Piave, Africa Day 3: Cookie Run

I know there can't be two Day 3 but let's just say that in the hope of keeping you reading I sort of kind of split it in half!!!

So with all this travel it was about 1pm already on the Sunday and I had just met with the volunteers. don't know if you can also call it good timing but I found myself in Nakuru at a time during which a bunch of Quebec Volunteers were part of the experience, since I'm from the same place I thought we'd get along just fine.

Francis was the one who came to me first, maybe it had something to do wit the fact that I was allocated the bunk bed just underneath him?! He was ind enough to answer pretty much all my questions and to show me around. After familiarizing myself with the environment he took me to the orphanage to introduce me to Ivan, the founder. An inspiring meeting to say the least.

Ivan was a plummer back in Australia when he visited Nakuru for the first time. He wanted to make a difference and three years later, his orphanage was built and he moved to Nakuru with Mary and their two daughters. Soon they adopted 27 orphans and are now parents for all of them.

I didn't get a chance to come back from all the emotions I had just witnessed in the orphanage when I saw that a couple of the girls were walking with Ivan to his jeep. They asked me If I wanted to join them for a Cookie Run. I had no idea what it was but I figured I should take my camera and just go, which I did.

I certainly wasn't prepared for what was to come. Ivan drove Tracy, Emilie, Emmanuelle and I through the streets of the Piave community. The girls were sitting in the back seat giving away cookies. The streets were of hard red dirt with quite the swamps in them but nothing the Mitsubishi 4x4 couldn't go through. The panorama was beautiful with valleys and mountains but this was only to offset the poor conditions in which the locals lived. Their shelters were mostly made of mud and animals excrements while some had a sheet of iron to provide a roof. The children we were giving cookies to were poorly clothed and dirty. Some shirts could barely hold together and don't even think of matching colors.

Nonetheless most of the children had honest smiles on their faces. Was it the fact that they knew we were to give them a cookie or just that innocent young smile kids have even in the worst of situations?

We got back to the orphanage when we ran out of cookies and we had supper after which we went to the orphanage to watch a movie. The movie that was playing was Crash and I couldn't help but find a relation to my day... a crash!

See Photo Gallery of the Cookie Run Here

Related Links
Nakuru, Kenya
Getting Ready for Kenya Part 1
Getting Ready for Kenya Part Deux
Africa Trip Day 1: Friday the 13th...!
Kenya, East Africa Day 2: By way of Air
Nakuru, Kenya Day3: Finally Got There!