Home Free

I spent my second (and last) week with Carolina for Kibera researching grants.

In other news, my parents flew in Friday evening. My aunt was also supposed to arrive, but a combination of weather clusterfucks in Seattle and Paris set her back a day. Saturday, we visited the Sehldrick Trust, an organization in Nairobi National Park that take in orphaned elephants and nurses them for two to three years before they’re moved to centers for further rehabilitation in preparation for reintroduction to the wild. The elephants were awesome. After beelining for their keepers (who bottle-feed them every three hours and sleep together in their stalls) and guzzling milk, they proceeded to converge in a watery mud pit. Chaos ensued, involving splashing, fighting, full submersion, and failed attempts to return to dry land. Except for the smallest, a 1.5-month-old found down a well, who hid next to her keeper in the shade of the umbrella he held over her until she made her way along the rope line and we all reached down to pet her grizzly back.

We also glimpsed a blind rhino, taken in as a baby and unable to return to the wild, as he ambled around the back of his enclosure. And we were graced by lots of opportunistic warthogs.

Before returning home, we stopped by the giraffe center and found ourselves on the receiving end of lots of giant, dry kisses.

As of 15 minutes ago: Papers are turned in, finals are completed and seminars suffered through. And I, Thank You Very Much, am OUTTA HERE.