For our Umani herd, May began with some unexpected encounters in the bush. First, a big tortoise crossed the road in front of the orphans. Because he prudently hid within his shell, most of the orphans didn’t even notice him. However, when Murera and Mwashoti saw the mysterious ‘rock’ in the road, they stopped to investigate. Mwashoti gave the tortoise a little kick, and after smelling it, Murera informed him that it was not a rock but a creature. Mwashoti could not believe his eyes when the tortoise emerged and walked into thicker grass to hide!
A big tortoise was crossing the road in front of the orphans. Many of the babies did not know what was on the road, luckily the tortoise sensed danger, he tucked his head into his shell and hid. The orphans mostly moved past the tortoise, only Mwashoti with Murera realised the hard rock on the road, then Mwashoti kicked it by his front leg, thinking it was a football. Murera smelt it and alerted Mwashoti that it was not a rock. Mwashoti could not believe the tortoise was now up and walking away into thicker grass to hide. Mwashoti was left confused, he ran back to the others trumpeting loudly.
Lima Lima and Zongoloni came across a sleeping buffalo on top of the Umani hills. The buffalo was relaxing, and he refused to move. Lima Lima and Zongoloni were trying to get him to move out of their way by trumpeting and charging at the bushes. Jasiri and Ngasha joined them to help, this forced the buffalo to run away.
Alamaya, Quanza and Sonje did not want to follow the direction that Faraja was heading in, they thought that area didn’t have enough greens to browse on, as they saw that Faraja was just picking dry grass. Sonje and Quanza with all the babies following behind, headed towards the Kenze hills area where they knew they would have more food. Sonje kept going deeper into the bushes, this made the babies doubt whether to follow her. Enkesha whispered to little Maktao and Kiasa not to follow her, then Quanza came to join them too. It was like Quanza knew that Sonje was headed to meet with her friend Osama. Quanza was right, Sonje met with Osama, but after a very short time, Sonje left him. Osama was no longer showing interest in Sonje, she moved back to where Murera and Mwashoti were browsing.
Today there was a huge number of animals seen at the waterhole drinking water. There were many bushbucks, with tiny babies, baboons, then the buffaloes came along looking for water. The vast number of animals that use the Umani springs as a water point shows how valuable the springs are.
Lima Lima and the team of bigger babies, who are slightly more independent, came along with Alamaya and Faraja. Ngasha was not with them, he came later once he had seen that Jasiri had left. Ngasha does not feel comfortable when Jasiri is around as Jasiri keeps him in check. While Murera does not feel comfortable when either of the big boys are present in the orphan herd, she keeps her distance. In the afternoon all orphans moved to the Chyulu area to browse. Kiasa flapped her ears and turned around as if she had seen something dangerous, it was only a rock hyrax. Kiasa likes to joke around and pretend there are scary things just ahead, the other day she came running back to the keepers, but it was only a hamerkop bird. This frightened the babies especially Maktao, Sonje and Quanza had to come back to comfort him.
All the orphans came out of the stockades looking very happy and peaceful, ready for their new day. After the orphans had their lucerne pellets, Jasiri, Ngasha and Faraja joined the herd and things changed. Sonje walked out into the bushes and started playing a charging gat the shrubs, then Jasiri joined in, he started pulling down bigger branches. The other orphans quickly joined in and soon they were all running around charging at the bushes and trees, and loudly trumpeting.
Kiombo crossed in front of Sonje, trying to stop Sonje from charging on trees, but she didn’t listen, it’s not easy for a little baby to stop one of the bigger orphans. The keepers called them to move on to the Kenzili area for more browsing. The charging games stopped, and the orphan herd moved off. Along the way there was some trumpeting from Zongoloni who joined the herd with Mwashoti. They had been sleeping out for a few nights and were very happy to re-join their friends.
Zongoloni, Mwashoti and Faraja had gone on a little safari with Zongoloni. Now they are back and Mwashoti can see that his best Friend Murera was upset that he had gone with Zongoloni. Murera walks at the back and rumbles, this is normally the signal for Mwashoti to join her at the back. Mwashoti joined Murera, while Alamaya and the other boys carried on without Mwashoti.
