Getting my feet back under me

   After a morning of feeling sick and elderly, I decided to re-group.  No more malaria medication [feeling I'd rather treat malaria back home than ruin my entire trip by feeling sick the whole two weeks]; start taking Cipro, the all-purpose antibiotic prescribed back home for "just in case"; extra potassium to stave off dehydration; electrolytes; and taking the afternoon off.  I felt right on the verge of getting REALLY sick and didn't want to actually get there.
   So, I snoozed for the afternoon, but was wakened around 4:00 or so by Jack wondering if I wanted to go bathe elephants.  Why, yes, I did!
   That's how I met the Big Four.  These are the four female elephants who live in another location from the other five.  They are the largest, the oldest, and have lived at the Project for the longest time.  They are Gee-Nowl, a huge wonderfully-tempered old girl and her best friend Easy Rider, who is much smaller and stouter and also very very pleasant.  Then there is Buffy, who turned out to be my particular favorite, who's been at the project longest, and is FIFTY-EIGHT years old! and her best friend Happy Lucky, who has the saddest eyes I've ever seen.

  And here we all are getting acquainted with a lovely shower.
  And what did I learn today?
  1.  I'm older than I was prepared to acknowledge.
  2.  That #1 is not as scary as I thought it would be.
  3.  That it's an amazing privilege to be tolerated by an animal who had literally had a hole carved in her forehead so she could be better controlled.
  4.  That although Jack talks as if he has absolutely no sentimental attachment to the elephants, he clearly loves them and they return the favor.
  5.  That elephants need to eat about 20 hours per day, and they actually have no stomach, just lots of intestines.
  6.  That elephants need to bathe twice a day, to cool themselves and to prevent dirt from building up and causing infection to develop and because baths are obviously REALLY enjoyable.
  7.  That elephants walk with slow, dignified, deliberate steps and don't appear to rush anywhere, but do get to where they want to go no matter what might be in their way.

  8.  That Jemma is a young Australian woman who is doing some graduate work here, and although she's only been here for six weeks, is courageous enough to be left in charge of the Project when Jack leaves in two weeks' time for a much-deserved trip back home to England, his first holiday in three years.  Here's Jemma posing with a 5-inch long cicada she found--one whose unbelievably loud screeching we hear daily.