India

India is the country that inspired Elephant Thoughts.  The founder of the organization traveled to India as an 18 year old on an exchange program.  Living with a Nepali family in the small village of Mirik (in the Himalayan Mountains on the border of India and Nepal), our ET founder discovered that happiness does not come from material wealth.  At the time of his first visit, the community had very little by western standards: no electricity, no running water, no medical care, and a struggling education system.  Yet even in these circumstances, the people of Mirik were extremely warm, generous, and fun loving.  It was obvious that despite poverty they had something that the west had lost long ago.