We began our journey a week and a half ago flying from Toronto to Chiang Mai, Thailand. We took a few days to adjust to the time change and experience some Thai culture before we were picked up to head to Elephant Nature Park.  They picked us up in an air conditioned van (I was very excited), and we traveled an hour and a half from the city to get to ENP. We knew we had arrived when we could see elephants wandering freely across the fields, their mahouts keeping a close eye.

 The first day we had an orientation. We learnt about how many of the elephants came to the park after experiencing terrible abuse in the logging and tourism industry.  Lek, the founder of this park, often finds these abused elephants and purchases them or convinces their owners to allow them to live out their lives in this wonderful park. They strongly believe in people working to keep the elephants happy rather than the elephants working for people, so the elephants here have a pretty great life.

On day two, we met Dr. P, Dr. Jip, and Dr. Tom and started following them around to learn how they treat different elephant wounds. Unfortunately after only an hour, I slipped and twisted my ankle, resulting in a half day at the hospital getting X-rays taken. I left a few hours later with a splint and crutches. ENP was amazing with helping us out with our hospital visit.

Day three we really got into treatments with the elephants. We start off the day cutting up dozens of watermelons that we feed them continuously as a treat during treatments. Having watched the treatments once, the vets let us try. We started off with my favourite elephant, Khun Dej. Khun Dej is only 4 years old and was rescued after having his front foot caught in a snare. For the rest of the week we did daily treatments of his foot, and then he gets a bandage put on before he gets to run wild across the grounds with his adopted family.

 We also treated Sri Prae, an older elephant that has land mine wounds on her foot. We feed her watermelon for 20 minutes while she stands in a medicated foot bath. She tolerates it very well as long as you keep the watermelon coming!

Next we hop onto a golf cart (super helpful for my ankle on crutches), and head across the grounds to treat more foot wounds and abscesses. Each elephant gets a basket of fruit as a treat during their treatments. Then we repeat the treatments in the evening, as well as handing out banana balls filled with vitamins to some of the older elephants. We always make sure to bring extras to spoil some of the elephants that don’t need the vitamins!

We also assisted in treatments on a pig with a laceration in her vulva, a goat with a fungal infection, and a horse with an abscess in his hoof.

 During the evenings at ENP, we had the opportunity to meet other volunteers from around the world and enjoy the beautiful scenery.  As well, they had a few evening ceremonies where they taught us about the culture, and attempted to teach us some of the very difficult Thai language.

Next week we’re off to help with over 400 dogs at the Elephant Nature Park Dog Rescue.

Sarah