The Time I Faced Death by Elephant – Sonkoi’s True Story

Recently, I walked from my birth home in Enkutoto, where my family lives, to my house in Esupetai where I live with Ann, my wife, who was in America at the time. It’s a long journey by foot, more than 60 kilometers, and I have to leave at 6 in the morning to reach Esupetai by around 6 in the evening. I have to get to Esupetai before dark because the elephants have been very many lately and very angry.
It was dusk and I had just completed my safari, and started cooking tea with my two workers. The sun was down and it was turning dark. We were outside next to the fire when we heard the dogs barking. We suspected elephants because they had come around quite a lot lately. They always come to our fence and tried to break into the compound to pull up the many small trees we planted, as there has been a long drought and not many trees remaining in the area for this animal with a very big stomach. We started barking ourselves along with the dogs, making as much noise as we could, and began running after the elephants to scare them away.
The two elephants went into reverse and left, and we turned around to go back home. One elephant had changed her mind. When she saw us turn around, she stopped running and hid inside the bushes. And as we were walking back toward the compound, she took off after us. That one had her eye on me and started making a bee line toward me. I have long legs and can run fast so I thought I could make it to the house before she could catch up.
In the dark though I didn’t see the downed wire from our broken fence, and as I was running as fast as I knew how over it, my foot got caught up into it one of the coils. Down I went with a crash and a sudden sharp pain. I couldn’t move and I couldn’t stand up. My workers had made it to their house in safety and expected me to be right next to them. But, I just lay there not making a sound, not knowing whether the elephant was going to kill me or not, almost expecting to feel the large tusks of that mighty animal pierce my body. I lay there as still as I could, barely breathing, beginning to notice the pain in my leg.
I could hear the elephant snort, she wasn’t far away, but the sound was not coming any closer. I lay very still. I knew she could smell me but I didn’t understand why she was not coming closer. It was very dark and no moon – maybe she has lost sight of me. Nothing happened for several minutes. It was a standoff – who was going to make the first move. I almost stopped breathing so the sound of my breath would not give me away. I could not call for help because she would know where I was. My leg was beginning to hurt.
Then ,I heard something move; I was not sure whether she was coming for me or going away.
I waited: it seemed I was going to be around a little longer – she was reversing.
When I was certain she was gone, after around 15 minutes, I called my workers and they saw me lying there. They brought a big long stick so I could hobble towards my house putting no pressure on my leg. I lay down on the bed and tried to sleep, but the pain was setting in and I couldn’t move.
But I was alive! and I very lucky because I had escaped the fate of two men in our community who died at the tusks of elephants in just this last week.
I waited until the next morning to make some calls. It was one of the longest nights of my life. When it was morning in the US, I called my wife to break the news.
And that brings us to the next story in my amazing life adventure. Sonkoi

Elephants and more elephants

After an extended absence for which I have no excuse! I am happy to report Baba is better, in fact, a lot better, and he is at home improving every day as he takes his special brew.  He visited the Maasai herbalist in Tanzania who is now becoming very famous for his cures not only in Nairobi, but in Europe as well.  When Sonkoi’s father reached the place where the herbalist stays, the herbalist told Baba that he is not a doctor so cannot say what is the name of the health problem, but he knows how to mix up the medicine that will cure it.  It is alleged that the broad range of cures covers HIV/AIDS to brain cancer and lots in between.  He does not advertise to bring the long lines waiting to see him; they come by word of mouth, and he lives simply as an older Maasai man would.  I will try to get the name and post it so you can look him up on the web.  So we are all relieved and somewhat amazed.

Now to the elephants……..They have arrived at our house at Esupetai and last week, every night, there has been an attempt to break in the fence.  For sure, the elephants were there before we came and deserve as much space as possible.  They pretty much come and go as they wish.  We realized, however, as time went on that the only way we could protect the habitat was to plant trees.  The area is semi-arid and when the constant wind blows, large cyclonic funnels (not dangerous) of dust form and the topsoil is no more.  To help protect the low vegetation and grass roots, trees are needed.  The elephants consider trees, especially the acacias or thorn trees, delicious and so knock them over to get at the juicy roots and inner pith.  And sometimes they knock them over for fun and sometimes while they are scratching their backs.  Most of the trees in our area are gone and desertification is slowly taking place just as in northern Sahel.  Our fence has large posts -5 to 6 inches in diameter and 6 ft tall – with  5 electric fence wires running between them.  They were once electrified when the “energizer” was working, but now that there is no current the intelligent pachyderms have figured this out.  At night they come three or four at a time and begin pushing the posts in with their foreheads.  When you can hear the sound of the posts cracking you run outside along with everyone on your compound and make noise and turn flashlights on them.  They will test you for a bit and then they turn and leave.  Before we had a fence, elephants often came up to the front door at night and selected various plants and trees to sample.  In the morning we saw they left nothing.  We hope that by putting in seed beds of trees that usually grow quickly in Kenya we can plant many trees and provide food for our elephant herds in the future.

