In Sandefjord we have an International Club for ladies, and I have been a member for several years. I had just recently stepped down as the club’s Treasurer after three years. But the feeling of being part of the board hadn’t left me completely. So I still felt a little responsible to contribute with ideas for interesting meetings. I knew that Joyce Poole previously had been discussed as a possible speaker on a meeting, so I mentioned it to her. And she didn’t seem to mind thinking about it.

Later that night, when my boyfriend and I started withdrawing from the party, Joyce and Petter were about to leave too. As they were going in our direction, they were so kind to offer us a lift home. A few days later I e-mailed Joyce to thank her for the lift and to ask her if she could consider giving a speech on the April meeting in the International Club. There were a couple of messages sent back and forth, and eventually we became Facebook friends. Through Joyce’s Facebook profile I found ElephantVoices - which was an exiting discovery. I probably read every single word on the website and then signed up for the newsletters, and followed up by reading hours and hours about elephants all around on the internet. I saw heaps of videos and downloaded elephant wallpapers for both my home computer and my office one. And I have bought elephant books. I even sat down to watch TV for the first time in 2,5 years, as the National Geographic’s Channel sent a series about Echo the elephant and the rest of the EB’s in Amboseli. I really had a steep curve of learning concerning elephants during January 2009.

Then in February I had my first newsletter from ElephantVoices. There I could read about the tiny elephant baby who had been trapped in a well. And about Petter, that together with several others had managed to rescue him and have him airlifted to the orphan elephant nursery in Nairobi run by the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. The story really touched me. So, of course, I had to check out the Sheldrick Foundation. Then I learned that they took good care of the orphan elephant babies until they could be reintroduced to their natural environment. I also learned about their fostering program. Here I could, for a fairly reasonable amount of money, choose whichever baby I wanted to foster. And suddenly, I became the proud “Foster Mother” of a tiny elephant baby. And my “Foster Son” is, of course, the same elephant baby that Petter had helped to rescue. Since the elephant baby was found at the foot of Kilimanjaro, he got his name from one of its peaks, Kibo. I am also a kayak paddler, and since all boats need a name, of course I have named mine “Kibo”.

In March, Joyce eventually agreed on giving a speech at the International Club’s April meeting. Joyce was telling us about how she got into elephant research and a lot about the elephants and her findings. Then she told us about elephants in captivity and how they often are abused. All the time we had a slideshow of beautiful elephant photos in the background. She also played several recordings of different elephant sounds that made the elephants feel a lot closer. All the questions that emerged afterwards revealed a keen interest amongst the audience. One of the ladies from Thailand was even almost crying when she admitted she had been riding an elephant as a young girl.

Then, as I just became familiar with Echo, we got the terribly sad news. Echo had died. Even after such a short time of knowing more about elephants in general and about Echo in particular, I realized how important she was. Not only as maybe the greatest of the Amboseli matriarchs, but also as a symbol of the free and wild elephants of the world. I felt like I had lost a friend even before I had the chance to get to know her. I couldn’t possibly imagine how it felt for the people who really knew her. The Facebook friendships with, at first Joyce and then later Petter, have eventually turned into “real” friendships. And my interests in elephants have expanded.

Joyce has introduced me to the fight for abused elephants in captivity, and at the moment my heart is bleeding for Susi in the Barcelona Zoo in Spain and Lucy in Edmonton, Canada. And like a lot of others, I’m eagerly awaiting the outcome of the trial against The Ringling Circus. I am signing petitions and donating money, and I even stopped dying my hair (which is utterly ridiculous anyway) to have some more money to give away.

At the moment there is a severe drought in Amboseli, and a lot of elephants are dying. On top of that, there is the horrible poaching. Because of this, there are more elephant orphans (23) at the Sheldrick nursery than there has ever been. So I guess I’ll soon be fostering another one. Now I have started saving to be able to go to Kenya. I dream of visiting Amboseli, the home of the elephants that have been Joyce’s research objects. And, of course, I hope to be able to visit the elephant orphanage in Nairobi and maybe even Tsavo, their new home in the wild. Hopefully while Kibo still is under Dr Dame Daphne Sheldrick wings...

Greetings from Gunn (Eliassen)