Giraffes!!!

Wednesday Morgan and I went to the giraffe center outside of Nairobi. It is a 150-acre facility and has 9 giraffes (the 9th was just born - he is 3 weeks old. They haven't named him yet - I was trying to convince them to name him George. We'll see...). Giraffes are endangered, so this acts basically as a breeding ground and, obviously, as a safe place for them. Did you know that the gestation period for Giraffes is 18 months? So they have a new baby in the center every 2 years. Then, once the baby has grown enough and can fend for themselves, they send them into the wild, usually after 3 years. They can only have one male in the park, because otherwise there would be a lot of fighting. As for the females, it just depends. Some get to stay and others go. Anyway, it was fun and I may or may not have kissed one of the giraffes...

This giraffe's name was Lucy - I can't remember the name of this type of giraffe, but they are distinctive because they don't have spots that extend all the way down their legs.

Um yes, a random picture of my shoe. But aren't these sandals cool? I got them at the Masai Market.

The giraffe I'm "kissing" here is Laura - she is one of the younger ones. She kept running away because she doesn't like the school kids (who blames her??). And to be totally honest, it's actually not that slobbery. They're tongues are pretty dry. :) And yes, it looks totally gross, but it's not really that gross. You'll just have to believe me. :)

Laura with the school kids - they all filed by in a line and gave her one pellet each, except a lot of them got scared, dropped their pellet and ran!
Yes, one more picture... :)
Check out that tongue! It's actually longer than that, but I couldn't get the picture fast enough before she started pulling it back.