To see a short film of the value of the elephant after death paste the following link into your browser:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6D6yb_tJeQ

See you next time, Ann Bassarab Keture

Baba, our father, is off to an Herbalist

 

Baba, our father

A matatu, our local transportation

Sonkoi is off to Tanzania with his father and brothers to see a Maasai herbalist who, Sonkoi says, is becoming very famous for his ability to cure cancer.  People are even flying in from Nairobi to be treated by this man.
Sonkoi returned to Kenya from the U.S. this year primarily because his father felt he was going to die and wanted his sons at home where he could pass on the community’s history and ongoing issues.  Since returning, Baba did not die, but is very weak and uncomfortable so the men decided to travel to seek advice from this herbalist.  Maasais have a well-developed herbal medicine repertoire and claim a cure for the common cold.
This journey will include taking a matatu, a local vehicle of any size and shape stuffed with people, and a lot of walking.  They will be able to cross the TZ/KE border easily since Maasais have lived in the Serenget as long as memory and when the border was drawn dividing this great plain into two countries, it was written that the border remain fluid for the Maasai people. They are off on Saturday so we’ll see what will happen when he returns.

 

When it Rains; it Pours

Talked to Sonkoi today.  He says it is raining in Esupetai; well no; it is monsooning.  The annual  downpour with high winds that lasts for two weeks and disappears for the next 50 has begun. It is called the “rainy season.”
Sonkoi said our one beautiful Acacia tree, the one with the big thorns, blew down on the house and several sheets of roofing mabati (corrugated metal sheets) blew away. The house is leaking so he and our employees are pulling mabati from our outside kitchen to cover the gaps.
The photo show the years’ rain when we still had cows, but it gives the idea.
In the US it seems we can adjust the temperature to our liking; in Kenya, we have to adjust to nature’s whims.

Rain at Esupetai

 

 

Talking about Elephants…

Elephants in the Mara

Since I recently mentioned that elephants ate all our tomatoes in Enkutoto (Kenya), I thought I would post this article from Bushdrum telling latest news about elephants near our village, Esupetai, which is about 24 km from our nearest townNarok.   Go to: http://www.nairobistar.com/local/rift-valley/16655-jumbo When we finish our conservancy, elephants will have land, water and be safe…I can’t wait!!!

Sonkoi plants tomatoes

Sonkoi and his Maasai community plant tomatoes along the hillside in a rural part of Kenya to sell at regional markets.  A couple of weeks ago when the crops were just beginning to produce fruit, people harvested the first couple of boxes.  And on this Sunday, two weeks later, the bulk of the plants were full of tomatoes and ready for the big harvest.  Sonkoi’s brother walked 20 km to town to call the lorry to come and load up all the boxes that would be ready to take to the market on the following day.  Late that night the elephants came.  And when the next morning came, all the people woke up early and walked quickly to their shambas (farms) to begin a long day’s worth of picking.  When they reached their farms, they were stunned at the sight.  Their tomatoes were gone!  What the elephants had not eaten, were trampled flat into the ground.  What bad luck!

Elephants do not usually come to this area and bother crops, but the recent severe and long-lasting drought had driven them to search new places for food.

Welcome to my blog

We live in Esupetai, Kenya in a traditional Maasai community.  There are five things that are very important to us:  family and community, our cows and livestock, water, firewood and wildlife all for different reasons.  Wildlife is a problem although we know how to live with wild animals.  Elephants may disturb our children as they walk to school, and predators such as lions and leopards kill our livestock.  We are looking for a way to improve our living conditions.  We hope you will follow our story.

Sonkoi at home