Mosha & Palahdee relax on her mat at FAE. (Photo credit: Michael Wysocki).

By Michael Wysocki

Kammoon, a former patient of FAE admitted a year ago for severe constipation, has now left our world. Heavy rains at an elephant tourist camp proved to be fatal for Kammoon, causing her to slip down into a narrow ravine immobilizing her. The rains poured down and with no truck to help dig her out, time was just too precious. Now we can only imagine her story, and just try to understand her fate.  Bless you Kammoon and thank you for your presence here on earth.

After this tragic loss, and the rains gone for now, we enter a new day filled with sunshine and hope here at FAE. While Soraida heals and regains strength to continue her mission rescuing her “children”, the team stays focused on healing the ones within their reach. Motala and Mosha continue their rehabilitation and practice daily using their Prosthetic leg, I am so proud of you two. Ya’ll bring so much joy to the visitors that come from even across the world to see you. They even know of Mosha’s cheeky habits like turning on the water faucet on the other side of the fence and scrubbing her own enclosure. She loves her young mahout, Palahdee, and just seems so content lying there on her bed resting her body next to him, still using her lively trunk to pick at him.
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After being treated at FAE's Elephant Hospital, an elephant is returned to its owner and transported back to Chiang Mai. (Photo by Michael Wysocki).

By Michael Wysocki

Everywhere I go I am so fascinated and curious, like there’s more to these Elephants than I realized. I have only been here a few days and I have seen five Elephants come or go. Where are they coming from? Where do they go?
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Day 2 from Michael Wysocki:

After two full days at FAE I am starting to understand its being, not only the Elephants as creatures but this entire sanctuary of a home for every life here. Soraida has created a little 200 acre world and as I walk around I ask myself, how did she do it? I have read about her journey thus far, all the financial struggle, discouraging events, and even death threats; but to be inside the home, the core, of the fight to save the Asian Elephant is the most “down to earth” feeling I have ever felt.

So, I became curious to really understand the intentions of the people who live and work these Elephants. Mahouts and young and upcoming mahouts are the Elephant’s keeper and family. Elephants as a species are smart, strong, and free-willed and I am learning what it takes to earn an Elephant’s trust, especially one that has been exploited in the past.  My goal was to observe today without interfering, so I sat down on rain soaked soil amongst the banana trees with my camera, staring and listening to the secret language between an Elephant and its mahout. There is a language barrier between me and the mahouts, which is probably best for them because I am full of questions, but I have learned a way to gain their trust and accept to my presence: I smile. Smiling with Thai people has become my favorite game because, so far, everyone has smiled back, if not first.
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Photo credit: Jodi Frediani

Below is an excerpt from a longer article published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel on January 2, 2011:

Boonmee was depressed and in pain.

The 10-year-old Asian elephant was separated from her mother and her foot looked like a cauliflower. She’d stepped on a land mine near Thailand’s border in September, which blew her foot apart, and traveled for two days before arriving at the Friends of the Asian Elephant hospital in Lampang, Thailand.

By early November, the hospital’s staff worried that Boonmee was giving up, said Bonny Doon resident Jodi Frediani, 62, who visited the hospital last month. Boonmee wasn’t eating, was withdrawn and couldn’t walk easily. And, “she repeatedly, gently touched her cauliflower foot with the tip of her trunk,” Frediani said.

But then, Frediani tried using TTouch on Boonmee. The touch-based therapy is similar to gentle bodywork and can help relieve physical and emotional distress in animals.

TTouch appeared to revive the elephant’s spirit, and her previously glassy-eyed stare gave way to tears. Soon, Boonmee was offering areas to be worked on — like her enormous, large-eared head, which “she lowered so I could do some of the circular TTouches,” said Frediani, a 30-year practitioner of TTouch.

By the end of the day, Boonmee had become playful, even letting Frediani peel bananas for her.

“Boonmee had a new brightness and a twinkle in her eye,” said Windy Borman, a San Francisco-based filmmaker who traveled to Thailand with Frediani and observed the TTouch process. “The elephants definitely formed a connection with Jodi,” Borman said. “They remembered her and would come greet her.”

To read the rest of the story and view more photos by Jodi Frediani, click here.

-Windy Borman

Director/Producer, The Eyes of Thailand

Mosha, an elephant landmine survivor, with her mahout John at FAE's Elephant Hospital.

