Day 4 - The Giraffe Centre and Elephant Orphanage

Today 03/03/2011 we visited The Giraffe Centre, a habitat made for giraffes that are endangered or orphaned founded in 1979 by Jock Leslie-Melvile a Kenyan citizen of British descent. This habitat’s keepers raise giraffes until about the age of three years old, and then reintroduce them into the wild. Many of the giraffes that are males cannot survive if they do not get introduced at an early enough age, because they have become overly reliant on human aid, and therefore loose resiliency. The giraffes were very friendly as long as we had food to give them. These animals ability to survive nature is incredible. The class had a really good time and took many pictures of the giraffes getting fed. We fed the giraffes via kisses by inserting a food pellet between our lips, and allowing the giraffes to eat it.

When we arrived at the Elephant Orphanage we learned about baby elephants that are adopted by a habitat dedicated to raising them since their progenitors have been killed most often by poachers, for their tusks, which are valuable since ivory is used in many accoutrements and is seen as highly desirable. The handlers fed the elephants milk from bottles; since they are still infants they do not eat whole food generally. After their feeding the elephants wallowed in a large mud pit, in order to cool down. It was funny to watch them try and stand up again since they have slow motor skills and are still not yet fully developed.

Our last stop was Boys Town where orphaned or impoverished boys are given free education, shelter, and food in exchange for good performance in school. All of the boys are required to convert to Catholicism in order to attend the school. Many of them are found in the slums of different areas of Nairobi, one of the boys we interviewed named Yuris was addicted to cocaine and crack cocaine by the age of six years old. The schools staff found him in a slum badly addicted to drugs - many of these boys only sense of potential comes from the dedicated group of teachers, adults, and sisters that work with these boys. All of the boys are very resilient and grateful for what they have been allowed to do. Yuris is now at the top of his class and is working furiously to get into the high school program sponsored by Boys Town. Before we left we donated toys, clothing and soccer balls. Many of the boys are extremely sociable and enthusiastic about their future, Yuris specifically told us he hopes that some day if he is lucky he’d like to work for the U.N. This trip specifically made others and myself extremely grateful for the opportunities that we have been provided.

Ross and Daria