At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person.
Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.
Albert Schweitzer
Today was an AMAZING day. I have been anticipating it for over a month, but didn’t breathe a word of it to anyone (other than my mom, of course), because I just didn’t want to jinx it. It was one of those days that went so flawlessly, that you are almost left feeling uneasy because it was such a breeze!
Way back at the beginning of the July, we spent a day with Cherie and the TWU students going to all the typical touristy-places, including the Kazuri bead factory and the Giraffe Center. While we were paying admission at the Giraffe Center, I saw a sign asking for donations for the “Children’s Ecology Tours Program”. Essentially, they take a bus-load of kids from a slum or underprivileged area, take them around to all off the amazing wildlife sanctuaries in the area, feed them lunch, teach them all about the animals, and return them to school. The best part? It’s all free for the students and the school. It operates entirely on donations.
When I saw the poster that day, I asked the girl for info on the program, and within minutes, was sitting in an office with the Education Coordinator, explaining the work we do with the kids from our orphanage. When he told me that the list of potential schools for August was relatively short, we applied and held our breath. When I got the email in mid-July telling me that our school had been selected, I was ECSTATIC! I filled out all the contracts and forms, mailed them off, and started a countdown to today!
This whole last week, I’d been incredibly nervous, hoping the whole thing would go off without a hitch. I had a TON of trouble getting ahold of the coordinator this week to confirm, which was a requirement of the program, but Natalie and I were obsessive about calling, and finally got confirmation.
So this morning, Pastor Simon and Eunice arrived bright and early to drive Nat and me out to the center. We arrived around 8, and were greeted by the 23 kids who were picked to go today. (They can only take about 23 each day, and the kids have to be older than 10, so Nat, Eunice and I took half today, and Heather will take the rest with Pastor Simon and Eunice tomorrow). They were all so cute and apprehensive and ready to go. The kids who board there truly NEVER get an opportunity to leave the compound, so I can understand why they didn’t seem too excited before we left; it must have seemed too good to be true (I know it did for me!).
FINALLY the bus arrived around 830, and I could breathe a GIANT sigh of relief. We actually made it happen!!!! The kids nearly knocked each other out rushing to get on the bus. We got a little talk from the coordinator, and off we went to the giraffe center, where the kids got to feed the giraffes and attend a short talk explaining the different kinds of giraffes in Kenya.
Next we headed to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Center, better known as the Elephant Orphanage. It’s the greatest place, where the cutest baby elephants are paraded out for their lunchtime feeding in front of a crowd of hugely entertained tourists.
The elephants are so tiny and so there is just a rope between them and the people. However, at one point, one of the bigger babies came running down the hill towards the feeding station, and, instead of running along beside the rope like all the good elephants, decided to come tearing under the rope as a bit of a shortcut. (I guess he was the smart one; they always say the fastest distance between two points is a straight line). So all of a sudden this baby elephant was charging straight towards us. As it turns out, since elephants are pretty big animals, even baby elephants are pretty huge when making a mad dash towards a crowd of kids that you are responsible for. We somehow managed to push/pull all the kids out of the way, but all of them were quite shaken up. One little guy, who somehow got himself on the bus although he couldn’t have been older than 6, was so scared that he stared into a random bush for the rest of the time there so that he wouldn’t have to look at the elephants anymore. But anyway, all’s well that ends well, so we headed off to the Crocodile Center.
After a big hearty lunch of beef stew, rice, chapatti, and bananas outside the gates, we headed inside, where we all learned all about crocodiles. I even got to hold a baby, which was terrifying and gross, but SO cool.
Last stop was the Animal Orphanage, part of the Nairobi National Park. It’s like a zoo for abandoned animals. We took our time sauntering through looking at lions, cheetahs, hyenas, tons of primates, tons of cats, and more. As always, all the kids were climbing all over us trying to be the ones lucky enough to hold our hands or sit next to us on the bus. These kids are so sweet and amazing it would just break your heart. Seeing them outside of the walls of the center was crazy. The all started off so quiet and reserved, but by the end of the day, they were all having SO much fun. They were laughing and singing and telling jokes and being carefree, the way kids are supposed to be.
Being able to set up this trip for them was great, but being able to actually go through the experience with them was totally out of this world. We could have seen the poster and just thought “Geez, that’s a cool idea...we should look into it at some point...”, but we took the initiative and did what we could to make it happen. We’ve given so many material things to these kids since we got here: food, near-endless amounts of school supplies and books. Still, being able to provide such a memorable experience was probably the most valuable thing we could have given them.
As much as I tried to enjoy the day, I couldn’t stop thinking about these kids and how much of my heart they hold. Knowing that this Saturday is the last time I’ll see them crushes me.
They kept asking “Take me to Canada with you?” How do you tell a seven-year-old that even if you were legally allowed to take him home, you would never be able to provide for him in the way he deserves? That you would love him to death, but that it wouldn’t be enough? That he’d face adversity and challenges that you just aren’t equipped enough to deal with? If I could, I’d buy a plane’s worth of tickets, and cart every last one of those kids home with me, but of course, that would never be possible. It might even be too much to hope that we’ve made any sort of long-lasting impression on most of them. Two years down the road, we may be nothing but a faint memory to most of them. But we’ve been able to brighten this summer for them, and I guess that’ll have to be enough.-Delaney xo
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