Going back to the Friends of the Asian Elephant (FAE) Elephant Hospital was quite an emotional experience. Mosha (age 4) has grown a least a foot (no pun intended) taller since I saw her last August, but is still as playful as ever.  She was very curious to sniff the new volunteers and was walking around on her temporary prostheses.  She’s growing so fast the Prostheses Foundation is going to have to make her another soon!

Motala (age 49), on the other hand, is wearing her protective white bag over her stump again because her updated prostheses was irritating the sensitive skin on her stump. Thankfully, the Prostheses Foundation is coming back tomorrow to build her a new prostheses.  Stay tuned for pictures!

Mae Ka Pae soaking her hind leg in an antiseptic bath at FAE's Elephant Hospital.

Seeing Boonmee and Mae Ka Pae, the newest landmine survivors at FAE, was very hard. Mae Ka Pae, (age 22), who injured her hind leg after stepping on a landmine along the Thai-Myanmar border in August, is able to walk slightly better than when she first arrived at FAE. It’s still painful to watch her limp, but Dr. Preecha says her wound is healing well enough that they don’t think they’ll need to amputate her leg.

Boonmee prepares to soak her front foot in an antiseptic bath at FAE's Elephant Hospital.

Boonmee (age 10) is another story. Her front leg looks like an exploded flower and is not healing well, but Soraida Salwala, FAE’s founder, is more concerned about her depression.  This is the first time Boonmee has been separated from her mother and, on top of that, her mahout (owner) ran away and deserted her at FAE a month ago. Elephants are such emotional and social animals that this heartache can cause them to die from the loss.

Anne Snowball and Patty Coogan do Craniosacral therapy on Boonmee.

When we first saw her, Boonmee’s eyes were totally glassed over. Then, Jodi Frediani, Anne Snowball and Patty Coogan (three of the volunteers traveling with me) began using their T-Touch and Craniosacral therapy on Boonmee and she began to weep, letting go of some of her emotional and physical trauma.  She began to open up and soon was allowing Jodi, Anne and Patty to peel and feed her bananas. It was amazing to see this shift and her willingness to connect with us.

John, Mosha's mahout, practices T-Touches on Jodi Frediani's arm.

Later in the afternoon, Jodi, Anne, and Patty explained T-Touch and taught Dr. Kay and two of FAE’s mahouts (John and Somchai) three T-Touches, while Soraida translated. The staff at FAE were very receptive and picked up the touches quickly.

Jodi and Anne walk with Mosha.

Then all six went down and tried the T-Touches on Motala and Mosha.  After some initial confusion on the parts of the elephants, they liked it enough that each started presenting areas to be worked on.  Motala even presented her amputated leg for the women to work on and remove some of the pain from her stump!

Motala, a 49-year old elephant landmine survivor, presents her amputated leg for TTouch.

It was quite an experience to be back and witness another dimension of the healing and growth at FAE–and this is only the beginning! We’re here for four more days, so stay tuned.

Sincerely,

Windy Borman

Director/Producer, The Eyes of Thailand

Dear Friends, Family and Elephant Supporters,

As you know by now, I’m going back to Thailand to film the two newest elephant landmine survivors at the Friends of the Asian Elephant (FAE) Elephant Hospital (Oct 31-Nov 4) and then it’s on to Laos to attend the Youth Leaders Forum for the International Campaign to Ban landmines (Nov 7-12). But I need your help to get there!

In the past week we’ve raised $1,500 of the $3,000 needed for the 16-day documentary trip. Thank you for this amazing show of support!

We still have a ways to go, so if you’re still looking to donate or invest in the film, if you’ve always wanted to be in show biz, and if you want to help make a movie you’d be proud to see in the theaters, please help us today.

1. Donate through the film’s fiscal sponsor, the San Francisco Film Society. All donations are tax-deductible and you can donate using a debit or credit card through a secure link via The Eyes of Thailand web site: http://eyesofthailand.com
2. Transfer stock to the film via the SF Film Society. It’s also tax-deductible.

No donation is too small and all donations are tax-deductible! In recognition of your support, I am offering the following VIP perks to donors:

• $25 = Personal thank you note from yours truly, plus a signed promotional postcard—it’ll be a collector’s item one day!
• $100 = All of the above, plus thanked in the film’s credits.
• $500 = All of the above, plus “Special Thanks” in the film’s credits and a signed DVD of the finished film.
• $1,000 = All of the above, plus listed in the Partners section of The Eyes of Thailand web site.
• $5,000+ = All of the above, plus a private screening for you and friends, plus a Q&A with me about the film.

