By Yuko Kashioka – 1 week volunteer

I came to volunteer for KS Elephant Sanctuary with two of my daughters for one week. Needless to say, the experience with elephants was wonderful, but I cannot talk about KS Elephant without mentioning the great time we had communicating with local people. Even though we had no knowledge of Karen language, Kerri gave us basic lesson and encouraged us to talk to host family and people.

One day we had a treasure hunt for local children because this period was in the holiday season. In one of the stations I and my daughters taught origami making. Karen children were so adorable and active. We had them pick up their favorite color and animal and started making origami. Some of them were so fast in the procedures and helped other children to go on kindly.

The children seemed to be enjoying origami of crane birds and balloons from colourful paper. We had fun, too. We appreciated this opportunity because otherwise we would not be able to communicate like this with Karen lovely children. After this treasure hunt, the village people talked to us more often than before and we felt like home here. This will be a core part of unforgettable memory of KS Elephant Sanctuary!!

Also I bought a beautiful shirt of reserved dark purple, which one of Karen women recommended me as proper colour for a married woman. It is a traditional weaving of hill tribe.  I cannot wait for wearing it back in Japan!