HI everyone! I hope you all had a nice weekend. It seems we've been living one continuous weekend since arriving...and this past Saturday was no exception. We visited the Elephant Orphanage and the Giraffe Sanctuary. Both were so much fun, though I'm convinced that Joe and I had a lot more fun than the kids, which will be evident in the photos. The giraffes were just too much for Mary and Will and when the guide warned us of "head butting," that was it for them. They stood against the wall and wouldn't even go close. Joe felt no fear, though, because he ran outside, put the food on his mouth and let the giraffe eat it right off of his face. I have footage of this and will try and figure out how to load it, but until then, you'll have to trust me. I was especially entertained b/c the first time Joe did this, I forgot to turn on the video camera, so much to his dismay, he had to kiss it again!
The elephants were all baby elephants who were rescued. The youngest was about 8 weeks old (wearing the blankets in the photos) and the oldest was about 22 months. The orphanage raises the elephants and keeps them up to 10 or more years. Elephants, not unlike people, are very relationship and family oriented. The females, we were told, seem to have more intimate relationships with both people and other elephants, and so integrate more slowly into the wild again, often staying as long as 16 years in the orphanage. The males, who prefer to feel dominant, can often re-join the wild as early as 6 years of age. I found all of this fascinating. The oldest female in the bunch had mangled ears, from being caught by a herder and they were attempting to "mark" the elephant, thus mangling her ears. A wildlife preservationist (or something like that) happened to by flying over, saw the event and stopped and rescued the elephant by helicopter and delivered her directly to the orphanage via helicopter at about 6 weeks of age. She's healed, but now plays "mom" to all of the other elephants. You'll see in one of the photos, too, that the baby elephant has bonded with one of the other females and is sucking on her ear. It's very cute.
Shortly after arriving, the elephants began eating - they are all on baby formula - and they are particularly aggressive during this time, so one of the bottles went flying and the kids and I were all sprayed with milk. We wore it proudly the rest of the day. Yuck. Joe was even luckier b/c as the elephants pushed against the crowd, his hand brushed up against one and he pulled back a particularly dirty hand. The elephants, however, anxious to play, pushed over the rope and into the crowd. Luckily, we got to watch and weren't on THAT side of the ropes. As their caretakers pushed them back over, the more dominant elephant leaned into the rope and tried to get over it again.
While watching the elephants, we noticed a large group of wart hogs roaming around in the field behind the elephants, along with a HUGE heard of Impala (deer, if you are a deer novice, like me). One of the elephant caretakers mentioned that if we should see a rhino or a lion, then please make this known and don't stare, and RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! The elephant orphanage actually sits on the far edge of the National Park, which has all of the wildlife on it. This was later confirmed b/c as we looked out over the park, we could see the heads of two giraffes, in the wild! Very exciting.
On Sunday, we visited the interdenominational church that is held on the campus of the school. It's a one hour service with Sunday School for the kids during the worship hour. It was a nice service, but they were showing the third in a series of 3 DVD's by Andy Stanley. So, until we actually hear their new preacher preach, we can't make a decision. However, our entire neighborhood attends church there, since it's primarily an outreach to the expat community.
Well, it's a nice sunny day, so I should attach our photos and get dressed. The kids need to run, and I NEED them to run, too! Ha!
Much love,
Alison
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