I (Colleen) finally got to see some wildlife! On the drive to Nairobi we saw Zebras grazing beside the road, warthogs rooting around and baboons hanging out around signposts. It killed me that we were driving and I couldn’t get out and take a closer look at them all! Cason locked the door and told the Vanderhoofs to floor it so I couldn’t try and get out ; )
The real excitement happened on Saturday, because we went to an elephant orphanage! This organization rescues baby elephants from all over Kenya that are stuck in wells, sick, whose parents have been poached, etc. Their stories are very sad but they are so happy at the orphanage. They have them in family groups and help them to bond and adjust. Go to www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org if you would like to read the stories about how each elephant was found. We watched the caregivers bottle feed all of the babies and then they played in a big mudhole, wrestling and spraying each other with water. It is amazing how intelligent elephants are! They even kicked around a soccer ball. Some were very curious about the people standing around watching them and would come over to check us out with their trunks. One even got a little frisky and decided to take a detour through the crowd instead of sticking with the group as they were all leaving. I wanted to take one home! Click HERE to see some more pictures of the baby elephants.
While we were watching the elephants play a very friendly warthog walked in and out of the crowd of people hoping to catch some leftover milk formula or hay that the elephants were eating, and later on we met a not so friendly warthog who tried to charge Jim! We were also visited by a partially blind rhino who kept wanting to walk right into all the spectators to get a closer look much to the dismay of the caregivers who were trying to keep us all out of it’s way.
We reluctantly left the elephant orphanage and went to the Duncan’s (WGM Africa Regional Directors) house for a wonderful Peruvian meal and fellowship. After which we went straight back to viewing more wildlife!
We decided to go to another animal orphanage connected to Nairobi National Park. We had a wildlife intern named Richard who took us around the orphanage to introduce us to the animals. We were very excited to learn that we could go in the cage with two of the cheetahs! They were both abandoned at a very young age and had been hand raised so they really love people. This picture is us petting a one year old girl named Wendy and she was purring like a kitten! We also got to meet a monkey named Barack… I thought that was pretty funny… He looked like a Who from Whoville and loved to have his belly scratched. Click HERE to see some pictures of our time at the animal orphanage, including some of us in the cage with the cheetahs!
Overall it was a very fun weekend to Nairobi and I am very excited to return and visit both animal orphanages again. I am very glad to be back home cuddling my own 30 orphans at the Baby Center, even though they aren’t quite as fuzzy as the cheetahs or elephants…
Please Pray:
~ We have 8 new babies to bring to the Baby Center but unfortunately are not able to get them out of the hospital until we have a few more caregivers hired.
Pray that the application process goes quickly and that the women who are hired are strong Christians who will love these children.
Also pray that the children who are in the hospital can survive until we can pick them up. I am trying hard to get into the hospital to feed and hold the babes until we can bring them to the BC but am running into red tape and cynical attitudes. Pray that hearts will be soften and the babies will not suffer due to the delay.
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