The further adventures of Marty and Gillian the motorcycling
giraffes
Story 10 Marty and the great Easter egg hunt
It is Easter Sunday, but instead of having a well-earned
long lie in bed, Marty and Gillian the Motorcycling giraffes are up at the
break of dawn, because they have promised Mrs Wanijru, who looks after the
watoto (children) at the local orphanage, that they would help hide some Easter
eggs before the watoto wake up and have their traditional Easter egg hunt after
breakfast.
Marty and Gillian had a quick breakfast of twigs and leaves,
and headed off to the orphanage, Marty leading the way on his motorcycle and
Gillian following behind on her pink motor scooter.
When they arrived at the orphanage they were met by Mrs
Wanijru and Mr Rono (a very important government executive who works at the
Nairobi state house)
“Hujambo Marty na Gillian ni `s nzuri kuona wewe, asante kwa
kuja kusaidia, watoto wote kupata msisimko sana kuhusu Pasaka yai kuwinda” (“hello
Marty and Gillian it`s good to see you, thank you for coming to help, the
children are all get very excited about the Easter egg hunt”) said Mrs Wanijru.
“hujambo Bw wa Wanijru, yako mnakaribishwa sana Gillian na
mimi ni furaha daima msaada kutoka nje, kama inafanya watoto furaha ” (“hello
Mr's Wanijru your very welcome, Gillian and I are always happy to help out, if
it makes the children happy) replied Marty.
“Well let’s get to work then” said Mr Rono “your friends
Peter and Gloria are already inside getting the Easter eggs out of the store
cupboard.”
“Ooh” squealed Gillian “have they bright baby Martina-Jilly
with them” and rushed inside.
When she got inside she found baby Martina-Jilly fast asleep
in her pram.
“Ooh she is beautiful” sighed Gillian
“Yes she is” said Gloria who had stepped alongside the pram
“me and Peter are so lucky to have her”
The four friends and Mr Rono then took all the Easter eggs
outside and Mrs Wanijru went to wake all the children up and make them
breakfast, Mrs Wanijru also took baby Martina –Jilly with, so she could look
after her while Gloria helped out with hiding the Easter eggs.
Marty, Gillian, Peter, Gloria and Mr Rono ran around the
orphanage yard to look for good places to hide the eggs. They put some under the garden shrubs, a
couple of eggs were hidden in low branches of the orphanage’s tree and others
were hidden in some of the outside toys and in the playgrounds slide, roundabout
and few others were buried in the sand pit.
After the children finished their breakfast they followed
Mrs Wanijru (who was still pushing Martina-Jilly in her pram) and she lined
them all up alongside the wall of the orphanage wall.
“Watoto, Mimi nataka ninyi nyote kusema kubwa thank you, kwa
Mr Rono, Marty, Gillian, Peter na Gloria, ambao wote wamekuwa wakifanya kazi
kwa bidii na kuanzisha Pasaka yai kuwinda kwa ajili ya wewe” (“Children, I want
you all to say a big thank you, to Mr Rono, Marty, Gillian, Peter and Gloria,
who have all been working hard to set up the Easter egg hunt for you”) said Mrs
Wanijru
“Asante sana” shouted the children very loudly indeed.
This made everyone laugh; Mr Rono then blew on a whistle and
shouted
“Tatu, mbili, moja, kuanza kuwinda” (“three, two one, start
the race)
The children let out a very loud cheer and raced forward to
start hunting for the eggs. As the children ran around looking under and over
things to try and find the eggs, Mrs Wanijru and the five helpers sat on a
bench watching the children and tracking it in turns to cuddle baby
Martina-Jilly, who giggled happily enjoying all the attention.
It didn’t seem long until there was a large pile of Easter
eggs piled up in the middle of the playground , the children had fund them all.
Mrs Wanijru then got the children to line up against the
wall so she could tell them all to take their eggs back inside to the dining
room where they could enjoy all the lovely chocolate. But Mrs Wanijru noticed
that one of the boys was missing.
“Children, does anyone know where William Koshi is?” shouted
Mrs Wanijru.
None of the children answered and Mrs Wanijru started to
worry, in 20 years of running the orphanage she has always known where the
children are at all times.
“Don’t worry, he can’t have gone far” said Gloria “you take
the children and Martina-Jilly inside to enjoy their chocolate eggs, and we
will look for William outside.”
Once the children were inside Marty, Gillian, Peter, Gloria
and Mr Rono searched the playground calling out William’s name.
Then Gillian thought that she heard something and told
everyone to be quite. Listening really carefully
she realised that she could hear a faint sobbing noise coming from the roof of
the orphanage, as she got closer she realised the sound was coming from behind
the chimney pot.
Gillian stretched her long neck up to the roof and peaked
around the other side of the chimney pot, to find a very scared and very upset
little boy.
“William what are you doing up here?” asked Gillian.
“I thought there might be an egg up here so I climbed up the
drain pipe and then I couldn’t get down and I was scared I might be in trouble”.
“Well it is silly and dangerous to climb on the roof, but I
am sure Mrs Wanijru will not be cross with you, if you promise not to do it
again, now let’s get you down”
Gillian called Marty over and told William to climb on Marty’s
big head and hold on to his little horns so Marty could gently lower him to the
ground.
Gloria took William inside the orphanage where Mrs Wanijru
was so pleased to see him that she gave William a big hug and told him to go
and eat some chocolate.
Mrs Wanijru came out to thank everyone for their help and
told them they were all heroes. This made everyone smile.
And finally it was time to go home , so Gillian gave baby
Martin-Jilly one last kiss and Marty and Gillian shouted “kwahari” (goodbye)
and they climbed on their motorbikes and zoomed off for home.
Back in their little house Marty said
“Well what an exciting adventure that turned out to be, I
wonder what adventure will be next for
Marty and Gillian the
motorcycling Giraffes.