Kiasa tricked many big orphans when she raised her head and turned around running back to the keepers. Sonje and Quanza thought Kiasa had seen something in the bushes. They all began to run back to the keepers. Lima Lima and Ngasha didn’t turn back they went to explore what Kiasa had seen but there was nothing, Kiasa was just joking around again.
The weather was too cool for the orphans to get into the mud bath, Murera splashed her chest with water but decided the water was too cold, she moved away and avoided the mud bath. She decided to go and scratch on the popular scratching post instead. Later on, Jasiri found Ngasha at the post, he waited politely, then they took turns on the scratching post.
A herd of wild elephants with their little babies waited strategically in an area they knew the orphans would have to walk past. The orphans led the keepers to where the wild herd where waiting. They raised their trunks in greeting and communicated that they wanted their wild babies to meet the orphan herd. Sonje and Quanza led the orphans to meet the wild babies, one of the mothers walked out to meet Sonje, but Kiombo who was following close behind got scared and immediately changed direction. Kiombo was not interested in meeting the babies, he was jealous of the attention Sonje was giving them. Sonje noticed and rumbled to him to stop complaining and to go and join her.
Alamaya, Faraja and Jasiri then began fighting over who would remain with the orphan her. Faraja is peace loving and decided to leave the other boys and join Murera who was browsing slightly away from the others. Mwashoti followed him and they both joined Murera. Later on, Quanza started rumbling and looking for Maktao, Enkesha and Murera. She wanted them all to move towards the Chyulu hills. The orphan herd followed Quanza leaving Jasiri, Ngasha and their wild behind. Murera was happy about this as she doesn’t like being in big herds as she fears being pushed.
Crested crane birds flew over Lima Lima and the other orphans browsing in the open grassland. Lima Lima heard the sound but could not see where the noise was coming from, she screamed and scared the keepers, then they saw the birds and relaxed. Alamaya and Ngasha ran to see what was happening, they made things worse as they started charging the bushes and winding up the other orphans. The keepers had a hard time trying to call the orphans back and calm the situation down. Enkesha and Maktao continued loudly trumpeting and kept running further and further into the bushes, the keepers were worried they would get lost. Lima Lima was the first to calm down and go back to the keepers. Now Limalima came to the rescued, she helped the keepers find the other orphans, most of them where resting in the shade, tired from all the excitement. There was lots of happy relieved rumbling when the keepers found the babies. Everything was back to normal, and the orphan herd continued browsing peacefully.
It had been a couple of days since Zongoloni, Mwashoti and Faraja had reported back to the keepers and the orphan herd. Murera had been missing Mwashoti and waiting for him to get back, but today Zongoloni had been a good friend and made sure to bring him back to Murera. Although Faraja was not worried about Mwashoti because he is now big boy who is now used to the wild.
Murera was overjoyed to see Mwashoti, she welcomed him like her lost son. when she heard Mwashoti was back, she turned round running despite her bad leg, this just shows how much she loves him and missed him. Kiasa too was very happy to see Zongoloni, Kiasa went under her belly for Zongoloni to give her hugs.
Then the orphans walked out to Umani hills, leaving Lima Lima behind with Ngasha. Later they re-joined the orphan herd in the hills to browse. A few of the babies followed Murera and Zongoloni but as usual the majority of the orphans followed Sonje and Quanza. Kiasa moved closer to Zongoloni and put her trunk into Zongoloni’s mouth trying to smell what she was eating, Zongoloni then spat out what she was eating so that Kiasa could smell it and copy her.
Ngasha pushed little Maktao, when Jasiri saw this, he moved quickly to stop Ngasha. Jasiri acted as the head boy, making sure everyone was safe and happy, he didn’t want any bullying especially from Ngasha. Jasiri is the one who keeps Ngasha in line when he is with the orphan herd.
Some wild elephants appeared at the Umani springs while the orphan herd was there, drinking before they moved off to the Kenzili area, the orphans knew they had a long walk ahead of them, so they needed to drink before they left. Lima Lima and Enkesha walked ahead to lead the orphans in the right direction. As they started walking away a huge crocodile walked across in front of them. Enkesha spotted this crocodile first and quickly turned around trumpeting, signalling to her friends that there was danger. They all listened and turned around, finding a safe way past to the Kenzili area. The orphans continued to browse along the way. They also encountered two clip springers that out the way onto the rocky lava. The keepers and the orphans were wondering how this animal jumps over such sharp rocks.
