Let me tell you a story … a story of a not so typical morning in Thailand …
Alarm goes off at 7:59AM … breakfast is set for 8AM … so Peggy is set and determined for us to be on time, even though the rest of Asia (like Africa) is never on time.
“Wake up! Wake up!” she exclaims.
Jaime then bolts awake and proceeds to continue to badger Olivia, Kayla, and myself.
“It’s time to wake up! It’s time to wake up! It’s time to wake up!”
Well about the third time, Kayla wakes up enough to look at her clock and explain that it is only 7AM … not 8AM …
“Oh Sorry, go back to sleep!”
So of course we proceed to go back to sleep after realizing this alarm clock mishap, well, except Jaime and Peggy who decided to just stay awake and go to the market with our contacts.
*2.5 hours passes* (I’m telling you … nothing is on time anywhere else in the world)
Peggy comes into the room, somewhat frantic, okay, maybe just excited.
“You have to wake up! You have to get up!” she keeps saying ever so giddy.
“Okay don’t look out the window and close your eyes. Don’t open them. DON’T!”
So we proceed to walk outside, killing our feet on the gravel because we didn’t need shoes just yet …
“…. so for all the good work you guys have been doing, we brought you a surprise.”
“OPEN YOUR EYES!”
… and lo and behold … an ELEPHANT! Seriously, there was an elephant right outside our front door … are you kidding me? My teammate Olivia loves elephants and proceeds to cry, just a little bit, it was pretty much the best thing ever. It was completely random and definitely one of those … “This is the World Race” moments … and I definitely needed one of those yesterday. Thanks, God.
So yeah, apparantely my teammates saw this guy riding an elephant on their way home from the market and got our contact’s husband, Nun, to ask him if he would bring it to our house. And apparantely, in Asia, it’s acceptable to request a house visit from the random elephant who came from FIVE HOURS away. Literally, elephants aren’t even native to this province, and something about Buddha … I don’t know, that part got lost in translation … but anyways, this guy and his elephant happened to be in our middle of nowhere town at the exact time my teammates went to the market. definitely a God thing.
Pictures courtesy of my teammate, Peggy Randell:
(Olivia with our house guest)
(Peggy with our house guest)
(It was so random … the masked Elephant man and his Elephant)
(Trying to get the Elephant to sit down, apparently he didn’t want to sit on the gravel)
(Team TUFF’s morning wake up call)
(Bed head and an Elephant … Good Morning, Thailand)
(Jaime and our house guest)
(Kayla and our house guest)
(Left to Right: Elephant, Baby Esther, Nun, and Raem – our contact)
(And there he goes … Goodbye, Elephant!)
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