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Chelsea Nordick writes...

...about her experience while volunteering in Thailand.

First Week - 1 June 2005
It is Tuesday today, and it is hard to believe that it is almost a week into my stay here. I arrived here last Wednesday, and it was scary to come into a completely different world. Thankfully, every airport I went through during my trip had English sign helping me out. I met lots of interesting people on the planes- a Malaysian woman who was in the states for a while to teach, a Vietnamese woman who lives in Utah and does nails for a living, a Hong Kong man who used to be a rocket scientist but now lives in California and has an organic dairy farm, and so many more! The people are so friendly and even though there is a language barrier, it is nice to make new friends using body language and a few general words. the taxi driver was waiting for me at the airport. He took all my bags, paid all of the tolls on the way, and was very friendly. We got to the reserve and all of the volunteers were going to Hua Hin for the night, so I went along. It is so hot here for the first couple of days, but I got used to it really quickly. it is still a little uncomfortable being sweaty all the time. the mosquitoes are definitely the worst part, though. They like to bite my face a lot, and even though everyone tells me not to scratch them, I really can't help it.

All of the animals are amazing. We have about 12 dogs that someone rescued, and they are really sweet. The german shepherd, Eva is my personal favorite. Most of the other animals here have been taken from the pet trades, the food trades, and other things where they have been treated horribly. The hardest for me is the tiger, Meow. He was kept by a grocery store owner who just fed him candy bars and other scraps, so tourists could take pictures with him. He is so beautiful, but since he was so malnutritioned, can barely move, and when he tries to, he is very clumsy and can't move just right. It is really sad and breaks my heart every time I look at him. The sun bears and Asiatic black bears are just the best things ever. Just being around them for one instant is enough to make me entire life just that much better. they have such power over me, and just to watch them eat and bathe is fun because they are so adorable. the gibbons and macaques are great too, although a lot of them can be really mean when they want. We have two great horn bills, one of which is the property of the queen. they are very beautiful, but like to poop on our dinner table. We have a dusky langur, Luna, who is really sweet. Everyone just loves her. we also have civets, a crocodile who is a mix between fresh and salt water and can never be released because of it, a huge iguana, some tortoises, a porcupine, and many others. All the animals are great to work with, and just bring such peace with them. It is like nothing I have ever experienced.

Other than that everything else is good too. It took a while to get used to the smell because a few places here smell very much like sewage, but it's not bad now. The other volunteers are great too, and I will talk more about them next journal time. That's it for now....

Our Trip to Hua Hin - 4 June 2005
I am having such a good time here. Me, Emma, a guy named shamus and a girl from California took 2 days off from the center and all came down to Hua Hin. we had a 2 hour massage for about ten dollars, a really nice hotel (or at least it is nice to me after the center, several nice swims in our pool and the ocean, and we went to the Heineken jazz festival last night with the others from the center. it was so much fun! we even had Starbucks, I am ashamed to say, but there is no other coffee choices really, so I gave in. it poured yesterday though, so the streets there were flooded and we had to wade around them. it rains a lot now, I think that the rainy season just started. I am getting used to the heat and humidity. I don't even think that it is that warm here anymore..my only problem is sweating so much.

The bears are amazing. They are not mean spirited at all, and I would much rather work with any of them than most of the gibbons or macaques. There is this guy andy though that is just amazing with all of the primates. He can calm them down and they all love them. It is funny because he is this huge muscular English rugby player who curses a lot, and he is so sweet with all the animals. He just puts his arm near them and they all run over and they are so sad when he walks away. I do love that gibbon I was telling you about, ooh. I found out yesterday that he really hates white people though, so nobody can figure out why he loves me so much. He is my special boy. He and our blind gibbon are my favorite primates. I try and make sure that I walk by them every day and visit them. They are really special to me now, and I know that I am going to miss them like crazy when I go. Kind of like how badly I am missing Tess and Linkin right now. Anyway, I had better go. We are on our way to the beach.

