When we first arrived at Elephant’s World I wasn’t completely sure what we would be doing with the elephants, but by the end of the week I was left with an unbelievable experience that I will never forget. Ever since I was a little kid elephants have always had a special place in my heart as my favorite animal, but I had really only seen them in pictures and from behind fences at the zoo. At Elephant’s World we were literally side by side, up close and personal several times a day. The very first thing we did when we arrived was feed the elephants. I was lucky enough to pick one of the two baby elephant’s fruit baskets. It is funny because each and every one of the elephants has particular eating habits and favorite foods. We all eventually caught onto those preferences as the week progressed. One day when we were feeding them in the open field an elephant named Malee came up to me specifically because she reme
mbered when I fed her a watermelon. Spending so much time with the elephants and working to gather food for them we learned how smart and gentle the elephants can be. It amazed me how trusting they can be even with their abusive pasts at trekking camps before coming to the sanctuary. Throughout the week we also bathed the elephants in the River Kwai with brooms and plastic pans/buckets. Whatever language barrier or disconnect stood between our group and the mahouts di
sappeared in the river. Everyone was fair game when it came to splashing and getting sprayed by elephants. Our guide at Elephant’s World, Chokdee, came to be a very close friend to our group. His troubled past as a refugee didn’t stop him from smiling and playing tricks on us while he showed us his favorite activities in Kanchanaburi. Dee, as we would call him, showed us just how nice and generous the people of Thailand can be. Going to these countries and actually getting to know individuals and families helps you to understand and enjoy their culture and lifestyle. So naturally when our week long stay was finished, they threw us a party. The mahouts and Dee grilled us some really tasty kabobs and encouraged all of us to celebrate our hard work and sing karaoke with them.
While we were at Elephant’s World we also got to meet several other world travelers. Many of the volunteers who stay at Elephant’s World for the whole summer were from all over. I met people from Spain, Switzerland, Holland, Germany, Canada, Myanmar, and multiple places in Thailand. I was really excited to speak to the people I met from Germany because I was able to practice speaking Deutsch which I spent five years studying in high school.