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It was a sleepless night for the two babies Musiara and Chumvi last night due to the long downpour and the sound of the rain on their roofs. They were both screaming and moving around their rooms the whole night. They were the loudest but they were not the only ones who were affected by the rain as Esampu, Tagwa, Lasayen, Kuishi and Wanjala were also bothered. Maxwell on the other hand, couldn’t contain his excitement and was running around in happiness, chasing the warthogs who were feeding on his food. He enjoyed running after them and found it even more fun when they got stuck at his gate, teasing them as if he was going to hit them with his horn. He wound up his exiting morning with a lengthy mud bath. He fell asleep on the edge of his mud bath and was woken up by the heat of the sun later on. As we wait for the rains to come, the orphans still have to walk further into the forest to find good browse. For this reason Luggard has joined the baby group again, for the time being, so he does not have to walk as far on his bad leg. He also happens to like his keepers, just like little Musiara. Today Musiara has been trying to charge at poor Luggard whenever he seeks some attention from the keepers and he didn’t allow any of the other babies to play with the hanging blanket – it seems he is a very jealous baby for the time being! Ambo seems to love his new room so much and loves running into it in the afternoon when it is time for bed. When he came home this afternoon he was in a very playful mood, wanting to play with Malima all the time. Malima was only interested in stealing Ambo’s food however, from the other side of the pen. Ambo then decided to guard his meal by staying by his food and whenever Malima starched her trunk to through to his side to steal some branches, he charged at the wood divider to fend her off!

As the orphans were walking out of their stockades and into the forest, Ndotto, Lasayen, Rapa and Ngilai were busy chasing after Kuishi and Mteto, struggling over who would be the first to climb on these two orphans! At one point all the boys chased after Kuishi with Rapa in the lead, which really made her yell out in protest. Lucky Mteto had managed to escape the naughty boys and ran into a thicket. Kuishi’s yelling saw Dupotto, Maramoja and Ukame all run after them to rescue her from the troublesome boys. As soon as Ndotto, Lasayen and Ngilai saw the big girls coming towards them, they ran away for fear of being disciplined. Ukame ran after Ngilai which prompted him to yell out! But she turned back to check on Kuishi who rumbled with appreciation as Dupotto and Maramoja joined her.

During the public visit today the orphans were not as active as usual as it was a cloudy and chilly day so they certainly didn’t feel like playing in the mud. None were even interested in soil bathing as they had been during the previous sunny, dry weather that has predominated over the last few months. It was quite funny to witness even Enkesha, who is a mud-bathing rock star, shying away from the mud pool after testing the temperature. Godoma, Esampu, Sana Sana, Kuishi and Ngilai kept themselves far away from the mud pool once they saw the keepers passing out shovels, which they use in order to assist with the mud bathing activity. If the keepers happened to walk towards or close to them with the shovel, they quickly moved away from what they thought was cold mud! They all decided to browse on the greens provided there for them instead, which they ate for the duration of the visit today.

Nowadays it is not just Tamiyoi but also Murit, Pare, Kelelari, Mbegu and Dupotto who can be seen running out of their stockades in the morning and into the pens of their friends like Jotto, Esampu, Malima, Kuishi, Mteto and Mundusi to see if they have any left over lucerne pellets! Thus it has been quite hard for the keepers to control them as when some of the orphans are trying to come out of their pens, others are trying to go in, or running from one stockade to the next, and it can be rather chaotic. Recently it has taken some time to get them all out to the forest! Sometimes when Mbegu, Dupotto, Kelelari and Murit fail to find any leftovers, they start protesting by knocking or shaking the stockade gates! When the keepers cautioned them today they left the stockade area yelling as they ran out to the forest.

It was unusual this morning to see all the orphans browsing quietly and calmly without any of their usual games. Usually at least even the boys are engaged in some kind of pushing game, or trying to chase the girl and tease them by running after them. But today seemed a different start to the day than usual and the playful boys Ngilai, Ndotto, Lasayen, Rapa, Pare, Murit and Galla were all spotted being very quiet and busy browsing. However it was Enkesha who broke the morning’s peace by sneaking away from the group and leading Mundusi, Ndiwa, Kuishi and Mteto to the mud wallow where she settled into the mud pool to enjoy an early mud bath! The others were expecting to find milk bottles and when they realised there weren’t any they started yelling in protest, running back to rejoin the main herd. Enkesha did not seem bothered though and continued on with her nice mud bath until the keepers came to get and led her back to the forest.

During the public visiting time today we watched as funny Kuishi came running out of the bushes, yelling and trumpeting towards the feeding area to get her bottle of milk. This entrance managed to scare all of the young orphans that were already around the mud wallow. Tamiyoi, Jotto, Malkia, Esampu and Ambo all ran towards the rope cordon where the public were standing and bumped into them, especially Esampu and Malkia who had a hide and seek game with the keepers who were trying to steer them back towards the mud wallow. They kept running either side of the rope as the keepers tried to move them back towards the others, which the public found very funny as well. After a few minutes they all settled down again and went back to the mud pool to enjoy a mud bath.