Into Kenya

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Visited the David Shedrick Elephant Orphanage where we were treated to seeing the antics of 26 elephants ranging in age from 6 months to 4 years. All of the elephants have been rescued and will be returned to the wild. Many of these 26 were retrieved after they had fallen down a well, some were left orphaned because poaches had killed their mother. The babies are absolutely adorable and were tourist friendly, approaching us and allowing us to pet them. They loved rolling in the rich red clay dirt and piling on top of each other, They were feed from huge baby bottles, a special formula similar to human baby formula, It was charming watching these infants and very encouraging to see that there are many who are striving to make a difference in the lives of these young animals.

My guide, Shoddi, was a 21 year old young man who is from Mombasa and from a family of 9 children, during our day together I asked to go to the cemetery, which he obliged. Just outside the cemetery was a group of merchants, one of which happened to be Shoddi's sister, who was there selling used clothing. I had an oppotubity to seet her and her two adorable young boys, ages 2 and 4, boys.

The cemetary was poorly cared for and Shoddi explained to me that many grave robbers are at work to unearth the new grave to retrieve the casket to resell it. We saw a couple of burials taking place and the cemetary had a concession stand selling Fanta, Coke and other beverages and a local street food vendor was pedaling smokie sausages. My day also included a stop at The Giraffe Center where I fed The Rothschild Giraffe, which is on the verge of extinction with just 800 of these magnificent animals still roaming the planet.

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