Africa Part I: Baby elephants

I traveled to Kenya and Tanzania for two and a half weeks this summer with my mom, her friend Jilayne, and one of my best buds, Amelia. We left from San Francisco and had a layover in London and then hopped on another plane down to Nairobi. On my flight from SFO to London, as soon as I sat in my seat, I realized that my seat was wet. From what? No idea, but I didn't want to sit in it for the next 10 hours. I asked the first flight attendant I saw and he gave me an extra blanket to sit on without looking at me. After we took off and after sitting on a couple blankets for a little while, I got the attention of another flight attendant who found an empty seat and switched the cushions for me. Thank you second flight attendant.

Out flight to Nairobi was less eventful and we arrived in the early morning with a busy day planned for us. Driving away from the airport, we got our first glimpse of a twiga (swahili for giraffe). After checking into our hotel, we headed over to a giraffe sanctuary where we could pet and feed a few giraffes.

Next we went to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust where we had a private visit with the orphaned elephants we fostered. This was one of my favorite parts of the whole trip. Amelia and I fostered Kilaguni who had been attacked by a hyena and lost his tail. I adopted Kalama for my mom. When we arrived, the elephants' keepers brought them out to a mud hole for them to play and for us to have an opportunity to interact with the babies.

Kilaguni wasn't as willing to interact with us, but I don't think I could have chosen a better baby to adopt for my mom. She walked right up to my mom and wrapped her trunk around her. It was darling!

I decided to do this in parts so it won't take me quite so long to get something up. I have uploaded many more photos at my flickr site.

--Sarah--