Hohenwald - Animals

For our first day on our MAB adventure, we spent our free day in Nashville, Tennessee! We explored the downtown area of Broadway and got rained on quite a bit. Despite the weather and constant hunger, we had minimal complaints and lots of bonding! Our stomachs were happy once we got some ice cream. The boys (minus one) ate salt & vinegar crickets…literally just because. We listened to live music at Honky Tonk Bar & Grill and ate many a fried pickle. We also got to see our first elephant at The Rainforest Café! Sure glad we brought a selfie stick!! Dylan got a little freaked out by the thunder storms and Taryn was surprised when the waitresses brought out a cupcake for an early birthday celebration! Nashville was soooOooo much fun!!!!1

 Today was our first service day! We started off with a brief introduction/orientation about The Elephant Sanctuary (TES) and met Todd, our volunteer educator. He gave us each elephant’s background and the reasoning for why they are at TES. We learned about the operations of TES and our purpose for serving. We were a little sad when we learned we would NOT be physically contacting with any elephants, but hearts were happy again when we got to see 4, four, FOUR elephants up close!! We planted trees for a memorial garden, in honor of all the fallen elephriends, while others cleaned up the perimeter fences. After a much needed lunch (hungry again), we got ventilation masks to haul hay and wood pallets all over the barn. We received inspirational words sung to us by one of TES’s veteran volunteers all day long. Strong bonds were made over political chats and vine cutting. Tomorrow we will be visiting the opposite side of the land, where the African Elephants freely roam in their humble abode. We ended the day with a nice campfire reflection. Many smiles were to be had today on our first day at The Elephant Sanctuary and we are so excited for what is to come!!!

  

Xoxo,

Charlie and Grace <3