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The Adventures of D
For about one week, I was a volunteer at Elephant Nature Park. During that time, I did everything from shoveling poo to being blessed by a shaman to becoming part [...]
To say there are a lot of tears on the last day as volunteers at Elephant Nature Park is an understatement. At least as it relates to me. If thereR ...
Mae Sai Roong lays on the ground. She looks so little compared to the throngs of people around here — the Elephant Nature Park volunteers, the v ...
“Que sera sera, whatever will be, will be. The future is ours, you’ll see, que sera sera,” Lek sings softly to the baby elephant, Fa ...
I stand, along with three other volunteers, watching one of the Elephant Nature Park’s veterinarian’s squirt antiseptic into the mangled foot of Sri Prae. It is purple, covered in medicine [...]
Thick, leathery gray legs covered with a layer of thick, wet, chocolate-colored dirt, surround me. At first, I am apprehensive. On all sides of me are six-ton elephants. Capable of [...]
Welcome to the all new d travels ’round! I know it looks different, and there’s some getting used to that will happen, but I am so excited to share what [...]
Most of the time at Elephant Nature Park is spent at the park, caring for elephants and helping maintain the facilities. However, our calendar of volunteer activities clearly shows that [...]
Thank goodness I am wearing boots, because otherwise, when I am knee-deep in the thick, gloppy mud in the humid and overcast afternoon, my foot would come shooting out and [...]
Chai hands us each a huge bundle of bananas as we suit up in our rain gear. “For our walk,” he explains. I pull on my gum boots (with socks [...]
Our group of 10 piles into the back of a pickup truck at 8 a.m. We’re covered head-to-toe, largely to avoid ants crawling down our clothing and nipping us. I’ve [...]
“Chang, Chang, Chang,” we all sing, our shoulders tucked into our noses and our one arm hanging to depict an elephant trunk. It’s nighttime, and Jack and Chai have called [...]
I wake up early on my first day — as soon as the light begins to sneak through the tiny cracks in the wood, and the more than 100 dogs [...]
