By Isabel Jessel – 4 week intern

My experience at KSES has been fulfilling, interesting and grounding. I feel lucky to have lived in a village full of life, I would open up my door first thing in the morning to see at least some kind of animal to greet me good morning, dogs (shout out to Scooter), chickens, chicks, cows, cats, buffalos, pigs or piglets. For every lunch and dinner, my lovely homestays had cooked me delicious meals with a variety of well spiced vegetables and, of course, perfectly cooked rice every time. Even if I tried to, I just won’t forget Nee’s sensational smoothies. I loved how at meal times we would all share our meals and reflect on the day so far, we all got to taste so many different creative concoctions with an array of flavours made by our homestays. The sense of community in the village and the working atmosphere at KSES was authentic and spirited.

Even just the hiking to and from seeing the elephants, was enough of an adventure to say being an intern was a worthwhile experience! I have never seen so many cool looking insects and plants in such a short space of time. Laura (built up my courage) to hold a millipede, I got to see multiple praying mantas, there were brightly coloured butterflies magically fluttering by every so often, the caterpillars were alien in colour, shape and size. My eye would often be caught by the countless variation of majestic and gnarly trees sometimes wrapped in spiralling vines. Some would even lean over the rivers to create magical arch ways for us to walk through and others would bend at 90-degree angles meaning we’d have to duck under or hop over them. We even got to hear gibbons calling out across the jungle, a strange but lovely sound I remember thinking to myself!

Observing the elephants was a deeply inspiring experience, I learnt A LOT. Firstly, my empathy grew as the elephant expert Laura, would share endless knowledge of what they need to live a full, healthy life which compared to what I know of the living conditions in typical tourist ‘sanctuary’s’ for many elephants is heart breaking. Secondly, from observing elephant’s natural approach to life, was, in itself, packed with wisdom. Their sensitivity authentically radiates, their pace of life (particularly when watching them walk in slow motion) would relax my soul, how much they care for their tribe no matter what, touched my heart and getting a sense of such intuitive beings left me with a clearer perspective on what I need and my values. Lastly, after getting a better understanding of how they interact with the world in terms of their sensory experience, I realise they are more different to humans than I’d thought before coming to KSES. The way they scan their surrounding environment through waving their trunk in the air and smelling around to receive information. The fact they communicate through seismic vibrations in the ground bewilders me, the fact they have around 40,000 muscles in their trunk alone I found hard to process until I watched them casually snap trees whilst strolling along and how they walk on their tip toes supported by pillows of fatty tissue underneath that act like pogo sticks when walking, gifting them with unbelievably good balance, definitely something I can’t relate to….and the list goes on. And so it became apparent, that to me being a human, elephants are like real life superheroes with alien powers and are innately selfless souls of whom ALL deserve to be free.

Thank you KSES, I will be spreading the word. I wish you nothing but success in your goals!