Following my incredible first week at ENP I moved onto the second week volunteer programme which was a lot more intense and closer with individual elephants than the first week.
Week One was a brilliant introduction to ENP and the truly incredible work Lek and her entire team at the park are doing, giving me a taste of how everything clicks together and why this work is so important. Week Two, however, was an incredible experience for being so close to individual elephants, getting a lot more responsibility, and being able to get to know the inside workings of the park a little more.
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| Ruling the Cinema Spot with my tankard of tea |
For the first few days I had an absolutely invaluable opportunity to shadow mahouts with their elephants in the jungle sections of the park which really opened my eyes to the social bonds and communication between elephants. I had never seen such free interaction between ellies and it was so beautiful to be able to observe them enjoying their natural habitat and becoming elephants again, rather than the same environment being their prison and being a slave within it. Read about these trips here!
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| Medo doing her thang |
My week was based in the Special Food and Enrichment section of the park, led by Brad and his beautifully loyal sidekick Memphis. These are really cool and essential parts of park life, so they got their own posts too. Special food is where we look after specific dietary needs and keep a close eye on all our ellies to check on their digestion and teeth - it also involves a few specialist delivery techniques including the drop and BOLT BOLT BOLT when it's Malee's turn for fodder... read that one here! Enrichment is how we keep our ellies stimulated beyond just the wonderland that is the park grounds. This is especially important for the babies with a LOT of energy, the solitary ellies who don't have as much social interaction as other ellies, and ellies who are transitioning into freedom and respect and need a bit more happening on their terms to keep them happy during the changeover. The post for enrichment is here!
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| This is my favourite enrichment, the fire hose basket! AKA Melon Fort Knox |
Then, you know, we had a casual kitchen invasion by a few cows and an elephant (?!) which was super entertaining, especially when you're walking towards said elephant and you forget that you have a bag of salad slung over your shoulder... My bad.
Most of my downtime this week was consumed by doing as much as possible in the kitchens and with Brad, but whenever I could I made my way over to the Dog Sanctuary to snuggle with some doggies over there!
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| OH JUST LOOK AT HIM |
At the end of the week it was a very sad goodbye - such an incredible experience and topped off with meeting the hero I didn't know I had.
ENP let me develop as a person for the better and lifted a lazy filter of ignorance. The only way we can stop cruelty and exploitation of elephants is to increase education - I really believe that nobody would ride an elephant if they knew how the elephant got into that saddle, so it's our responsibility to increase awareness and remove the Phajaan from the world.
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| Bow down |
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