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.
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