Elephants and tigers and bears - oh my!

Thanks everyone for all of your comments and messages after our last blog post. It's nice hearing from everyone, even if we can only check our email every few days. technically, the Internet cafe is only a 10 minute walk, but after you've been on your feet from 6 am until 5 or 6 pm, the last thing you want to do is hike into town.


Last we spoke, we had just finished our first day at the center. The short story about the center is that they basically take animals that have been abused and either nurse them back to health and release them back into the wild if they can, or just continue to take care at them at the center until they die.

I have been working with the elephants. When we just arrived and were taken on thetour of theplace, the volunteer coordinator just walked us right into one of the elephant enclosures and we almost peed on ourselves. These elephants are used to being around people, so they're very fun and playful, but seriously,it's an elephant. Those things are huge. But he made us pet them and I fell in love very quickly.

The days start our a bit difficult in that getting up at 6 am when you're used to waking up hours later is very hard, though you get used to it very quickly. It's not uncommon for the volunteer area to be completely empty by 10 pm - most people go to sleep by 10 unless there is something going on (like a BBQ we had last night).

Rony has been alternating between the primates (from the ape and chimp family, not monkey family) and the bears (more bears), and I can't tell you what his daily schedule is exactly like - he probably will another time. The schedule also changes according to what group and type of animals you're working with.

Generally, we get up at 6 or 6:10 and get started at 6:30 am by giving the animals a first feed. There are 5 elephants at the center (there were 3 more, but their owners took them away the day we arrived so we never got to see them). They are divided into 3 enclosrures, and those are usually divided into a few teams, depending on how many volunteers there are.

Pai Lin, who apparently isn't fond of other elephants, has her own enclosure, and Somboon and Khan Kluey (the 5 year old baby) are in their own enclosure. Khan Kluey was severely mistreated as a baby and torn away from his mother and a too-early age and as a result is very difficult, so we aren't allowed to touch him.

In a separate area of the center are June and Bua who are so funny. They're both around 70 years old and also went through severe abuse. June just arrived at the center in June and is fed all the time so that she can gain weight. You may not think it, but they each have their own personalities and it is so funny to discover what each of them is like.

June doesn't have any teeth, so we have to prepare her food differently than the other elephants. If the other 4 get mostly leaves (like sugar canes and banana leaves), and fruit once or twice a day, June's fruit is individually peeled and sliced so that she can easily swallow it, and we also prepare special pallets, kind of like hamburger patties (but veggie) a few times a day, so working on June is a full day.

I really want to write more, but I have to get going. I promise to update again soon and write more about our daily routine. For now, you can see some pics in this Facebook album (direct link even if you don't have FB):

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=565196&id=906005363&l=655e662750

 

Talk to you soon!

Sawadee - Hello! We're in Thailand!

Hi everyone!

We have been in Thailand for about 24 hours now, and as we said earlier, we are starting our first week here volunteering at the Wildlife Friends Foundation of Thailand where Rony is taking care of the primates and I (Talia) am with the elephants.

Before we begin and post a few pictures, we wanted to let you know a few things. First of all, we flew with Royal Jordanian and it was, at least for me, one of the best experiences I've had as far as airlines are concerned. I definitely recommend it.

We were picked up by a driver from the reserve and had a gorgeous 3-hour ride to the reserve:
Beautiful temples, typical villages, 20 students back from school on a small pick-up truck (some were standing on the tailgate)!

We arrived just before dinner, which was much like the first day of school. We knew no one, everyone was talking to each other, and we were trying to figure out where to sit.

Major fail. :-)

First of all, the Thai food prepared by the staff is delicious. Second, everyone is incredibly nice, and they all introduced themselves to us when they first saw us. We can't remember anyone's names yet, but we can probably tell you what country everyone came from: Oz, Tassie, South Africa, Norway, Germany (East and West), Italy, USA, UK, France and Switzerland ...for now. Yesterday evening was especially exciting for Rony who was able to meet Tommy, an old friend who he volunteered with last time he was at the reserve, who is now the volunteer coordinator. We went to our room, took the coldest shower of our lives, and passed out around 10 pm.

Rony says that the center has changed a lot since last time he was here: The reserve is probably twice as big now as it was before.
This morning we woke up at 6 (yes, SIX) to start the early morning feed. Rony was with the primates, and I was with the elephants, and let me tell you, it takes about 30 seconds to get over their size and fall completely in love with them.

Basically, along with another volunteer, we fed the elephants, played with them, fed them some more, watered them, fed them some more, cleaned their poop (for real!) and, in a special event for today, I had the immense priviledge of shoveling elephant poop (for real!) from the elephant area and using it as fertilizer in another area of the reserve.

Rony took care of the primates and has done basically the same: Clearing cages of poop, feeding the monkeys, and cleaning some more.
Once we finished our day, around 5, we got to enjoy our evening with a few activities organized by the reserve: We went to a batcave and watched the bats go hunt for food in the area, and now we are writing to you from the town of Cha'am where we went to dinner and beers with most of the rest of the volunteers. We have to mention again that everyone is really tons of fun. 

We haven't had a chance to take many pictures yet - and we're exhausted beyond belief - but Tommy, the volunteer corrdinator took us on a tour of the reserve today and we took a few pictures, so here are a few for your viewing pleasure. The connection at this Internet cafe kinda sucks and keeps crashing, so we won't upload many pics today, but we will later on. Talk to you soon!

On the train on the way to the airport

Macac (not sure about the spelling yet) - isn't he gorgeous?

Gibbon - You have no clue how hard it was to take this picture - he kept running around like crazy!

Gibbons - The guy just looked like he was sunbathing