Monkey gone to heaven...

Last time: food! Wats! Food! Community forest! Food!
This time: Monkeys!

Yes, oh yes. Monkeys. When I first arrived in Thailand, our project facilitator (former student, like an intern), Stephanie, asked me what I was looking forward to most in Thailand. It was about the forth day in the country, and I didn’t know much about the scope of the program yet, so I glibly answered, seeing monkeys and elephants. Silly me. Now, a month into the semester, my answer would be vastly different, regardless, I have achieved my initial goal as of Sunday. I have now seen a monkey and an elephant in real life.

After bidding farewell to our forest families, we jumped in the van again for an hour-long ride. We unit facilitators sat together and broke down the previous exchanges our groups had, which devolved into a frustrating conversation. People – myself included – were becoming discouraged at our leadership skills. What was making several exchanges not really worth the group’s while? What were we doing wrong?
At a nadir, the van pulled onto the grounds of a temple. Beyond the gate was a sparsely wooded area… and tons of monkeys. This was exactly the break we needed. Piling out of the van, we noticed a change immediately in our expressions.
The monkeys, we learned later from Ajaan Dii, originally lived in a forest that covered the area beyond the gates of the temple. As the forest diminished, the monkeys were hedged into the small area by the temple, and now they pretty much live exclusively on the temple grounds, eating fruit hawked by vendors, which is sold to tourists. It’s realistically a pretty bad deal for the monkeys. There is increased competition for food that may not be a great variety, and the monkeys are now dependent on humans for their sustainance. We even witnessed a monkey fight, West Side Story-style, with two gangs duking it out over territory.
Still, those guys are pretty darn cute.
The wat itself was also neat. There are ruins, but where they’re from, I couldn’t tell you. Just about all the signs were in Thai.
Similarly, the next evening we saw an elephant, as I’ve already mentioned. The way that animals are treated when they are offered up for a tourist trap is pretty horrible. Yet there’s always this voyeuristic feeling, this yearning to see them. Like zoos. I still don’t know exactly how I feel about this whole issue yet.

That evening, we had an inspiring exchange with Sumontha Laochai, an activist for natural farming. Not only was she a wonderful speaker, tying together totally different themes into a beautiful package, but she asked us what we wanted to do with the information we’ve received. We’ve gotten this question before, but it felt personal this time, like she really listened to our different talents, our different interests and dreams. Hearing all of the diverse answers, I’m rediscovering how absolutely cool our group is.

We drove off that night with a high of a great sharing.