Next, I’m hoping you can help me spread the word about my trip. The October 8, 2010 blog post contains a copy of the Press Release about my upcoming trip.  Please read it and then share the official link with your press contacts.  We’re hoping this goes global, so don’t be shy!

Finally, I’ll be blogging and posting updates on Facebook and Twitter from Thailand and Laos, so you can follow my progress. You can access all the updates via “The Eyes of Thailand” web site.

Thank you for continuing to support my quest to tell the world about the plight of the Asian Elephants and the ongoing threat of landmines. I could not do it without you!

Gratefully,

Windy Borman

Director/Producer, The Eyes of Thailand

windy@dvaproductions.com

http://eyesofthailand.com

P.S. Donations of any size help and all donations are tax-deductible when made through the San Francisco Film Society. You can donate by either clicking the “Please Donate” link on the The Eyes of Thailand web site. Thank you so much! Krup kum ka!

Dear Friends, Family and Elephant Supporters,

I’m going back to Thailand.

On September 11, 2010, another elephant stepped on a landmine along the Thai-Burma (Myanmar) border, thus becoming the fourth elephant landmine survivor to be treated at FAE’s Elephant Hospital in Thailand. This latest victim (Boonmee) joins three others: Mae ka pae, who stepped on a landmine in August, Motala and Baby Mosha.

Thanks to generous donations, I traveled to Thailand in August 2009 to film Motala and Mosha receive their prosthetic limbs for my documentary The Eyes of Thailand. I optimistically thought I could end the film with the happy ending of the elephants taking their first steps on their new prostheses. Instead I need to return to film two new survivors and try to unravel why elephant landmine accidents have increased in the past 2 months.

My current plan is to travel to Thailand October 28 – November 7 with four other Elephant Hospital volunteers who specialize in TTouch, an effective form of animal bodywork that relieves pain and assists with animals’ recovery from illness or injury.  We’re hoping it helps landmine survivors, too.

I’ll wrap up the trip by attending the International Campaign to Ban Landmines conference in Laos, November 8-12. This will enable me to get the global perspective on landmine removal, as well as interview Yeshua Moser-Puangsuwan and Nobel Prize-winner Jody Williams, key voices for landmine and cluster bomb removal.

To date we’ve raised US $530 of the US $3,000 needed to accomplish this 16-day documentary trip. Last summer we raised $3,000 in one weekend to get me back to Thailand to film Mosha and Motala getting their prostheses, so I’m confident we can raise that much before October 14^th, but I need your help. This time there are two ways you can help:

1. Donate through the film’s fiscal sponsor, the San Francisco Film Society. All donations are tax-deductible and you can donate using a debit or credit card through a secure link via The Eyes of Thailand web site: http://eyesofthailand.com
2. Transfer stock to the film via the SF Film Society. It’s also tax-deductible.

I need to purchase my ticket (at the very latest) by October 14, 2010, so please contact me if you have any question or would like more details about the above options. Additionally, if you have any leads to family foundations or corporate sponsorships, please email me directly as listed below.

In recognition of your support, I am offering the following VIP perks to donors:

• $25 = Personal thank you note from yours truly, plus a signed promotional postcard—it’ll be a collector’s item one day!
• $100 = All of the above, plus thanked in the film’s credits.
• $500 = All of the above, plus “Special Thanks” in the film’s credits and a signed DVD of the finished film.
• $1,000 = All of the above, plus listed in the Partners section of The Eyes of Thailand web site.
• $5,000+ = All of the above, plus a private screening for you and friends, plus a Q&A with me about the film.

I will be blogging and posting updates on Facebook and Twitter from Thailand and Laos, so please follow my progress.  You can access all the updates via The Eyes of Thailand’s web site: http://eyesofthailand.com

Thank you for continuing to support my quest to tell the world about the plight of the Asian Elephants and the ongoing threat of landmines. I could not do it without you!

With immense gratitude,

Windy Borman

Director/Producer, The Eyes of Thailand

Eyes of Thailand, LLC | P.O. Box 420395 | San Francisco, CA 94142

windy@dvaproductions.com

http://eyesofthailand.com

P.S. Donations of any size help and all donations are tax-deductible when made through the San Francisco Film Society. You can donate by either clicking the “Please Donate” link on the The Eyes of Thailand web site or by mailing a check to the address above. Please make the checks payable to the “San Francisco Film Society” and include “The Eyes of Thailand” in the Memo Line. Thank you so much! Krup kum ka!

