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The orphans left the stockade early as usual. Mutara and her herd, who did not come to visit yesterday, joined the orphans as soon as they were let out. Esampu and Ndiwa took over looking after Mambo and his mother Mutara had no problem with the girls taking care of her baby. Soon after the orphans were done feeding on lucerne, the dependent babies parted ways with Mutara’s herd, much to Esampu and Ndiwa’s disappointment. The orphans headed north while Mutara’s herd headed west. Kamok teamed up with her favourite Ambo to browse while Sana Sana settled to browse with Larro, Malkia, Mukkoka and Naboishu. Mundusi, Rapa and Karisa walked far away from their friends, only to rejoin them later when they heard the Keepers whistling, and they knew it was time to head for the midday milk feed.

Naboishu who is very greedy when it comes to milk, decided that he should be in the first group. The Keepers allowed him and so he led Musiara, Ambo and Dololo to the feeding area. The orphans didn’t feel like wallowing today so only had milk and some water before slowly wandering back to the browsing field.

Musiara, who is becoming a comedian these days when he feels the herd is too quiet, decided to start some fun to awaken the group. He walked a short distance away and when he was out of sight, suddenly started trumpeting as if trying to scare an enemy away. Of course his trumpeting drew the attention of the entire herd. Kuishi, Esampu, Sana Sana, Pare and Jotto ran towards where the trumpeting was coming from whilst trumpeting too, in order to help Musiara scare away whatever was upsetting him. When Musiara heard his friends trumpeting, he felt happy and started running back to meet them. The others couldn't understand why Musiara was suddenly running back yet they had offered to come and assist him in whatever way! Musiara was all smiles as he stopped trumpeting and resumed browsing, leaving his friends disappointed having wasted their precious time in falling for one of Musiara’s pranks.

In the afternoon the dependent orphans were joined by Yatta and Mutara’s ex-orphan groups. Rapa, Mundusi and Sana Sana left with the ex-orphans, only to show up later shortly before seven o'clock late in the evening. 

It was a quiet morning today. The orphans settled for lucerne as usual. Half an hour later, the ‘crazy’ wild female with her baby in the company of Kitirua and Kalama arrived and joined the orphans too. Mteto, Esampu and Maramoja walked over to the baby and played nanny for a while before parting ways. Sattao had a small pile of lucerne that he later threw on his head as he walked to the water trough. Nabulu followed behind Sattao and later Mapia led the way out.

Out in the bush the orphans got in a playful mood: Sana Sana started a game with Pare and their pushing game attracted Malkia who played with Jotto. Sapalan played with Musiara and later turned on Rapa. Mapia played with Kuishi while Ndiwa played with Maramoja. Eventually game-time was over and the orphans settled for more serious browsing.

At mud bath time the orphans were joined by the late-night gang who had teamed up with the crazy female and her baby. The visit to the mud bath was brief as the orphans were in a hurry to get back to browsing. Rapa climbed on Mapia's back to show some authority but Mapia wasn’t happy about it. As soon as Rapa got down Mapia turned and faced him, demanding an explanation. Rapa seemed to just smile and inform Mapia that he is just a junior, so Mapia moved forward and to attack Rapa for demeaning him in the presence of the others. A wild bull walked over and saved the day as Rapa and Mapia went in separate directions soon after spotting the wild bull approaching.

Later Mukkoka engaged Ambo in a strength testing game that lasted for quite sometime. In the evening, Mukkoka led the first group back to the stockades for the night. 

It was a quiet morning. The orphans settled to have some lucerne soon after leaving their stockades. No wild elephants or ex-orphans joined in the lucerne feeding time today. The orphans had the whole compound for themselves and enjoyed each moment and freely moving about the place without avoiding any seniors. Later, Larro rumbled, giving the signal that she was ready to leave. Mukkoka joined her and together started heading east. The other orphans started leaving one by one so as to catch up with Larro and Mukkoka.

Sapalan engaged Ndiwa in a pushing game while Jotto played with Mapia. Mundusi played with Pare while Malkia played with Kuishi. Ndiwa decided to quit playing with Sapalan to have her own game of rolling on the ground but Sapalan followed her and took advantage of Ndiwa lying down to climb on her. Mundusi ended up overpowering Pare and turned to climb on his back.

At mud bath time the weather was chilly and none of the orphans wanted to wallow in the mud bath. Esampu, Enkikwe, Malima and Mteto only had a short soil dusting exercise before catching up with their friends who had already left to continue browsing. Later in the afternoon, Jotto and Mapia continued with their pushing game which only came to an end when they were too exhausted to continue, and they needed to continue browsing to replenish their energy! The rest of the day was quiet as the orphans concentrated mostly on browsing. 

It was a beautiful morning today with the dependent orphans drinking their morning milk bottles before walking out to feed on their lucerne supplement breakfast. Some ex-orphans were in the compound as well, including Lenana, Wendi and Kinna with their babies. The dependent orphans shared lucerne with the ex-orphans and some wild bulls too. Malkia was busy playing with Lili and Rapa was wrestling with Ambo before the dependent orphans left the ex-orphans and walked out to begin their day.

Out in the bush Malkia started playing with Maramoja, while Sattao started digging down at the ground for some tasty roots to eat. This is typical during the dry season when elephants turn to things like bark, baobab trees and roots for sustenance.

When the orphans made their way to the mud bath for their noon milk feed it was it was very chilly and most of the orphans chose not to wallow in the mud bath after their milk feed. Kuishi looked like she wanted to get into the water but none of the others wanted to accompany her so she just splashed a little mud on herself before walking off. Karisa and Nabulu were having a dust bath with Larro who had also splashed a bit of mud on herself and she now decided to dry off on the pile of loose soil. Slowly the orphans started to file out to continue with the day of browsing.

