elephant each day through smell and the correct house each night through pure blind luck - though seeing some of the stuff they wear on their days off we ought to have guessed there was more than just an element of being sartorially blessed.
Some might thing that it doesn't really matter if the mahouts can't see too well if they're going to live in the forest, bank notes are colour coded, as are beer bottles and snakes; however, we're a modern camp, we like our guys to have a taste for foreign languages, to sign contracts and insurance documents and, eventually, slowly, get the hang of these here computer thingies (Tony, Pumpui's weekend (when he's not in school) has just received a lovely laptop computer from the www.elerescue.org project.
So from this an idea grew a larger project, Lyn has some contacts at Thailand's premier opticians, Top Charoen, and we have contacts in places where eye tests really matter, in schools: traditionally even bright pupils have been diagnosed not-so-clever or trouble makers all for want of being able to properly see the board.
We invited Top Charoen's mobile clinic to visit our polo pitch and set up camp while arranging the kids from local schools, this time particularly our old friends from Doi Sa Ngo, to come and get their eyes tested...
Opticians from Top Charoen branches in Bangkok, Mae Sai and Chiang Saen took part...
...the Doi Sa Ngo kids still dress up in their formal Akha dress for special occasions...
...and somehow the test glasses don't look too far out of place.
The mahouts also got in on the act.
Lung Lun looking particularly dashing in his pair of the free sunglasses that Top Charoen bought for all the guys with jobs in the sun.
...and a group photo with the traditional tall and pale person from another world photoshopped into the back.
Posted by John Roberts at Mon, 15 Feb 2010 11:15:00 GMT 
Categories: Golden Triangle Elephants
Tags: Top Chareon eye tests Tesco Lotus school kids doi sa ngo
Categories: Golden Triangle Elephants
Tags: Top Chareon eye tests Tesco Lotus school kids doi sa ngo
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