FINAL BLOG... oketay...

I am both a creating mind and an ethical mind. I'm a creating mind because I decided to stray from my big question at the end because I didn't want to talk about the importance of traveling abroad, I wanted to talk about my trip to Africa, how it changed me, and the dire situation of the elephants. I'm an ethical mind because I care about the world and the animals that live on the earth. I discussed the flash flood that destroyed the camp and research center and the drought that killed about 100-200 elephants and orphaned their babies.

I exhibited curiosity in my blog because even though I knew a lot about the elephants and Indianapolis Prize, I wanted to research and learn more about the problems of the elephants and the need for conservation.
I experimented with new ideas by posting a Swahili Word of the day even though some people were annoyed by the words each day they told me today.
I exhibited respect for other's view points because even though I don't agree with the viewpoint I will take the point into consideration. I think that learning new words and noticing patterns in the dialogue is important to learn about culture.

I learned that I am pretty independent and that I do not like to follow directions very much which is a bit of a problem in school. I was told to connect my Africa trip to the importance of traveling abroad; however, I found writing about traveling abroad to much less interesting than the things that Iain and Oria do and the need for conservation and care for the earth. I also decided that I like blogging and that my opinion has changed from hostile to accepted and maybe even liked. =D
Anyway... finally... for the last time...
Veni... Viddi...Vicci
Hakuna Matata=D

Elephant Orphahage part II

I figured that since I poster a whole long history of the orphanage about their founding and mission, I should probably describe my visit to see the baby elephants.

We were brought into the sanctuary by a permanent employee of the orphanage. They wear these bright green "outfits?" and they spend every single minute of the day with the babies. The employees alternate night shifts, but basically the men are the babies' adoptive mothers. Most of the babies were orphaned by the horrible drought last year, some are the tragic effect of ivory poaching, and a couple have fallen down wells and got stuck only to be abandoned by their mother. There were around thirty baby elephants and they live on the reserve in two groups, one of eighteen and the other of ten. There was one baby whose mother had died from dehydration and hyenas had chewed off some of his ears and tail. The stories are really sad, but the babies do not know any better because they are so young. We arrived at feeding time and I got to feed two babies two bottles of milk which is their dinner. They love to wrap their trunks around your arms and hands and also if you stick your hand in their mouth, they would suck on it. Its was kind of gross, but still cool all the same. They also love to be scratched and would ram all 100-200 lbs(for the older ones) into me if I stopped. It was one of the coolest experiences in my life.

SWAHILI WORD OF THE DAY

These are the words form Monday and Today...=D

kifua: chest
nyamaza: be quiet
mtenda: doer
saumu: fasting

I have noticed that Swahili has a large amount of words that have two consonants next to each other at the begining... they're kind of hard to say.
Hakuna Matata=D

Elephant Orphanage History

The last day that we were in Kenya, my dad set up a visit to the David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. Here's a little bit of history on the orphanage.

The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust is a small flexible charity, established in memory of David Sheldrick, famous Naturalist and founder Warden of Kenya's giant Tsavo East National Park in which he served from 1948 until 1976.

Since its inception in 1977 the Trust has played an extremely significant and important role in Kenya's conservation effort. Dr. Dame Daphne Sheldrick along with Six Trustees assisted by an Advisory Committee of practical Naturalists with a lifetime experience of African conditions oversee and direct the operations of the Trust.

Helping save the lives of orphaned Elephants and Rhinos who are ultimately released back into the wild is just some of the many wildlife commitments The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust is involved in. The Trust runs seven full time Desnaring teams, two mobile Veterinary Units, and is active in a Community Outreach Program along with working with the communities in an educational capactiry locally, and through articles for the Wildlife Clubs of Kenya, the Press and Radio Programs. The Trust has also provided advanced training in wildlife management for promising students.

The Trust continues to provide a blueprint for the welfare of animals in captivity and, in the case of elephants, illustrated the sophistication of their communication and their social needs. It has perpetuated vital field knowledge and experience that would otherwise have been lost, and made it available to all national parks in East Africa and many beyond.

