baby elephants and giraffe kisses?! YES

Day 54 (10/28)
This morning we had cook crew…I made eggs and fried aero-root. After breakfast we played more banana grams, and left camp around 8AM. We drove for about an hour through rolling hillsides and farms scattered with dead cows in the beginning. As we got farther away from camp the tin sheds because rock castles and the single family farms became big pure green fields with healthy cows and sheep with wool! We finally got to a paved road, and a town called Karen, which is one of the suburbs outside of Nairobi, most people there are extremely wealthy.

We then got to the Elephant Orphanage and the gates opened, first thing we saw was a warthog. She was big, at least 2 ½ feet tall, super wide head and long tusks, with 4 tiny babies surrounding her running around and playing in the mud and head butting each other.

We drove up to the area with the elephants, walked in and there were stalls for each elephant and beds in them too for the keepers to sleep with them at night. They weren’t in there because they were all on their morning walk but directly in front of the elephant stalls were two RHINOS! We couldn’t stop and had to walk by to get to the elephant area.

There was a rope to separate where the people were supposed to be. They allow people to come every day from 11 to 12 because that’s one of the times they get their bottles in the play area. There was a small wading mud-hole and soccer balls and then branches set up.

Someone talked to us about their program and how human-wildlife conflict, poaching and drought are the main reasons they have the elephants that they do. There are 3 age groups that the elephants work through while in close contact with the keepers and then are eventually they are released into Tsavo National Park to live on their own. They have 31 elephants at the moment, and 3 rhinos. One just got released into the orphanage’s dispersal area but comes back to visit occasionally (he is about to be translocated to another park). And one rhino is blind and will be released into a fenced 100 acre plot for his lifetime because he has no chance of being released into the wild. The other one is a smaller baby then the other two and we didn’t see him.

The first group of elephants came into the area, all with blankets on to keep them warm so they didn’t get phenomena. One had a zebra blanket on which was so adorable. Someone talked to us about all of them, how they got there, names and ages. They were so adorable, playing and fighting, having the care-takers comfort them if something went wrong and they all seemed so happy. This first group was about 1-4 months old, so they were all very new to the program and had recently either lost their herd or watched their mother’s die. The care these care-takers give each individual elephant is remarkable and each one is given 24 hour care and one on one attention, just like their mother would in the wild. The cutest thing was watching them figure out how to use their trunks to drink. They had tubs of water and the smallest elephants obviously had not figured out how to suck up the water in their trunk and then blow it into their mouth. The care-takers helped some who were frustrated. One of the babies went onto the other side of the rope into the people and was determined to get to the branches on the other side. Someone went to get him to bring him back in and he was just not interested in being on the elephant side of the fence. Eventually they got him over, after a small temper tantrum (just like human babies), only they are about 250 pounds.

Two more groups were brought out, each getting bigger and more determined to get to their bottles, and then quickly turn to get another’s bottle. Some played in the water and others tried to dump the water trough over. They again told us all of their stories, there were some noisy complains and small tussles over who got what branch...more like kindergardeners. Elephants have such a complex social structure, understand death, birth and go through countless emotions, it is just unreal that anyone would want to slaughter such a magnificent animal just to make an ornamental object. Same with Rhinos...but demand will equal supply.

There were a few times when the elephants would walk up to the people and you could pet them, or they would walk right by the rope and you could pet them. It was amazing. There were quite a few times we got to touch them, and baby elephants are hairy with sparse hairs everywhere, but surprisingly soft.

The talk/feeding time was finished and we went to go see the rhinos. I got some amazing pictures, they were both close up to the fence so we could pet them and their horns are huge. Long and slender, they look just like bone, and it’s so disturbing that there are people in this world that would needlessly butcher such a magnificent animal for supposed medicinal purposes, or to use as dagger handles. Everything about them is spectacular, their shear massiveness and width alone is breath taking. Their horns are much bigger and longer then I imagined them being.

After the elephants we left to go to the Giraffe sanctuary. We drove up and there is this building with a wrap-around porch and giraffes in a field in the background. We walked up the steps and immediately the keepers got the giraffes to come over. We fed them pellets and their tongues are so long, rough, and prehensile. Fun facts: giraffes tongues are purple so they don’t get sun-burnt and prehensile so they can easily just pick the leaves off the acacia trees which have huge needle-like thorns to protect their leaves.

Some people got giraffe kisses too. Haha. They have about 10 giraffes there and then release them when they are big enough. They had Rothschild giraffes there which are rare in the wild. It was a really cool area that has been operating for many decades and depends on the support of people coming to feed them, they also gave us a talk on the giraffes. We were allowed to pet them when they were being fed, they are actually really soft and their lips are fuzzy. Being at eye level with them was cool because it gave you a good perspective on how tall they actually are and what they see.

The bead making factory was next, called Kzuri Factory. They employ single mothers, provide health care and transportation for them to work. The beads they make are fantastic, its all clay that are molded differently and painted, most of them are big bulky beads. They make mostly necklaces and bracelets. They also had some pottery which was amazing and all hand painted.

Finally we went to a gas station...one with real pizza and soft serve ice cream. Everyone was in heaven, it was a perfect end to a perfect day.



Day 53 (10/27)
This morning we had breakfast. We had already discovered there were sugar ants everywhere and in everything that is left open even the slightest bit. There were hundreds in the syrup this morning. Gross. But they are itty bitty and completely harmless so it could be worse. The vervet monkeys are also quite a bit more bold at this camp site. If you leave fruit on the ledge of the chumba, its gone…especially at meal time. They aren’t aggressive but they know what time meals are at and are sure to make an appearance. They also like shower time and occasionally will sit on the rock wall surrounding the outdoor shower watch you. Haha.

We had class today, just some wrap up classes, and a guest lecture on Black Rhino conservation. We played banana grams for hours today. That game is so addicting and rewarding when you win.

There is no internet at this site, so we’ve been watching hours of The Office too, and movie nights and things.

Fun Fact: Our curfew to be back inside the fence from the soccer field/outside running route is 6 pm. The predators come out to hunt around 6:30 when it gets dark.