Almost Three Weeks! - 10 June 2005
It is amazing to think that I have been here for almost three weeks. It seems like yesterday I arrived, but it also seems like I have been here forever. I have been having trouble sleeping- nightmares sometimes, and sometimes just thinking about Tess and Link, and how much I miss them and want to go back to them. Other than that, I love it here. We have a lot of new volunteers, so in total we have about 20 now. So many English people that don't know how to speak correct English! I think we have 10 English, 3 Americans, 3 New Zealanders, a Swede, 2 Germans, and a South African. I am teaching the English people about Napoleon Dynamite, and "your mom" jokes. Jim is catching on quick, though, but he has a lot of time because he is resting due to his really nasty gibbon bite- cola escaped last week, and bit a huge hole in his leg, probably about 3" wide. He had to have 3 stitches in the muscle, and 12 in the skin, but Edwin paid for all the doctor's bills because it wasn't Jim's fault that a Thai keeper let the gibbon escape. La, one of the female Thai keepers also got bit when she was in one of the cages the other day, and she was crying, but it wasn't that bad. La is teaching (or trying to teach me) some Thai words, but not successfully. She laughs because I can't pronounce the sounds correctly. We found out yesterday that we might have Jane Goodall coming out! There were a bunch of orangutans just confiscated, I think over 100, that we might get to help take care of, so she is coming out to check it out maybe. Also, the American embassy is coming out next weekend, and Edwin said that he wants me to come when he takes them out to the jungle. He said that it always helps to have Americans here. I am really excited. Edwin set up the big screen last night, and we watched a few specials about the centre. Other than that, no big news, just regular chore doing and such.

Return from koh tao - 22 June 2005
A lot of things have happened since my last entry. One of the men from the American embassy came out to see the center. I guess he was the guy who took care of the letters that Marli sent out last year about the center being raided. Edwin invited the Americans (me and Marli) to have dinner with them, which was really nice. A couple of American guys showed up (one even from Colorado) so we had a lot to talk about- it is funny how you connect here with people from your home country. They are leaving Friday though, and so are about seven other people, so we are going to be short handed until about July 2nd I hear. Also, the forestry department came and took 12 macaques- it was so sad to watch them being taken because they were so scared. Edwin said that he did not want to let them go, but it will make room, which we are going to need because I heard that we will be getting about 12 new gibbon, plus 8 cows I think. We also now have an ostrich, which doesn't exactly fit since it is not a native animal here, but it is still very beautiful.

Other than that, Marli, Emma, Maureen, Lauren and I went to Koh Tao for the weekend- it was so beautiful, like the pictures in the books that you always see of Thailand. White sandy beaches and crystal clear water. Wow. It was amazing. We took a snorkeling trip on Saturday that went from 8:30 am to 5pm. We didn't see that many really cool things, but it was a lot of fun and really amazingly beautiful. At the end, our boat died, and this huge cruise liner pulled up next to us, and we attached our boat to it until another boat from our company could pull up and tow us. We got burned pretty badly, but it was well worth it. We tried to get Mexican food that night, because Marli and I miss it so badly, but it turned out to be really gross- my enchiladas were very disappointing. I miss food a lot!

when we returned Sunday late night, we found out that we have a few new arrivals- an adorable baby gibbon, probably only a few months, that just sits in his little cage and sucks his thumb; and a macaque that was shot out of a tree and is not doing very well and possibly has tetanus. We were supposed to get a bintarong (not really sure how to spell it but it is a large civet) but it turned out to be a baby Asiatic black bear, and we don't have room for it, so we could not take it in right now.

Jim is finally able to walk after his gibbon bite, which is a lot bigger than I first thought. I looked at it when his stitches came out and it has to be at least 5-6 inches wide. It is a nasty bite. A lot of people have been getting sick lately, I, strangely enough, am not one of them. They have diarrhea, fever, body aches, etc. Cheryl, our vet, developed a rash today and went to the doctor, and apparently, she has dengue fever. A little bit scary, and I am wondering if anyone else has it. Not good.

Otherwise, things are good here. I fed the bears today, and am finding lots of fun ways to feed them and places to put their food where they have to really work hard for it. We even gave them some chicken today, which is very rare, but the babies adore it. They make the funniest, loudest noises. I love it. They are really amazing creatures to be able to work with. I feel so lucky just to be able to be around them, although I would love it more if I could see them in the wild. I bet it is pretty great. More later.

