poo paper

there's nothing like the feeling of unzipping a tent and stepping out into the crisp early morning air.. low-flying wisps of cloud lazily caress the valley whilst two distant birds trill to one another. though far from home and missing people dearly, i'm glad to be out in the wild.. i figure i'm sick of feeling sad and of wanting things i can't have, you make your own reality and i sure as hell aren't letting mine be this mopey ache any longer.. there's many reasons as to why i'm a little down regarding this last kenya month but i still want to try and make the most of it.

our group heads out after breakfast.. it's a short walk from camp to the sanctuary 'office' where a park ranger, fatuma, explains to us the process followed to make elephant dung paper - our task for the morning. i'd explain it to you but as you can see the diagram i've photographed does a great job of it (; the notion driving this paper-making is that at least in this way having a prominent elephant residency in the area gives back a resource that can be sold to park visitors, all proceeds going directly back to the community.

she already had a large tub of poo/paper mix prepared so we spent the next few hours plunging our hands and screen frames into the dirty water, sponging the excess water off and leaving A4-sized pieces of paper on the tables to dry. i actually got the hang of it quite quickly which was fun, it's a little tricky to get the edges out right (:

after we'd filled up all the tables with poo sheets, fatuma brought us a pile of dried paper for us to make books out of. it was basic arts and crafts.. cutting, pasting, folding.. i felt like a little kid again, thoroughly amused the paper was poo, and those of us who decided to buy our books spent a while painting them.

~

after lunch it was time for a game drive. i know members of our group weren't as excited as the new monthers given the amazing fauna we'd seen in tsavo but i went along anyway.. it's not like i'm gonna be seeing elephants out the car window in sydney (; the landscapes were once again stunning and i enjoyed myself sitting with my head out the side, music in my ears and sun on my skin. one of the elephants we saw had a really strange elongated tusk that is apparently a mutation of sorts..

back in camp with loads of time to kill, seb, joe, small sam and i played game after game of cards. i've learned a few new ones and it's nice to have something to do, especially with the absence of electricity (: all in all a pretty chill day..