A wild elephant family with tiny babies walked along the stockade fence line looking for water. They were thirsty after their long walk from the Chyulu area. The babies were very happy to find water in the trough by the stockades, they were splashing themselves with their tiny trunks, and they got help from their mothers. Zongoloni and Lima lima tricked Kiasa into going to say hello to one of the babies, but they babies were all under their mothers’ tummies. Kiasa found herself in a tricky situation, she touched one of the babies and it screamed. One of the bigger females pushed Kiasa away with her trunk, Kiasa turned back quickly before she got into more trouble. Quanza and Zongoloni moved to meet her halfway to calm her down and reassure her.
Faraja, Ngasha, Alamaya and Jasiri walked over and tried to lead the herd in a direction that none of the female orphans wanted to go, they didn’t succeed. Murera was struggling at the back, she started rumbling to get the others to slow down. Sonje and Enkesha who were in front, and they made sure the whole orphan herd walked slower.
Enkesha with the little boys, Maktao and Kiombo made their way through the bush browsing, they walked past where Ngasha, the big naughty bull, was hiding in the bushes. When Ngasha realised that Enkesha was there he came running out of the bushes and chased her. Enkesha took off very quickly and Kiombo ran to Sonje for protection. Zongoloni saw this happening and hid in the bushes, she went to get Jasiri, so he could put Ngasha in his place. Ngasha saw Jasiri and ran away. Zongoloni, Enkesha, and the two little boys made their way back to the orphan herd, they were now safe away from Ngasha.
Murera with Mwashoti didn’t join the herd, they kept on browsing along the Chyulu area but made sure that the rest of the herd would walk past them on their way home so that they would not be left behind.
Alamaya and Quanza had a disagreement. Alamaya was not giving Quanza any respect, she turned her head away from him so that he wouldn’t steal a stick she had in her mouth, instead he pushed her from behind. Quanza was shocked and decided to show him that she was a big strong girl and he needed to respect her.
Sonje went to play and do some yoga with the little boys; they normally climb all over her but today she didn’t feel like letting them. Instead, she showed Kiombo where to roll in the dust bath, Kiombo got bored and walked slowly in the opposite direction leaving Sonje alone on the soft pile of soil. Kiasa was trying to join Sonje, but Zongoloni blocked her because she was jealous and wanted Kiasa to be with her.
Murera with Mwashoti were playing and throwing with dust over their backs as they walk along the Kenzili road. Suddenly a wild bull appeared from behind a big lava rock and blocked their path, the orphans took another safer pathway to Kenzili. The wild bull followed the orphan herd. Faraja and Jasiri knew this wild friend, they walked over to him and hugged in greeting. Lima Lima watched in disbelief as Quanza took over her role and went to welcome this wild elephant without consulting Lima Lima first.
Two wild bulls had been following the orphans for a couple of days, trying to get Sonje and Quanza to leave with them. The Keepers called Enkesha and Maktao over towards them so that Murera would follow. Murera enjoyed having some responsibility and went around trumpeting and trying to locate and call all the babies over to where the keepers were. Mwashoti who is Murera’s best friend appeared first, then the keepers saw Lima Lima and all the orphans making their way over to Murera making her very happy. Sonje arrived late with her boy Kiombo and without the wild bulls making it a full house again and the orphan herd was complete. Later the older boys Ngasha and Faraja, went to look for the wild bulls as they thought that they could use them as protection and security on their nights out but instead they found a herd of females. Ngasha touched one of the babies and then the females got angry, and they got chased away. The boys, especially Faraja, were very disappointed not to find their male friends.
It was amazing night for the keepers, they saw Ziwa come back to the stockades in the darkness. He was greeted by Lima Lima and Faraja, they happily walked him back as he had spent such a long time out in the bush without visiting the orphan herd. He appeared with a wild female herd, the herd even had one tiny baby girl and a junior boy. The keepers could see that Ziwa had been adopted into this herd and that they loved him. The keepers were so happy to see him, they gave him milk and Lucerne pellets.
