Giraffe Park - Nairobi, Kenya

1 July 2009 - After the elephant orphanage, we went to the Giraffe Park. Visitors climb onto this platform that puts them at head-height with the giraffes. Everyone is allowed to take up to two handfuls of food pellets to feed the giraffes with. One fun pastime is to place a particularly long pellet between your lips. Then, a giraffe comes and takes the pellet from your mouth, effectively "kissing" you in the process. Needless to say, their tongues are bigger than ones lips, so you typically get slobbered. But it's fun all the same!

The caretakers at the park are quick to inform visitors that giraffe saliva has antibacterial properties to it as well as UV protection. This is how God naturally protects them from pokes they get while eating acacia leaves and from sunburn while they use their long tongues to forage for food.

The Elephant Orphanage - Nairobi, Kenya

1 July, 2009 - Once the team was assembled, we spent the day sightseeing and shopping in Nairobi. Our first stop was the "Elephant Orphanage" run by the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. Located in a national park, this orphanage raises elephant and rhino orphans, and then works to reintroduce them to the wild. This particular orphanage was highlighted in the BBC productions "Elephant Diaries" and "Elephant Diaries II." This year, the production company will return to film "Elephant Diaries III," which will highlight the little tykes we got to meet.

Many elephants are orphaned when they fall into wells dug in the deserts by nomads looking to water their own herds. Because the baby elephants can't use their trunks for drinking yet, they bend down to reach the water with their mouths, and often topple in. At least four of the orphans we met that day were abandoned by their mothers who could not get them out of the wells they fell into.

Additionally, they have a single rhino orphan at the orphanage right now named "Maalim." The audience was warned to be quiet when the baby arrived because he was excitable. Little did we realize what that meant! He literally bowled over one lady in his excitement over all the oohing and aahing going on! Then, like most little tykes, after his burst of energy, it was time for a nap! :-)

Mayfield's Guest House - Nairobi, Kenya

30 June, 2009 - On our way to Bulima, Tanzania, we awaited the rest of our team at the Mayfield Guest House in Nairobi, Kenya. Hart, Selene, Kathy and I met at Newark Airport in New Jersey, and were meeting up the next day with the brother/sister team of Jennifer and Robert in Nairobi before continuing on our way to Tanzania.