The crowned crane, secretary bird , American fish eagle, and Egyptian goose all mate for life here. We have seen them all and they are worth looking up.   Among mammals, Simon could only think of the black backed fox (seen yesterday) and the dikdik a type of antelope.   When you see a lone animal out feeding– elephant , wildebeest, antelope etc., it is almost always a male.   A lion will mate every 15 minutes for four days when the female is in estrous.   The hyena, perhaps Africa’s best predator, makes a wonderful parent.  The mother takes careful care of the cubs for a year in the den. She travels great distances to hunt. Gorges on the kill or carrion, comes back , and vomits up her kill for the youngsters.   The male lion, however, kills every cub in the pride under a year old.   A male elephant penis can weigh up to 27 kgs.   During a recent aids awareness effort brought to James and Patrick’s communities, the first problem was that the men did not know how to put a condom on. This was demonstrated with a coke bottle as a model.  It was later discovered that some men were placing the condoms on a coke bottle prior to sex.

James is a serious, worried, and intensely spiritual man. That is not to say that he isn’t quick to return a smile or a greeting.  Always looks you intensely in the eye. He is brought almost to tears when he speaks of how much he loves his mother.  He is conflicted deeply now for several reasons:  first, I mentioned that the number of cows you own is the main measure of a man. He lost all of his in the drought. Secondly, he wants to send his children and sister to school, which costs money.  Then, his father who has five wives is constantly pressuring him to get more wives.  After many discussions, he has relented and agreed to get one more wife, because he cannot bear to disappoint his dad.  But they also cost money!!   He is pulled from all angles with no real solution.  If I’m correct, everything he does is for someone else, and his community. I think that since he can’t give enough, I don’t think he’s happy now.   By the way, if you want to have sex and have a baby at the town clinic, the sign says “skilled delivery- 18 dollars.  Unskilled delivery 5 dollars . C section 50 dollars” –and that’s by a nurse practitioner.  Unskilled delivery anyone?   So many ways to be a real man=