First full day

Where to begin? I have drafted this blog post in my head throughout the day, and each time, there has been a different theme. Yesterday was our first full day of our Earthwatch expedition, and the variety of experiences is making it hard for me to decide what to share with the readers of the blog.
Yet, as i am slowly waking up this Sunday mining in Thailand, there is one key experience that beckons sharing. Before I dive into that, here is a quick overview of the types of things I (Karon) did yesterday.
7:00. Connie and I took a walk through Sub Ruk and dropped off laundry and bought fruit for the groups breakfast.
7:30. At breakfast as a team
8:00 I packed my bag in perpetration for heading up to the research sight.
8:15 my team (3 Earthwatch volunteers and two Think Elephant International research assistants) drove to the elephant camp.
8:30-11:30. We did three different cognition experiments on three different elephants. For each experiment I was able to assist in a different way which helped me to expand my skill set in data collection, and also to see a "group lab" set up as a student. (There will be more about this in future post)
11:45-12:15 we returned to the office and met up with the other volunteers. We watched the first 30 min of the BBC special Super Smart, which showed cognition evidence in a variety of species.
12:30 lunch
1:00-2:00 we all traveled back up to the field sight and did 40 minutes,of behavioral observations. This is where volunteers watch in detail the interaction of three elephants in a large area.
2:00-4:00 we returned to the office and had a class on elephant cognition and a summary of what type of research has already need published about the work done by Think Elephant and what kinds of things they are trying to figure out.
4:00-5:00 we took a walk through town and picked up a few souvenirs.
5:00-6:00 showers, e-mail get ready for dinner
6:00-7:00 we ate dinner at a restaurant overlooking the Mekong river and we could see Laos, Burma and China.
7:00-9:00 we drove up to the very nice 5 star resort Anatara and listened to a presentation about marine mosaic ecosystems.
9:30 called it a day
So, as you can guess there was an overwhelming amount of things that were new powerful and intriguing that I wanted to share. But one particular part of my day stood out as worth sharing in detail.
While up at the research site, we worked with three different elephants. Two elephants were part of new studies, but one was being tested on her ability to be presented with two buckets, one with food, the other without. Then the buckets would be pulled away, the lids unfastened, and represented to her. She the. Had to choose which bucket to swipe the lid off to get to the food.
The experiment itself was fairly basic and strait forward, but the elephants personal story is what I found compelling. He name is LeKang, and she has only been at the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant preserve for about a year. She was found injured and it is assumed that she was hit by a car. She clearly favorites one leg, has very clumsy dexterity with her trunk and is very skittish and nervousness. In Thailand, it appears that all captive elephants have their own personal Mahots. This is a person (typically male) who is the elephants trainer and keeper. Mahots are becoming a rarity as the demand for captive elephants as workers has decreased due to logging banns. Elephants are also costly complicated animals to keep. So, a Mahot has a big decision to make when it purchases an elephant, because they need to earn a living with the elephant in order to maintain it and sport their own family.
Yet, despite all of that, LeKang's Mahot took her, and over the past year has patiently and lovingly worked with her. She sweetly causal ambled to the sight. Her Mahot did not carry any tools to manage her, but his voice and presence. When she got to her spot, he reassured her then moved off to the side. As we worked with her for the trials, I could see his glee and pride when she made the correct choice.
What struck me was that here was this elephant and her Mahot, and they were reinventing themselves outside of the norm and taking a huge risk. The goal with LeKang is to have her confident enough to do presentations for school and tourist groups so that they can see elephant cognition up close. Because of her injuries she is not able to do treks, but this program has found a way to use this elephant in a way that she brings value to her species, her Mahot, and hopeful to herself.