Chapter 135
Kakum National Park.
Ignacio, who worked here, carried out work related to the conservation of elephants.
Basically, it was a place that had the principle of protecting nature, so in the case of wild elephants, they only checked from a distance, and if they found an injured elephant, they protected it until it fully recovered.
Friends who followed Ignacio to the national park.
Junwoo shouted as he crossed the 350-meter-long wooden bridge.
"Wow! When you think of Africa, you usually think of plains, but this is a real jungle!"
The group crossed the narrow bridge in single file. Ignacio, standing at the front, spoke.
"Larabanga is a tropical rainforest located 30 km north of the south-central coast of the Republic of Ghana. The river that flows through the park is called the Kakum, so it is known as Kakum National Park. This bridge is a cloud bridge built on seven trees."
Junwoo, who had been looking around while listening to the explanation, pointed downwards with a brightened expression.
"It's a monkey! Wow! How strange!"
The group turned their heads at Junwoo's cry and saw a monkey sitting halfway up a tree, scratching its sides.
When Koreans thought of monkeys, they usually thought of the Japanese macaque, but the tree monkey looked unfamiliar, with black fur, a white neck, and a black face, Ignacio explained.
"It's a Roloway monkey. It was originally classified as a member of the Diana monkey family, but it has recently been classified as a separate species. I see a yellow-backed duiker over there."
Everyone's attention was focused on an animal whose name they were hearing for the first time.
It looked like an antelope, but its face was like a horse's and its body was short and plump with fur.
It was Soo-hyun who had suggested coming to Ghana, but it was Junwoo who seemed most excited.
"Wow! Uncle Ignacio! Aren't there any lions or hyenas?"
"Sometimes we see them too. And if they lived here, the ones you just saw would have already dried up."
"Ah."
"Okay, if you cross here and go a little further, you'll find the shelter."
It took them quite a while to cross the 350-meter-long bridge. As Ignacio said, after crossing the bridge and walking for about ten minutes, a large warehouse-like building appeared. Around the building, a fence surrounded a piece of land about ten times the size of the building.
Ignacio opened the large wooden door and gestured.
"Let's go in."
As they entered the warehouse, they saw four black men working. They were all wearing green clothes and hats, but upon seeing the group, they took off their hats and approached us.
Ignacio pointed to each of the workers.
"They are Azizi, Bakari, Hamish, and Jabari. They are friends and do the same work as me."
Coworkers shook hands with their friends, showing their white teeth. Jaehee, who was holding Junwoo, who smiled brightly and said he was happy to see him, asked him in Korean.
'What's wrong? You usually ask me to remember my name several times. Are you letting it slide this time? Did you memorize it all already?'
Junwoo shook hands and spoke as if performing a ritual.
"No."
"Is it too difficult?"
'The original name was supposed to be memorized by substituting it with the other person's facial features… but this is all bald. There's also no man with a mustache, so I can't tell who's who.'
"Pfft."
Come to think of it, all four of them, starting with Ignacio, were bald. They didn't have mustaches, so they had no special features.
Ignacio clapped his hands and said,
"Well, my daughter's friends want to help today, so each of you bring a friend you like and teach them a little."
Junwoo quickly turned his head.
'Since they're all boys, the cute Abna and Jaehee will probably be nominated first, right?'
But Junwoo's expectations were shattered. All four of them grabbed Soo-hyun's arms first and started fighting.
"I took the picture first."
"Hey, you look the best at work. Look at this big guy."
"I have to clean up the mess today. Your job is to nurse the babies. Please take care of me."
"I have to give you hay. Don't you know how heavy it is?"
In the end, after playing the African rock-paper-scissors game, a winner emerged. The winner was Javari. He said as he dragged Soo-hyun along.
"Do you speak English?"
"Yes."
"Yeah, as Ignacio said before, I'm Javari. And you?"
"I'm Soo-hyun."
"Alright! Hey, you're in pretty good shape? You're different from other Asians who come here for tourism sometimes. But Asians don't have black hair, right? Like us. Are you Asian? Your eyes are also blue-green."
"Oh, that's what happened."
"Haha, of course. Everyone has their own story. Let's go!"
The place Javari took Soo-hyun to was a place where injured animals were treated. We were set up in a large field, and there were four huge elephants there. Soo-hyun exclaimed in admiration when he saw a huge elephant of a different size from Toto at Ignacio's house.
"And..."
Javari, who opened the cage and entered, smiled brightly.
"Isn't it great? The largest one over there, with the injured left front leg, is Amma. She's a thirty-year-old female. She weighs over eight tons. Next to her is Essie, and the one in the corner is Kwami."
After listening to Javari's explanation, Soo-hyun observed the elephants carefully. As he said, the skin on Amma's left front leg was severely peeling. In addition, Amma had a back injury, Essie had a rear leg injury, and Kwami had an eye injury.
