GVI Thailand Elephant Reintroduction

Joining the GVI team in Thailand was the most incredible experience of my life. Upon my arrival to the village of Huay Pakoot I was a little nervous. I had already been greeted and briefed on the project by some staff but now was the time that I got to meet my family. The family I stayed made my stay. We were always having conversations (usually hang motions and little words), laughing, hanging out together, and teaching each other our own native language. Over my first few days I learned my way around the village and acquainted myself with the other staff and volunteers. This was not too hard because the first night I arrived we all had a potluck dinner together where we introduced ourselves. After a while this became part of my normal routine, we had potlucks once a week. During the week days we had elephant hikes, bio-diversity hikes, nursery, school teaching, and an assortment of many other things. Im sure you want to know about the elephants though, it is only reasonable considering they are the reason were all there. Well they are amazing! Each elephant seems so happy being back in the forest where they should be. They also have an obvious love for their Mahouts. There are three herds of elephants on this project all in different areas of the forest. This makes for quite the diversity of hikes. The hikes are the most physically demanding part, hard but doable! They are amazing, the views never get old and there are always new ones to be found. The elephants move around the forest so the hikes with them change as the elephants location changes. After hikes we usually have lunch weather it be in the forest or back in the village. Aside from the elephants and the people the food was probably one of my favorite parts. I mean three regular meals a day, all with rice, and lots of veggies! This all is really just a start to telling how my amazing experience went while I was away. I could type for days about it all while having a ear to ear smile on my face. Going I had several questions, so if you have ANY I would be happy to try and answer!