Wednesday, February 02, 2011 – Elephants and Giraffes and Medusa, oh my!

We began today with a great devotional by Thomas, who shared what it feels like to be an orphan and have people come and visit you. You don’t feel so alone. He read from John 14 where Jesus said to his disciples, “I will not leave orphaned. Do not fear, for I will be with you always.” Thomas also read Psalm 23 for us and we were reminded that God is present when we feel most alone. This was a great introduction to the day because our first stop was the Kenyan National Elephant Orphanage. (We also had a “small world” moment at breakfast when we met a couple staying at our hotel who are good friends with a couple who are part of First United Methodist Church in Durango!)

Two of our vans picked up the children at HOREC and then we met them at the Elephant Orphanage. We arrived early and enjoyed some lollipops we had purchased the day before. Just sitting around it’s amazing the connections that happen as a woman saw our t-shirts and inquired about HOREC. We shared the story of the orphans and she was moved by what she heard. She actually is a journalist from Denmark on vacation and she took a few pictures with the kids and Christine and said she hoped she could write a story that might help get funding for HOREC from other places in Europe. I thought that was pretty cool!

Our time at the Elephant Orphanage was awesome. We stood behind a roped off area while the caretakers paraded in two different groups of baby elephants. Most had been abandoned by parents or had a mother who died or could not care for them. They range in age from a few days old to 3 years old, when they are reintroduced into the wild. We watched the elephants drink from baby bottles as they were fed, then play in a big mud puddle with soccer balls! They also liked to have dirt shoveled onto them by their handlers. We learned that elephants are extremely dependent on being in a “family” and when isolated they get severely depressed and sometimes die.

We had an interesting experience at the orphanage that moved many of us to tears, and made some of us angry. As they started the speaking part of the program they had us move to one end of the roped off area where someone speaking English would give us the program, while our kids stayed where they were to hear the person speaking in Swahili. We got there early so the kids could be right down front and about 30 minutes into the presentation (it’s only 1 hour long and when it’s done you have to leave) another group of well-dressed school kids showed up. We watched as they literally shoved our kids out of the way into the back! There was clearly some discrimination going on as our kids because they are orphans and seen as second class. The HOREC kids were so polite and they quietly sat in the back, now unable to see because most of the kids from the other school were bigger and they were noisy and rude to boot. The presenter from the Elephant Orphanage told the new group to please be quiet because they were disturbing the Elephants, and when they refused to listen to him he chastised them for being rude and pushing these other polite kids (the ones from HOREC) at and told them there were dismissed from the program. He literally kicked them out and then let our kids back in front. Then he proceeded to bring the elephants over and they began stroking our kids with their trunks and ears and our kids were allowed to pet them. It was a special and a bit surreal moment.






We then headed to a great little ice cream parlor where my son Thomas treated the kids to ice cream courtesy of the 7^th grade Puma class at Miller Middle School. The raised money to treat the kids to something special and the looks on their faces said it all as they downed their swirled cones and got ice cream all over their faces.

After the great ice cream stop we traveled down the road 15 minutes to the Giraffe center where we all got to pet and feed the giraffes. It was fun to see the look on their faces when the big giraffe tongue engulfed their hands. They also got to pet some tortoises and we met some warthogs just like Poomba from the Lion King.

Our day ended with a great meal at Medusa’s. Medusa’s is a very nice restaurant owned by the sister of one of our members at FUMC in Durango. This was a five star kind of restaurant and the staff went out of their way to make the kids feel like honored guests. They provide balloons, party favors, hats and tons of great food. They presented a cake made by the head chef and they sang their own version of “Hakuna Matata” that the kids joined in singing. As we left the restaurant the kids then broke in a song of, “Thank you very much,” that moved the staff of the restaurant, and all of us standing around, to tears. They even gave 12 pounds of frozen meat to take back to HOREC for the cook to use in the days ahead for the kids.

We headed back to our hotel and the kids back to the orphanage. I am amazed at how humble and grateful and full of life the children are—they have touched our hearts and I hope each one of you can experience some of that magic through this trip. Before we retired from the night we spent some time with Jennifer Phillips Lawrence, the missionary here in Kenya who helps coordinate our trips. She share some history about her role in Kenya and also talked about how we can help HOREC and other ministries in Kenya become more self-sustaining, which is her ultimate goal. It was a good conversation to have and I am grateful for her leadership here and hope to share more of that with our congregations when we return.

Until tomorrow, peace be with you. Jeff