Doshisha International School, Kyoto - Blog

Elephant Conservation and Service Trip - Thailand: Last Day

6/9/2015

Day 6 was our last day in Sukhothai and Bangkok. After a light breakfast, we loaded the mini bus and headed on over to say goodbye to everyone and the elephants we had grown attached to before departing for 'Sukhothai Historical Park' - once the capital of the first Kingdom of Siam in the 13th and 14th centuries. It has a number of fine monuments, illustrating the beginnings of Thai architecture. We rented bikes and toured around the site together and did some final shopping at the local market stalls. Around midday we drove to the 'Sweet Rice Cafe' for our last lunch in Thailand - hot and (very) spicy chicken fried rice. We all enjoyed different aspects of the trip in Thailand, but everyone enjoyed the elephant camp the most I think.

Here is a short list of a few elephant facts we learned:

Elephants can sense a tsunami/earthquake one hour before a strike. Their feet, which have five nails, are extremely sensitive.
They eat for 18 hours a day - their diet is made up of 60% grass root, 30% fruit and 10% minerals. Elephants eat 6% of their own body weight and those who are nursing babies eat about 12%. An average full-sized elephant eats around 200 kilograms of food every day.
Each year around December, January, February male elephants produce up to 30% more testosterone than normal. This makes them act wildly and can be very dangerous if provoked.
Elephant mothers produce 20 liters of milk each day for their new born.
An elephant has the intelligence of a 12 year old human.
An average Asian elephant weights about 3-5 tons, and is 3 meters high.
An elephants trunk contains as many as 60,000 muscles which they use for breathing, watering, feeding, touching, dusting, sound production and communication, washing, pinching, grasping, defense and offense.

Elephant Conservation and Service Trip - Thailand: Day 5

6/7/2015

Day 5 started early, as usual, with breakfast, followed by some time feeding the elephants in front of the 'Sappraiwan Center.' The students then rode the elephants back into the jungle, and gave them a bath. Prasop, an expert elephant trainer with over 30 years experience and head of our camp, talked about the various plants found in nature and how they can be used to make an 'elephant spa.’ The students went on a nature hike through the jungle to attempt to collect the useful plant species that exist in the natural environment. Later, the students got a lesson in horticulture and how to plant sugar cane. Then, they took turns using a hoe to dig a hole in the garden and then plant the sugar cane. They were able to plant an entire garden area of sugar cane, which was a big help to the mahouts (who normally need to do this difficult physical labor on their own). After lunch, the mahout sensei gave further instructions on how to train elephants using a method he calls 'positive therapy,' and the students got to take turns utilizing this method with the elephants, which involves giving the elephants positive reinforcements or rewards to get them to accomplish a needed task. Later in the afternoon, the mahouts taught the students some very funny traditional mahout games, including 'cucumber soccer.' In the late afternoon we were driven into the nearest town to visit a local road side market and sample the local produce and check out what was on offer. After dinner, it was back to the mahout camp for a closing ceremony in which every student was given a certificate of completion and gratitude was shown both to the students and to the mahouts. Each mahout presented the certificate to the students they worked with, and the students also shared how they felt about their elephants. This closing ceremony was a pleasant and fulfilling way to close out the amazing experience of the elephant conservation project.

Elephant Conservation and Service Trip - Thailand: Day 4

6/7/2015

Day 4 started very early, with the riding of elephants from the jungle back to the hotel. The overall scene was quite surreal, almost like something out of Jurassic Park. This was followed by a hearty breakfast. After breakfast, the mahouts showed how they make crafts out of bamboo, and everyone was given a few of these to take home. Again we had a chance to feed and then bathe the elephants, while also getting to know their mahout better. After lunch, the group learned how to calculate the size of each elephant in order to determine how much food they should be eating. We learned that an average fully-grown elephant consumes about 200 kgs of food per day. There was also some instructions on how to monitor elephant health, as well as a demonstration of how to use a tranquilliser blow gun (in case of emergency). After a break and dinner, we closed the evening with some karaoke.

