Thursday, January 20.... Too many pictures again!!

 Hello everyone and welcome to my Thursday here at the Elephant Nature Park here in Thailand.

I keep telling myself that I am going to post less pictures in order to make this whole process easier on  me, but once again this was an eventful day so you will get to see a lot of pictures. 

After our morning exercise we were appointed our jobs and were off to get some work done.... Today my group was on Poo Patrol! This job actually doesn't bother me that much since I grew up cleaning a lot of horse stalls ~ Elephant Poop is pretty much big Horse Poop as far as smell and consistency goes.  

Morning Exercise

Waiting with our pitchforks and shovels

Cat and Bill ~ Bill getting on his boots

The dogs really seem to like the recycled Bananas ~ Yuk!!

Laura and Nicolas working the pile

Laura with a nice scoop full ~ Love the Hill Tribe hat!

Nicolas with a his scoop full

Yes, I did more than just take pictures!

Don't worry ~ They will make more!!

One of the puppies wanting to play while we work

Bill and Annie all geared up

Munching away at some corn stalks

Hey ~ It's me again!

Not so close up!

It is pretty cool just hanging out with the Elephants.

Munch Munch Munch

Trying to steal some food

The trunk is just amazing

The Dutch Crew

Some of the cool housing here at the park

Another View



After our morning duties all of the volunteers went to the village to visit some kids at their school and drop off some goodies, and join in at playtime.

Hal, Myself, and Nicolas just before going to the village ~ The three of us shared a room.

Bill and I before heading to the village.

A bunch of volunteers headed to the village ~ I decided to go in the van.

I am being eaten by a big cat!!

The sign outside the school.

The children showing their skills.

Running and Playing

The little girl in the hat didn't do or say a thing ~ She was so adorable.

Playtime indoors ~ I played with some legos.

Lunchtime 

This is the truck that they use to transport the Elephants 

These cool little Elephants are hand carved by the Mahouts here at the park... When they are babysitting the Elephants and get bored ~ The carve these. It is a great way for them to  make extra money ~ They sell them to the tourist and volunteers. Many of them are carved to look exactly like specific Elephants here at the park.

Really Big Girl

A Thai Scout Troop walking through the park.

For our groups afternoon activity we got to do our Elephant walk. This is where you just get to wander around to meet all the Elephants in the herd here at the park, and get some information on each one.

First a visit to the Elephant Kitchen to get some Bananas

Everyday each Elephant gets a basket of fruits or vegetables ~ This means preparing a lot of food!!

Elephants everywhere

Our group out on the Elephant walk.

Laura feeding one of the Elephants out by the clinic.

There I am feeding the Elephant.

Big Elephant!!
This photo was taken at the clinic.

This Elephant is really old ~ Big time wrinkles just like a person would get!

Very strange plant ~ If you touch the leaves they will close.

This is Jokia and she is blind ~ The story of how she lost her sight is very sad. She will put her trunk on her head, and let you hand feed her.

That is me feeding Jokia.

It is such a great experience getting to be around these beautiful animals everyday.

That is Hope passing by with his Mahout on his head.... The Mahout is actually working on an Elephant carving as they walk around.

Time to throw a little dirt on the back!

Another one of the great looking dogs sitting next to me while out on our Elephant walk.

The view down the river ~ This is a perfect piece of property for this project.

They call these three girls Charlies Angels....They stay together all the time. One of them had killed her trainer before coming here to the park ~ The result of years of abuse. At the park there are many different groups like this ~ When a new Elephant arrives it finds the group that it clicks with, and that will accept it, and then it becomes a part of that group. It is really amazing the way this takes place at the park, because in the wild they normally stay in family units... Here at the park new Families are formed.

A cool view of some huts.

Some of the dogs hanging out with us on our walk.

VOLUNTEER ~ It is a Great Experience!!

This group they actually call The Family ~ There are two babies in The Family that were actually born here at the park. These babies will never have to go through the brutal training that is so common with the Elephants here in Thailand. They will continue to be trained with positive reinforcement.
They are getting ready to go for a swim in this picture.

You can see both of the babies in this picture.

They have so much fun in the water ~ One of them just kept on rolling down the river!

They will go completely underwater with just their trunk sticking up like a snorkel.

Out of the river and on the go...

The work here is never done ~ A couple of the local women working on the landscape.

Well, that was the end of the major events for my day ~ The rest of my day was like the rest of them.... Work on the pictures and the blog, dinner, shower, and then off to sleep to see what tomorrows adventures will bring.

I ended up with a lot more on here today than I had really planned, but I really want you all to be able to see everything so it is so hard for me to leave anything out. I really hope you are enjoying this journey with me!!

Have a Great Positive Day!!

Leo