The Trust provides continual support for The Kenyan Wildlife Service through our Desnaring efforts within the Tsavo Ecosystem and the Mobile Veterinary Units, but also through support of security fuel, and electrically fencing sensitive National Park boundaries, alleviating human wildlife conflict. The Trust supports indigenous tree nurseries, and water projects in both Tsavo National Park and in the bordering community areas.

This web site contains valuable information concerning Elephant & Rhino Conservation, elephant emotion, the orphans who have been raised by us, and much more.

'Saving wildlife and wilderness is the responsibility of all thinking people. Greed and personal gain must not be permitted to decimate, despoil and destroy the earth's irreplaceable treasure for its existence is essential to the human spirit and the well-being of the earth as a whole. All life has just one home - the earth - and we as the dominant species must take care of it.'

Dr. Dame Daphne Sheldrick

http://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/

Hakuna Matata=D

Fishies!!!!!!!

This is totally random, but I have a ghost fishy! I have five fishies, but you can only see four. Gosh I'm sneaky=D

Hakuna Matata=D

Samburu People

I have decided that the people of Samburu deserve my attention too, not just the animals, so I have decided to educate all you lovely readers on the Samburu tribe.
Samburu is a word meaning butterfly, and these people demonstrate the name as well as a butterfly could itself. They love bright clothing, even the men, and you will see many pinks, blues, reds, and oranges worn. Also, these lovely people are the nicest people you will ever meet, even with the language barrier, and I think it has a lot to do with the isolation from urbanization. The Samburu people have not been poisoned by the greed, or other problems that highly urbanized areas have. The love visitors, take care of their family and friends like it is their only purpose in the world, and work so hard that I do not believe there is one fat Samburu villager out there. The live in circular villages surrounded by acacia thorn gates to protect them from wild animals and live in small adobe huts. Their livestock, goats, donkeys, and cattle, also live in the circular village with them because the animals are extremely important to their way of life. The Samburu people also love to sing, and I think they enjoyed dancing with us and singing with us because Erin and I were so thoroughly confused a lot of the time. Serenoy, our multi-lingual, talented, guide told us that the Samburu and Somalis are sworn enemies and many of the songs that we were struggling through were about how many Somalis they had killed (don't worry, they are actually a very peaceful people and the songs are quite ancient). Their diets consist mostly of meat, blood, and milk and for the guys who worked at Oria's camp, the change in diet and the addition of vegetables and fruit was quite confusing. To explain to you how great these people are I shall explain the one horrible day of the trip. About half way through, I caught a bug or something that knocked me literally off my feet. I had a 104 temperature and couldn't move without vomiting. The whole day the Samburu people sent down little homemade remedies, cleaned up my vomit, brought me drinks, and wetted washclothes to keep my temperature. The most amazing thing is that they did this without having to be asked. Oria told them that she would take care of me and Erin, but the consistently went out of their way to help me. I feel a kind of affection for these people and I think that is what you get when you spend a week in the bush, 100 miles away from the nearest populated town.
This only scratches the surface of the Samburu people, so if anyone has questions, just ask!

Hakuna Matata=D

SWAHILI WORDS OF THE DAYS THAT I DIDN'T POST

I've had a really busy week so getting posts up was kind of forgotten. So here are the past week or so's words.

lakiwa: be met

wiwa: be owed

sokotana: curl

kete: small kind of cowrie

mdudu: insect

kunja: bend

ajirisha: hire for work

momonyoka: break off

sogelea: come nearer to

ngiri: wart-hog

akhera: afterlife

tumwa: be sent

bao: goal (in sports)

the next one wasn't very nice so I decided to omit it

isingizia: pretend

kigawakati: bisector

faransa: French

mkataba wa huduma: contract of service

kiboko: small zigzag silk embroidery

tekelea: be held spellbound (we would just call it "deer in the headlights")

jeuri: injustice

ona kiu: be thirsty

Well that is enough for today. By the way, I can't figure out why it is double-spaced.

Hakuna Matata=D