Elephant Conservation and Service Trip - Thailand: Day 3

6/6/2015

Day 3 started bright and early with a drive to the Bangkok airport to catch the flight to Sukhotai. We got to hang out at the Bangkok Airlines airport lounge for a short while before catching a beautiful morning flight. This was followed by a scenic drive out to the countryside from Sukhotai out to near the town of Phitsanulok, to our new temporary home at the 'Sappraiwan Grand Hotel and Resort'. This area is a quiet and expansive place. Students were shown to their very nice accommodations and then given an interesting lecture on elephant sign language (how elephants communicate) from a very experienced mahout (elephant trainer). Then the group were driven up to the elephant camp, where they saw how to cook rice inside bamboo and sat down outside to a delicious cooked Thai meal. After lunch, the kids got the chance to bathe and feed the Sappraiwan elephants, and each of them got to ride an elephant. DISK students were in great spirits throughout the day, and everyone came away with the feeling that they had learned a lot, and had experienced something very unique, establishing a personal connection with elephants!

Elephant Conservation and Service Trip - Thailand: Day 1

6/5/2015

What a day! Having had very little sleep on the night flight over to Bangkok, I think most of us felt the need to sleep when we arrived at our hotel close to the airport, but the heat and excitement of being in Thailand made sleeping somewhat difficult. So, most of us rested, while others ventured out immediately to explore their local vicinity. At around lunchtime, we headed into the city with our guides Richard, Koko and Jip. First stop was MBK, a mega shopping mall, we ate in the international food court and did a little bargain hunting. Then we walked through the bustling streets of downtown Bangkok to get to Jim Thompson's silk museum, were we saw traditional Thai architecture, Thai dance, and learned about the art of silk weaving. From there, we caught the bus to a local restaurant (yes, more food!) where we were exposed to an array of new spices and flavors, mostly delicious, others too hot. The highlight of the day was the visit to Lumpini Park and Wat Saket. Fortunately for us, today was the Lord Buddha's birthday, so we got to participate in the ritual ceremony held at the temple along with 1000's of other Thai locals, who all made their way up to the top of the temple and circled it three times- symbolic in Thai Buddhist culture. Dead on our feet, we caught the bus back and crashed at the hotel.

Elephant Conservation and Service Trip - Thailand: Day 2

6/5/2015

We're closing out a great 2nd day in Bangkok. We visited the 'Grand Palace', had a delicious buffet lunch, took a boat cruise along the 'Chao Phraya River' through the heart of the city, fed fish and bought some durian, lychee, mangosteen and rambutan from a local river boat vendor to try. Later on, some of us had a two hour traditional Thai massage, others went souvenir shopping. We ended the evening with an authentic Thai meal, accompanied by music in a lovely restaurant overlooking the 'Chao Phraya River'. Tomorrow we have to get up very early to catch our flight to Sukhothai, where the elephant fun will begin!

Service Week

6/3/2015

The money raised during Service week was donated today to Kiva and the International Justice Mission:

Kiva (US$125)
- Mr. Murad in Palestine will get a home water filter system for his family.
- Ms. Zenayda in Nicaragua will buy concrete and rebar to build a home.
- Mr. Hour in Cambodia will buy a solar system for his home. Currently he has to use car batteries for home electricity.

IJM (US$110)
- The money will go toward stopping violence and modern slavery in developing countries.

The parent network will also be donating 30% of the profits from the DISK Fair to our two student selected charities! The students enjoy choosing Kiva loan recipients and we have created a DISK Kiva profile. If you are interested in seeing who receives our loans, or if you would like to donate some money yourself, please visit us here:
http://www.kiva.org/lender/diskyoto

Spirit Week

4/21/2015

The Spirit week this year was a big success. Students were able to raise 10,923 yen through bake sales, proceeds from the school store, and direct donations. For school spirit, students watched movies during lunch and made inspirational posters to decorate the halls with. Relating to school service, students heard a heartfelt lecture by two doctoral students from Doshisha University about the devastation of the super typhoon that hit the Phillipines last year, their homeland.

As a culmination, grades 6-8 hiked the Philosopher's Path and Mt. Daimonji to raise money and awareness for the two global charities chosen by our student service committee this year: International Justice Mission and kiva.org. Thank you to Beck Hata and Natsumi Sakai for organising much of the week and for teaching our 6th-8th graders about the rich history of Obon and the philosopher Nishida Kitaro. Please have a look at our school service wall outside of the Principals's office to see more of what DISK students have done this year to make both the school and the world better places. We will be posting the kiva.org micro loan recipients' profiles on the service board shortly.