Tutoring went well again this morning. English also went well; the lesson was challenging. but they seemed to learn a lot. My afternoon tutoring with the Barnabases was more math-filled. They are both really motivated to do math – the older Barnabas even chose to take home a division problem he had spent probably ten minutes on instead of letting me help him.
We got an impromptu invitation from the Birners to go a game park nearby. We of course accepted, and at 3:30 this afternoon met the Birners and Professor Cherney and drove maybe an hour to a park just outside the city. This park doesn’t have anything big – just antelope and giraffes – but we were excited to see whatever we could. We saw bushbuck, water buffalo, eland, dykers, wildebeests, impalas, warthogs, and giraffes nice and close to our vehicle. Then, the lodge owners made a special exception for us and let us go see the elephants. There are some veterinarians who have rescued baby orphaned elephants and are working to heal them and then eventually set them free. They keep them in a stable near the lodge and we were able to see them up nice and close. One of the tiny little guys was found after someone nearly killed it with an ax. The fact that he was walking today was a miracle, because as of Monday he couldn’t. The ax wounds paralyzed one of its legs, but he’s made an amazing recovery and is now limping around quite well. He and another baby elephant were crying for their milk, which is a very unpleasant noise. It’s quite a science to get the milk just right for each elephant. The vets have to supplement each elephant’s milk based on its individual needs, so some elephants have iron supplements, others have whey powder, and almost all have some sort of probiotic. The other elephants had heart-breaking stories. There were a couple whose mothers had been poached, so they were forced to wander around, starving, until these veterinarians saved them. The program is very interesting. I’m amazed this is happening within a short drive from the noisy, urban Lusaka. On our way back to the lodge, we heard the screeching of bushbabies. The lodge owner has a bushbaby as a pet, which we would have loved to see, but he wasn’t around to show us.
We ate a phenomenal dinner at the lodge and then headed home. The total trip was about five hours and it was a great evening.
No comments:
Post a Comment