December 19, 2017

Surin, Thailand: Bougie Group

Here’s a little bit about the wonderful friends (and volunteers) I got to spend time with while we were in Surin! Amazing people ??

L: 18 year-old from Germany, who just finished her A-term (equivalent to American high school). She was on her own personal adventure, before going back for college. This was the first time she ever did anything like this, but had her whole trip planned. Her parents were encouraging, which is something Americans lack (parental support for international traveling and volunteering). At first, we all thought L was going to be quiet the whole time, but that front quickly broke. While she might have been the nicest of us all, that girl had a sassy side! It was hilarious to finally see it come out. She had the kindest heart and really cared for the animals we can in contact with. We left her in charge of some things when we left – watch over the puppies and clean the rest of the forest…and don’t let the mahouts slack. And it should be known, she kept her jobs pretty well until she left a month after us. L has a big future ahead of her – she was quick-witted, intelligent and had a true passion for animals that was evident while in Surin.

K: 19 year-old from Germany, who also had never been on a trip like this before. (L & K did not know each other prior to coming to Thailand!) K also just recently finished high school, and was taking some time to explore before going back to pursue a fashion/design interest. Lucky K had much more than just Thailand planned in her future. After Surin, she was going to spend two weeks in Bangkok with her parents and boyfriend, go home for Christmas, and then head herself off to South Africa. K was full of sass and had a fun attitude from the beginning. Her and JM both loved music, so they had their times off sharing music and songs together. She was a bright, young girl, who also has a lot going for her….(just needs to quit the smoking!) LOL – don’t worry, we all gave her shit during our stay!

R: R! So much to say about him. He lived in San Francisco, but he loved traveling, so he split his time between SF and everywhere else. His true passion was definitely elephants. The man had elephants on everything – shirts, baggage, key chains, laptop. I mean EVERYTHING! He even adopted an elephant that was living at the ENP. This was R’s 7th or 8th year on the Surin Project. If I remember correctly, he was part of the first volunteer group when Surin began. He was close with his home stay family, who had recently been displaced. The bond he has with both mahouts and elephants was amazing – you can really tell where his heart is. Every year he comes back to the project, he brings all the mahouts a new SF piece of clothing 🙂 True fact: R LOVEDDDDD to talk! I can’t remember a quiet moment when R was around. He voiced his opinions, shared his stories, and made us all laugh quite a bit. If he hadn’t been on the project that week, the experience would have been much different. He made it very special (and never quiet)! While he would deny it, he was totally “bougie” – wearing suits in first class and lots of money to throw around. HA- he would die laughing if/when he sees this!

T: T was a vet from Martinique. She had a lovely accent and looked much younger than her age! Absolutely beautiful. Her and I got a long quite well, and I learned a great deal from her. She was studying for her vet exams that she was going to be taking in November. She had previously been to the project, and wanted to come back to study elephants more. Before studying elephants, T had studied rhinos in Africa. Due to some of the “happenings” in Africa, she was forced to change animals and went with elephants – another large animal, can’t be too much different, right? HA! Great choice…and so happy she was able to join us during our week of being in Surin. T invited JM and I to Martinique and France to visit her – and I’m pretty sure both JM and I will take her up on those offers. I would love to reunite with her again. (If you remember, we ended up staying at the same hotel in Bangkok as T, on our last day!)