The Giraffe Centre in Nairobi, Kenya was started to protect the endangered Rothschild giraffe and to help breed it in captivity. The program has been very successful.
It is a wonderful place to interact with giraffes from a raised platform. Not only do you get to observe them at very close quarters but you are also allowed to feed the giraffes little treats made from molasses by hand! They seem to love them enough to play a game of tennis-watch for them. See for yourself:
It's surreal being so close to so many of these tall beauties. I learned that they are intelligent creatures, they actually respond to their names!
Most intriguing however, was the fact that their saliva is so antiseptic that their mouths are perpetually clean. In fact, they eat leaves from the thorny acacia since the thorn wounds heal rapidly owing to the antispectic nature of the saliva!
Here are some pictures from our trip there. You will also see some happy warthogs who enjoy the treats that the giraffes drop.
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| Giraffe Centre |
Taarab is a music genre popular in Tanzania and Kenya. It is influenced by music from the cultures with a historical presence in East Africa, including music from East Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa, the Middle East and Europe. Taarab rose to prominence in 1928 with the rise of the genre's first star, Siti binti Saad.
Here is a small piece from a Taarab performance we saw at Monsoon Restaurant in Stone Town, Zanzibar.
The name Tanzania derives from the names of the two states Tanganyika and Zanzibar that united in 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar, which later the same year was renamed the United Republic of Tanzania. The Flag of Tanzania was adopted on 30 June 1964. It was a merger of the flags of Tanganyika and Zanzibar.
The Flag of Tanganyika:
The Flag of Zanzibar:
Et Voilà, The Flag of Tanzania:
I often wondered about the images that pop up when he hear the word 'Africa' (or type it in Google for that matter). Sunsets, giraffes, elephants, lions... and the acacia tree (or two). For me, the image that remained etched in my mind after just a few days at Amboseli, is the image of the lone acacia tree. You turn your head and you see miles and miles of flat land, hills in the distance and directly in view, there it stands, the lone acacia tree. I saw it so often and wondered how the landscape managed so cleverly, to repeatedly bring into view, (with changing backgrounds), just one lone acacia, standing tall.
Goodbye, Prof. Wangari Maathai. We will miss you. Thank you for the inspiration and for all the trees.
Official Photos from Dave Sheldrick Postcards and NewsletterThe David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust is an orphanage for Baby Elephants. It was started by Daphne Sheldrick to honour the memory of her husband David, who was a great naturalist. The couple served as the wardens of the Tsavo National Park in Kenya.
Baby elephants are orphaned for various reasons - some mothers die of natural causes, poachers are rampant and mothers are brutally killed for ivory while innocent babies look on, some mothers die when herds get caught in the middle of human conflict. However, it should be noted that most elephants are orphaned due to humans and their activities. Each year 19,000 African elephants are killed.
Once found, the baby elephants are brought to DSWT and hand-reared by a group of dedicated staff members using a special formula of milk whice Daphne took years to develop and perfect. After about three years of TLC, the elephants are taken back into the wild and rehabilitated with a herd. As they are young, they are easily accepted by the mother of the herd and the young ones learn to follow the rules of the herd. A noble initiative that is being well carried out. Another place of hope in an ugly world.
I was fortunate to visit the shelter and say hello to some of the sweet elephant babies there. The shelter also cares for rhinos, one of them completely blind, but at peace.
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| Dave Sheldrick |
This set of BBC pictures shows babies of endangered species being carefully hand-reared in specialist facilities around the world.
The Coquerel's Sifaka, like all lemurs, is endemic to Madagascar. Madagascar is home to more than 250,000 (5% of the world's plant and animal) species of which 80% are found nowhere else on the globe (including six baobab species).
The Barbary Lion, originally from Morocco, is a Lion sub-species that became extinct in the wild in the 1940s.
The Aye-Aye is also a lemur, the world's largest nocturnal primate, native to Madagascar that combines rodent-like teeth and a special thin middle finger to fill the same ecological niche as a woodpecker.
The final image is an endearing picture of a baby elephant from Kenya's Dave Sheldrick Shelter.
