This is the story of Chan… One of the most amazing people I have ever met.

Chan has a beautiful round face that lights up when she laughs or smiles… Something she does quite often. Her shoulder-length hair is dark as liquorice and her deep brown eyes twinkle when she is happy. But behind that twinkle there is sorrow. A sorrow so deep it is constantly hiding under the surface of those beautiful brown eyes.

Chan sees her face like a pancake. she doesn’t realize how her laugh brings joy to those around her. She thinks her eyes look like poop and she wears a turtle neck under a button down, three pairs of pants, and a wide-brimmed straw hat to keep her honey almond skin from getting darker. She thinks she is too skinny and is constantly trying to put on weight to be more appealing to Cambodian standards but, all the weight goes to her face which she thinks makes her look even more like a pancake.

Chan is one of the hardest working individuals I have ever met. Never seeming to tire and putting all the boys to shame. She is a little energizer bunny, always giving 110% even under the sweltering hot Cambodian sun. She taught herself English and can chew threw sugar cane quicker than an elephant. She never takes vacations and gives her mother 100% of her earnings.

Her mother has one of the farms in the area surrounding the Cambodia Wildlife Sanctuary. Every ten days, when Chan gets paid for her work at CWS she gives the entirety of her earnings to her mother so that she can buy whatever crops she needs for the farm. Chan keeps nothing of what she has earned for herself, nor does she even think about keeping any of it. Her mother needs it for the farm, so why wouldn’t she give her all of her wages? She is that selfless and that hard-working.

Chan’s mother is also very sick. Most likely from malnutrition although I never found out what with. Any extra time that Chan has, which is incredible that she even finds extra time considering she is always working at the sanctuary, she is helping her mother out.

Chan is truly one of the most beautiful people I have ever met – inside and out. But she is filled with insecurities and a sense of sorrow… A sorrow that seems to be constantly hiding behind those twinkling brown eyes.

She credits Lek, the lady who runs the Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai, Thailand, with saving her life. The Cambodia Wildlife Sanctuary is one of ENP’s projects and, until CWS opened up, Chan wasn’t able to earn any money.

When the sanctuary first opened, Chan worked with some of the other girls in the kitchen, constantly eating the leftover food to try and gain weight.

But she was already suffering from a slew of stomach problems… Stomach problems that, in all likelihood, stemmed from serious malnutrition.

When Chan was younger, to curve the hunger pains, she would eat anything she could. Including dirt from the forest ground. Food, and nutritious food at that, wasn’t easy for her to come by.

Finally, after so many years of not eating properly, and consuming dirt to make herself feel full, her stomach had had enough. So she took some rice, went out to a hut in the jungle, and settled in for death to join her there.

Chan was dying. She had accepted her fate and went off to die in a way that wouldn’t bother anyone. Alone and in the jungle.

But Lek happened to be visiting that weekend and she noticed Chan’s absence. After asking around for her, she learned that Chan had, uncharacteristically, asked for time off. I imagine as well that Chan’s medical state would have been guessed at.

Lek wandered around the jungle looking for Chan and, somehow, found her in her little hut of death. I’m not sure how Lek found Chan, but she did. Upon seeing the condition that Chan was in, and where she had gone to have her final moments, Lek took her to a hospital and paid for all her medical bills.

Chan credits Lek with saving her life. From the story she tells about this time, Lek did save her life. And what a wonderful soul Lek saved.

While Chan’s story is one that I will never forget, it is her spirit that left a lasting impression on me.

Thank you, Lek, for finding Chan. And thank you, Chan, for being such an incredible person. You truly inspired me in the short amount of time that I got to know you.