Wes & I shot this couple 3 days before we flew across the big pond. And we loved every minute of it. Every shot we took made me want to sing…. but lucky for them, I didn’t, probably would have scared them off.

But this day, was excellent. The sun was just so creamy and wonderful. The couple was so relaxed and easy to work with… it is nice to have a couple in love ;) I hope you enjoy their shots as much as I enjoyed taking them. 

Be happy and love each other,

T

When Wes Wages arrived for the first time at his dorm at UNA he noticed the names on the front door

Akihiro

Seishiro

(another Japanese name they can’t remember)

Wes Wages

He knew things were going to be interesting for sure.

Aki later joined his fraternity & became his designated “little brother.” Even after Aki moved back to Japan they remained friends and when he asked if we wanted to travel over for his wedding, we couldn’t say no.

We were able to spend the day in Kyoto with Aki and his bride, Aya. I was so thankful for this day, one of my favorites from the trip. This sweet couple is so cute I can hardly stand it! Everything about them is so wonderful. Aya shared so much about her culture and heritage with us, it was a unique experience to have someone show us apart of their country… not just a place they give tours of.

Here are a few shots from the day.

The wedding was two days later, and were we in for several surprises. Japanese weddings are made up of different parties… on their day Wes and I attended the 3 formal parties. The first being traditional Japanese at a local shrine. We didn’t understand anything that happened & just tried to watch and do like they did. I think we did ok for the most part. Hopefully we didn’t embarrass Aki too much.

But the day was something I will remember forever. The Japanese traditions and customs are so different than what we have here. And I love love, I love it in any form, any color, any language… and you could see the love radiating from this bride’s face. And that was worth the whole process. Wes wrote on our envelope in Japanese! He did so good (at least from my translation of it… haha..)  Even I said a little something after I won a game of bingo… haha… yup. And I can’t remember what I said, but it looks like I was quite the hit ;) And lastly a kiss… this is rare. But when the crowd cheers and begs, I guess you have no other choice. And I am sure Aki didn’t mind kissing his bride ;)

This trip was full of so much happiness. We experienced the love and gentleness of working with elephants, 3 earthquakes, ran from a potential tsunami, wore kimonos, and experienced love and friendship in a whole new way. It was truly a remarkable journey. So thankful to have been able to obtain a dream. And it reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from of course one of my favorite men…. Walt Disney.

If you can dream it, you can do it.

Dream and do. But most of all, Be Happy and Love each other!

T

Tokyo is the largest city in the world, and I will admit, we were a little overwhelmed. There is never a moment where you aren’t surrounded by thousands of people. And also, Japan is not designed for tourists. You will not find a single thing in English ANYWHERE. Don’t expect anyone at the hotel to translate for you either. We didn’t mind, we like to travel to the land of unknown. We were just surprised when we stepped into a restaurant and we had to order from a machine that only had symbols… no photographs, no way of telling what we were eating.

Luckily, we only spent a few days alone exploring. We had a host of friends there spending time with us and showing us their beloved country. And hospitality is something that the Japanese do well…. even the best southern belle can take a lesson or two from any Japanese person.

Here is our journey through this country.
At temples, you can make a wish and hang it for it to come true. Most were in Japanese, but here were the English ones. I truly loved reading these. And I promise, I didn’t make the baby son one ;)  My Aunt Judy, who I hold close to my heart, and my awesome friend neighbor, Laura, collect rocks from around the world. These are my favorite gifts to bring back. It is always fun finding the perfect rock in the coolest location. Your rocks came from Mount Fuji, buried in the snow.  We arrived the week after most of the cherry blossoms had lost their leaves and turned green, but I did get lucky that the local park still had them in abundance… I love these beautiful trees.  Before you enter a temple or shrine, you wash your hands and sometimes your mouth. This ritual is something that I didn’t mind, unless the water was 20 degrees!  Our friends Aki and Aya, who you will meet in the next blog, arranged for Wes and I to wear kimonos! It was so much fun! I gained a lot of respect for the women who have to wear these all the time, I had 13 items wrapped around my waist somewhere… it was the tightest thing I have ever worn, but it was such a memorable experience! We saw a real geisha… this is actually kind of rare. You can only see them in Kyoto and in one area of the city! It was so cool! Little did I know what a craze Wes and I would stir… people went crazy over seeing us! Here are a few photos that we took with local “fans” I truly felt like a celebrity all day. People constantly asking to take a photo. If only they knew us in real life… haha… we kept laughing at how they would think we were such losers! But it was nice for a day ;) 

Our next blog we have a couple in love! Aren’t you excited!! A Japanese wedding and true happiness! It will be our last blog from the adventure, so stay tuned!