Everyone is Leaving!!! - 29 June 2005
It seems like everyone is leaving lately. Andy and Adam, the 2 British guys left last week, along with 2 British girls that I didn't know very well. And really sadly, Jim was finally well enough from his bite to leave. Me and Marli are very sad that he is gone, but he will be traveling for several more months, so it is good that he is better. Emma is still very sick, so sick that she really can't work, so she is leaving tomorrow when her parents come. Hopefully she will return for a bit when and if she feels better, but we don't know for sure what will happen. Also, a really awesome British guy Alan is leaving on Thursday, and I really am sad to see him go. Soon, the only people from the beginning that will be here are me, Lauren, Marli, Maureen, and Shamus. We have 2 new american girls though- Cheyenne from California, who seems really nice, and another on that just came today from Vermont I think. and we are supposed to get a lot of new people in the next week or so- how strange to think that I am one of the experienced people here - it seems like just yesterday I was learning everything, and now I am showing people how to do things.

In animal news, the tetanus monkey died, which is really sad because Cheryl had told me he was doing better. A new baby macaque arrived, and he is the cutest thing- I took some really good pictures of him sitting in his food bowl eating yesterday. We got another really sick macaque yesterday, but I haven't seen him and am not sure what his story is exactly.

We went to Hua Hin the other night and had a really good night. The boys went to a bar and watched the rugby game, but Marli, Lauren and I went to a really nice Indian place and had excellent food. Then we got a massage, some yummy Italian ice cream, and had a drink at one of the bars on a side road. We really needed a night off- everything is stressful since we are so short on volunteers.

We went to the river yesterday. It was the second time since I have been here, and it was really nice both times. The water is a perfect temperature- cool enough to cool us off, but not cold at all. And it feels like we are in the middle of the jungle when we are floating down the river in the middle of all those trees. Bram drove us there, but we walked back through the village sopping wet. Fortunately it isn't cold at all here. I still love to see all the strange looks the villagers give us when we walk down the street - the little kids sometimes yell "farang! farang!", which means foreigner. I think one of these days I am going to ride our elephants- hopefully on a day trip to the river.

I had an amazing amazing experience yesterday. I did other cages with Alan- basically the mongoose, the hornbills, the baby gibbons, the ostrich, porcupine, and random others, but for the first time, I found out that we clean the hexagon- the only cage with primates that we are allowed to go in besides the baby gibbons. It has Luna the langur, 2 gibbons and 2 macaques. I went in a little scared because some of the primates are really mean, but I took two steps in and the 2 gibbons had attached themselves to my legs. I swept for a little bit with them clutching my legs like little kids, when one of them climbed up onto my shoulders and sat on my shoulders with his arms resting on my head. I was melting at that point, and then the other gibbon climbed up into my arms and hugged my chest and just cuddled with me. I was so happy that I just stood there dazed and amazed. It will probably be on of my very favorite memories from here. I cant even put into words how amazing that feeling was. I am surprised at how good it felt.

The bears are also really good. The babies surprise me every day at how agile they are and how much they can do. I watched bouncer, the three legged Asiatic black bear scale the fence today, alternating between his three paws and his teeth- it was really impressive. when I first walked up to the baby bears cage, the 2 Malayan sun bears and the 2 tiny Asiatic black bears were all suckling on each other, and making their really cute bear noise. I am going to have way too many bear pictures by the time I leave.

Other than that, the animals are good, and I received 2 fantastic packages on Wednesday that are going to take me at least the next few weeks to eat. I am a very lucky girl to have such a caring family, and hopefully, the packages will cure both my iron deficiency and the sickness I have now. Actually everyone is pretty sick now except for 2 people, and we are trying to figure out what is causing it and what we can possibly do about it. Hopefully it will just go away. That's all for now.....

Only a few more weeks - 7 July 2005
We are in cha-am today. Marli, Lauren and I are having our first day off in about 2 weeks today- we went to the night market last night, got a hotel on the beach, slept in today until 8:30, had a nice breakfast, and are on our way to the beach. I think we might get a massage too. Things have been a little stressful at the centre- there was a guy named Rich here who just left the centre- he was a sexist pig and just made things bad for everyone for a little while. He was telling people that Edwin thinks of the centre as just another business and he makes a lot of money off of the animals, and he went AWOL from the Dutch army and lost his citizenship. It's sad because we just got about 11 new girls here and he is just spreading his lies to these people that just arrived and giving them the wrong ideas about this place- and they don't know any better because they just got here - I think most of them believed him!!! Anyway, he was also bad mouthing Cheryl, our vet, so I told her everything he said, which she told to Edwin, who basically kicked him out. His brother Rob stayed though for 2 more weeks for free because his brother treats him like dirt and Edwin took pity on him.

