Greenhouses & Elephants: Thailand

One of the best parts of Hero Holiday trips with Live Different is the ‘building project’. This project will vary depending what tripyou happen to be attending. In Mexico and Dominican Republic you will build a house for afamily, in Haiti you help build a school. The building project in tThailand is a little different. Our volunteers only travel once a year to the children's home which also receives sustainable funding from otherorganizations. This makes a ‘year after year’ project a little more difficult. So, thisyear, we built a greenhouse.

A greenhouse, you ask? Your first thought is probably‘cool’. Then you really think about it and question why, in a place so hot year round,we would build a greenhouse. Well, this particular greenhouse is almost theopposite of what we are used to in Canada. Our Canadian greenhouses aredesigned to keep heat in, allow in sunlight, etc. The greenhouse we built inThailand was thoughtfully composed to keep the sun out. Keeping the sun outmeans the plants have an opportunity to grow without being burnt by the hotrays of sunshine.

A few things make this particular project amazing:

Putting up the netting for the greenhouse!

1. As volunteers, we were able to see the previous attempts the home took to grow vegetables in the space where the greenhouse was going to be built. It wasobvious this was a need—a need that was only discovered after their basic needswere met. This home has dormitory spaces for the children, a library andmeditation area, washroom facilities, common areas and a massivebasketball/random sport court. Once the basic needs were met, the home was ableto dream about ways to make themselves sustainable and also turn a profit frommarkets. Enter, the greenhouse.
2. This project required everyone. Teamwork isalways the best—especially when working on such a beneficial project. The olderboys helped dig holes and mix cement, the younger kids jumped in on the bucketline to transfer said cement to said holes to hold the posts in place, theolder girls helped stitch the netting/fabric for the top of thegreenhouse—there was a job for everyone who wanted one! Even the really youngkids helped plant some seeds so they could begin to sprout! It was onlywith this teamwork the goal was accomplished.
3. On the last day the home throws an awesomeGoodbye Party! As part of the farewell they extended an invitation for us toreturn next year and eat the vegetables they will be growing!

It’s amazing how a big vision, paired with driven teamwork, can create something so outstanding!

That same concept is true where we had the surrealopportunity to ride elephants! Anantara is a super fancy hotel that also has anelephant and Mahout rescue program. Commonly elephants are kept as street-beggingelephants, are abused and are not kept properly to sustain their long lives. Anantararescues not only the elephant, but the mahout as well. An elephants Mahout istheir owner, the individual who has trained them and has done life withthem. This person is valuable to the survival of the elephant. Since elephantslive so long, the mahout is often with the elephant from the beginning! Rescuing both the Mahout and elephant meansthe elephant is safe and properly cared for and the mahout and their familyreceives a wage, shelter, and education! Anantara even rents the elephants fromthe Mahouts for the use at the hotel! It’s such an amazing model that does incredible things to both protect the elephants and the owners families.

Riding elephants is quite the experience! The elephant Irode is named Lana. She is 28 years old and was a hungry lady! Let me tell you, the lastthing I wanted was a 'hangry' elephant so we let her eat! When learning to ridean elephant you are taught how to mount, commands to move the elephant forward,backwards, left, right and how to stop. You learn to dismount and then mountagain another way.

Lana and I chilling in the water.... before I became completely drenched!

After our Elephant 101 crash course it was our turn to mountthe elephants! It was a little scary at first—I mean, these are elephants! Theyare massive animals— It is kind of intimidating. However, you get up, do alittle test course having your elephant go around pylons, start and stop, and then we were on our way! We rode the elephants around the amazing propertyand even had a little water time with them which resulted in a lot of laughter,awesome pictures and some extremely soaked volunteers—myself included.

I took this opportunity to chat with the Mahout who owns Lana. He was a lovely gentleman of 35 years old who has owned Lana for over 15years. He is from Thailand and, while a few other sentiments wereexchanged about how he enjoys being at Anantara, he didn’t know enough Englishto understand the other questions I was asking. It was wonderful to know thatour fun was contributing to the sustainability of such an amazing program.

The team of volunteers and their elephants!

It is through experiencing moments, like seeing a greenhouse take shape and riding elephants, we are tangibly shown the good that can come from expanding on potential which exists only once needs are met. To often, after a need is met, the deliverers leave expecting those who have received to easily grow without any further attention. Love, guidance, and encouragement are all needed to continue growth and to reach levels of potential which could have previously been unfathomable.