Murera and the other orphans inside the stockade compound rumbled loudly, trying to talk to Ziwa, he even came looking for Murera and Sonje. Jasiri and Ngasha got jealous and started pushing Ziwa, the wild herd saw this and came to his rescue, they took him back into their herd. He quickly joined them and was very happy and comfortable with them, it was better than being bullied by the nightclubber boys.
Today Sonje had a visitor, a huge bull who came and pushed her out from the orphan herd. At first the keepers assumed that it was the famous Osama, but today it was another bull who wanted the company of some girls. Although he was only interested in Sonje and not in Zongoloni, Quanza, or Lima Lima. These girls ran away from the wild bull, leaving only Sonje with the bull, she knew that he had no bad intentions. She walked with him, and he put his trunk over her shoulders. He was pleading with Sonje to walk away with him, she accepted and followed him to the Kenzili area.
Kiombo tried to follow Sonje, but soon decided not to as he didn’t want to miss out on his milk bottles. Kiombo screamed for Quanza who quickly responded. Kiasa and Enkesha followed Quanza to go and get Kiombo, when he saw them coming, he went running over to join them. Murera and her good boy Mwashoti also came back from the Chyulu area and re-joined the orphan herd. Everybody walked back for their milk bottles, Maktao even got an extra bottle.
Alamaya and Mwashoti where not with the other nightclubbers when they came back to the stockades this morning. The two boys came back much later and found that the others had all left already. The orphan herd was out by the Umani Springs, they found a few bushbucks standing by the springs, on closer inspection, the keepers saw two crocodiles waiting to catch the bushbuck. It seems the bushbuck were unaware and only noticed when the keepers tried were looking at the crocodiles. The bushbuck ran away, and the crocodiles fled in the other direction.
Murera with her limp walked slowly behind, Sonje stayed with her. Murera heard some elephants coming from behind them, she turned to see it was her loved boy Mwashoti with Alamaya, and Zongoloni.
Later the orphans found a leaking waterpipe, along the pipeline in the Kibwezi forest, they were enjoying the water that was leaking out. Then Zongoloni was being naughty as she wanted Kiasa to leave with her. Kiasa wanted to go with Zongoloni, not thinking about missing her bottle. They disappeared together and Kiasa didn’t come back in the evening, she missed her milk bottle, so the lucky Maktao got an extra bottle. Sonje, Kiombo and Quanza were walking together, Sonje kept checking to see if Kiombo was with them, in the end Kiombo walked under her belly so she knew he was close by.
A wild female herd with some junior babies arrived, they were trumpeting very loudly, the female herd were trying to call Ziwa who was still scooping some pellets, he was unaware that his friends were calling him, they were ready to move out and he was being left behind. Ziwa got the signal, he moved out with his wild friends leaving the orphan herd and the keepers.
Some monkeys were trying to steal the lucerne pellets, the orphans started trumpeting and charging at the monkeys then at the trees making sure all the monkeys were out of sight.
Kiombo and Maktao where playing and crossing in front of each other, then they started grabbing tails and neither one wanted to go in front as their tail would be grabbed. They stared pushing each other. Lima Lima, and Quanza came to separate them and stop the play fighting and pushing.
This morning was calm as peaceful, they were not being very playful. The nightclubbers came with Lima Lima but hurriedly walked away once they saw that everyone was in a quite mood and there would be no games today. The orphans all moved to the springs for some water then continued to the Kenzili area. Murera followed the herd in a quite majestic way as the old Matriarch, she only wanted Mwashoti to be close by her.
while heading in their chosen direction, Kiombo and Sonje found a tortoise crossing the path, the tortoise was covered by the tall grass, Sonje kicked it thinking it was a rock. The tortoise got turned upside down, when the keepers realised what it was, they went to rescue this lovely creature. Murera and her friend Mwashoti were too far behind the group and didn’t see what happened. They were happy obliviously browsing. Mwashoti moved towards a hyena hiding in a hole, the hyena realised that Mwashoti was coming close and ran away in a cloud of dust. This scared Murera and Mwashoti, although they weren’t sure what it was, they ran away as fast as possible.
