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

Sorry it has been so long since we blogged, life has been busy and a little interesting…

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 am currently sitting here blogging beneath a canopy of trees, watching two elephants interact with each other in a way I have never seen animals act. I am so full of joy I could just sit here and cry. But if I cry, I can’t see the elephants, so I will save it for when I leave.

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