The very first time that I saw a film about elephants I was entranced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Giant but graceful\u2026 compassionate, caring\u2026 loving to their families\u2026 protective, loyal\u2026 everything humans are too often not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fatefully, my husband and I lived for a while in Kenya where I embraced seeing elephants and other wonderful creatures. After a year, we moved with our small son to neighbouring Tanzania.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amid the 1980\u2019s drabness of Dar es Salaam, there were vibrant shops filled with tie-dyed dresses, ornate boxes, beads and bangles. Trinkets of bone and ivory too\u2026 hard to tell them apart\u2026 I had tried. But there was little in the supermarkets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With British aid, a road was being constructed far inland to enable farm produce to be transported out, generating vital revenue. Until houses for the engineers\u2019 families were complete we were to remain in a hotel near the city. The manager had miraculously found basics like butter and powdered milk and, with my husband upcountry for weeks at a time, I was grateful for his enterprise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bugs aside, the hotel was paradise. Guests were accommodated in rondavels – small, round, whitewashed buildings with conical thatched roofs. They sat facing a golden beach where Indian Ocean waves and rustling palm trees sang together in the breeze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One evening the project accountant said he wanted to buy his wife, who was arriving soon, \u201can authentic Tanzanian gift.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHelp me choose an ivory bracelet?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNo!\u201d I said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He looked bemused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhy,\u201d I asked, \u201cshould beautiful creatures be killed to make jewellery?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He laughed. I plowed on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDo you know how much more human than humans elephants are? The extent they care for their families? That they grieve deeply when one of them dies? Or that a baby will stand for hours in the sun beside its mother\u2019s body, her tusks hacked out by poachers?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI hadn\u2019t thought,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLike the farmers upcountry, poachers need markets and unless people stop buying ivory, elephants will be hounded to extinction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He fell silent, then said he would buy his wife a silver, not ivory, bracelet. My heart sang.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Submitted by Ann Seed, 67, Edinburgh<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The very first time that I saw a film about elephants I was entranced. Giant but graceful\u2026 compassionate, caring\u2026 loving to their families\u2026 protective, loyal\u2026 everything humans are too often not. Fatefully, my husband and I lived for a while in Kenya where I embraced seeing elephants and other wonderful creatures. After a year, we … Continue reading Your Memoirs \u2013 \u201cEcstasy and Ivory\u201d<\/span>