Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Poo Collection at the Park

Off we got to the pens
Report to collect our barrows and tools
Here we are again - another chore - at first glance "yuck" but really not that bad!! And really, we prepare food for the elephants, so what can we expect but to produce more of this stuff!!

 After our task allocation, we collect our tools - pitchforks, rakes and shovels and wheel barrows and head out to the pens. We have a mahout watching the gate as we pass through as some of the elephants watch for an open gate to investigate.


I have found that pitchforks and rakes are the best tools, as the pick up involves a lot of corn stalks, as well as the other stuff. The older elephants are unable to process all the food they eat so some of the corn stalks are still intact when we collect it all. Shovels are only useful for the pure poo, but pitch forks are more versatile.



There is no real smell, and it is all not very messy!! Most of the people wear thongs, and some wear gloves. Our biggest problem at the moment is the wet ground (we are having heavy rain during the evenings, which makes the ground very wet and boggy for the wheel barrows.

Another big problem is the elephants themselves - as they graze around and also like to check on what we MIGHT have in the barrows!! Sometimes we have to deviate our paths as an elephant has blocked the way.
Despite comments, I DO work

And to prove that I DO some work as well as take photos!!!!

And the poo is useful, as after a lot of treatment and chemical treatment the poo can be made into paper products and cards, which we can buy at the shop.

With all our task collected and transferred to the compost pile, we return our tools and wash up the barrows




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