Most pictures say a thousand words. Your photos say a million. Check them out!

 

Don’t just relive your summer abroad. Experience GLA in a whole new way next summer, in a country you’ve never been to before.

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Alumni of Elephant Village Initiative,

For many of us the fall colors are showing, the temperatures are cooling, and the newest school year is well on its way! A few months ago (can you believe it?), we were itching to absorb any moment possible, in an air-conditioned car or building; over in the scorching and sticky Thai summer. Now we’ve fanned out across the globe and are back to our “normal lives”.

As I’ve spent time thinking, processing, and absorbing the projects we were involved in this past summer it brings me a sense of elation, harnessed by pride in you! All the work you spent your sweat to complete, is not easily forgotten by me or the people and animals you all affected. We painted schools, trashcans, scrubbed moldy floors, taught Thai students, washed elephants, fed them, and harvested their food! All of these things are special because we got to experience them together and because we were ambassadors for GLA, our home countries, our families and our selves.

In Thailand you helped create memories for GLA students, other local people, and all of us staff that will be etched into minds forever. That means something to the future of the Elephant Village Initiative because you all were pioneers during GLA’s first year there and you laid groundwork that will be apart of GLA’s future work there! Anyone miss Mangosteen fruit yet? How about motorcycles? Some Thai curry?

I know I’ve had my mind on the remarkably intelligent, friendly yet wild, beautiful, elephants we got to meet and hangout with. As I’m sure is true with you, I’ll never forget the time we all spent in their company! Going forward in this year and the many more to come, keep your mind on who you are, where your going, all you’ve learned and be the leader and ambassador to the world I know all of you are!

 

In the spirit of service and with respect for all of you!

-Tim Easley, Director

 

Don’t just relive your summer abroad. Experience GLA in a whole new way next summer, in a country you’ve never been to before. Then check out Tim’s favorite memories below.

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Tim’s Favorite Memories:

-Mangosteen fruits til you drop

-Elephant eyes peering into our souls

-Poisonous Toads (though to be a cute injured frog)

-Bug-spray in the mouth

-Anyone want to get a coffee?

-Lanterns sailing our worries into the skies

-Saying “HOW” very loudly with no result!

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August 2

After Taylor and I landed at Liberia airport, we were able meet a lot of the other people from GLA including some of the mentors. I was happily surprised to find out that a girl in my Sports Service group was from the same town as me, even though I had never met her! Once everyone had arrived at the airport we all took a bus ride to Ecoplaya, our homebase for the trip. The view was always amazing, no matter where we were. After stopping at a supermarket and driving for about one and a half hours we arrived at Ecoplaya, which is spectacular! I didn’t know exactly what to expect since I had only seen pictures, but the pool, thatch roofed dining area, and beautiful palm trees definitely exceeded anything I had imagined. Taylor and I met our other two roommates, Brooke and Abby, who seem super nice! I am so excited for the rest of this trip!

August 3

Today we had orientation and met our family groups/leaders. Since the sports service section is pretty small, we are all in the same family group, and Mateo is our leader. We did a scavenger hunt, but instead of finding items on a list we had to do things like dancing on the beach and jumping into the pool. I can’t wait to see what all the other groups did! Later that night we went to a nearby beach to watch one of the most amazing sunsets I have ever seen!

August 4

Today was filled with adventure! We got an early start to make sure we had time for all of the amazing activities that were in store, including zip lining, horseback riding, and whitewater rafting. Since it was my first time zip lining, I was really nervous at first, but the nerves quickly went away and I had so much fun! Horseback riding was also really fun, especially when we stopped at a cliff and all took turns jumping into the water below. We continued the adventure with rafting. The water was surprisingly cold, but it was great nevertheless.

August 5

Today was our first service day. We began painting the community center and played with the kids who were super friendly! We also got to walk around the community a little bit. We saw some families and a building that a previous GLA group had painted. That night we learned more about Costa Rica and later listened to some scary stories.