Dearest fellow travelers, I’m spending the week in the jungle, living with elephants. I’m volunteering as a general helper at the Elephant Nature Park, a rescue and conservation reserve located an hour’s drive outside of Chiang Mai. I’ll be feeding them, bathing them, and scooping up their poop. I’ll be doing various odd jobs like cutting down corn with a machete and laying in foundations for new buildings. I know, me, with the animals and the physical labor. Who’d have thought?

At the Elephant Nature Park

I am very nervous about being able to keep up and be useful, especially after reading this account of how hard the work is. But I think it’s time to do something tangibly helpful on this trip (it’ll be my first volunteer gig), and it also seems sort of magical, to live in close quarters with these gentle giants. (Not so gentle if you annoy them, as my friend Mindy is quick to point out–no matter how domesticated they may be, they are at heart wild animals, so tread carefully.)

My friend Hannah visited me here in Chiang Mai last week, and she went to the ENP on a day trip. She said it was amazing, beautiful, etc., and while I expect it will be quite different to be literally in the muck, I also expect the close, constant contact might make the whole experience even more meaningful.

Those of you who have donated, thank you so much! You may remember that this is one of the things listed on the Fund This Stowaway page. (Apparently it costs a quarter of a million dollars to feed the elephants each year, never mind all the other costs, so volunteers pay $400 for their week’s stay, and that includes food and lodging). I’m happy to say that your generosity has almost entirely funded this week; I’ll be thinking of you all as I hand-feed the elephants and bathe them in the river.

Just because I’m leaving town to sleep on a wooden deck with generator-powered electricity, don’t think that’ll make me abandon my New Year’s resolution only two months into the year; I’ve set up posts for the rest of the week so you can catch up a bit on my adventures in New Zealand. I won’t have access to Internet (unlike the rest of my trip, when I haven’t been away from it for more than two days at a time), so apologies if the system holds up some of your comments for approval. I’ll get it all sorted as soon as I’m back to Chiang Mai on March 3rd.

Have a wonderful week!

Image.