Elephant Soccer

       Kissing a giraffe may not be at the top of everyone’s wish list, but it was certainly in the top ten on Seri’s, and while in Nairobi, it moved up to number one.  How is it even possible to kiss such a tall, wild animal?  The logistics alone are a hurdle.  I asked Seri,

       “What are we going to do? Chase them until we catch one and then ask if they would bend that long neck down for a smooch? Besides, it seems pretty gross to me.”  

       “No, silly, Giraffe saliva is a natural antiseptic, so it’s perfectly clean.”

       “How do you even know these things?”

She laughed and with a twinkle in her eye said,

       “You’ll see, it will happen, but first we are going to the elephant orphanage because we can only visit the toddlers between 11:00 and 12:00pm.

       We found the receptionist at the hostel and asked for a trusted cab we could hire for the afternoon.  She, in turn, asked us where we learned our Swahili because she thought it was so good.

       “Thank you, we learned it in Tanzania.”

        “I thought so.”
        We walked into city center to find an ATM for some Kenyan Shillings.  We marveled at the paved roads, curbs, and tall buildings. It was very cosmopolitan and the people were stylish and beautiful.  We were experiencing reverse culture shock.  We also felt very oddly dressed in our 'Moshi appropriate' modest clothing.  Seri mused, "We look like we just came to the big city from the sticks."
         We climbed into the cab and greeted our driver named Paul. Seri gave him the list of places we wanted to visit that day and we took off for the Sheldrick Elephant Orpahange.  It sat on the edge of a national park, and the elephants could only be viewed one hour a day, during feeding and play time.  The babies are orphaned for a variety of reasons; mostly because poachers killed the parents, but also the mother might have fallen into a well, or sickness could have taken the parents.

        Elephants are very smart and are also emotional creatures. If you blow your breath into their nose, they will remember your scent for seven years, and when they lose their families, they remember that too and are devastated. The orphanage replicates their living situation until they are old enough to make it on their own.  In the wild, mother elephants constantly circle their babies shading their delicate skin from the sun so it doesn’t burn. At night they pat down the brush to make it soft, signaling it’s time to go to bed.  Then they snuggle up next to them to keep them warm.

        At Sheldrick they use umbrellas to protect the babies from the sun.  At night they take a mattress down from a ledge, pat it down, wrap them in a blanket, and keep them company until they fall asleep.  They also routinely switch out the handlers so the elephants don’t bond with them, and then eventually have to lose them too.  Once the elephants do go out into the wild, they may run across relatives who take them into their herd. If not, somehow the others know they are orphaned and embrace them as a new member of their family. The elephants are free to return to the orphanage at any time. They have one elephant that comes by every few months, eats some free food, checks on the new kids, and goes back out.  I now love elephants.

awe, he's learning to hold it himself

that's sunscreen on his ears

a game of football at recess

This is the red dust of Africa.  The elephants throw it on themselves to keep from burning.
The elephants are actually gray, by the way

       Next stop was the Rothschild Giraffe Center, also on the edge of a national park.  The Rothschild giraffe almost became extinct so the center started protecting and taking care of them.  Thanks to their efforts, the numbers are up and there are now four hundred and twenty of them living in the wild.

At the edge of the land they’ve built a two-story information center, and on that building is a porch, which is the perfect height to be eye level with a Rothschild.

And on that porch are pellets, which are made of oats.
And if you take those pellets in your hand, a giraffe might come over to eat them.

And if you put those oats between your teeth

Wait for it…

Wait for it…

KABOOM!  Giraffe love, that’s what I’m talkin bout!  Nothing could be better.

Except for maybe a French kiss

       Back in the car, Paul laughed at us as we went on and on like school girls about how awesome the experience was.  We asked if he’d ever kissed a giraffe, and he said, “No and I never will.”  While riding to the next stop, he asked,

       “You learned your Swahili in Tanzania didn’t you?”

       “Yes, how did you know?” We looked at each other and bewildered we asked, “Paul, why does everyone keep mentioning this to us? No one says anything about it in Moshi.”

       “Because in Kenya we speak English, and we only learn Swahili as a second language.  We can understand a little, but don’t speak it very well. You speak better than we do, and you're white.” He grinned.

       “Oh, we had no idea! About the Swahili that is."
       "Yea, we knew we were white. I guess that explains all the comments.” 

       We were so thankful for the language lesson’s we’d been provided by CCS, and couldn’t wait to get back and tell Mama Fatuma the news. 

        We moved on to spend some time at the museum and plantation of Karen Blixen, the acclaimed author of the story, Out of Africa. It is a sad tale of her time in Kenya in the 1920's. In the midst of her loneliness and grief, she treated her African workers with dignity and among other things, opened a school for them in which they could learn to read.  Today, there are many places in Nairobi named Karen to honor her kindness.

is it karen?

The roaster from the failed coffee business

        Riding with Paul again, we quizzed him on his Swahili. I asked him,

       “Have you heard the phrase; poa kachizi, kama ndizi?” 

       “No, what’s that?”

       “Cool crazy like a banana.”

       “What?” 

       “It’s a rhyme they say when something is cool.” 

       “Say it again, I want to learn it.”

       “Oh my gosh, what kind of turned around world is this, that I’m teaching Swahili to an African!”  We laughed as the lesson began.

       Walking through the city of Nairobi, we began speaking exclusively in Swahili because it was so much fun to have them practice. Kenyans tried to get us to buy their wares on the street, and engaged us in conversation.  “Hapana asante.” No thank you, we said as we walked on.  One shouted out to us, “Hey, where’d you learn--“ “Tanzania!” we yelled back and waved. 

We were country bumpkin rock stars.

Thanks to Seri for some of these photos