Photo Credit: Bangkok Post

On July 22, 2010, a 28-year old elephant strayed from its wildlife sanctuary in Thailand. Instead of sending him to a zoo, Thai mahouts performed a ritual to ask the deities to approach him. While they eventually used a tranquilizer on him, the mahouts succeeded in loading him onto a truck and taking him to the Khao Ang Rue Nai Wildlife Sanctuary in Chachoengsao.

You can read the full article here.

Photo credit: Bangkok Post

-Windy Borman

Director/Producer, The Eyes of Thailand

Photo Credit: AP Photo/David Longstreath

July 12, 2010–According to The Washington Post, “Bangkok authorities said Monday anyone caught handing bunches of bananas or sugar cane to the hulking beasts – proffered by their handlers to make money – faces a $320 (10,000 baht) fine.”

The AP article also reported:

Thailand has about 2,400 domestic elephants. There is little demand these days for the animals’ traditional skills in logging and other labor, so owners sometimes loan them out for begging from tourists and locals in major cities.

“The ordinance is issued to prevent untidiness or danger toward properties and lives of Bangkok residents,” said Manit Techa-apichoke, deputy director of the City Law Enforcement Department, adding there had been cases of elephants hurting people and falling into drains.

Friends of the Asian Elephant, a Thai non-government group which cares for injured or mistreated elephants, called the fines a good start.

“I’ve been asking for them to do this for 15 years,” said its founder, Soraida Salwala, adding that she hoped other Thai cities would follow suit. “It’s not the total solution, but it’s a help.”

Previously, mahouts – as elephant handlers are known – and their accomplices were fined for bringing an elephant into Bangkok, but those feeding the animal escaped punishment. Typically a tourist would pay 20 baht ($0.62) for the privilege of handing a bunch of fruit or vegetables into the elephant’s trunk.

Begging street elephants are a huge problem in Thailand and other cities throughout Southeast Asia and India.  Not only do they cause a distraction and get caught in traffic accidents with humans, but city-life is horrendous for these emotional, intelligent, sensitive beings who communicate through seismic vibrations that they feel through their feet, in addition to trumpeting with their vocal cords.

Let us not forget that anyone who feeds an Asian Elephant is actually contributing to the problem of wild-capturing an endangered species (usually while they are babies, because baby elephants earn more on the street), breaking their spirits in order to “domesticate” them, and then selling them into a life of hardship, trauma, abuse and neglect, where they will be passed or sold from owner to owner for the rest of their lives.

Fining the people who feed elephants is a baby step in the right direction to protect Asian Elephants in the long-run. Once there is less demand for feeding street elephants, the owners will have to make a different choices–perhaps looking to sell their elephants to sanctuaries or even asking the Thai government to expand the The Pang-La Nursery Home for Aged Elephant, which it announced in 21 November 2009 but has so far not enforced.

You can read the rest of the Washington Post article here. As we learn more, I will share it here.  Cheers!

-Windy Borman

Director & Producer, The Eyes of Thailand

Corinne Morton taught her 6th Grade Science classes in Ithaca, NY (USA) about the plight of elephants in the wild and captivity. Inspired by The Eyes of Thailand trailer, three students wrote poems about Thai elephants.  Below is the second poem:

A Thailand Elephant

by Jaina Swanhart age 11, Boynton Middle School

This elephant here
Was taken from his mother
Never got to roam free
And feel secure as elephants do with one another

Dreaming, hoping to find a way home
Away from his mom, it is so severe
Whips, chains and illegal logging
From a small soulful eye drops a swift tear

Shredded leg, what now?
Stepping on explosive mines
Standing on three feeling despair
It is only a matter of time

In his captivity a lady looks
Kids around him, he’s being teased
Runs and runs to fine Mahout
She thinks, can I buy him please?

She’s rescues him, finally free
Knowing where to take him
He follows her lead
To the elephant hospital, to a new limb

Eating with other elephants
Here he finds his mother
Walking, talking, catching up
A feeling like no other

There’s a devoted vet
He loves and cherishes her
Giving him a new hope in life
He wishes others fate were similar

Please tune in next week for the third poem…

-Windy Borman

Producer, Director and Writer, The Eyes of Thailand