Elephants Galore! (South Africa)

And so with a heavy heart ends another chapter of my African adventure :( I spent two weeks volunteering at the Knysna (pronounced Nysna) Elephant Park (KEP) in South Africa, and it was incredible! The park is a sanctuary for orphaned elephants, so the herd is out in the field by day, and then returns to the boma (barn) around dinner time to eat and sleep for the night, as they would not be able to survive in the wild anymore. As volunteers, our job was primarily to assist with the research that the park does, but also to help with the physical, day-to-day tasks of running the park. I am blown away as to how much I have learned about elephants in such a short period of time, and how unique all of their personalities are (and how attached to them I grew). I could go on forever (and probably will), but I will try to be as succinct as possible… The vast majority of the time at KEP, I felt as though I was at a crossroads between a horse show and camp. A horse show because naturally you are working with large animals, they have a similar routine of leaving the barn in the morning, getting their pens (stalls) cleaned, their food for the day prepared, then us coming to check on them and give them more food after they have come in for the night, (as well as many other similarities between elephants and horses). It was like camp in that everyone lives together at the park (with elephants right outside your window!), and you wake up in the morning, check your schedule of activities, before setting out for the day, having your meals together, and organizing activities off-site for your nights and days off. The weather was second to none, sunny nearly every day, quick rains that came in and left fast, and you can feel the summer burning off as they come into fall. It was ideal for running, and I spent many hours exploring the endless dirt roads in the area, although I will admit that there was less and less running going on as I discovered more and more horse farms and had to stop and play at each one! A typical day would consist of rising at 6:15 am to be next door at the boma for 6:30, seeing the elephants out to the field, then getting started removing the branches from their pens, and helping the boma guys clean the pens out. Around 8:30 the boma would be completed and we would attack our breakfasts as though we hadn’t eaten in a month. The rest of the day was divided into two hour blocks, wherein you would be doing activities such as “herd activity” (going out to the field to observe the elephants, tracking what they are doing every ten minutes), “nearest neighbor” (also in the field, but noting how far the elephants are from each other one every five minutes), “enrichments” (preparing the food/toy buckets for the elephants for when they come in at night), “elephant handler project” (translating text book articles on elephant topics to more layman terms for new guides—sounds boring but was actually fascinating), and “break”, etc. The day was done at 5:30 when the elephants were itching to get back to the boma for dinner, at which point we were free to run, have some sundowners, eat dinner, go out, etc. I tell you I could watch elephants interact all day, everyday and it would never get old! The nights and weekends we had free, and had some great times riding in the back of the pick-up truck to the local market, going for hikes, heading into town, braaiing (bbqing) etc. One particular highlight was during the second week when Khulumani (one of the guides) brought us to his church in Kwanokathulu (the location/township outside of Plettenbergbaai) for Easter service. I can without a doubt say I have never experienced anything like it before. Please excuse my long-windedness, but I have to give this a fair description to even give you the faintest idea of what it was like: Because many of the guides and KEP staff live in the location, there is a bus that takes them back after work, and we hopped on this to get there. When we arrived, we walked about 15 minutes through the township to Khulumani’s “flat”—one room in the base of a dilapidated building that was never finished being built. Here he lives with his wife and two children. The room is divided into two sides with a curtain down the middle, and is no bigger than most bathrooms. Presumably behind the curtain is the bedroom, so to speak, although we did not see this. He was so very welcoming asking us to come in, however, with four of us and the furniture, it was difficult to even close the door. The room had a bench on one side facing two old tvs sat side by side, so that the adults and children can both watch at the same time, but having to sit on the dirt floor or bench. There was a two burner portable stove on the counter, as well as a microwave, but as far as I could see, no running water, so cooking water and bathing must be done outside. All I could think of is how very difficult it must be to see tourists all day long who are spending more to see some elephants for an hour than you can afford in housing for a month. Regardless, he was so very proud and hospitable, and couldn’t wait to take us to his church. After another 15 minute walk or so (during which scores of children were chasing after us singing/chanting “white people, white people” in Xhosa, their native language), we arrived at the church. I should take a moment to describe it: a one-room shack, approximately the size of half a volleyball court, with logs tied together as the primary support overhead (covered by a tin roof), and scraps of wood nailed to the outside in no more sophisticated of a fashion other than that they were all generally horizontal. The inside was insulated with cardboard boxes broken down and stapled to the wood, and there was a single bare light bulb hanging from a wire which dangled from a support log. Khulumani’s wife came out to greet us when we arrived, and she assisted us in tying our scarves around our heads, as women had to have their knees and heads covered, and everyone’s shoes tossed in a pile outside. There were probably 40 people sitting on the dirt floor when we entered, and they all shifted to