Full name: The Union of the Comoros
Population: 691,400 (UN, 2010)
Capital: Moroni
Area: 1,862 sq km (719 sq miles)
Major languages: Arabic (official), French (official), Comoran/Shikomoro (a blend of Swahili and Arabic)
Major religion: Islam
Life expectancy: 65 years (men), 70 years (women) (UN)
Monetary unit: 1 Comoran franc = 100 centimes
Main exports: Vanilla, cloves, perfume oil, copra
GNI per capita: US $870 (World Bank, 2009)
Internet domain: .km
Geography: The Comoros is formed by Ngazidja (Grande Comore), Mwali (Mohéli), Nzwani (Anjouan), and Maore (Mayotte), the major islands in the Comoros Archipelago, as well as many minor islets. The islands are officially known by their Comorian language names, though international sources still use their French names (given in parentheses above). The capital and largest city, Moroni, is located on Ngazidja. The archipelago is situated in the Indian Ocean, in the Mozambique Channel, between the African coast (nearest to Mozambique and Tanzania) and Madagascar, with no land borders.Economy: One of the world's poorest countries, Comoros is made up of three islands that have inadequate transportation links, a young and rapidly increasing population, and few natural resources. The low educational level of the labor force contributes to a subsistence level of economic activity, high unemployment, and a heavy dependence on foreign grants and technical assistance. Agriculture, including fishing, hunting, and forestry, contributes 40% to GDP, employs 80% of the labor force, and provides most of the exports. Export income is heavily reliant on the three main crops of vanilla, cloves, and ylang-ylang and Comoros' export earnings are easily disrupted by disasters such as fires. The country is not self-sufficient in food production; rice, the main staple, accounts for the bulk of imports. The government - which is hampered by internal political disputes - lacks a comprehensive strategy to attract foreign investment and is struggling to upgrade education and technical training, privatize commercial and industrial enterprises, improve health services, diversify exports, promote tourism, and reduce the high population growth rate. Political problems have inhibited growth, which has averaged only about 1% in 2006-09. Remittances from 150,000 Comorans abroad help supplement GDP. In September 2009 the IMF approved Comoros for a three-year $21 million loan. The IMF gave generally positive reports of the country's program performance as of October 2010. The African Development Bank approved a $34.6 million debt-relief package loan for Comoros in September 2010, and Comoros will attempt to qualify for debt relief in 2012 under the IMF and World Bank's Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative.
Stephanie Nolen's 28: Stories of AIDS in Africa is a book of stories, focusing on individuals affected with (or by) HIV and AIDS in Africa. She chose 28 for the 28 million people suffering from this brutal infection in the continent (in 2007). The stories, of miners, doctors, truck drivers, prostitutes, and innocent children, among others, come from different nations in Africa. They bring out the social, cultural and political aspects that influence and are influenced by the rapid spread of HIV. They book features courageous people fighting the disease, those who fight for affordable treatment, those whose professions made them highly susceptible, many others who are victims of circumstances or their own ignorant actions and sadly, many who are helpless and are not being helped by the Govemernments. To learn of the situations in some countries and their nearly non-existant heath system and its infrastructure is frightening.
The Gorongosa National Park is located in Mozambique, at the southern end of the Great East African Rift Valley. I learned about it first, from a National Geographic Documentary titled "Africa's Lost Eden". Trailer here.
While I was in Kenya, I read Dr. Wangari Maathai's book, Unbowed. The book is a memoir, the story of her extraordinary life.
And so it came to be that I first stepped onto the African continent in Nairobi and took a deep breath to breathe in the African air. The joy and excitement is indescribable!
NatGeo Picture: Burundi drummers perform during a tribal ceremony in Ninga. Small, poor, densely populated, and landlocked, Burundi lies just south of the Equator in central Africa. From the capital, Bujumbura, on Lake Tanganyika, a great escarpment rises to fertile highlands. Agriculture employs 90 percent of the people, with most being subsistence farmers. Since independence in 1962, Burundi has been plagued by ethnic conflict between the majority Hutus and the Tutsis, who tend to dominate the government and army—but are only 14 percent of the population. A 2003 cease-fire and new government offer hope for peace.
