Tourists on Safari

Tourists dropped by yesterday, their white western faces peeking out from within the safety of their safari van. They had their driver hand two packages of 10, glitter covered, pencils out through his window for the 25 or so little African children standing excitedly nearby. Karen and I were in the compound when they came and seeing the children running we walked out to investigate. Karen walked right out to where the kids were, and the tourists with their windows up and their eyes wide taking in the sites, said something to their driver and drove away.

We are in the middle of a drought with a water crisis on our compound for the last couple of weeks so its dirty, and the kids clothes are dirty. They each have a school uniform, a set of play clothes and some Sunday clothes. It doesn't make sense for them to have more anyway, because they spend most of their time outdoors, working and playing, and everything is dusty. More clothes would just mean more laundry, more laundry requires more water,..and...well, you get the picture. Don't get me wrong the kids are well cared for and get washed regularly, but they frolic and play and hang out, outside, so their clothes are dirty and ragged. The clothes get replaced as needed and handed down, or traded amongst them, but the point is the clothes that they do have are well worn.

Then along come the tourists peering out from with the safety of their vehicle as if this was just another of their stops and we all were the wild animals. It was surreal. I'm not sure what they were afraid of, the only thing contagious here is the love that these children pour out to everyone that allows them to. It makes you think though, why even stop with your 2 packs of dollar-store pencils if you don't want to become engaged with what's going on here. Why not just drive by, back to the $200/night lodge with it's $30/plate buffet. Don't get me wrong, the kids were excited for the pencils but they don't have any paper to write on, well they do now because we went and got them some along with some crayons for the kids that didn't get a pencil because they only gave us 20.  You get the picture I hope.

The point is we from the first world just don't get it. We go about our lives peeking out the window to the rest of the world passing small tokens, sparkly pencils, out the window, and go on our way feeling good about what we've done. We can tell the stories about the lions we saw and the elephants and those dirty little kids, ...why doesn't someone do something about an orphanage like that allowing those little children to be so ragged and dirty. The thing is we need a secure source of water, more staff, better facilities and for all that we need..., you guessed it $$$. This work has come a long way in the last 6 years on very little money. The kids are off the streets and cared for and educated. However it is like going back in time 100-150 years in many ways. When it comes to bringing things up to the 21st century standards of the western world it requires money.

So you can have all the African safaris, Florida vacations, Las Vegas, Mexico..., that you want. I'll take a few weeks here in rural Kenya over any of it. Spending time with these kids, the little ones and the teens, is the most rewarding thing that I have ever done. Teaching them, and learning from them, has changed and is changing me. They don't really need things that we have as much as we think that they do. They play games with sticks and stones and discarded string. Most of these teens that I have met are hard working , skilled, creative and wise beyond their years. They all have dreams of a better future and believe that if they work hard it will come. They dream of coming to Canada to visit me...I dream of coming to Kenya to visit them.