Leaving tomorrow!

I’m leaving tomorrow and no longer nervous just excited! I have a line on a guy named Freddo, given to me by a travelling friend, who would be my driver for a day in Nairobi. I am trying to negotiate a price but it’s not really working for me. He wants $150 for the day, to take me to the giraffe centre, the Karen Blixen museum (remember Meryl Streep in Out of Africa?) and the place in Nairobi I’m the most excited to see, the elephant orphanage. Greetings are very important in Africa, so he has sent me a couple of emails just asking how I am and if I slept well.
The elephant orphanage exists mainly due to poaching of adult elephants for their tusks made of ivory. Poaching has increase dramatically in the last ten years or so, with the newly emerging middle class of Chinese who can afford luxuries like intricately carved ivory, which is highly valued in China. Some of these carvings are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Mama elephants are killed by the poachers, and their babies left behind until someone calls the orphanage to pick them up, or they would die alone. Elephants are extremely social and mourn their missing family. The keepers sleep with them and help them work into life with other young elephants until they are eventually released into the wild again. The orphanage is open to the public for only one hour a day, at feeding time, when the keepers bring out the little guys and tell their stories.
Elephants are also emotional creatures, they have glands on the sides of their heads that secrete fluid when they are frightened or sad. They will hang around the skeleton of a deceased relative, nuzzling the bones with their trunks, and appearing to be weeping, it’s so sad.
You can check out the little ellies at the orphanage on the website sheldrickwildlifetrust.org, each new addition has a name and info posted, and you can “adopt” one for $50 a year to help out, then follow its progress.
I have pretty much two whole days in Nairobi at secure hotel with a pool, so maybe just a day at the pool also!