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Home > Elephant Nature
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Testimonials from visitors and volunteers
| Name: |
Britt Coles |
| E-Mail: |
sembor@yahoo.com |
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From: |
Sweden |
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When: |
Dec 2001 & updated March '02 |
| Comments: |
For three weeks I worked as a volunteer for Lek, helping her care for
an
orphaned baby elephant. It has been a truly memorable, amazing
experience. Learning to relate to the elephant was once-in-a-lifetime
experience that I feel very, very grateful for. In addition to this
adventure, I enjoyed fabulous Thai vegetarian food; accommodation in a
charming bamboo hut, and learned lots about Thai culture and customs
from Lek’s staff, family, and the kind and generous people in the
little rural thai village where the baby elephant was kept. If you
have any questions about being a volunteer, you are welcome to to
email me in English (eller Svenska) at:
sembor@yahoo.com
Updated: March 2002
It is now two and a half months since I volunteered with Lek and her
animals and I have some perspective on this unique and special
experience. It was out of this world.
For three weeks I hung out with GingMai, an orphaned baby elephant
pretty much around the clock. I fed him, cleaned his wounds, slept
next
to him during his powernaps in the middle of the night, cleaned out
his
pen, talked to him, hugged him, took him for walks, and watched him
closely trying to decipher his moods and needs.
From this whole experience I learned how connected human beings and
animals are. I learned I learned about elephants. And I learned
about
myself.
I also got to know a lot of wonderful Thai people and volunteers
from
all over the world. I feel privileged to have been a part of Lek's
extended family of staff and volunteers. To be volunteering in
Thailand
is a very different experience from hanging out at the beach. Not
that
the latter is less than the former but "working" with Thais, with a
common goal, is very different from "playing" the part of the casual
tourist. In my coming to Thailand to safeguard the animal fauna I
felt
that was giving something back to the local community in a very
special
way and the way I was treated while being with Lek was very
different
than how local people saw me when I was just a tourist.
Watching Lek interact with people as well as animals was truly
learning
a lesson in giving and receiving unconditional love. This is why
this
stay felt very, very spiritual. You are forced to look at yourself
and
those around you and examine who you are and what you do.
All in all, I suggest that if you are ready for a an experience that
will change the way you look at life and yourself, being a volunteer
with Lek will do just that.
I miss that baby elephant immensely. Keeping in touch with all the
other
volunteers feeling the same way is such a wonderful way to keep the
community until next time I come to visit Lek and her animals.
If you have any more questions, you are more than welcome to write
me at
sembor@yahoo.com in English or Swedish
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