Be Happy and Love each other!

T

We walked into the room and our phone immediately rang… My first thought was… dang it, they changed their mind. But instead it was a much different phone call… When we walked to the lobby we immediately heard, RUN! Tsunami Warning! Earthquake!

What? Where are we suppose to go?

So we just ran, and followed, and ran some more, and looked towards the hill and didn’t stop until we got there. I have literally never sweat that much in my life. We hiked up a hill that wasn’t meant for easy hiking. We walked until we no longer saw Thai people and stopped and waited.

By the time you do all that work, you start to wish something would happen, something small, just so you didn’t do it all in vain. But I guess I can luckily say that our efforts were not needed because the sea remained calm, and after about an hour of being eaten by mosquitos the size of my fist, we made our way down the mountain.

From that point on, everywhere we walked through the rest of our trip, I made an exit plan. I looked for the tallest building or the nearest hill. It was stressful for sure, but I guess even paradise has to have a flaw.

After two days, we took a boat to Krabi. This is where the magic of Thai beaches lays. Beautiful.  When I was 11 year old, my dad took me and my siblings to a cave in St. Louis, Missouri. It is one of my favorite childhood memories. Ever since, I have had a fascination with caves, and caverns. So when given the chance to kayak through some, I couldn’t say no…  I will leave you with a photo of us. This is us during a normal moment of travel. Looking at a map, talking, living. This is typical us. The next blog (Monday!) we will head to Japan and start the end of our journey. I hope you are still enjoying!

Be Happy and love each other,

T

We walked into the entrance and it took my breath away. My brother-in-law, Chris, has had his far share of travels (he will have visited every country in the World by next April) and he knew the exact hotel we would need leaving the park. We entered Rachamankha Hotel and I definitely felt like royalty immediately. I had forgotten what air conditioning felt like… 7 days in 100 degree weather with no air conditioning anywhere… walking into our hotel room I couldn’t believe the cool air hitting my face.

Wes immediately jumped in the shower… I think he was in it for at least 30 minutes. During that time, I found a chair in the corner of the room & I sat on the very edge. I knew that I wasn’t worthy to sit anywhere else in the room… not with the dirt and sweat of the week still kaked to my body.

He got out of the shower and refused to let me relax until I had one… but I wasn’t ready. I didn’t want to wash the sweat off. I enjoyed the air conditioning, but the sweat, the sticky feeling had become something that I grew accustom to.

When I finally got into the shower, it was truly heavenly. Best shower of my life. I was wiping away dirt that had literally been stuck to my legs for the week and I couldn’t help but think about the experience and where that dirt came from.

Then I realized about what time it was, and I knew that at exactly this time Lek (the founder of the park) was back at the sanctuary singing Pha Mai to sleep. This was one of the best times of the entire day at the park.

As Lek sang, Pha Mai would start blinking longer and longer… rubbing her eyes with her trunk… sticking her trunk in her mouth like she was sucking her thumb… swaying back and forth trying to keep herself awake. She was just like a baby. The moment Lek stopped, her eyes would open wide looking for where Lek went. She is her mom. And Pha Mai loves her just as a baby does her mom. I loved this.

Pha Mai is the first baby that was conceived and born at the park. She will never know the pain of abuse, or have the scares from being over worked. She will never know what it means to go hungry. Instead she walks around the park like she owns it, refusing to get in the river at bath time… she wants her bananas first and the water hose in her mouth then on her back. She represents the freedom that Lek has been dreaming about.

I LOVED that when we all got into the pen, the mom, aunt, and nanny surrounded the baby on all sides to make sure she was protected. I know that elephants love their babies as much (and maybe more) than humans. They raise them together and protect them together. I loved seeing it happen in person. They didn’t move from Pha Mai until Lek let them know it was ok, we had to earn their trust.

Our last meal at the park, it was a traditional meal of the village. This experience changed my life. In several ways, I learned that I can go several days in the heat & hard work & do something that is better than anyone imagined. I saw in how one person can decide to make a difference and MAKE.IT.HAPPEN. Lek wanted change, she wanted animals to be free and she has done so much. She sees love in the world and wants others to see it too.

We can do that. We can see love and give love and soon it will come back to receive. It doesn’t have to be an entire community changing, it just takes one person. We change and then it will rub off. I want to be love. I want to be love to humans, to animals, to the earth. God gave us so much, I don’t want to take it for granted.

I hope these blogs have encouraged you

1. to find a passion and go for it… even if it is as strange as carrying for elephants…. or as far away as Thailand.

