Our Friends At The Zoo

I continue to be amazed at where the Lord has placed me. Sure I live in an urban area teaming with people everywhere, but He also strategically placed me beside the Botanical Gardens, where we can roast hotdogs and walk our dogs, and within easy walking distance of the zoo. Being the mother of an active 3.5 year old this is awesome! I never appreciated it as much before I became her mom.

This weekend we visited the zoo twice, both Friday and Saturday afternoons. Friday just the two of us went and then Saturday Prossy came along with us. The thing I love about the zoo is that we something different every single time. If one animal is a dud one visit he will be performing the next, or there will be another animal putting on a different performance.

The Entebbe zoo isn’t anywhere near as upscale as a zoo you’d find in a more developed country but the thing I like about it is that you can get really close to the animals. So close that you can actually pet them which would be impossible in a more sophisticated zoo. Your kid could also fall through a lot of the flimsy fences overlooking some of the pens but it’s worth the risk. You just teach your kid not to lean on things (like signs. Ella’s almost brained me several times with the otters sign that’s not fixed into the ground!).

And Ella. A more enthusiastic zoo companion would be hard to find. She consistently says that the zebra’s are her favorite and all they do is stand far away and eat. She wants to ride the rhino’s and water buffalo and pet the lion but she says the snakes are “icky”. Smart kid.

We seem to be becoming fast friends with the lion. I would like to think that he recognizes us, but even if we’re not his favorite visitors, he always gives us a good show or comes up to the fence to greet us. The funny thing is that Ella thinks that it’s perfectly normal to be standing, at the tender age of 3.5 years old, within a foot and a half of a full grown lion with only a chain link fence between you. I have taught her that you don’t stick your hands through the fence to feed the lion grass. Only one time, a couple visits back, did I think that he really would have liked to come through the fence and eat her. He was up digging at the fence with his eyes fixed on her. Kinda freaky but it did make a for a pretty good show ;)

Saturday we got to see something pretty cool. The lion was trying to fight with the hyena through the fence, then he started chewing his back foot. Not something you see everyday for sure! I loved it :).

I had never, in all my trips to the zoo, ever seen the hyena up or doing much of anything but sleeping, twitching an ear and maybe lifting his head once in a while. But on Saturday he wowed us by pacing around and trying to pick a fight with the lion through the fence. Every time I would try to get his picture he would seriously hide behind a tree. It was funny! We also heard him making some noises (maybe he was giggling because I couldn’t get his picture).

The water buffalo were up close to the fence on Saturday. The female has the most beautiful eyes and only one ear! She was more nervous than the boy. The warthogs that live in the same field with them were entertaining us by going in and out of a culvert in their pen. The big mama would go, then one baby, then two babies, then you’d hear a bunch of squealing and little squealing hogs would start popping out! They are almost half the size of their mother and still nursing. There are three and they nurse from each side and between her back legs! Warthogs crack me up. Ella first saw them doing this and said, “Mom! A hog just went into that hole!” She’s really good at seeing animals in unusual places. She spotted the cerval cat in a tree, too. She’s got her Granny’s eye for spotting wildlife.

Riding the donkeys is about the greatest hit in the entire zoo. We are becoming fast friends with the donkey lady, Gertrude, and take carrots for Robert and Steve, the donkeys. When we were there on Friday there were hundreds and hundreds of school children visiting the zoo. About a hundred were lined up in the donkey corral, waiting turns to get their picture taken on a donkey. Ella had really been wanting to ride all day and had waited really patiently so needless to say, not even a 100+ little kids were going to get between my child and a donkey ride! Since we’re pals now, Gertrude was happy to get Robert and Ella was able to ride “her” donkey around, crashing through the lines of small children. There are definite perks to being by yourself with your rich white mom! I had a twinge of guilt for about a second, as she proudly rode her donkey through a line of on looking children, but that feeling quickly evaporated when I thought of where the kid was a year ago. There is justice in the world... :)

(you can see Ella about to charge through all these kids on her donkey, on the left )

When we went with Prossy on Saturday we were all pumped to give her a donkey show. Well, pride go-eth before a fall I guess, and um, well, Ella bit the dust! Hee hee. She got a little side tracked watching some kids on a swing (no, I haven’t given her a proper riding lesson yet – I’ve had to restrain myself though!) instead of watching where they were going and just slid right off. She screamed for a short while and then, to the absolute delight and pride of her mother, climbed right back on that donkey and continued to ride! That’s my girl! There is a saying that you’re not a cowgirl until you’ve fallen off your horse (or donkey I guess) seven times and gotten back on seven times. I was tempted to push her off six more times but I don’t think anyone else would have understood… ;) So yah, she is a die hard donkey fan and will really be ready to ride my horse when we get back to Montana.

We also got to pet a Red Tailed monkey. They’re friendly little things and one was up sitting on the side of the cage with it’s little hands out. Now, who could resist that? Definitely not me! While telling Ella, “Don’t ever do this!” I proceeded to pet it’s little hands and let it inspect mine. It was totally fascinated with feeling my hands and was even pretending to pick fleas off me and eat them! Totally hilarious! Well, I couldn’t have all the fun so I gave Ella some Petting-Monkey instructions and she joined in the fun too. The monkey was really interested in her hangnail and finger nail polish. It was so cute and Ella was so gentle with the little monkey! For some odd, and totally unfathomable reason, Prossy was content snapping pictures and didn’t even want to shake hands with the cute little monkey.

"Hey little monkey!"

"Look Ella, a friendly monkey!"

Some careful coaching from Mom on how to pet a monkey's hands

Success! Ella can commune with a monkey all by herself (while proud Mom looks on :)

Another fun sight was Prossy following a Crested Crane all around trying to get a picture of it. She got rather obsessed (or patriotic – the Crested Crane is Uganda’s national bird, like the American Bald Eagle) and I had to remind her to be sure not to miss work Monday morning. I had visions of her following that Crane around all weekend…

The rhinos were also down in the lower field so we could see them too. Ella was a bit bummed that she couldn't ride one.

Another great thing on Saturday was the jumping castle was up! There also weren't a lot of other children on it so Ella could jump to her hearts content without being smashed by a boy.

You don't see many of these in Uganda!

The little jumper :)