Born to be Wild -- and a familiar face from home!

Oh man, you guys.  I really don't even know where to start with this one.  And I definitely don't know where to begin with choosing from the zillions of pictures I couldn't stop taking!  Apologies in advance for the photo overkill...but I hope you love them as much as I do.

When I look back on this experience, I'd imagine that last Thursday will go down as one of my most favorite days in Kenya. Because Aaron had a super long morning meeting and an afternoon baby doctor appointment to go to, we (my DC colleague, Brett, and I) got to play hooky from work and spent the day checking out a couple of the local animal rescue/rehabilitation facilities.  Obviously Kenya is world-renowned for its wildlife, so Nairobi is home to several organizations who rescue injured or orphaned animals in the wild who would otherwise likely fall victim to predators, drought, or poachers.  The mission of these organizations is generally to care for these animals for as long as is necessary and to give them the skills to eventually be transitioned and released back out into protected national parks so that they can join a herd and live freely in the wild.  If only I had my life to live over again, I like to think that I'd work in one of these places.  Quite possibly the coolest job I could ever imagine...

First up was the David Sheldrick Elephant & Rhino Orphanage, named for the founding warden of Tsavo East National Park and run by his extraordinary widow and a very skilled bunch of uber-dedicated elephant keepers. The center has been around for over 30 years and has successfully rescued and hand-raised over 60 orphaned elephants, each with its own sad story.  Every baby is given a name based on where it was found or the tribal connections within that region. Evidently, elephants are very emotionally sensitive and social animals, so their keepers rotate to stay with them day and night (even to sleep), essentially replacing their lost elephant families.  Since infant elephants are milk-dependant for the first 3 years of their lives, many of the orphanage's babies drink specially formulated milk (derived from powdered baby formula flown in from England in giant sacks) in huge baby bottles.  SO hilarious.  There is no set time-table for when the babies are to be eventually transitioned back into the wild, as every elephant personality is different, so each baby is allowed to develop and exercise its independence at his or her own pace.  This is a process that, depending on the elephant, can take up to 10 years...and even after that, the keepers had several amazing stories of former nursery babies returning to visit their human family members in the parks to have poacher's snares or poison arrows removed, injuries examined, or to introduce them to their own new elephant babies to whom they've given birth in the wild.

Baby Elephant Parade - just like The Jungle Book!

Water Cooler Gossip...

Lunchtime!

Elephant Baby Bottles -- 6 pints each!

I think this little guy has spent some time in
Athens -- he chugged his milk in about 5 seconds!

The tiniest baby was very, umm, spirited and got her share of gentle
talking-tos about "being nice" and "waiting your turn"

...but she also got plenty of love and snuggles

...from both the humans AND the other
elephants.  LOVE.

Still hungry, apparently...

Training for the next World Cup...

His actual words (they speak to them in plain conversational English)
were: "Look guys!  Look at the..."

Warthog!

The work that this place does is so touching, I can't decide whether it makes me laugh or cry.  Both, really.  I was just relieved to make it out of there without letting an actual tear roll down my face.  Can't say the same for this movie trailer, though, which came out last spring.  I was so stoked when I found out one of the movie's featured orphanges was here! (The orangutan place is in Borneo, Indonesia -- also too adorable for words).  My sister and I have watched this video an inordinate number of times, and happy tears may or may not have sneaked out a time or ten.  Surely this isn't because I'm overly sappy; I blame Morgan Freeman and that gets-ya-every-time narration voice of his.  Seriously, watch it.  Definitely worth your 2 minutes.  If you disagree, I don't think we can be friends anymore...

 

 

So anyway, now that my life feels totally incomplete because I'm not a keeper at the elephant orphanage, I can tell you about the oh-so-creatively-named Giraffe Centre.  This center (complete with Giraffe Manor, a boutique hotel where the giraffes can poke their heads into breakfast...or your bedroom window!) makes its mission protecting and educating the public on the plight of the Rothschild Giraffe, an endangered species whose population numbers were at one point down to 120 (now happily up to about 500).  This place is also very cool, in that you get to feed and pet the giraffes as they walk right up to you, but if I'm being honest, not near as heart-strings-tugging as the elephant orphanage.  Definitely closer than you're likely to ever get to a giraffe anywhere else in your life, though.  And I do mean that!  See the last photo below for evidence...  