Anyway, enough of talk about bad things. The night he kicked rich out, Edwin took me, Marli, Lauren, Cheryl and Maureen out to a really fancy Indian place in Hua Hin and we had the most delicious dinner. then he took us to a karaoke bar/ style club where girls in gogo boots just stand on the stage and dance, and when they do karaoke, they have funny background dancers who do the moves like in music videos- it was a very bizarre night. it was kind of our independence day/Canada day celebration.

In the past week, I have gotten really sick 2 times and had to spend 2 days completely in my room- not good experiences at all. Emma came back and loaded me up with pills and I feel a million times better. She came back 2 days ago, but is only staying until Sunday before she goes back home to Sweden. She is trying to convince me that I should finish university in Sweden with her... it is almost working. I am at a really strange point right now- I think coming to the same place I came on the first night I was here made me really emotional. Half of me wants more than anything to go back home, but my other half is just really sad that I have to leave here. Hmm.

Anyway, involving the centre- we finally had some good rain!! We've been in a drought for a while, but finally got some good rain the other night and a little yesterday. If this keeps up, we might have island again in our lake and can move the gibbons back out there. Edwin had a meeting with all of us yesterday morning about future plans for the centre- there will be a lot of concrete donated for a new bear enclosure which I hope I can be involved in at least a little bit before I leave. there will be some cage movement - I think Oo might get a larger cage which I am really excited about, the 2 baby macaques will get a larger enclosure, and smoky and Lila (2 older solitary macaques that are next to each other and madly in love) might get to move in together!! The new animal food house is almost finished, and there will be a new office next door, and visitors will now have to go to the visitor's center when they first come in and read about the animals, the centre, and all the rules about the animals. It should be really nice, and finished by tomorrow.

Other than that, mama Oo came for the past couple of days ( she is Oo's old owner and she sometimes comes in to see him, and groom him, and clip his nails, and clean his cage, and feed him special food.) he looks so happy when she comes. It is so cute to watch her with him- he is like her little boy.

We are also starting a new enrichment for the 4 bears- a climbing structure. I spent a few hours stripping wood of its bark yesterday to help make it. It was fun, but I am really sore today, and think that that might be why. Well I guess I should go now- only a little over a week until Kris and Keith are here and only a little over two weeks until I see everyone....

Saying goodbye - 18 July 2005
This will be my very last journal from here at Kao Look Chang, I am sorry to say. Tomorrow Kristen will be here and I will leave with her. It has been crazy around the centre lately and I am fluctuating between being really sad to go and excited to travel a bit and return home. Anyway, as for events from the week:
A professor from northwestern came last Friday to take hair samples from our 2 Asiatic black bear cubs, Jazzy and Jeffrey. Apparently, he has been doing a study for the past 5 years, using mitochondrial DNA samples, about the origins of groups of black bears in Southeast Asia...hmmm...if I could choose a job.... Anyway, I got to show him around and lead him to the bears and the binturong. And I got to talk to him for a long time about his studies and his past in bears. He was also saying something about a paper he is writing with some colleagues about a possible ninth species of bear- absolutely amazing that I met him!!! And then Edwin invited me and Emma and Marli to go to dinner with him, a woman from the orangutan project in Indonesia, and Diana Snow, who has a gibbon project in the southern u.s. it was really nice, and exciting, and I could listen to that man talk about bears for the rest of my life. the next morning, we knocked Jeffrey out so we could check an old wound and so Gary could get his hair sample...it was exciting, and I even stayed with Jeffrey during his recovery.

This week, we got in another golden cheeked gibbon- she is adorable. We also have 2 pythons now, both extremely massive in length. We released one of our slow lorises into a nearby tree. It was really shy, so we had to leave it out overnight before it finally crawled into the tree.

