I’ll Remember That
Last week, I made a last-minute trip for one of my projects with Impulse. I went to a village with one of the girls who now works at the office but had previously been trafficked.
The whole trip was of course a bit of an adventure: as the girl speaks 6 languages quite fluently…but English only limitedly, there is no electricity in the village, and the day we were supposed to leave, the holiday “bandh” had already taken place there.
It was one of those rare trips where you’re really a traveler, but not traveling for the purpose of travel. And, I have to say, I got pretty excited when on the way there, the girl was telling me that there are elephants that come around the village every night/morning. That excitement wore off pretty quickly when it became 4 in the morning, and I’m squatting to pee in the middle of a frickin’ freezing field…was thinking then may not be the time I want to see an elephant heading my way.
When I went back to sleep, the girl’s (absolutely adorable) nephews kept trying to wake me. “Auntie, *&^$%,” they were saying as they pulled the covers off my head. As I don’t speak the local language, I had no idea what they were saying. They’d been asking me to take pictures of them all night before we went to sleep, so I thought that’s what they were asking. Now, though, I think they may have been telling me they were out watching the elephants, but yeah…I kept sleeping.
Back at the office, I found out that the girl’s sister had been attacked by an Elephant last year and hospitalized for months. Have to say, I’m pretty happy with my decision to stay in bed.
