Kanchanaburi

The first activity they had planned for us on Friday was elephant trekking! It was two people per elephant and a rider pretty much guiding the elephant. Occansionally the guide would hop off and we could each sit on the elephant's neck by ourselves! I have some really great pictures that I will be posting soon! They took us through a small village and down to the Kwai River. Once we got to the river we were able to get on bamboo rafts and take a relaxing drift down the river. Our paddler let us jump in and take a swim next to the raft. When we got back from rafting, they had some lunch for us and a baby elephant for entertainment. This little elephant could play the harmonica, dance and hula hoop around it's trunk, it was pretty awesome!

After the lunch we all got on the buses and headed toward a children's orphanage. It was probably the best part of my whole time yet in Thailand. The orphanage we went to, was solely run by donations and all the staff that worked there also lived there. They grew their own food, and as a community built all the buildings they use. They teach the children to call them Mom and Dad and use them as the family they don't have. 

They hold community meetings where the children can speak up about what they want in the small village and play a part in making decisions. We each got into groups 

and taught a lesson to a group of the kids. Even though they knew most of the lessons we came up with to teach like numbers colors, animals, they were good sports about it.

After our lesson we could hang around, go to the gift shop and play with the kids. They loved taking pictures, and fooling around with us. THey were quite adorable. I'll be posting pictures from Kanchanaburi soon!