Reteti to the Rescue
Last week Tony and I were in the Samburu region of Northern Kenya, this is about one of my favorite moments: The Samburu are one of 44 tribes in Kenya. They are nomadic pastoralist who follow their cows, camels and goats to the best grazing areas based on the season. There is actually a lot to say about them like they marry multiple wives, they use no electricity, do not have running water, but do charge their cellphones with small solar panels, they have the only mobile Montessori School in Africa, maybe anywhere. But this story isn’t about them. This story is about an unintended consequence of their nomadic lifestyle and the folks that work with them to mitigate issues.
Cows, goats and even camels need water. So the Samburu people dig wells, by hand with a bucket, for their livestock. (We watched this laborious process but are not allowed to take photos as these folks are not an exhibit, they are just living their lives, plus they are naked.) Anyway, the point is when the rainy season turns to the dry season, the wells have to go pretty deep to collect fresh water. Sometimes 6 men deep, meaning the man on the bottom of the well is using a bucket to scoop sand so the fresh water can seep up. He hands the bucket of sand over his head to the man above him who hands it to the man above him and so on and so on to get up to ground level. That means the wells can be 25 to 35 feet deep. The unintended consequence is baby elephants can fall into these wells and can’t get out. The baby elephant and the very attentive mother are helpless. Eventually the mother elephant often leaves the baby elephant in the well. There is no alternative for her.
The Samburu come to the wells everyday to water their livestock. When they spot a trapped elephant, they contact Reteti Elephant Sanctuary. This is the good news part of the story: If the mother has abandoned her little one, Reteti staff comes to rescue! The orphan is brought to the sanctuary, where he or she is given a name, a home and is quickly adopted by the elephants already residing in the sanctuary. The baby elephant will stay through their juvenile years and eventually be weaned away and returned to the wild when they are between 5 and 7 years old.
Tony and I arrived at Reteti at dinner time. As the baby elephants rush in they go to their person who is singing their name for their personalized bottle of goats milk enhanced with natural herbs and minerals. The amount of joy shared between the hungry energetic elephants and the bottle-wielding singing staff is palpable! Thanks to the diligence of the staff and the support of visitors, those little orphans will grow up to be the largest land animals on the planet (between 2,500 and 3,500 pounds) and they will always remember the people who sang our their name and gave them their evening bottle.
Dinner time at Reteti Elephant Sanctuary.