A Week With Poppa

  My Dad arrived in Zambia last Saturday. It was awesome to see the instant connection that he had with Isaac. I think all those Skype conversations really helped to create a bond between them. Isaac is usually reluctant to be held by strangers, but he seemed to know his Poppa right from the get go. Since then they have been like two peas in a pod.

Isaac and Poppa at Sugarbush

My Dad has been focusing on pictures of animals with a "p" sound in hopes that Isaac's first word will be Poppa. So there's a lot of "p...p...p...panda" and "p..p...p...penguin".

Checking out Isaac's favorite banana tree after a swim.

  This week we went to the elephant orphanage at Lilayi Game Reserve on the outskirts of Lusaka. This project is in collaboration with Kafue National Park. There are 6 baby elephants at Lilayi and 7 at Kafue National Park. I was impressed by all the efforts they are making to raise these baby elephants and release them back into the wild. A large component of the program involves community engagement and education as poaching is a significant problem in Kafue National Park. Since the education programs with school children and engagement of the local village, instead of killing elephants that wander into the village, the people there now telephone the rangers when they see a baby elephant that might need help. After we were educated about the project, we were told to get our cameras ready as we would have approximately 8 seconds to see the elephants drink their bottles – the time it takes for them to down 2 liters of formula. It’s clear that Isaac isn’t the only one that guzzles his bottles. We got to observe everything from an elevated platform. The caretakers were all ready with the bottles and then the elephants were let into the enclosure. There was a lot of trumpeting and a stampede of baby (still looked pretty big to me) elephants as they ran to get their bottles. Isaac got scared and started crying, but he eventually calmed down once he realized that there was nothing to be scared of. After watching the elephants have their meal of formula and leaves, we went to have our own meal at the lodge. It was a very nice outing and something that I’ve been wanting to do for awhile. I’m glad that I got to have this experience before I left Zambia. Orphans are obviously close to my heart. Everyone deserves to have someone to love them and it’s clear that the caretakers at Lilayi love their baby elephants. 

Waiting for the elephants to arrive.

The stampede.

The smallest one is only 9 months old. Same age as Isaac.

An elephant kiss.

There were lots of leaves to go around, but somehow that branch had the best leaves.

So nice to be able to hang out with my Dad again.