I cannot say enough good things about my visit to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org). It is essentially an animal orphanage for young rhinos and elephants. The animals are kept there until they are two years old and then are reintroduced back into the wild. You can view the animals from 11-12 each day and it is a magical hour. The viewing area is denoted by a rope. One, thin rope. The visitor stay on one side, the animals and staff on the other. But the rope doesn't even enclose the area and there is nothing to stop the animals from going around the rope or, if they so chose, through it.

First, we got to view the baby rhino that was there. It was awesome to get such a close up view. The rhino's keepers were giving it a mudbath. We got to see the rhino moving around, laying down, playing, mock charging its keepers. While we were watching some of the staff were giving us info on rhinos, this rhino in particular, and the reintroduction program. After about ten or fifteen minutes the rhino disappeared into the bush and it was baby elephant feeding time.

There were, I think, six baby elephants ranthing in age from 6 to 22 months. They came out all in a line and when the noticed the bottles of milk the keepers had set out some of them got excited and started running. For most of the calves the keepers had to hold the bottles, but one ot them had no trouble holding her bottle on her own, with her trunk wrapped aroun it. And they all drank their bottles down very quickly.

They then started in on the leaves and grasses that the keepers had brought out. They put the food close to the rope so we got a really close up view of the animals and really got to see how their trunks work. The tip of their trunks really do work a lot like fingers. it is amazing how agile they are. We also got to pet the elephants, which was fun.

Two of them started to play, fighting, wrapping their trunks around each other. They ended up pushing each other into the crowd of us visitors, which everyone, with the exception of one little girl who started bawling, thought was great.

Then it was time for the elephants mud baths and you could tell that they were just loving it. They were trying to get covered all over with the mud, laying down on their sides in it, moving around. They were also falling over each other and leaning against each other while they were in the mud. One of them was leaning against another not letting her get up. Then the mud baths were over and the elephants trotted away. It had been an absolutely awesome and amazing hour.

For an abrupt change in subject, on the train into Nairobi I met a Peace Corp volunteer named Patti, who invited me to come visit her at her site for a couple days. Patti teaches AIDS education in a village called Makwa which is not very far from Nairobi (its closer to Thika for those of you pulling out your maps).

I was surprised by Patti's house: she actually is living in a house attached to her school and has 2 bedrooms, a living area, a kitchen, a toilet room and a washing room. It was a lot bigger than I thought, but not all convenient. The shower doesn't work and, even if it did, there would be no hot water, so Patti has to boil water to bathe. The place is incessantly dusty and getting rid of the flies is an impossible task. The powers that be at the school have also decided to move her to another house because they are attaching a new classroom to her house. While I was there, they started tearing down the wall next to her current house that encloses the area where she keeps her chicken (she also has a cat). Hopefully, they will finish building her new house before they tear down any of the main walls of her current house.

I had a very enjoyable visit and got to relax a lot. There is not too much to tell, because we spent lots of time talking, playing cards, and watching movies on her laptop. There is nothing to do in Makwa. Really. No movie theatre or anything like that. You have to entertain yourself.

I also got to learn a lot about the Peace Corp during my visit because Patti answered all of many, many questions. It is still something I am considering doing at some point in the future.