Palm frond feast

One can't help but feel for the elephants. Everyday we see them wandering through the leafless bush, spines jutting up from their backs as they strip bark off climbers for the bulk of their low-nutrition dry season diet.

But that doesn't mean they can't be pests. We have closed down Kiba Point in order to build a children's room adjacent to Room #1, and we just received a shipment of 450 bundles of makuti, palm fronds needed to thatch the new roof. The newly cut, bright green makuti piled six feet high must look like a once-in-a-century feast to the elephants at the moment. Family groups started converging from all directions to partake.

Fortunately, we were able to organize a rescue mission for most of the makuti, but the elephants still made off with several bundles in the night. But last night they were still hanging around, cleaning up the scraps.