Karibu! Welcome! From this time forward, I promise to post at least once per week about what's happening in the horse world and/or in Kenya.

Most of all, I want to share my love for Kenya and introduce you to some of the loveliest people I have ever had the good fortune to meet. People who are making a difference - in both small and huge ways - polepole as they say in Swahili (polepole or pole pole can mean: slowly, gently, softly, quietly; be calm, don't excite yourself, take it easy, never mind). Yes, I'm also trying to learn Swahili, which is totally different from Latin and French which I grew up studying. It's a melodic language, but it's complex and not every easy. Those words can describe Kenya in general: the country is complex, to say the least, and most of Kenya is in the bush — 'rural' outposts and wilderness that comprise the majority of its amazing and varied landscape. I love Kenya even though Swahili and its great wilderness areas are not for the faint of heart! But polepole! English is the other national language and trust me when I say that I know some of the best guides to be found anywhere! 

I just returned from two magical weeks in Kenya. No, I didn't want to leave, but I'm planning to return in November. Lots of news... Especially the need for people to get involved with Mbulia Conservancy's Fence Fund Campaign. Here's the deal: Tsavo West National Park has constructed a perimeter fence to reduce human-wildlife conflict. Elephants are highly evolved "jumbos" but they are voracious herbivores and their foraging makes them unwelcome by local communities who battle the lack of safe drinking/cooking water and drought in order to grow crops to feed their families.

When elephants arrive in the 12,000 acres of Mbulia Conservancy, a vital dry season area for the elephants who have been migrating their for hundreds of years, there is often trouble at neighboring homesteads. All too often, children and adults, who are out grazing the family's herd of goats or cattle, or perhaps have been working in the produce garden, get injured and killed by hungry elephants who don't like to be told to go away from a food source. If they could talk, they would say 'Great buffet at so-and-so's place" but they don't. They just know - and they return again and again because they have incredible memories!

Young Bull Elephant en route to NFDThis young bull elephant trumpeted several times and flared his ears. Chris Brennan moved the Land Cruiser forward. We all turned around to watch the young bull make his way into the heavy undergrowth on the other side. Photo © 2015 Lauren R Giannini/Lauren Gallops

The local people are learning slowly that vengeance in terms of killing wildlife is not the solution. The perimeter fence will allow the passage of small wildlife but keep elephant from wandering into "residential areas" in the bush (wild countryside). The fence to include Mbulia Conservancy into Tsavo West needs to be complete in September - it will be a travesty if the elephant are prevented from following their migratory path established hundreds of years ago.

Why should you care? The illegal market in ivory from elephants poached in Africa is a crime against these magnificent creatures. Ivory and rhino horn are causing the decimation of the African elephant (Indian elephants do not have tusks) and both black and white rhino. The elephant especially are essential to the eco-system of Africa - it isn't mere sentiment for these family-oriented mammals, their incredible memories and their social systems. The extinction of elephants will be a severe blow to Planet Earth. Everyone needs to be on board about stopping the illegal trade in poached ivory and rhino horn. We are all stewards of the land and its creatures. It's time to step up to the plate and do something!

You can start by reading this amazing blog by Mark Deeble, who has been making documentary films for many years and for about 25 years has been in Africa: markdeeble.wordpress.com/2014/01/24/a-new-year-in-tsavo-5/  

I started with this first one and have been working my way backwards. You may opt to begin at his most recent posts, but I like to start every story at the beginning - the first time. His prose is simple, et eloquent, his photos are amazing. Mark Deeble will open your eyes and your mind to why the elephants need not just protection by their national governments — Kenya, Tanzania, etc — enforced worldwide by a unanimous global governmental ban on ivory and rhino, but also why everyone in the world needs to get involved. 

PS 50% of the profit on of all my wildlife photos taken in Kenya will be donated directly to the Mbulia Conservancy - in the purchaser's name - to complete the wildlife fence that will include Mbulia's 12,000 acres within the perimeter fencing for Tsavo West National Park. Once the fence is completed, I will be raising funds for an AEG, made in the USA, state-of-the-art solar-powered well and built-in filtration system for Mbulia Conservancy. From there, we will branch out into other communities to fund their solar-powered wells and reverse osmosis purification systems, because water is life itself.