January 14th: Maetaman Elephant Camp…Pizza for dinner!

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Today I woke up at 0630 to have time to do devotions before leaving for the elephant camp for the day! I ran out of time for breakfast so I grabbed a banana muffin I had bought from the coffeeshop at the hospital and a banana and we headed out for the camp with our buddies. Today Jha came with me to the elephant camp since Noon came with me to the Night Safari. We got there and the first item on the agenda was to see the elephant show. Before going to the camp, I had looked up reviews on this specific camp and had noticed that a lot of people talking about the abuse of the elephants at this specific camp. I noticed similar abuse while watching the elephant show and I was overwhelmed. The trainers were using poles with pointy spears at the ends to poke and cut the elephants if they did something wrong. The trainers would kick the elephants to get them to do what they wanted them to do. The elephants held tails all in a row, they did tricks, they painted, and they lifted and stacked big wooden poles. At one point during the show I got so overwhelmed by seeing these big beautiful animals perform and be forced to do things they were never made to do, I started crying. My buddy had to offer me some tissues and I held in the emotions as much as possible as to not upset my buddy, but it hurt me so bad to see animals treated so poorly. As I reflected later, I thought about God’s intent for animals and I do not believe animals were made for our entertainment as they were being used in this setting. Elephants were not made to do tricks and to paint on small pieces of paper. They were made to be free and to be wild and it is our responsibility to take care of these animals with gentleness and love. I understand this camp is used to give people money and help people so they can take care of their families, but there is a right and a wrong way to take care of animals and this was not the right way. I did my best to hold in a lot of my emotions about the camp and enjoy the day with my buddy as we did all the other activities. I really did have a great time taking photos with the elephants and even got a big, sloppy, wet kiss from one of them! Gross, but cute! After taking pictures with the elephants and feeding them lots of sugar cane, we got on the elephants and rode them around the trail and into the water! My buddy and I were together and both loving getting to ride the elephant! It was definitely more of a shaky ride than I was expecting, I almost dropped my phone and fell under the lap bar a few times! My buddy was screaming and was so scared she was going to fall out. I held her hand and we had a great time getting to experience this for the first time together! After riding the elephant, we took a ride on the Ox carts and that was cool too. The Ox cart also felt a little unsteady as the roads were so bumpy I thought one of the wheels would surely go flying off! But we made it through that adventure and it was time for lunch! We had a buffet lunch with delicious rice, red curry with potatoes and chicken, Chinese noodles and chicken, chicken and potato soup, veggies, and watermelon. After lunch, we road on the bamboo rafts which was a relaxing time and it finally started getting warm outside again! We all had fun floating down the river and we even got the chance to steer the raft! After the rafts, we headed back to the college and had a few hours to rest and relax!! Something I have definitely been lacking in the last week. It was nice to have time to pray and spend extra time with God today considering it is Sunday! A beautiful place Thailand is and it was good to have time to reflect on the blessing that this trip is. We ate pizza tonight for dinner which was another reminder of home. After eating pizza we played volleyball with a few of the Thai students who were not our buddies. They were very good at volleyball and it was fun to get to play as a group in the beautiful weather. We ended the night with some Thai tea provided by Jha who went to a tea place near by and picked us up some. ? Such a great day!

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