Please note that, since my camera was broken at the time, I did not take any of the pictures in this post. They were all taken by fellow volunteer Tara. (Thank you!)
As I mentioned before, in Thailand I spent one week volunteering at a place called Elephant Nature Park. This place is basically a sanctuary for rescued elephants who had been abused (sadly a pretty common thing in Thailand).
I love animals and had thought for some time that I'd like to try volunteering to work with them in some way. Then I decided I wanted to travel to Thailand, which is known for its elephants, so... I looked online and found this place.
My first impression of the park was that it was a really beautiful place and it seemed like elephants would be happy there. As I later found out, many of the elephants had terribly sad stories. One of them, for example, is blind because she was stabbed in the eyes by her owner when she refused to work.
Elephants are really gentle and intelligent creatures, and they all have different personalities too. We got to get pretty close to them sometimes!
When I say "we", I mean myself and the other volunteers. They were all really great people from all over the world (mostly Europe), and some of them had traveled all over the place and had really interesting stories.
As volunteers, we had lots of different jobs to do (though actually the work wasn't that hard, and since there were a lot of us there wasn't always enough work to go around!)
We cut grass...
Peeled corn...
And, yes, scooped elephant poo. (Actually it really wasn't that bad!)
The food was all home-made, and really good.
It was a week of cold showers, wearing the same dirty clothes, and getting eaten alive by mosquitoes... But the experience really was all worth it. I met some amazing people, learned a lot about elephants and their situation in Thailand, and I really did feel like I was able to do something to help by volunteering. Elephant Nature Park is a really good organization, and the work they're doing is really important. I would highly recommend visiting if you ever plan on traveling to Thailand!
Even if you don't visit the park though, please do not ever ride an elephant, see an elephant show, or buy food for an elephant begging on the street. Elephants in these situations are often being abused, and you are only supporting their abusive owners by participating in these tourist activities. It's a complicated situation that goes beyond the scope of this post (I'm not an expert on it, either), but feel free to ask me if you want to know more about it. You can also find more information on the Elephant Nature Park website linked above.