2. to realize that animals are creatures, they have personalities, brains, the capacity to love. They should be respected and not used for our entertainment.

3. Be a better person. It really doesn’t take much. Just wake up and decide it isn’t worth it to be angry & hate. Love each other and change the world through it.

T

Well, for a week in Chiang Mai, Thailand, that is exactly what happens. The Songkran Festival is the celebration of the new year. It happens all over Thailand, but the people and neighboring villages of Chiang Mai drag it out for as long as they can.

The festival symbolizes washing away the old year, cleaning for the year to come. I kind of love the meaning behind it. And I must say, it was a total blast.

Obviously we couldn’t have our “real” camera out to capture the event… they really don’t play and will get you no matter what. So this blog is iphone and gopro. Not very professional, but I couldn’t pass up sharing this with you.

The photo on top… the green barrels in the truck are full of water. Some trucks even put ice in their water… that is always shocking. haha. This is definitely a festival I will remember for the rest of my life…
And once you are already soaked… why not take a cruise down the river. 

Maybe we can bring this tradition back home…. I have some buckets and a water hose, anyone want to join?

Be Happy and love each other.

T

I totally rely on Tera for this blog, as it’s been more than likely years since I’ve posted… and that’s probably a good thing because she is pretty amazing at what she does! :)   She wanted me to post on the village near The Elephant Nature Park, because sadly, she didn’t make it. Earlier in the week we found a couple of stores up the road that we thought was the village, so I happend to take a ride with our guides to the “village” but which in turn happened to be an awesome experience that you can see below.

This part of the village is only full during the Songkran Festival, which is one week out of the year.

So many food vendors covered the street close to the river. Locals would take their spot in a bamboo hut and the food vendors would bring the food and drink down to the hut. It reminded me so much of a festival at home!

This is Chet, featured below on the right. He was one of our Volunteer Coordinators at ENP.

I absolutely love when we have opportunities interacting with locals. We don’t speak the same language but we totally understand each other. 

Our other Volunteer Coordinator is Can, below right. He always has a smile on!

I bought two bracelets from this lady below for Tera. I wanted to photograph her a few times but she kept giving me some kind of hand gesture – I wasn’t sure if it was negative or positive so I just put the camera down. 

On the last day most of us went to the local Temple to witness a ceremony for the Songkran Festival. We got to see and participate in an act of asking the elder in the community forgiveness and blessing by pouring water on their hands.

These bracelets are a blessing from the community. We received them a few times during our stay.

Next up, Tera has a post with baby elephants, our last post about ENP!
Be Happy and Love Each Other.

Wes

I’ll be honest, I never knew how much attending elephants needed. As a group, these sweet peas eat 2 tons of food – per day. Yup, per day. Each piece of fruit is hand washed to remove any pesticides, cut and divided between the animals depending on their needs. Some elephants need smaller pieces if their teeth have fallen out, others, like Hope, like their fruit whole. There is staff here that keeps up with it, the baskets are color coordinated because the Mahout can’t read the name. There is a system, here and it works perfectly. We just become apart of the system.

And then there is the mud pit, possibly my favorite task. Every other day the water builds up in the pit, so it is our job to get it out… here is the before shot.

And the after.

Clean! (Kind of, you are never really clean)

There are lots of Jobs at the park, we also scooped poop & weeded the pineapple field. I was surprised to learn that pineapples grew underground… and they are a lot of work. Whew. We also had the chance to walk with the vet here at the park and apply medicine to the elephants injures, which you can image… there are a lot of. Several of these guys have stepped on land mines among other things. It is quite a task to keep this place running and keep the elephants healthy after facing such a tramatic life before. But it is truly a blessing to see them together.

Be Happy and Love each other,

T

This day was one of the most magical days of my life… waking up and hearing elephants talking to each other makes you feel so special inside.

Dogs on the other hand is a different story…. there are 218 dogs here at the park. They were rescued from the floods in Bangkok in the fall. I think it is a touching story, but you can imagine how loud it can be at times ;)

And the crickets, that just feels like home. Comfort.

Needless to say, the nights here are loud, but so heart warming.

We woke up at 5:30 the first morning. My mom is laughing again, because she knows. I don’t start working (mentally) until 10:00. But as soon as I heard the first elephant, I shot out of the bed. Up even before Wes. We walked in the morning light and it was so peaceful watching these two interact. I love these friendships. 

The first job here at the park was scooping poop! haha! Yup, we scooped and scooped! As you can see it is mostly grass that is still fully intact. It doesn’t smell, it is just pretty heavy.

