 five young elephants wrestling in a pond. The water covered all but their snorkel trunks as they sprayed one another, pushed, and played like puppies. An the moment became larger, more intensified, as it began to rain.
(caption above): waterbuck
A lioness crept out of the long grasses, marked by the gathering of vehicles: a lion jam. Her shoulder muscles displayed her strength with every creeping step. Behind her, two other females followed suit. Bringing up the tail, a mature male with a mohawk mane stretched his neck above the grasses, peaked with interest at his companions hunting. The lead female went directly for a group of waterbuck, sturdy dark colored deer, with horns that poked directly toward the sky. She scared the heard and they bolted. She pursued the chase but gave up after a brief lollop because she was unable to target an individual. She sat on a dirt hill, panting, then began calling out with a bellow deep from her belly. Was she calling out to other family members? This group of four looked young. Shocked and confused, I stood in disbelief. Lions, whose numbers were dwindling down to that of rhinos, were here, directly beneath me! I wondered if the conglomerate of loud human families had alerted her prey of her presence. Were we negatively impacting the food chain for these fantastic hunters? Her sisters disappeared into the long grasses. While the male lazily posed under an acacia for shade. The heard of trucks held tourists with wee heads poking out. We bore binoculars and floral shirts, and goofy looking hats unfit to be seen in in public.
(caption above): This was the lead lioness. She goes first for the kill. The day I met her, my first lion, I channeled my own inner lioness earlier in town.
A male lion lazes in the shade (caption)
We ate a lunch of homemade stew and rice, prepared by Zungu Safari, inside of a cage meant to protect us from the wildlife. I’ll take this option over a zoo, I thought, roles reversed. At rest points, the toilets were better cared for than the national parks in America, cleaner. They had toilet paper! Which was a bit of a shock after traversing lesser known parts of nearby countries, where I always carried my own. Late in the afternoon, we drove the backroads deep inside the park. We accessed a hill looking over the Tarangire River, the park’s namesake. And that’s when the most magical moment of the day happened.
On the valley floor beneath us, a heard of elephants, 200 strong trumpeted and stomped. We went in for a closer look, and turned off the engine. They then approached. In the quiet, standing in the open canopy roof of the Land Cruiser, juveniles first came forth. They wiggled their ears and shook their heads, each displaying their own personality. Larger ones approached and scratched their necks and backs on nearby trees. Others chewed bark and wrestled with branches. Most chomped awkward mouthfuls of grass that fanned out of their mouths rudely as they smiled. Mothers with tiny calves were cautious, keeping the newborns close for nursing. After they introduced themselves their babies shyly peeked out from behind their tree trunk legs. Other mothers pushed away too-old calves, as they encouraged them to eat grass instead of suckle. We remained surrounded, alone with this vast number as they crossed around the vehicle for an hour. And I was relieved that the other tourist vehicles couldn’t be found anywhere on the horizon. Bulls briefly fought and bullied smaller elephants. In a darling instant, I watched a tiny but boisterous infant get angry at a quail on the ground and trample her nest. The bird retreated to a bush. Then the magic was over when a grown bull gave playful chase to the vehicle from behind, briefly chasing us as the elephants chased each other. When I looked over my photos when I returned home I was especially delighted at the sun baked red mud that contrasted against their gray bodies and the excessive sagging wrinkles of the grandmothers and old bulls.
(caption above): mothers feed their young with two teats under their front arms
Later in the trip I would ask the driver, Hamisi, what his favorite animal to see was on what he called “game drives”. He explained that everyone (like me) always wanted to see lions. They begged for him to find lions for them. But then he paused. Thoughtfully, he said that he liked... elephants... the best. Lions were too violent, always exercising and parading their strength. But elephants, even with their strength and size, were gentle, and reserved.
And that — when compared my own human spirit, thinking back on my flytrap lioness encounter in town, I thought that was the greatest allegory of all: be an elephant, not a lion.
Awesome pictures Katie. I too love the photos of the elephants. Great minivacation here.
Oh Katie this is a beautiful story and you are so smart and brave!!! I would have loved to have been there when that guy approached you in town LOL I bet he thought omg what to do now LOL I’m so proud of you sweetheart and I to love all the gorgeous animals but the picture of the elephant with red mud might be my favorite 🥰 such wonderful stories for all your students. Wish I could trounce around with you!!!❤️And im sure muslims have plenty of doctors and imams espousing the benefits of clitoral removal. Plenty of women have had it done.  

And the only reason no one cares is because it happens at infancy.  and cherry pick data that often when you read it doesn't hold up.   Well that's fine you're right...Don't bother. Why is that? Because they know by that point it's a near impossible sell to any western male.

People love to assume the people who do these studies don't have religious bias...Plenty of studies are FUNDED by faith based groups. And you can find heavily religous scientists to preform them. Christian doctors absolutely exist. Again a very telling sign they had to go to sub saharan africa to get any results.  Not to many people close by looking over their shoulder.Dr. Wael Haddara says we need to acknowledge that anti-Muslim sentiment is deeply entrenched in Canada, in part because for decades, Canadian politicians have been willing to appeal to those sentiments for political gain.
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