If Jade Egelhoff had to write a book report titled “How I Spent My Summer Vacation,” her teacher would probably do a quick double take. When the Gig Harbor teenager talks about riding elephants across rivers and teaching English to Thai students ages 4 to 15, she’s not kidding.
“I always wanted to go to Thailand. I love elephants,” the 18-year-old said.
As she was preparing to graduate from Gig Harbor High School, she searched the Internet for something that sparked her interest — and found a perfect match. A company out of Philadelphia, “Cosmic Volunteers,” pairs up people with their passions in different countries across the globe. One package placed volunteers in a refuge camp for abused elephants. The duties would include cleaning stalls, caring for pachyderms and teaching English to students at a school across the street. It might not sound like an ideal vacation to some – but to this teenager it was a dream come true.
She started saving the money and her parents paid for half the trip as a graduation present.
“I just save my money — I don’t go shopping or anything,” she said. “Out of all the companies I looked at, Cosmic Volunteers was the best. They had the best prices and had just what I wanted.”
The trip was pretty far fetched for the teen that had never been out of the United States, except for a cruise with her parents, and had never traveled alone.
“I ran up such a huge phone bill,” said her mother, Michelle Egelhoff. “Ofcourse I wanted to see how she was doing and learn all about her experiences.”
“I was a little overwhelmed,” Jade said. “They spoke very little English. But the vet I worked with spoke a little bit and the trainer, called a ‘Mahout’ spoke it pretty well.”
Egelhoff worked alongside a veterinarian in an elephant camp called a ‘Maetaman.’”
“They buy elephants that have been abused in logging,” she said. “They teach them painting and little tricks. They nurse them back to health because a lot of them were used for logging and they get a lot of abuse. We treated them for arthritis and one had an infection on his foot from stepping on a rock in the river.”
Each elephant was paired with a Mahout that cared for them around the clock.
Egelhoff helped out washing the elephants, feeding and cleaning their living area. Her reward was getting a ride each day and just being close to these giant, intelligent creatures. She even got to meet “Hong,” a painting elephant that reached celebrity status by appearing on the National Geographic Channel.
“They train them to play soccer and then they put on shows for tourists,” she said. “They give people rides and show how strong the elephants are. I wasn’t intimidated by them because I love elephants.”
Egelhoff proved in other ways that she was no princess. She passed up an apartment above a gift shop to stay in a raised thatch hut.
“I wanted to rough it,” she said. “There were a lot of bugs in the room. One morning I woke up with ants crawling all over me.”
Photographs of Egelhoff’s feet show big welts from bug bites. But the biggest bite she got was from the travel bug. She is planning a trip to a spider monkey orphanage in Mexico this June and a trip to Kenya in August.
What she brought back from Thailand was intangible, but extremely valuable. She brought back a new respect for things Americans take for granted.
“They have a lot more respect for their elders,” she said. “It’s funny — over here you just eat and run. Over there people sit and talk. It was kind of nice. They don’t work as much as Americans and things are more relaxed.”
But the true jewel the American brought back in her pocket was a newfound respect for education.
“Before I left I never really got good grades in school,” said Egelhoff, who now attends classes at Tacoma Community College. “But now I’m getting As. Here we get an education, but over there it’s a privilege. Those kids walk five miles to go to school because they want to go. I love these countries so much. It makes me really appreciate the freedom and education we have.”
The teen also brought back a clearer focus on what she wanted to do with her future. She always wanted to work with animals, but is now zeroing in on a career as a veterinarian and hopes to transfer to Pacific Lutheran University in the near future.
“Before I left I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do,” she said. “Now I think I want to be an exotic animal vet. I would love to work with elephants, but there’s really not a whole lot of them around here.”
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