ANDREA 9 YEARS OLD AND KENYA!
Jambo!, my friends from Watamu taught me, and it's a word for hello that I learned when I was only three and a half years old in August 2006, when my parents took me to Kenya for the first time.
I don't have many memories of that wonderful trip because I was only 3, but I remember the elephants of the Masai Mara and I remember the games played on the beach in Watamu, with my dad Paolo and the African children.
My mom and dad have always told me over all these years how beautiful Kenya is and what we were doing as a family to help these people.
I've seen so many photos, and I've seen my mom many times sending packages of my little clothes to Italian tourists who were going to Kenya; I knew that all my shoes and clothes went to my "African brothers"; I saw their photos, year after year, they grew like me and many times I struggled to pronounce their names: they are Anthony, 15 years old, Siena, 13 years old, and Bella, 10 years old, the same age as me; they are Thomas's grandchildren.
Then one day my mom told me, Andrea, we're going back to Kenya! I was a little afraid of missing too many days of school, but then the November 1st holiday came... and so two days before we decided to leave.
I was also sad because my grandfather had just ended up in the hospital and my dad was worried and couldn't come, but I was sure everything would be fine, like it was for my mom last year, and so I told my teacher that I was going to Kenya to visit my "African family."
I left at night and I don't remember the trip because I always slept. When I arrived in Mombasa, at passport control I had to place my hand to identify I don't know exactly what, but it was fun, like in CSI movies.
I helped my mom with the bags; we had 2, one for us and one full of things to give as gifts; my backpack weighed a ton and I couldn't wait to drop it somewhere... When we came out of the airport, I found Thomas; I didn't remember him that well, but I knew he had always loved me so much and he said to me KARIBU ANDREA!
Thomas kept asking me how I was but I felt a little strange, so he told me that when he met me I was on the beach playing with the African children, until one of them lit a match to play and I burned my finger and was crying so much that my mom and dad didn't know what to do; at that point Thomas arrived with a glass of water to dip my little finger in and calmed me down. Since then, for us Thomas and his family have become our FRIENDS.
I have so many emotions to tell about, one is that of having arrived in Watamu and being chased on the beach by African children who spoke Italian so well...
In the evening mom organized a dinner with Thomas's grandchildren in a nice restaurant In Timboni at Gloria and Gianni's, 2 nice Italian folks I was so embarrassed, so many years had passed, I had seen them in photos, but meeting them for real I felt so shy... how would I talk to them? In what language? When we saw each other at the car we gave each other an open-hand high five and at the restaurant we played so much, ball around the pool, cards and with the Samsung phone where we could make drawings. I saved the drawing Anthony made for me, the drawing Siena made for me and the drawing Bella made for me; every now and then I asked my mom for English translation, but then there was no more need, we understood that we could play even like that... I didn't think I'd manage to overcome all my fears, but they're children like me, so hakuna matata, as they taught me to say.
Thomas immediately organized for the next day the blue safari by boat at Mida Creek, where I met 2 nice kids and we had so much fun, with dives, swims and spotting as many as 2 sharks; I ate lobster and went on a canoe ride.
Then I experienced the excitement of taking the train of my Africa in the evening that goes from Mombasa to Nairobi, sleeping in the berth at night and eating on the train like in the movies; I really liked it even though the train left very late and went very slowly; I never got discouraged.
I saw Thomas next to me who always reassured me and explained the whole program every time I asked him: what do we do now?
The train, however, never arrived in Nairobi; it stopped for a breakdown 100 km before, and for me it was a fun adventure because they called a taxi just for us that Rally-drove along roads full of potholes; in the end it took us to Nairobi to the Animal Orphanage so we could touch the Cheetah!
I thank Thomas so much for organizing all this, because when I entered the cheetah's enclosure I was so scared, but I was so happy to be able to touch and stroke the FASTEST CAT IN THE WORLD! At home in Italy I have my Duke, who is the same age as me and looks a lot like the cheetah... but he's just a nice big kitty...
From Nairobi in the evening, with a nice big jeep all to ourselves, we set off right away for Amboseli, where arriving late at the tented camp, I remember having dinner and then falling asleep immediately. In the morning though the alarm went off at 5:30 and I was so sleepy that I only took off half my pajamas, thus wearing 2 pairs of shorts and the T-shirt... At 6 we set off for the SAFARI!!!
Mom, how beautiful! You could see Kilimanjaro always near us, with its snowy peak, all the animals coming down to the valley to eat; I saw zebras, wildebeest, buffalo, antelopes of all species. The park seemed to be all ours; I saw the vultures finishing their meal and the hyena moving away to end up on our road; I had my binoculars and it seemed like I could touch it, until it passed so close to our jeep that I could tell how ugly it was, but how exciting it was to see it so close... I saw so many ostriches, even the small planes landing in the park, and in a short time we saw as many as 7 lions. Thomas knew where to look for them; they were resting in the grass in a clearing where no one went, but we did! How beautiful the Lioness near us with the collar with a microchip, like you see in documentaries on TV!
Leaving Amboseli park, Thomas took us to a Masai village where they started dancing just for us and I jumped in line with them, how funny... I entered one of their huts; I remember smelling a lot of smoke, even though the cooking fire was out; the windows were just small holes. I saw where the children and their parents sleep and I couldn't believe it...
I entered the Masai children's school, made of sheet metal; they were having class and we asked permission to hand out all my markers, pens, colored pencils, pencil cases that I had brought from home. They were all children sitting in silence, looking at me with those big eyes that I will never forget; I was very emotional and I also wanted to take a photo with their teacher to bring to my teacher to hang in class to show my schoolmates what schools in Africa are like. My mom filmed it and started crying; I didn't understand why, but she wasn't sad, she was happy because the children sang a little song for me. I understood that they too were happy even though they didn't have everything I have in Italy.
Then we set off for Tsavo East, stopping in a real African village to do shopping for Thomas to bring to Watamu. We had a picnic near the river; I was a little afraid of crocodiles and hippos, but Thomas always tried to calm all my fears, played tricks on me and I laughed a lot.
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