Perous Secret Diary - Keep Out

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R & R

R & R

everyone needs a day off sometimes: even people on a mission.

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malibu stalks

the marabou storks in nairobi are HUGE and congregate in town overnight, flying off to the dumps to pick through the rusbbish in the daytime.

they walk like humans with stooped shoulders.

and they look prehistoric: like pterodactyls, when they fly.

they have a 12ft wingspan

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meet the elephant orphans

mainly due to the ivory trade and poaching (still: WTF?) there are currently 26 orphan elephants in this sanctuary outside of nairobi.

they stay till they are about 2.5 yrs old then are successfully released back into the wild.

fascinating hearing about the elephants and the work there.

like how the elephants are traumatised when they come in and so the keepers have to sleep next to the elephants at night and become surrogate family members.

they are fed SMA human baby formula every 3 hours, 24/7

once released, the elephants, who can remember people for up to 30 years, sometimes return to the sanctuary if they are in trouble, or their offspring are.

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i try to avoid tourists whenever possible

unfortunately, as the world gets smaller, this is becoming more difficult.

i'm not in kenya for a holiday or to go on safari

but it was good to get out of the slums today and just 'be' a tourist too, for a moment.

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i liked to see these baby elephants who seemed to smile (although they probably weren't smiling).

can't imagine how cold you've got to be to kill a large animal like an elephant or a monkey, by hacking it to death with a machete.

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milky milky

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our driver has had to chain his wing mirrors onto the car to stop people stealing them.

after elephants, there was more touristic activities: went to a market to procure some STUFF of african origin

had some chicken for lunch, which our friendly translator 'moses bon venture' watched me eat then said 'oh: you didn't eat the chicken did you?'

eventually he told us why we might want to think twice about eating chicken for a while.

dinner was lebonese and delicious.

and tomorrow, we're back in mukuru and back to business.

feels like i've been out here weeks already.

Perous Secret Diary - Keep Out: August 11, 2013