Unforgettable Moments: My Journey with Elephants and Karen Culture at KSES
December 3, 2024Two Weeks with Giants: My Unforgettable Research Internship at KSES
December 19, 2024By Zane Zvirgzdina – 2 week intern
Hi! My name is Zane, as I understand that I am the first intern from Latvia. I came to KSES to see elephants in their natural habitat, to experience life in Thailand and to be in nature. I wasn’t completely sure what to expect while being here, but this experience definitely exceeded any of my expectations. I definitely didn’t want to see elephants that are exploited for tourism, to see their stereotypical behaviour when they are kept captive or to directly interact with them by touching, washing, riding them etc. My favourite part about elephants in KSES is that we are here as their guests in their natural habitat, that we are outsiders and that we are privileged to see elephant life as it should be naturally.
We were 6 interns together, people from different cultures working together to collect data about elephants, their behaviour, eating habits, their association between each other. Every morning we were hiking through forest to find where elephants were at that moment, observing them for 1,5 h a day. In the afternoon worked on some projects like litter picking, making ecobricks, teaching English to villagers and their children, learning Karen language, making house signs etc. Laura, Cristina and Jasmin helped us on every step on the way and made us feel welcome, they are so smart and truly care about these beautiful animals! I’m very grateful for their work!
Life in the village was unique and definitely worth experiencing. My homestay was with Nee and her family. I felt very welcome in her house, she cooked amazing food (freshly harvested rice were a big part of that), and her mango smoothies were amazing! I actually loved the cold showers, so refreshing after hot morning hike! Simple village life with many animals around you (many dogs, cats, pigs, buffalos and chickens) gives you peace and stress free feeling after living in western big city culture. People here are lovely and kind.
Unfortunately, I had only little less than 2 weeks here, but these weeks were unforgettable!