Welcome to Jennie of the Jungle!

I just got back from an amazing volunteer trip to Thailand to work with rescued elephants in Chiang Mai. Myself, my co-leader Aron, and our four JOJ volunteers spent a week in the hills of Northern Chiang Mai with the Karen tribe, who have owned elephants for centuries. These elephants were once used for subsistence by putting them to work in the logging industry. They were captured, brutally tamed, and put to work hauling large felled trees from the forest. After the advent of tourism, they were put to work in the trekking and entertainment industry, forced to learn tricks, perform, and carry tourists on their backs all day in the hot sun. Suffice it to say these animals are not treated well. Abuse and cruelty were the only ways the owners knew to keep their elephants in check. Many organizations are now trying to help Thailand's captive elephants have a better life. On the forefront, Save Elephant Foundation, run by Lek Chailert, is running a number of different proje...

Hello again. This is probably one of my most important posts, as a lot of people request information from me on cheap volunteer projects abroad. Whether you want to volunteer for a couple of weeks or a couple of years, I'm gonna give you some information on how to do it without spending the thousands of dollars that some companies want you to pay them for setting you up with volunteer opportunities. Yes projects are expensive, but a lot of these "middle-man" companies take a profit from your contribution to the charity that you choose to volunteer with. So it's much cheaper to find these projects on your own. That's where I come in. When I'm not working my arse off to make actual money doing lab work, I'm in the jungle or the forest working with wildlife on a volunteer basis. Though my ultimate goal is to build my own wildlife sanctuary, I enjoy traveling around the world doing various volunteer projects with different kinds of wildlife. My first volunteer...