Many wild elephants showed up to the Umani hills and Kenzili area today. Quanza and Alamaya were playfighting and pushing each other around. They were in front and setting the pace for the little ones. Kiombo and Maktao began to copy what the bigger orphans were doing. The orphans got closer to a wild family, Faraja and Ngasha thought they were friendly and went to greet them, but two bulls came out and showed they were not friendly, Ngasha tried to reach out, but the bulls were not happy, Ngasha took off in the opposite direction. Faraja was welcomed by the wild herd; he was brave enough to walk with them to the Kenzili area.
Murera is always scared of wild elephants, even when she sees them with other orphans she always runs away. She escaped with Mwashoti following her and they moved away to the other side of Umani hills.
Sonje and Lima lima joined the wild herd, they were normally the reason that wild bulls came to the orphan herd. Especially Lima Lima who is fond of having many boyfriends. Zongoloni later joined them with Kiasa following her. Maktao and Enkesha were not interested, they walked back to join Quanza.
After a little break away, Ziwa visited again, he came without his wild friendly family, but later in the evening the keepers saw his wild family coming in for water at the water trough close to stockades. The females and their babies began drinking water, and Ziwa moved to be close to the wild females. The Keepers gave Ziwa a bottle and some lucerne pellets to make sure that he would come back and visit again. There was loud trumpeting, the keepers left Ziwa to see what the noise was about. Ziwa left with his wild family; he was happy that they had come to get him.
Lima Lima followed to play with the junior babies in the herd, but she was chased away by the Matriarch. Ziwa had lots of fun playing with them, as they moved to the Chyulu game reserve.
At the waterhole the orphans had their midday bottles. Then Sonje being the leader, led the orphan herd off grazing. Murera and Mwashoti stayed back trying to decide whether to follow Sonje and the others or to go off in another direction on their own. They had their heads together in discussion when Quanza went back to persuade them to follow the rest of the orphan herd. Murera agreed with Quanza request, and they joined the others on their way to the kenze hills area. Whilst browsing in the area some bulls joined them, so Murera left fearing they would push her not knowing she was not strong enough. she walked to where the keepers were with Enkesha and Maktao leaving the wild bulls with Sonje and Lima Lima.
Faraja, Ngasha, and Jasiri had a disagreement today. Faraja was pleading with Ngasha to go with the wild bulls, but when Faraja reminded Ngasha that he had never made friends with wild herds Ngasha got upset and started a fight. Jasiri came to help Faraja so that Ngasha would not overwhelm him, Ngasha got upset that Jasiri had picked Faraja’s side, and went into hiding away from the others.
The excitement that was experienced between wild elephants and orphans was very amazing and kept the keepers alert. Wild elephants came along and joined the orphans while they were in the forest. Quanza and Zongoloni welcomed them into the herd, but Murera and Mwashoti were not happy, they trumpeted warning the little babies that there were wild elephants around. Then the wild family trumpeted back.
Jasiri, Faraja and Alamaya did not like the wild family joining the herd and chased them away. Murera and Mwashoti moved away unhappy with the conflict, even Sonje moved back to the orphan herd leaving only Lima Lima with the wild family. She is always very friendly with wild herds and especially loves ones with tiny babies. Lima Lima was welcomed into the herd and in turn welcomed her friend Zongoloni. Maktao and Enkesha had a disagreement, Enkesha wanted to go and be with Lima Lima but Maktao had a different opinion, he just wanted to be with Enkesha. Maktao pushed Enkesha to go and be with Lima Lima, and to leave him alone to go back to be with Murera and Mwashoti, where he felt more comfortable and safer.
The orphans all came of their stockades, Kiombo walked to be with Sonje, they had a quick conversation then Sonje walked to the shade under a big tree, Kiombo followed. Climbing the Umani hills was the first thing the orphans did this morning. while the orphans were busy zig zagging their way to the top of the hills, Enkesha blew her trumpet. Then the keepers heard more trumpeting coming from the bushes. Enkesha had trumpeted because she had come across two buffaloes that were standing in the way and Enkesha was trying to scare them and move them off, it didn’t work they weren’t scared of her. Quanza and Murera decided to advise the rest of the herd to turn around and go back abandoning the trip up the hills because of the buffaloes. The Keepers called the orphans back and they walked in a line down to the mud bath for their bottles. The orphans happily played in the mud bath, but then Ngasha came and stared pushing the babies around in the water because he wanted the whole mud bath to himself. He forced all the babies that were uncomfortable with his presence to leave the mud bath. Ngasha was left to swim alone with only Jasiri.