'Why were these children injured? Were they attacked by lions or hyenas?'
"Are there lions or hyenas near the elephant habitat?"
"Hmm?"
"I wonder why the children got hurt."
Javari chuckled.
"It happens, very rarely. But even if it does, we never touch it unless it falls into a hole and is rescued. That's the natural order of things. Most of the elephants here are children who fell under structures or bridges that humans have built for tourism. In other words, they are children who were injured because of humans who violated the laws of nature."
"If the baby animals were eaten in front of your eyes, wouldn't you save them?"
"Yes, we are also human, so sometimes we want to save them and kill those persistent and evil hyenas. But humans are already fed up with breaking the laws of nature. Enough is enough."
Javari spoke and handed over a box of medicine to be applied to the elephants. Most of them were potions, so they were quite heavy, but for Soo-hyun now, they were light. Javari, who was looking at the next box to be taken, asked Soo-hyun, who was waiting blankly while holding the box.
"What are you doing? I have to take it over there."
"Is this the only box?"
"Huh? No. Three, including that one."
"Please give me one more. It's not heavy."
Javari smiled brightly.
"It was definitely worth winning the bet. Hahaha, that's great! The old bastard who took that shabby guy must have had a hard time today, hehe."
'I'm talking about Junwoo.'
"What is Ajiji doing?"
"He's putting away that shit."
"Ugh!!"
'When I think of Junwoo cleaning up elephant dung all day and working with a sad face, I can't help but laugh.'
Soo-hyun approached the elephant while holding the medicine box that Jabari gave him. The elephant knew that humans protected it, so when Soo-hyun approached, it just rolled its eyes and did not step back.
"Elephants don't like to be approached from behind. Put the box in front of them."
"Yes, Javari."
Elephants that stood still even when he applied medicine or touched their bodies. Unlike the timid Toto.
"These children are not afraid. Do they know that this is a national park and that humans will not harm them?" Soo-hyun asked while applying a generous amount of blue medicine to the wound.
"Haha, don't you know anything about elephants?"
"Yes, this is the first time I've seen an elephant."
"Oh, really?"
Javari explained that it was right to want to pretend to know something.
"Do you know what the strongest animal in Africa is?"
"Isn't it a lion or a hippopotamus?"
"These guys," Javari said, patting the elephant.
Soo-hyun looked a little surprised.
'How can these children, who are so large but have such long eyelashes and sweet eyes, be stronger than such ferocious beasts?'
"Lions kick you, knock you down, and bite your neck," Javari said, touching an elephant's trunk with one of its tusks broken. "Hyenas don't hunt, so they bite you in a group. But elephants, you know. They charge at you, stick their tusks in your torso, lift you into the air, and throw you far away. They break your neck on landing. Even lions and buffaloes that try to dodge are finished if they are caught by these animals. If you step on them, their whole body explodes. This serenity is the fruit of strength. Haha."
"Oh, Soo-hyun said you were a friend of Abna's, right? A friend from school?" Javari, who had been applying the medicine for a long time, asked again.
"Yes."
"Oh, Abna goes to a famous music school, right? Do you study there? Amazing! Do you play the viola like Abna?"
"No, I like the piano."
"Really? There's a piano here too."
'Huh? Why is there a piano in an elephant sanctuary?'
"Is there a piano here?"
"Yes! In 2016, a Polish university professor and pianist brought it to the elephants to play the piano. It was difficult to get it back, so he donated it. It's over there. Can you show me after the treatment?"
It wasn't like you were asking the children to show off their skills, but it was clearly rude to tell a music student to play an instrument with ease. But Javari's expression was full of pure curiosity.
"What did the pianist play?" Soo-hyun asked.
"Uh… I don't know much about that… but what about the music from that program… and Beethoven? I know Beethoven! And Rachmaninoff… I heard it was that guy's music."
It was the music of Chopin, Beethoven, and Rachmaninoff. Soo-hyun's eyes lit up at the mention of the masters' names.
"Where is the piano?"
"Excuse me."
Through the open door of the warehouse, the corner of a piano could be seen, placed inside the warehouse on a wooden plank with wheels to protect it from the wind and rain. Jabari, who was looking at the piano in silence, crossed his arms and said.
"It was really amazing at that time. Elephants can't recognize the sound of the piano, but after about ten minutes of playing, they started to move their ears as if they were listening to the piano and became quiet. I've been doing this for ten years, but it was the first time I'd seen anything like it. After the pianist left, I played something just in case, but there was no reaction at that time."
Soo-hyun, who was staring at the piano while holding the medicine in one hand, asked.
"Do you remember the pianist's name?"
"Yes. I remember because I was so surprised at the time. His name was Lech."
'Lech. It was Professor Lech from Warsaw, Poland. His performance must have been transmitted to the elephants as well.'