Elephants, Giraffes and Rhinos, Oh My!

So I’ve finally arrived in Kenya after what felt like many mini-journeys. I first heard I was going to Bungoma, Kenya at the beginning of May while living in Kingston. As you all know, I took a journey back to the past by going home. Then I visited a completely new part of the country since orientation was in Nova Scotia. As you can probably guess, my flight to Bumgoma was anything but direct. I spent a day in Paris and a day and night in Nairobi with a morning in Kisumu before finally arriving in Bungoma last Wednesday.

Well, I’ve already been to Paris, but this time around I saw something that I have been meaning to catch for a while. I saw the unicorn tapestries at le Musée du Moyen Age. I’m not sure what it was about these tapestries that moved me. I stared at them for ages. It is a series of 6 tapestries of a blonde woman with a unicorn and lion in each. The first five represent the five senses: Taste, Smell, Touch, Sight and Hearing. The last is more ambiguous because it is simply titled, “Mon seul desir (My one desire).” I think I’m drawn to them because the female figure looks so powerful in each. There’s also something special about a tapestry because of its size. It’s hard not to feel awed by figures twice your size that used to grace the great hall of some noble. The colours in the unicorn tapestries are also particularly vivid. Quite ironically the only faded bits are those that were retouched using chemical dyes because of water damage. The vegetable dyes are standing the test of time, while our own chemical concoctions quickly wasted away.

After Paris, I took another red-eye flight to Nairobi. Now then I wouldn’t want to leave Nairobi too quickly. I had the pleasure of meeting Alissa, another volunteer, and her supervisor, Grace, who both work for another development NGO near Nairobi. My time in Nairobi became all about the animals. Even our hostel was called the Wildebeest Camp, although, disappointingly, there were no wildebeests to be found.
However, I did get to go to Sheldrick’s Elephant Orphanage. Just like the name suggests, this organization takes care of baby elephants. Now then one would think that a baby elephant would just need a lot of food, but there is so much more to the process. Elephants have a complex social structure, but they are also highly emotional. A baby elephant will often die of loneliness if they not found quickly enough or of stress. Sheldrick’s transports the babies by air to reduce the amount of stress on the newly rescue orphan. Now one might ask why the herds do not simply take care of these orphaned elephants themselves. Well, a baby elephant requires milk for at least the first 2 years, but usually 3, of its life. If its mother dies, unfortunately usually from poaching poaching although other natural causes do occur, the other female elephants do not have enough milk to give the orphan. But the orphan will die without milk. At this point, Sheldrick’s steps in. The kicker is that baby elephants are allergic to cow’s milk and will often die if given it. So Sheldrick’s imports baby formula from the UK for these little tuskers-to-be (no tusks yet when that little). I have to admit that elephants are the biggest babies I’ve ever seen with their own bottles. One of them was even able to hold her own bottle with her trunk. It made me want a trunk I must admit. Imagine all the things you could hold with a trunk . . . peanuts . .. mirrors . .. people . .. but I digress. The orphaned elephants will eventually be reintroduced into the wild where they will join a herd. Astonishingly, reintroduction takes 8 to 10 years. I did not realize that elephants were very close to humans in their maturing time. So these little tuskers have years to go before they are even adolescents.

My other animal adventure came in the form of the Giraffe Centre. In the 1970s , some people adopted a Rothschild giraffe because they were quickly becoming extinct. This one adopted giraffe has since multiplied into several that the centre now breeds with the small giraffes being reintroduced into the wild. The best part of the giraffe centre is that you could pet them and feed them. I particularly enjoyed their ears. They just look so big and floppy, but they’re surprisingly mobile and I think could be used as a form of communication. Giraffes also have the absolutely neatest tongues. These long, agile grey, prickly pine tongues will take food right out of your hand. And they’ll also take food from your lips. So I have to admit that I was already kissing Kenyans the first day I got here. Erin the giraffe convinced me that I needed some loving. Although her kisses were a little slobbier than I usually enjoy. And she was quite free with her favours because I saw her kissing lots of other people, including my friends. So ya, don’t expect your giraffe to be faithful. They’ll pucker up for anyone with some food on their lips.

After my foray into Nairboi’s National Park, I left the next morning for Kisumu. Kisumu is just a hop away from Bungoma. I arrived at the town I’ll be living in last Wednesday afternoon.