The little one on the left is only a month old!

Just in case I was ever worried about my Bucket List being
incomplete, I can go ahead and cross off "kissed by a giraffe."

In addition to the animals we saw on purpose, we also encountered a few bonus animals on our Day O' Wildlife...

As we were driving down the road to the elephant orphanage, what
our driver called "the biggest group of baboons
he'd ever seen" (probably 45 of them) came pouring out of the woods
and ran alongside the car!

Stare-down...

!

Baby Baboon Piggy-back Rides!

Herds of cows randomly walking down the side of the road...

How weird & sad do skinny cows look?  Perhaps they should re-think the name of that ice cream...

Also in keeping with today's animal theme, I should mention that Aaron and Kaarli decided to give their parenting skills a little test run before Baby Boy Sundsmo arrives in a few weeks and, last weekend, bought two tortoises from some dude off the side of the road.  This, of course, is a totally normal thing to do around here.  I, as the backseat passenger on this particular day, was assigned to be the keeper of the turtles as we drove home.  I'm not exactly sure how well I did my job, but they were still alive when we got home, so at least there's that.  Since then, however, it seems something has gone awry, and they've evidently been spending their days doing everything they possibly can to escape from the yard!  The turtles may not be thrilled about their new living situation, but the guards are reportedly enjoying the new residents very much, as they now have a fun game to occupy their time during the day: keeping tabs on the runaway turtles, now affectionately known as Thelma and Louise.

The bandit tortoise duo & the salad that Aaron tried (unsuccessfully) to feed them

Now for the familiar face from home!  Yesterday, I excitedly mentioned that Emily was going to be here, and I know that many of you were probably thinking, "Who's Emily?"  Emily is my baby sister's best friend from high school.  I cheered as they played years of softball together, they never cringed when I was "that big sister" who brought them Chick-fil-a for lunch at school on my way to the airport, they've held countless sleepovers at each other's houses (plenty of which I have happily participated in -- especially the ones which included chocolate-covered strawberries and Emily's mom's famous back-scratches!), and they've melted so far into each other's families that it's hard to tell where one stops and the other begins.  Our parents are friends.  The jokes about my sister marrying Emily's little brother are numerous...and slightly creepy.  Emily's awesome aunt and uncle hosted Anna and I on part of her spring break in NYC a couple of years ago (thaaaat's right; I still go on spring break).  They loved us so much that they've now moved down to Atlanta to join the rest of the circus.  It's just that kind of family.  

Em & Faith, Nairobi-style  :)

So Emily is in her 8th month of a year-long mission trip called The World Race, where the teams spend each month in a different country doing different projects.  Her squad has so far been through the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Peru, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Thailand, Kenya, and Uganda.  Next month, they're off to Tanzania (where I hope to go visit them, if our schedules work out), then Laos and Cambodia, then home again!  They never quite know what they're going to be doing until they get there (and even then, maybe not, it seems!), but life is never dull for this group, that much is certain.  For all of you blog-reading fiends, Emily is a crazy-good writer with some stories to tell, so if you want something interesting to read and/or some good kids to keep in your prayers, add her blog to your list.  

Our days didn't consist of much -- a walk to the mall, lunch and milkshakes, grocery store, sitting around the living room, Skype dates with our families, nail painting, cookies and Nutella -- but I think it was a good break for Emily and her teammates to just sit and hang out for a bit.  Hoping for the chance to catch up with them again in Tanzania, but if not, at least we both got a little glimpse of home right here in Kenya.  Who'd have ever thought...  

So glad to see you here, Em, and I am so proud of you -- can't wait to see what big, brave things you do next! 

Emily and 2 of her World Race teammates, Tiffany (L) and Joy (R)