04 June 2009

I kissed a Giraffe and I liked i-it

haha! yes I did!
today was amazing...or rather yesterday...?
I woke up early, packed it all, and headed out. I got a taxi for the whole day and I picked up my friend Frida to have one last GRAND AFRICAN ADVENTURE *said in a really bad australian accent*
Our First stop was the Giraffe Center. This place is awesome! it has a museum thing that shows all this 'pro-enviroment' art and some Giraffe facts, then you go out and there is a deck where you feed, pet, and take pictures of Giraffes. Yes, you even get to kiss them...seeing as they don't have hands, what you do is put a pellet of food between your lips and they come down and get it...it's quite funny, and a bit disgusting because half your face gets slobbered on in the process! although giraffe spit is actually antiseptic...bet you didn't know that!
Then we headed to the animal Orphanage, i thought we were going to the elephant orphanage, but apparantly you can't go there until the evening cause the elephants are...away? i just think that peter didn't want to drive all the way out there...anyway it was cool, because even though it seemed a bit of a zoo, they were actually nursing back most of the animals back to health and helping them grow before there were let go into the wild (which i'm not sure i believe) but i got to pet a cheetah!!! oh yeah! it was really dirty and i promptly got an alergic reaction...BUT...i can say i pet a cheetah, how many people can say that...that's what i thought!
Next stop was m____ village. It was a crocidile farm that houses 84 nile crocs ranging from 1-27ish years old...and i got to hold a 1 1/2 year old! it was a bit scary, but i held it's jaws shut so it couldn't bite me...they are only fed once a week because they don't chew their food and so it digests really slowly. They also don't have tongues, i couldn't believe it until the guide got one to open it's mouth! it was gross! i couldn't imagine kissing that! ew! also it's skin is waterproof so it has to open it's mouth to cool off
our last stop to the Grand Adventure was the City park, wait, first we ate...the only thing i am going to say about this was that i am pretty sure they killed the chicken when we ordered it, cause it took an hour and a half to get there...hmmm...
...then we fed the monkeys!!! they were so cute! well, some of them were. there was one that was afraid of us, one was carrying a baby on it's stomach, one was really aggressive, and one was the cutest thing on the planet! i feel kind of bad because the aggressive one didn't get much food cause it was mean! i have a lot of scratches from it. But the cute one was so gentle and waited until you held the peanuts out to it, i even got it on my shoulders and fed it from there. I have decided that when i grow up and have kids we are getting a monkey instead of a dog, yup! i really wanted to just take it home, and i think it knew it cause every time i started to walk with it, it would jump off...he didn't want to leave :'(
one of the best parts of this day though was what happened next. As we were feeding the monkeys, another monkey grabbed some kids popcorn and we watched as the kid chased the monkey all the way around the park trying to get it back...the monkey won though. anyway, that wasn't the best part. the best part was that we started talking to the kid, Gabriel, and his two friends, Alan and Omondi. they were such great kids, it was really nice to talk to them for the while that we did. Alan is a bright kid, really smart. I just hope he'll be able to suceed in this life. We found out that the kids lived together in a nearby slum, they didn't have any parents and one of thier friends got in an accident earlier that week...they were only 13. when we passed through the slum later i almost started crying. they were dressed in rags, the monkey had just stolen the rest of their food, and they had empty glue bottles, sniffing to get high. Frida and I took the bottles and made them promise to stop sniffing, then we took them to the nearest shop and bought them some food and something to drink. Frida is going to go back next friday and see them again. she is going to try and find sponsers so they can finish their schooling and perhaps have a future. I wish I were in the position to be one! It's so hard to think that i might never see these people again. I am going to have to come back, i just know it...

1 comment:

PappaSistas said...

Knock, Knock...


Interrupting giraffe...

*mlah, mlah, mlah*

Sounds like the PERFECT last day on your *GRAND AFRICAN ADVENTURE* (said in a really bad Australian accent)
My heart breaks for the kids you met. I think if you had your way, you would wave Harry Potter's wand and make several things small enough to fit in your backpack. Namely: Frida, Mr. Lion, funny monkey and all the orphans you met. You will always have pictures and memories. Perhaps one day you will be able to go back. But today I am REALLY glad that you are coming HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!

LOVE YOU!
D

ps- see you in 14 hours!