It's About the Small Things

Getting to know our way around also let us visit an orphanage which is part of St Mary’s Boys School located in the heart of Nyeri. Our friend Dickson who is the caretaker of Dexter College was brought up in this orphanage which is why we were especially curious about visiting this place. When arriving we directly got surrounded by a small group of boys, but the crowd quickly grew bigger and bigger letting us realize that there are way more kids than initially expected – about 200. In the beginning, the kids were quite hesitant, simply watching us, but after taking out the selfie stick, all initial shyness was gone. We never expected a selfie stick to be more of an attraction than us! Do not get us wrong, it is actually quite nice for a change. Seeing the huge amount of children the orphanage is accommodating, we did not bring enough sweets though and we were overwhelmed by all the hands reached out, pushing us from left and right, forth and back.

Kenyan Selfie stick - Made by Dickson

Visiting all the places the kids were using on a daily basis– dining room, washing room, sleeping hall – and seeing the conditions they were in made us think back to our childhood and how grateful we should be about all the privileges we enjoyed and still do. Their circumstances might have shocked us at first but it is the better option they have – better than the streets. Behind the house we discovered even more children, from small boys to young men, all playing soccer together. The coach has been an orphan himself and now spends a lot of his time with the kids to motivate them. He invited us to join the game and we did – much to the entertainment of the others but we did not do THAT badly.

So in the background of not having enough candies and all the other impressions we collected, we would like to go back to give the kids some pictures they took of themselves, paint the interior of the building to make it look happier and to play some more soccer with them – they are probably better off here without us but at least we show them that we care.