A french vet student lost in The thailand jungle

Theo - 2 week intern

I am a veterinarian French student who came with no experience working with wild animals and so I was stressed but also really excited about the project.

When we arrive at the village everyone was kind, Karen people are always smiling giving you a "da blue" which means hello, thank you and goodbye. What an easy language! Around the village there are about 30 dogs that are all adorable and who always come to you to get pets. There are also lots of chickens and roosters (that make sure you don't forget to wake up in the morning, sometimes a little too early).

The homestay where we were staying was an authentic house but with all the comfort that you need.

Every morning, you are going on a hike, a little bit slippery sometimes but you get used to it. It is just an amazing experience to hike in the jungle looking for elephants.
Sometimes, you can see them in the fields so it is quite easy but sometimes you have to go deeper in the jungle to find them.
Moreover it was really exciting to have every morning new landscapes, new paths and new ways to observe elephants.
Then it makes the experience even more realistic. I have done it for 2 weeks but every time I see them it's a magical moment and I feel very lucky to be able to see them, to know them, to learn about their life and to be useful on the research program.

The research is all about elephants' behavior, it is very special to have the opportunity to study their behavior in their natural environment. So every day we follow them and study them which makes us more and more familiar with them.

When I came here, I came with a lot of questions about the ethical aspect of this sanctuary but this doubt disappeared the moment we went on our first hike.

During the afternoon, we work on a project linked to the village (we painted some signs, did some English classes) after we will have dinner with all interns and in the evening playing games. We had some good funny moments.

Few words to talk about the other interns, it was a privilege to share moments with all of them, learn about their career and their knowledge about elephants. They all presented very interesting subjects about their studies here in the sanctuary.
But also we shared lots of funny moments during dinner and during games times (especially spoon game even if I never won it). It was a sharing experience with people from around the world.

The time we spent here was way too fast and we wanted to stay longer.

This was a lifetime experience, thank you for everything all the team at KSES.