Far From the City of Brotherly Love


I got to make a quick trip to Philadelphia this week, the "City of Brotherly Love". I had been once before in the fall, and being in Philadelphia during a heat wave is an interesting proposition. Luckily, if you are downtown, you can walk through buildings sometimes to get to the next street, so I spent very little time outdoors. It was the news that was so disconcerting in Philadelphia. There have been 10 murders in the last 3-4 days, one being a taxi driver with four children. My taxi driver told of another story where the driver was held at gun point, but luckily wasn't shot.

There was an elderly woman who died in her house because she didn't want to turn on the fans or air conditioners because she was afraid she couldn't pay the electric bill. There were loads of people trying to sit outside because their row homes acted like convection ovens. Everyone seemed to be blaming everyone else. The mayor wanted to bring in more police and state troopers, the police chief wanted the city to raise the pay for the police so they could keep the policemen they have and possibly get more. All in all, a desperate situation, luckily with a short term end in site--a thunderstorm coming down from the north.

Not so for Atlanta, I got back to hear it had been 100 degrees today. I guess in the South we suppose that poor folks, and elderly folks have air conditioners and fans (as we sit in our air conditioned houses).

It's a sad world, not so full of "brotherly love". And then, I got an email from a friend of mine, who is in Sri Lanka working at an elephant orphanage. I want to include her story here because I think it says something that sometimes we forget. We are all in this together. Easy to say, hard to act on. Here is one example of selfless devotion to this thought.

Hope for rain and cooler temperatures.

I have now switched orphanages and I am now at an elephant orphanage for a week. What do I exactly do? The first thing in the morning I clean up, no lie, after 67 elephants who just ate---so yes, I scoop their poop for two hours! Thank God they are vegetarians; their dung is not so bad. Then I feed the baby elephants their bottle with human powder milk and later in the day give them their bath in the river. It is a sight to see 67 elephants stroll down through the bookshops and gift stores as they journey through town to get to the river.


Out of the 67 elephants, 3 of them are disabled. Raja the blind elephant, shot by poachers who also tore his eyes out and he still survived; Punjab with one ear that a hunter tore off; and Sama who accidentally stepped on a land mine and lost a whole foot. So when Sama journeys down the town threw the bookstores, you see her limp and hop to catch up with the rest. I washed Raja several times and he already knows me by my elephant dung smell and because I accidentally scrubbed his eyes (it's hard to tell where they are!). I have a special place in my heart for Sama; even though she is disabled, she feeds the baby elephants with her trunk. I have no problem cleaning her dung.


So yes, my main job description: elephant dung cleaner!