Alamaya and Quanza had a little disagreement, Alamaya tried to disengage himself from the situation as the gentle boy he is. He used his wisdom and walked away, giving himself and Quanza room to avoid a fight and showing Quanza that she should respect him. Quanza was trying to tough his tail and mocking him for not having one, this always upset Alamaya. When Sonje and Zongoloni saw him walking away unhappy Sonje went to be with him and persuade him not to leave. After some convincing he did stay with the herd and headed Kenzili with them. While on their way a wild bull crossed in front of them looking for Lima Lima who calmed the situation by accommodating the bull and walking with him through the bush to the Kenzili area, she stayed with him until the orphan herd started heading back home. On the way home Lima Lima saw a baby leopard, Lima Lima was pulling down branches of Acacia and she must have startled the baby leopard and disturbed the mother leopard who was waiting for some dik-dik to cross in front of her. when Lima Lima realised it was a leopard, she ran away very quickly leaving her acacia branch behind. The keepers and the orphans changed their direction slightly to get past the Leopard and her baby without disturbing them and while being safe.
There was a herd of buffaloes grazing around the mud bath today, they stayed there watching the keepers preparing the milk bottles for the orphans. Kiasa and Kiombo came running at top speed for their bottles. This startled the buffaloes and they all stopped eating to watch the elephants come running in for their bottles. The buffaloes didn’t want to run away because they were really enjoying the nice grass and the area around the mud bath was the only suitable place that had plenty of grass. Enkesha and Kiombo charged at them trumpeting and trying to chase them out the orphan’s territory. Mwashoti joined in as they obviously needed more help. The keepers warned the orphans to leave them alone and let then graze. The keepers brought some bales of hay from the hay store at the stockade to give to the buffaloes to help them with the lack of enough grass. The keepers and orphans left the buffaloes eating in peace and went all way to the Chyulus along the Kibwezi water pipeline. It was evidently very dry, as the rains have not come, and more animals would soon be struggling to find enough food.
Murera and Mwashoti went past the mud bath on the way home to cool off after a long hot day. Once they had finished wallowing, they went to find Sonje and Kiasa, assuming they would be together, but Kiasa was with Zongoloni. Zongoloni had taken Kiasa out with her, and they had not come back by the time the others were having their milk bottles back at the stockades. Zongoloni did not remind Kiasa to go back for her bottle, so Kiombo and Maktao got to share the extra bottle.
A younger wild bull joined the orphans at the top of the Umani hills. Zongoloni with Sonje walked back with this junior bull, he was calm and friendly, even to the keepers, he did not charge them as they were expecting. The keepers kept their distance for their safety, but Sonje brought him closer, and they realised he was very friendly. Quanza and Murera later teamed up with Alamaya and Mwashoti to escort this boy away from the orphan herd. Only Quanza came back leaving Mwashoti with him.
When orphans were at the waterhole having their fun wallowing, the young bull came back to join them and cool off as well. Murera did not join the orphans at waterhole as she saw the young bull swimming and decided to stay away. After swimming in the waterhole, the orphans moved to the dust bath. Kiombo and Maktao started a pushing game, Ngasha was not happy to see them playing and was about to stop him, but the Keepers intervened and stopped Ngasha getting involved.
When the orphans were headed back home after a long day of browsing a wild herd joined them. The wild herd had babies that Sonje was very interested in. she was welcomed by one of the mothers and she spent time with the wild babies, this made her very happy. As one of the older females its good for Sonje to learn about looking after tiny babies as she might have one of her own one day. When the keepers were taking attendance back at the stockades Sonje was not there. One of the keepers remained with Sonje trying to her to come back to the stockades for the night, especially as Kiombo was not happy, he was looking for her. Sonje eventually arrived back to the stockades and received a very warm loud welcome from Murera, Quanza and especially Kiombo who was so happy to have Sonje back with him. Even though Sonje was late the keepers gave her a milk bottle as a reward for coming back to the stockade.