allow us to sit, and welcomed us a graciously. Because Khulumani is the minister/leader, the service then began, and although primarily in Xhosa, it was easy to recognize it as a church service. Another gentleman stood to give the sermon, and explained that four our benefit, he would speak in English, which everyone understands. It was actually a lovely sermon, and afterwards, they asked us to introduce ourselves, which we did. That is where both the English and any resemblance of a Westernized church service ended, and where we thought the service ended. I should also mention that throughout the past hour, another 30+ people (thanks to Carl’s counting!) had entered, and true to the African sense of space, there was no limit to how many people could fit, we just all piled on top of each other. There were also three large drums in the corner, which until now had only been gently used. When everyone stood to their knees and faced in one direction, we understood that we should follow suit and join in the prayer. Then everyone rose, formed a circle around a few in the center who were signing a book, and the drums, singing, clapping, and stamping began and was so electrifying that I would swear you could feel even your blood thumping… it’s a wonder the shack didn’t fall over it was so thunderous and energetic! The few in the center knelt down, and being that we had worked ourselves to the outskirts (thankfully), we couldn’t see exactly what was going on, but it somehow involved eggs, hot water, candles, some type of milky substance, and several other things about which we are still unclear. The two preachers would place their hands on the person kneeling’s head, chant something for a bit, and then after a few minutes the person would have what appeared to be something in line with an exorcism, many of them falling backwards knocking any amount of people over, and continuing to flail in an exceptionally violent fashion for a fairly extended period of time, taking anyone or anything in their path down with them. Obviously the members of the congregation were expecting this and could see what I can only imagine was sheer panic on our faces (as after 2+ hours of this our claustrophobia and agoraphobia had developed, peaked, and roared their ugly faces), and did their best to shield us and keep us on the outskirts. When a person appeared to be through, they were stood up and returned to the others clapping and singing, but many were not quite through, as they would again be overcome by whatever they were feeling and would fling themselves across the room again. There were multiple babies tied to women’s backs in towels, and they were often passed around from woman to woman, and I greatly feared that one of them would get caught in the crossfire. The dummers also switched frequently, as the room was very hot, and the intensity of the drumming could not be sustained by any one person. Now, I will take this opportunity to say that I am not a huge believer in spirits, etc., however, I can honestly say that I have never seen people looked as possessed as they did when in this trance-like state. They truly looked and acted as though they had no control over their bodies. So intense was one woman’s flailing that she reached up and clear smashed the light bulb to pieces, plunging the room into complete darkness, and yet no one skipped a beat; the drums, singing, and clapping thundered on like no one had noticed. After a few minutes, some industrious soul had acquired a new bulb, and with the help of cell phone lights, unplugged the light, unwired the socket from the wires, wired in a new one, screwed in a new bulb, and then used strips of a plastic bag to tie the bulb higher, closer to the support branch, leaving a bit of the bag dangling just next to the bulb which was rapidly heating up. Being I think the only ones in the room even remotely aware of our surroundings, all of our westernized fire-safety instincts were on high alert as we became acutely aware of the fact that we were packed into the back of a tiny shack with 75 people, no windows, and a door that opens inwards- hmm! Fortunately, after nearly 3.5 hours, the “service” came to an end and Khululmani later explained to us that it was a special service due to the Easter holiday, and that he was inducting new members into the church, and the extreme behaviors were their negative spirits leaving their bodies. Needless to say after my lengthy explanation, it gave us plenty to think about and discuss! Strange as it was, and nervous as we were at times, we were incredibly honored that they allowed us to take part in this very special ritual to them, as it is one of the few things that I have done that was truly, genuinely African, and not at all for the benefit of the tourists (we still really have no idea what was going on, and certainly didn’t at the time). After discovering that the a taxi would not come to the location to pick us up, Khulumani was able to track down a friend with a car who took us into town to join the rest of the group for open-mic night at the bar, where Abi gave a stellar performance and it was a fantastic night there on out! Back to the elephants, though, another highlight was sleeping in the very posh Elephant lodge which overlooks the boma so that you literally can watch the elephants all night through your window or the overlooking balcony. It was lovely to have the cushy accommodation on the last night and just chill out watching them play with each other, and then wake up again in the morning- magical! Perhaps the bit most like camp, though, was the last day—I was shocked to find how exceptionally sad I was to leave after having had such an amazing two weeks with such fantastic volunteers, guides, and of course elephants! I will greatly miss our family meals, going to visit the ellies in the boma and having them stick their trunks out to greet us, and the wonderful routine and camaraderie we all found so far from home. It is safe to say that if ever you are feeling down, angry, or any other negative way, seek out an elephant and after one stroke under their trunk or a ride on their back, nothing else matters!