Project Luangwa - 30-06-14

I got up early this morning to see the dawn over the Luangwa river, because how often does that opportunity come up? 5:30 saw me, groggily stumbling towards the firepit with a torch. In the distance I could see someone waving with a torch, so I waved back then turned my torch off since the light was slowly bleeding into the sky. Suddenly one of the staff came running at me out of the dining area, frantically waving his arms and hissing "Elephant! Elephant! Elephant!"

Just in case you're not familiar with the concept of 'elephant'.

There's apparently a pachyderm partial to a palliative picnic who wanders into camp and eats the fallen marula fruit. This fruit, which looks like a large golden plum, is actually related to mangoes and is desired by animals of all sizes, from mammoths to mouses. Small rodents know the soft spots to nibble on the stone of the fruit to release the seeds inside. Elephants like the fruit because of its intoxicating qualities. So there I stood, in the gathering dawn of an African morning, watching a huge bull elephant enjoying his breakfast.

After making everyone very jealous with my close encounter of the tusked kind we set out to meet Karen at Project Luangwa. Karen and her team work with the people of the Luangwa valley to develop education and help protect the local ecosystem, and improve the health and wellbeing of everyone who lives there. At present the focus is on women's health, and educating young women about puberty. There is a lot of misunderstanding still about the nature of menstruation, and a lot of people still believe that it is something dirty and shameful. Most girls don't have any way of dealing with it, because sanitary towels are not available, so they stay away from people, including school for that part of the month. Project Luangwa has devised a discreet and washable sanitary pad, which can be stuffed with raw cotton, plucked straight from the bush and they are running workshops with local women teaching them how to make them for themselves. While the women are there they can also talk about their lives, and often find out that they're not alone in whatever problem they're facing.

After lunch we visited Anna Tolan at Chipembele. Anna runs an animal sanctuary and education centre. The animal sanctuary is limited to caring for young animals orphaned by humans, so hunting or road accidents mostly. At present she is officially caring for two young monkeys and Cosmo the baby baboon, but Anna's house is akin to something from a Gerald Durrell novel. Also on the premises is George the vicious squirrel and his unnamed ladyfriend, Maureen the baboon who won't leave, and Douglas, a sizeable hippo that Anna rescued as a baby.

There's Douglas, chilling in the shade. This was as close as we could get because he is, after all, a sizeable hippo.

David S told us a story of the last time he came to visit Anna. They were supervising the sunset with a swift gin and tonic when David felt a warm breeze and a damp weight on the back of his neck. Douglas had come to investigate the newcomer and bestowed upon him a gift which would keep on giving. Hippos exude a red oil which both keeps them cool and stops them getting sunburned. It also gives them that characteristic pinkish hue. It is also impossible to clean off. For days David was wiping red goop off the back of his neck, but on the bright side he didn't get sunburn.

David S minus red hippo-goop, plus baby baboon bottom. He just has an affinity for animals.

It had been a thought provoking day, so we returned to Tundwe and cracked open some more wine as fuel for setting the world to rights.