Ziwa brought his wild family to the mud bath. The mud bath is a place where the orphans and wild elephants often interact, drinking and swimming together. Ziwa’s wild friends caught the smell of the keepers and stayed some meters back watching Ziwa bravely join the orphans and their human family. One of the older wild females stood with her trunk up in the direction the keepers were standing, she rumbled to Ziwa not to go too close as she did not fully trust the humans. This female had adopted Ziwa into her family, and he could not disobey her to join Sonje and Murera, he turned back to join his wild family and they disappeared in the bush heading towards the Kenzili area. Kiasa tried to sneak off with them, but the keepers called her back.
Mwashoti began pushing Alamaya, but Alamaya being the peacekeeper that he is didn’t push back, instead he moved away.
A dik-dik crossed the path in the middle of the orphan herd, it was so quick that none of them knew what had happened, they panicked and started running in all directions. Zongoloni trumpeted very loudly when she almost bumped into a buffalo that was hiding in the bushes. The buffalo also got a shock and moved out of the way quickly. Kiasa who calmly stood pulling down little shrubs to eat unaware of the commotion.
Little boys Maktao and his friend Kiombo have been playing and tussling every morning. Their morning routine now includes pushing each other around. They began their game as normal this morning, but Sonje was standing close by and decided to protect her little friend Kiombo. Sonje tried to separate them and failed, Maktao was very happy with their game and Kiombo was also having fun and provoking Maktao. Enkesha tried her best to persuade Maktao to stop the fighting after she saw that he was getting a bit rough. Maktao eventually moved away with Enkesha and Kiombo walked to his friend Sonje.
Lima Lima walked to where Ngasha and Jasiri were standing, she picked up a stick then dropped it, Jasiri and Ngasha both came to get the same stick that Lima Lima had, and this started a big fight between the boys, tusks colliding was heard within bushes. Alamaya joined the herd with younger wild bulls around his age, they heard the fighting and went to see what was happening. Ngasha feared the wild bulls and ran away, but Jasiri thought that he had won the fight.
This morning Alamaya and Faraja failed to show up with Mwashoti, and Lima Lima who appeared back at the stockades very early in the morning before the gates were open. They waited at the gate to greet their friends Murera, Quanza and the others. It was a rouse, when the keepers opened the gates, Lima Lima sneaked in so quickly and went straight to the hay store. Mwashoti quickly followed her to steal hay too. The keepers saw them and then Lima Lima ran off with a bale of hay, she started playing a running and chasing game with the keepers. Again, Mwashoti copied her, but he stole a bag of pellets instead. The bag of pellets broke open and spread pellets everywhere for all the orphans to eat, but Mwashoti was nowhere to be found, he knew he would be in trouble for stealing.
A herd of wild elephants from the Kenzili area walked into the orphan herd. Lima Lima and Sonje were very happy as the wild herd had small babies with them, Lima Lima ran straight to the babies and stayed with the wild herd, she was so happy she never wanted to leave them. Since Lima Lima and Sonje were with the wild herd, Murera and Quanza were left to take care of the other orphans.
Kiombo walked away from Sonje because he felt bored. Instead, he looked for Maktao to play their usual pushing game but ended up joining Alamaya and Mwashoti. Kiombo tried to hug Mwashoti, but Mwashoti avoided him and turned to Alamaya. Kiombo tried to play with Alamaya instead, but unfortunately, he touched Alamaya just above his missing tail. Alamaya got upset and spun round very quickly pushing Kiombo down a slope. Sonje heard him screaming and the whole herd, as well as the keepers, went down to save him — all except Murera, that is, who continued browsing lower down the slopes, completely unaware. Mwashoti, who is her favourite, was unaffected, but she told him that it was not clever to play with the older bulls. Kiombo, feeling sorry for himself, walked back to where the orphans were, including Sonje and Zongoloni, his protectors. They were very sympathetic, hugging him and letting him hide under their tummies.