Why did you decide to volunteer with ISV in Thailand?
Adam: I decided to go to Thailand because I wanted to go to Asia. Although I wanted to go to East Asia, particularly Japan, ISV offered Thailand so I found that acceptable for my interest. Since my trip in Thailand was two weeks, I can break it down to week one and week two.
Describe your day to day activities as a volunteer.
Adam: Week one started on a Friday while I was at a school in the mountains close to Chiang Mai. The day started with breakfast and getting ready for the day before starting work at 8:30. The work was mainly plastering the walls or removing mud that the government placed in their attempt to help. We did this for a couple hours before cleaning up for lunch. After lunch we returned to the work from the morning.
During the weekend we received a brief lesson about Thailand and also got a quick Thai language lesson. The last day we were there, Thursday, we worked to finish the classroom before attending a special Mother's Day ceremony. This was a very interesting Thai cultural experience. We learned that mothers never really touch their children except for one day a year and it was very emotional. I still have difficulty describing the emotion that was felt in that room.
The following day, Friday, we left to go to Chiang Mai which was our free day until Saturday afternoon. During this time, the group did a bunch of activities including bungee jumping, shopping at the night market, and temple-sightseeing. After that, we went to the elephant nature park that Saturday evening. During Saturday and the Sunday, it was mostly chill even though we did shovel sand into the elephant shelters for a little Sunday afternoon.
On Monday we worked on cleaning pumpkins and shoveling poop. During lunch, we fed the pumpkins to the elephants and then helped bathe them in the river. That evening, more volunteers showed up and there was a welcome ceremony. The rest of the week, we mainly were in doing repetitive tasks like cleaning pumpkins, gathering cornstalks for the elephants dinner, and shoveling poop. However, the park had other activities including visiting a local school, saving trees, and supporting Thai women by getting a Thai massage. The group really enjoyed the Thai massage.
How has this experience impacted your future?
Adam: The biggest thing that affected me was knowing what I support. During one of the documentaries, it talked about how the elephants get abused by begging on the streets or giving people rides on their backs. When an elephant is begging on the street, it's malnourished since it only gets small pieces of sugarcane or small bits of food as well as being terrified to death from all the vibrations its feet are picking up. The elephant are extremely stressed out when it begs on the street and it was one of the most depressing things I have ever witnessed on film. I'm not sure if I could handled it if I saw it in person.
Also, the elephants are being abused as well. Even though they are being taken care of a lot better, the carts to hold people are on the weakest points of the elephants back. The mahouts (elephant trainers) often have a rod with a small stick to hit the elephant on the back of the ear which is very sensitive. However, the worst abuse comes from those who capture elephants and train them to be domestic animals. It is the worst possible thing the elephants go through and I do not think I have it in me to actually explain that without being depressed from thinking about it.