Elephant Stories

Kruger National Park. South Africa. We are on safari. We cross one of Kruger’s massive rivers, and over the steep bank we notice two elephants. Females. We look closer and there is a tiny elephant, laying on her side between one of the female’s legs, her mother. She is not moving. You can see the fuzz on her tiny grey body. The mother is digging sand around her and kicking it onto her. I hold my breath; brows furrowed and pray she is not dead. The mother nudges her with her foot, getting her enormous toes underneath the baby’s body and tries to prod her up. Her limp body just moves with her mother’s foot, flimsy, not showing any sign of life. After much nudging, and spraying of sand, finally, the baby flaps her ears. A soft pink color on the inside of the ear is revealed. She is alive. I am elated. 

Over the next twenty minutes we watch as the mother helps the baby to her feet. Watching a young elephant discover how to walk and use her trunk is amazing. The trunk is like a slinky on the end of her face and she swings it in the air and swirls it around like a toy. You imagine she is thinking, hey, what is this thing, this is fun. The baby watches her mother use her trunk to rip off leaves to eat, and she energetically swings her trunk into the air and tries to do the same. She wobbles on her feet and runs around, delighted with her new feet, legs, trunk, life. 

Another sighting.

Over 60 elephants are gathered in the river bank. They are cooling themselves drinking the water and spraying themselves with cool sand. The group is all ages and it’s an amazing assortment of sizes. The matriarch, an enormous female starts walking down stream. The terrain is steep, rocky and variable. All of the elephants follow, single file. They navigate the rocks, steep slopes and stay in line. There is an area of sand that slopes down. The first elephant approaches the top, looks down, and then gets on her back knees and slides down, literally. These 3 ton animals are sand sledding. It was incredible to watch and one could almost imagine a “yee-haw” coming out of their mouths. The mouth of an elephant naturally slants up, so its easy to imagine a smile. We sat in awe watching these enormous elephants at the top of the hill, bending to get on their back knees and then letting it rip down the hill.Well, you can only 'rip' so fast being so large, but in the grand scheme of things, it was ripping.

One of the baby elephants followed suit, and rather than sledding down nicely like the others, the steepness forced her into somersaults. The baby elephant rolled down, spiraling like a tire going down a hill, and at the bottom landed on her back with her legs flailing up in the air. One of the elephants saw this, trumpeted, and immediately, over six elephants were running over to help her. Literally. They surrounded the baby, nudged her over and up on her feet and the baby wobbled off in-line with the others. An amazing glimpse into the complex familial systems of elephants.

May the Light Shine

Nicolas was our night askari (guard) in Kenya. Tall, lanky, crooked teeth, brilliant smile. His job, guard the house—from 5pm to 6am. He sat in a tiny little shack, tiny, large enough to fit one chair. No light in the shack, but he still devoured any reading material I gave him; newspapers, magazines, books. 

I bought him once a solar lantern. It charged from the sun, and then when the power ran out, you can crank up the power with a handle. A few days later I noted that it was gone. When I asked him he explained that his home has no power, so he brought it there. Makes sense. 

Another time I gave him an LL Bean blue zip bag with a little handle, the kind you put toiletries in when you travel. When I presented the bag, he was delighted, said it was perfect for carrying his bible. And so he did. I would see him walking off in the morning, after a long night in the shack, carrying his little satchel, containing his bible.

Every evening I would bring him tea in a thermos. We’d check in. How’s the day? How’s the weather? When I asked how he was he would say ‘today, I have seen nothing bad.’ Translation: I am well. It was such a great response that always stopped me in my tracks. There it is. My day is fine. I have not seen anything bad. I struggle for food, water, I work the night shift. But today, I have seen nothing bad.

When I moved houses he was on leave; at home in Western Kenya. I did not get to say farewell, which was probably for the best, I am not certain what Nicolas would have done if he saw me crying.  I wrote him a message though telling him I was leaving. He wrote back:

"Hi,may light shines wherever ur.I still in house I never go home.your moving is my stress i'll now lost my friends.Pliz do not forget me,Sodger Nicholas."