While in Nairobi we wanted to eat some African food so one evening we tried Ethiopian food- a meat stew served over crepe/tortilla/flatbread kind of thing. You tear off a piece of bread and scoop up the stew. The side dishes are vegetables and different kinds of beans.
Since we were close to Nairobi National Park we visited some of the animal sanctuaries. The Sheldrick Elephant and Rhinoceros Reserve takes in orphaned baby elephants and rhinos and cares for them until they are big enough to be released into the wild. We were able to watch them feed the baby elephants and could touch them when they came close to us. The smallest ones were about 7 months old and the older ones about 18 or 19 months old. They play in the mud and throw dirt around trying to keep cool. In the last photo you can see one of the elephant handlers tossing water onto the elephants with a shovel. The baby rhinos are getting too big to allow visitors to get close to because they like to run around sometimes head butt you. That would be a broken leg for sure!
After that we stopped by the Giraffe Centre where conservationists are breeding giraffes since they are now an endangered species. At one time in the 1970's as few as 120 giraffes remained in Kenya and now through conservation efforts there are around 300. This reserve holds 8 giraffes and we were able to see one baby giraffe. We were able to climb into the tree house about 15 feet off the ground and feed the giraffes by hand. They are very docile and don't bite. The tongue is 18 inches long and very slimy. You can also go down to the ground level and feed them grass.
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