Yesterday, we cleaned out the otter pool- it doesn't sound like a fun job, but the otters were crawling on us and sniffing around, and just being really cute. We also got to clean out the cage of the baby gibbons, which was an experience. A teeny little gibbon (our newest) wrapped herself around my waist and wouldn't let go, even when we had to get out. I felt terrible because she was screaming, and I wanted to stay with her, but unfortunately, I could not. And bailey, one of the other babies, was crawling all over Dickon, one of the newer volunteers, and would not leave him alone. Fortunately, I think he liked it- it was really adorable.

And today, I went with the elephants to the river. It was exceptional. I rode Kyoto with Cayleigh for about 45 minutes there, and into the river. The first thing that happened was she rolled over and I fell off. I held onto her ear and Cayleigh's hand until one of the mahouts came and saved me and told the elephant to sit down. It was a really nice swim, and then the elephants went to eat, and when they came back I climbed onto Numphoon, another elephant. We walked back into the river, where Tata, the mahout said "Numphoon, monsoon" or something that sounded like that, and Numphoon would spray me with river water. I think there will be some good pictures. We then walked back, and since I was a little more comfortable with her, I laid on my stomach on her back for most of the way back... another memory I hope I never ever forget. It was pretty perfect.

Also, the vet with some volunteer help has successfully neutered/spayed almost all of the dogs in the village. They have been working for the past 3 days, and it is going really well. Hopefully it works and there are less dogs with bad lives in the village. I went in to watch some surgery, but got nauseous the second I walked in and couldn't be there anymore.

In volunteer news, we have gotten about 5 more volunteers, so Edwin put some of the boys up in a nearby resort, and then we got even more volunteers, so he had to book more rooms in the resort, and they have to drive up and back a few times a day. It is packed here- the cook has to make a ton of extra food just to feed us all- I guess whoever was doing booking was accepting everyone, and so we now have 28 volunteers when the max is supposed to be 20 I think.

We got a huge group, almost everyone to go out last night for me and Marli's going away party- Marli is leaving the centre on Monday as well as me. I think only 6 people didn't go. It was a really good time, and I even convinced La and Noi to come. I will miss them a lot when if go. We went to Hua Hin, had dinner and went to the Hilton- a nice club/bar near the beach. There was a lot of dancing, drinking, and chatting. I wish this group had come earlier- I think it is my favorite group that has been at the centre since I arrived almost 8 weeks ago..

I made a list of 10 things I will miss the most and 10 I will miss the least.. Here they are.

things I will miss:
10.gibbons calling at 5 in the morning (no sarcasm whatsoever) it is beautiful
9.the meeting of new people, whether good or bad, even if it takes a while to get over my shyness
8.nights out with friends to the night market, clubs, or just dinner and a massage.
7.the dogs- lady and eva especially, but they are all great dogs, and I will miss them a lot.
6.the elephants- I only got to ride them one time, but just to be in the presence of something so great....
5.the rain- oh, the rain is so peaceful, and warm and just beautiful.
4.la and noi. The two sweetest, most adorable girls I have ever met.
3.good friends that I never would have known existed until this place and I don't think that I could have gotten along without. Includes Marli, Emma, Cheryl, and Lauren.
2.the animals- learning about them, finding out their personalities, and just knowing that we are helping them.
1.the bears. It is and always will be the most fantastic, special memory I have.

Things I will not miss:
10:ants- mostly the red ones, but ants all over everything all the time
9:mosquitoes and other things that bite me in the night so I have red swollen, itchy marks all over me EVERY DAY!!!
8.spider webs in my way so that I walk into them, getting them in my hair, eyes and or mouth, and usually the spider too.
7.having bad mornings that end up in hair getting pulled, me getting scratched, or things being stolen from off of me ((by the animals, of course)
6.not understanding the language that people speak around me, and wondering if they are saying bad things
5. cold shower a foot away from our gross toilet
4.not being able to stay in contact with people I love, and also missing people and dogs
3.being dirty all the time, even after a shower- especially having black feet all the time
2.bad volunteers that ruin things for everyone
1.having to say goodbye to really nice people every few weeks and never getting really close to anyone- and saying goodbye to those that you really let yourself get closest to.