KEP

I know I haven’t written in awhile, but that is because I’ve been pretty busy and without much internet! I’ll go back to finals. They were very stressful, but thank god I made it through them. I’m still not sure if I have passed, I don’t even know when we get our marks. I won’t go much into final exams, mainly because it’s not fun or interesting. I studied nonstop basically for about 2 weeks. Then we celebrated the end of finals and everyone going away on the 15th. It was a lot of fun! I don’t know how I managed to get up on the 16th and leave for the elephant park at 6am. We (Breana and I) made it to the bus stop just in time, as the bus was pulling out. Our cab driver actually got out of the cab and stopped the bus for us. We hopped on and made our way for 2 and a half hours to Plett, which is where I had done the sky diving. We were both going to Knysna Elephant Park to volunteer for 10 days with the African Elephant Research Unit (AERU). We arrived on an odd day. The wild vet came in and was taking xrays of the elephant named Tosha. The verdict of her limping was that she had a fractured knee and the bone that was chipped off is just rubbing the wrong way. It was hard to watch because they had to restrain her and give her drugs to sedate her. It was all for her own good though because I guess she has been hurting for awhile now. We got a tour of the park after everything had settled down a little and went out on the tractor and fed the elephants fruit. When a tractor comes all the ellies know to run behind the barrier because they are getting treated with fruit. It’s amazing how smart these animals are. Each ellie has a different personality as well. Sally is the leader of the bunch, while Nandi and Thandi (mother and daughter), Keisha hangs out with the babies, Thato, Mashudu and Shungu. The boys, Shaka and Clyde give rides to the guests and spar all day long, though Clyde doesn’t like to play as much as Shaka. And in the orchard camp, Harry, Namib and Tosha. Tosha is there with the bulls because she is hurt and Namib and Harry are the biggest elephants so they have to be monitored all the time.




I wrote in a journal and broke each day down into what we did, but I can’t rewrite that all because it would take days! I’ll just give you an insight into a normal day. Wake up was around 6 and Breana and I would have some breakfast and we had to be at the boma by 7am. Once the ellies were out on their training ride, the volunteers could go in and do one of two things, start cleaning or take dung samples. We were assigned to do one of the other. The dung samples had to be taken from certain ellies after they had been followed (activity budget) and it had to be from a warm pile and in the middle. It wasn’t as gross as I thought, because elephants only eat grass and branches, so that is basically what there dung looks like, except in a cylinder shape. After cleaning we would be split up into shifts, so like two people would follow an elephant from 7-830 and then the next group would continue with that same elephant from 830-1030 then alternating every two hours until the went back into the boma around 1700. During the times we weren’t doing the activity budgets, we would be entering data into the computer or doing some other task that the park needed done, like melting coconut oil for the elephant’s skin. When doing an activity budget basically you just keep an eye on your elephant at all times and write down what you see. So that includes every time the elephant eats you mark it down and then once it changes its behavior, then you mark that down as well. Also, recording interactions were very important because all of the elephants have relationships with each other and also with the guides. All of this data is entered into the computer and will be analyzed to see how the elephants behavior has changed over time. I wish I could have been there longer to actually see for myself how their behavior has changed.



The whole week was such a great experience and I’m glad I got the opportunity to be so close and work with these amazing animals. I also got to meet some spectacular people in the process from all over the world. I really enjoyed working with these large animals and I hope to do something similar to this for a profession.



We stuck to the same schedule, just with different elephants all week. It was very cold and I was still chilled even with five layers on. On the last night, Breana and I were given keys to the luxury suites in the lodge for a night. The rooms were amazing and even had jacuzzi tubs, so I obviously took a bubble bath. The rooms are located in the same building as the boma so you get the experience of sleeping with the elephants. This seems like a great idea, but I unfortunately I didn’t get any sleep that night because all I could hear were the elephants snoring and farting and moving.



We had to be up early on the day we were leaving because we were promised an elephant back ride. I was so excited! I had requested to ride Sally, mainly because she is born in October of the very same year I was born! I climbed up on her and when she stood up it was so slow and since she is so big, I thought I was going to fall off one side and then the other. She towers over all the other lady elephants and I was looking down on everyone. We rode out towards the valley and the sun was rising so it was beautiful! What a great way to end an amazing experience and even a better way to end my stay in South Africa.



I am currently sitting at JFK in New York waiting for my flight to Cleveland to depart later on tonight. My total time spent at JFK will amount to about 14 hours by the time I leave. I think that sometime next week I will write one huge reflection on South Africa and my experience abroad after I have had sometime to adjust to life back in the states. It’s weird already, hearing the American accents and having to convert the money to rand and then back to dollars. I’m now going to enjoy some American food for lunch! Cheers!