Later in the day, we came across ex-orphan Ithumbah —and we were met with the most wonderful surprise! She was slowly walking to the stockades with her newborn baby in tow! Only yesterday, she was at the stockades and still heavily pregnant, so she must have had the baby only last night. We walked back where we gave her some supplement lucerne and dairy cubes. Her baby looks very strong and healthy, even only at a day old! We were so excited to meet her first born baby, a little girl who we are calling Iman. We love that she wished to share this moment with us. All the dependent orphans returned to the stockades this evening, and no one was left out in the bush for the night.

A group of ex-orphans and their babies were comfortably sleeping outside the compound under the watchful eye of Chyulu, who was awake. As the dependent orphans had their milk bottles and came out of their stockades, the ex-orphans woke up and started moving over to the lucerne feeding area as they know the morning routine! Fifteen wild bulls were enjoying drinking water at the stockade water troughs. Kauro decided to go back into the stockades to look for any leftovers while Kuishi walked down to inspect the water truck before settling to drink some water.

Esampu spotted two buffaloes down at the water trough and decided to scare them away by trumpeting. The buffaloes turned to walk away simply because they had already finished drinking water, but Esampu felt very pleased with herself as she believed she had singlehandedly managed to chase the buffaloes away! When it was time for the orphans to head out for the day, Sana Sana led the way followed by Naboishu.

Out in the bush Sattao started the day activities by having a lone game of rolling on the ground. Jotto engaged Pare in a strength testing exercise while Ambo engaged Mapia in their own sparring match. Mukkoka tackled Musiara but ended up losing the game to Musiara. Pare and Jotto's games ended in a draw while Mapia won in his game against Ambo, which he signaled by climbing on his back. Mteto, Enkikwe and Karisa left with the ex-orphans Lenana, Lapa, Chyulu, Cheka, Loijuk and Lili.

It was quite hot when the orphans arrived at the mud bath for their midday milk bottles, but only Sana Sana, Nabulu, Esampu, Kauro and Pare decided to wallow. The others headed to drink water before walking back out to the bush to continue browsing. The afternoon was a quiet one as the orphans concentrated on browsing. Karisa, Enkikwe and Mteto were brought back by the ex-orphans late in the evening. 

Ex-orphans Wendi, Wema, Wiva, Kinna, Kaia, Kama, Ithumbah, Iman, Vuria, Narok, Loijuk and Lili arrived early at the stockade, moments before the orphans were let out. They didn't want to miss the lucerne feed! Two buffaloes showed up for water. Malkia spotted the two buffaloes and decided to try and chase them away. She ran trumpeting towards the buffaloes, who got scared at first and ran a few metres away, but then stopped and turned around, probably to check the size of the trumpeter and if this was a real threat or not! The buffaloes realised that the elephant who was trying to intimidate them was just a baby, so they stood their ground, prompting Malkia to surrender and walk back to join her friends.

Later in the morning, as everyone was getting ready to head to the mud bath, it became apparent that at some point, Kuishi, Naboishu and Ndiwa had sneaked off and were missing. Then on the way to the mud bath, Karisa, Rapa, Enkikwe joined a group of ex-orphans who they met and so they failed to turn up to the mud bath too.

At the mud bath the orphans were joined by a wild bull as they wallowed, but they got out of the water when the bull started bullying them and being a bit stand-offish. Instead, they went for a soil dusting exercise before heading back out to browse. Half an hour after the orphans had left, Ndiwa, Naboishu and Kuishi reported to the mud bath and expected their milk bottles from the Keepers who were still sitting there having their own lunch. They had their bottles before walking off to find their friends. They were lucky the Keepers were still there! With her trunk in the air, Ndiwa guided Naboishu and Kuishi until they caught up with their friends.

In the afternoon Jotto engaged Mundusi to a pushing game that ended when Jotto surrendered. The orphans were joined by Mutara and her group. Both groups browsed together till evening, time for getting back to the stockade. Maramoja abandoned her Musiara and attached herself to mambo. Rapa, Enkikwe and Karisa reported back later in the evening at the stockade still in the company of the ex-orphans. 

Kinna and her little herd spent the night just outside the stockade compound and were happy to join the dependent orphans in the morning for some supplement lucerne. Kamok attempted to bully Wema but Wema ran for protection to her mother. Of course, Kamok wouldn’t dare get too close to Wendi because she is aware that Wendi can be quite aggressive! Wendi pointed at Kamok with her trunk which is a warning signal from an elephant – it was as if she was putting Kamok on notice since this wasn’t her first time bullying Wema. Kamok left with Kuishi and walked down to the water trough were the two enjoyed drinking water.

Out in the bush, Jotto engaged Mundusi in a pushing game that ended in a draw. Pare played with Ambo and just as it looked like Ambo was about to lose his game to Pare, Kamok emerged and picked him up and they walked away together. Kauro and Sattao took a break from feeding to have a game of rolling on the ground. It was getting quite hot and at mud bath time the orphans had a spectacular wallowing session, with the exception of Kauro, Dololo and Rapa who opted to boycott the exercise. Esampu, Naboishu, Ambo, Nabulu, Maramoja and Mteto participated in a soil bathing exercise soon after wallowing, in order to dry off. Enkikwe and Karisa didn't turn up for the mud bath as they had joined the ex-orphans in the morning.

In the afternoon, Kuishi settled to browse with Nabulu. The two girls had also a lengthy conversation. Perhaps Nabulu was trying to find out from Kuishi if she has ever experienced a drought like this since coming to Ithumba. Musiara stuck with Maramoja for the entire afternoon while Mukkoka and Naboishu teamed up with Ndiwa. In the evening, Karisa and Enkikwe returned to the stockades safe and sound, about an hour after all the other orphans had already arrived.