This task was fun because the elephants hung out around us. I don’t mind this job if it means more intimate time with these guys.  I told you the story of Medo in the last blog, the elephant below is Tilly. She has a very similar story and walks with a limp due to forced breeding injuries. Her spirit is so soft, but she is a sneaky booger. You will see soon.  We moved logs to built better shelter for the baby elephants.  We went for an elephant walk this afternoon. It is probably my favorite part of my stay her so far. We were given a batch of bananas to give to the elephants as we go, well, as I was pulling one for Tilly…. she stole my whole batch! I didn’t stand a chance against her!  Below is one of the Mahouts (ma-hoot), they are the elephant keepers. I will be honest, I am green with envy of their job, but this job is a generational job. Most are born into it, so they don’t see their job as awesome as I do. But here at the park, Lek has worked to retrain them to use positive reenforcement to train their elephants and love them. I would do this task in a heart beat.  I’ll share another story with you. Below is my favorite set of friends, Jokia and Mae Perm. Jokia was made blind by her previous owner. She lived in great fear and even her journey to the park after being rescued was a huge challenge. After arriving she met Mae Perm, who became her companion. She leads her to food, water, shelter. She stays with her at all times. I love the loyalty these creatures share. We could really learn a thing or two.  We finally made it to the end of the walk where we watched the babies play in the water. It was my favorite part of the day. They acted like two two year olds playing and putting each other in head locks. Then the mom would get on to them and they would act out against the mom. I loved loved watching this interaction. It reminded me of my nephews. Sadly, our battery died… haha… so this is all we got. I’ll have more baby action later. Well, in case you haven’t noticed…. things are amazing here. We are blessed and so happy to be experiencing it. I hope you don’t get tired of my elephant happiness. We will show some of a local festival and village soon… but I am here for  the elephants this week, so hang on if you are ready for something new!

Be Happy and Love each other,

T

I have wanted to come to Thailand since I was 6 years old. I had attended a conference and they showed a video about it and I just couldn’t get it out of my head. And I told you in the last blog about my love (obsession) for elephants so this trip couldn’t be any better for me. 

When trying to find where to spend my time here loving the elephants, I came across several parks or “sanctuaries” several of them you could ride the elephants through the jungle, or watch them do tricks and entertain you.

And then I found the Elephant Nature Park. This park was founded by Lek, a lady who discovered just how cruel elephant abuse is in Thailand… and she wanted to do something to save the elephants. So she began to slowly buy them and hide them in the jungle. Until a friend helped her find someone to fund the land for the park. She believes that animals have the right to be free & not work for the entertainment of humans & she speaks out against the abuse that is happening against them.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t realize how bad it was. I didn’t realize that the animals that we see in the circus are brutally separated from their mother, beaten, and stabbed repeatedly so they no longer have their spirit. I have seen videos, and I am now looking at the elephants face to face that have suffered.

I will tell a few of their stories. And I hope to raise awareness against the abuse. I hope I can teach you that animals are meant to be just that, animals. They are not meant to be beaten, separated, and tortured.

I am in the happiest place I could have ever imagined. Feeling that makes me want to cry again. But I am experiencing so much joy. So much love. Here are few of my new loves. And I hope you will read their stories.

Enjoy.   This elephant above is Medo, she was forced to work in the logging industry at age 8. Carrying heavy, heavy logs up mountains through the jungle. After a log fell on her, breaking her ankle she was out of work. She was forced from camp to camp. But because she couldn’t work, she was forced to breed. Being forced to breed isn’t natural. A large bull in musth attacked her and because all four of her legs were chained she couldn’t escape. Her backbone was dislocated and she fought for her life for 3 years and then spent 15 years in isolation before being rescued. I ache every time I look at her hobble around the park. I know she has finally found peace after a lifetime of torture but I can’t help but want to cry.  My mom is going to laugh at this next photo. This pig was rescued the day we arrived. haha. How perfect.  Bath time at the park is one of the best times of the day. Second to feeding of course.  The babies going to the river with their mom/aunt. The boy baby is full of so much life. haha. He is absolutely hilarious.   And a glimpse into our room, in case you were curious. We lucked out. We are one of the few rooms at the park that has a bathroom and shower!!!! Praise Jesus! I feel so spoiled… even though today is the first time I have bathed in 3… haha. The elephants are migrating towards the river… it is bath time. Can’t miss it.

Tomorrow we scoop elephant poop! haha! And we go for an Elephant Walk where we learn the stories of these amazing creatures! It is a blast!

Hope you enjoy our journey!

Be happy and love each other!

T