Saturday 15 December 2018

The Further adventures of Marty and Gillian the Motorcyling giraffes: Story 13 Marty and the Presidents



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The further adventures of Marty and Gillian the motorcycling Giraffes Story 13

Marty and the presidents

 After a few years of living and working in the great African city of Nairobi and travelling the world and having marvellous adventures on his motorcycle, Marty and his wife Gillian returned to the Maasai Mara four years ago because Gillian was expecting their first baby and the Maasai Mara, with its magnificent open grasslands, bountiful supply of acacia trees and lots of other giraffes, is only place to raise a baby Giraffe.

Marty and Gillian’s son “Gregory Martin Giraffe” is  now  three years old and Marty and his family have quite and idealistic lifestyle, living with the other giraffes on the Maasai Mara with only thing to worry about is the occasional scary lion that might stray to close to the herd.

Marty still has his motorcycle that is parked under an acacia tree and is always kept beautifully clean and in pristine condition but Marty never rides it these days he is far too busy playing with his son and making sure his family is always safe from the scary lions.

But sometimes Marty does miss his home in the big city, his job as window cleaners assistant and all the good friends he made there, especially his and Gillian’s bests friends Peter and Gloria.  But most of all Marty missed going on adventures and often day dreamed of all the places he has visited and even more about the places he is yet to visit.

One day when Marty was cleaning his motorcycle under the hot east African sun he went into one of these daydreams.  Geraldine Giraffe, Marty’s sister, spotted the distant look in Marty’s eyes and moved gracefully up to her brother and whispered.

“Wake up Marty, you’re miles away again”

“Oh sorry” spluttered Marty “I was just uhh”

“I know what you were doing Marty” replied Geraldine “you were dreaming about your adventures again weren’t you? “  Before Marty could reply Geraldine added “listen little brother, I know you had a wonderful time living in the big city and whizzing around the world and that you saw things that most giraffe’s never get to see you and you must count yourself very lucky to have done so, but now you must also realise that you are very lucky to be here back on the Maasai Mara with a lovely wife and a wonderful son.  You are back home Marty where you belong and you must learn to love it here”

With that she turned tail and trotted back to the rest of the herd.  Marty never said a word he knew his big sister was right; in fact Geraldine was a very wise giraffe and was usually right.

Marty stood up and gave a whipped his long neck back and forth to give his head a good shake put a big smile on his face and went off to find Gillian and Gregory, and spent the rest of the day playing with his son and as the evening sun went down and Gregory fell asleep at Gillian’s feet, Marty snuggle up to his wife, rubbing necks and watching the stars rise across the darkening sky.

“Yes Geraldine was right I am a very lucky Giraffe” though Marty to himself.

 

Early the next morning looked out across the Mara and could see a small cloud of dust moving towards them at quiet high speed.

“What’s that daddy” asked Marty’s son Gregory.

“I think that’s a human’s jeep car coming this and kicking up a lot of dust, probably bringing tourists from countries a long way away, who like to see African animals”

“Will they be from some of the countries you went to on your adventures daddy” asked the little giraffe as he looked up admiringly at his father.  “Yes son quite probably” replied Marty.

But as the jeep got closer Marty could see that it wasn’t tourists from countries far away after all but his good friends, Peter and Gloria, from Nairobi.

Excitedly Marty shouts to his wife, “Gillian, Gillian, come quickly its Peter and Gloria coming to see us”

Gillian, who was busy eating twigs and leaves from the top of an acacia tree, quickly ran across to Marty.

“Oh it is” she cried “how wonderful its ages since Gloria and I have had good chat, I hope they have got little Martina with them”.

Soon the jeep pulled up alongside the giraffes with Peter and Gloria in the front seats and little Martina (who is now four years old) sat, strapped in her car seat, in the back.

There were big hugs and kisses all round as Peter and his family got out of the jeep

“Jambo my friend it is so good to see you again” said Marty with a big smile on his face “I have missed you and missed living in Nairobi”

“We have missed you too” replied Peter “And Nairobi certainly isn’t the same without out you two living there”

As Gillian and Gloria fussed over how cute little Gregory was and how much little Martina had grown.  Marty looked at Peter with slightly more serious face.

“Tell me my friend what has brought you all this way out to the Maasai Mara, is it bad news?”

“I don’t think so” replied Peter “but this letter was delivered to my window cleaner’s yard, it’s addressed to you and it’s from the State house, (the official residence of the Kenyan Parliament and the President of Kenya), I thought it might be important”

“Wow a letter from the state house, do you remember when we cleaned all their windows before and important meeting, I wonder why they are writing to me” said Marty.  “Yes I do remember that, now hurry up and open the letter so we can all find out what it is about” replied Peter.


“It’s from Mr Rono, the Government official who employed us to clean the State House windows,    and he says that President Kenyatta is holding a very special event and that the former President of the USA Barack Obama is going to be there and there is going to be a garden party at the state house to celebrate the visit and President Obama has specifically asked for me to be invited.  Look there is even a posh invite in the envelope” then Marty added proudly “I met President Obama in Los Angeles several years ago and he awarded me a medal”


“Oh how exciting you are a lucky giraffe Marty” squealed Gillian “I am very jealous I would love to go to a garden party at the state house.”

“Let me see that invite” said Gloria as she snatched out of Marty’s hoof, “just as I thought” she exclaimed “the invite it for Mary Giraffe plus 1, you are going to the garden party Gillian”

Gillian squealed with excitement and soon she and Gloria were chatting away about Gillian needing new hat for the day.

“So little brother” exclaimed Geraldine who had been listening to the whole conversation “it looks like you are in for a big adventure after all”

“I certainly am” replied Marty with biggest smile possible.

The next few days were filled with excitement as Marty and Gillian planned their big day out at the State house in Nairobi and all the other giraffes could not stop talking about it either.

“Fancy my little brother being invited to the state house” exclaimed Geraldine “I am so proud”   and her husband Gary grumbled about it giving Marty an excuse to start riding that noisy motorcycle again, but secretly he too was very proud that a giraffe from his herd has been invited to the statehouse.

Eventually the big day arrived and Gillian put her new hat into the top box in Marty’s motorcycle and climbed onto her little pink scoter and shouted to  Marty  who was busy saying goodbye to Gregory and telling him to behave for his Aunty Geraldine,   “Hurry up Marty it’s time to go,  bye Gregory Mummy will be back soon”

Gillian blew Gregory a kiss and started her scooter up and began to ride away, Marty ran up to his motorcycle and climbed aboard kick started the engine with a roar zoomed after Gillian.  Marty’s motorcycle is very fast so to wasn’t  long before he caught up with Gillian and they rode along side each other across the dusty Maasai Mara waving to the other animals as they went by (and keeping a close eye out for any scary lions)  until they eventually reached the road to Nairobi.

Marty and Gillian were very excited about their adventure so despite it being quite a long way from the Maasai Mara to Nairobi  it didn’t seem very long at all  before they arrived at the out skirts of the city.

They stopped their motorcycles on the side of the road to look at the city ahead of them , Marty sighed “ we did have a lot of adventures when we lived in the city didn’t we”  “Yes” replied Gillian “but now we have a lovely life in the Masai Mara with our beautiful family”

“That’s true” said Marty and revved up his motorcycle and shouted “let’s go the president is waiting” and off they shot back in the big city of Nairobi.

When they arrived at the State house, Mary and Gillian showed their invites and were taken into the beautiful garden area of the state house. They were told that the sequence of the day’s events was that while the garden party was going ahead there would be a meeting taking place inside the building featuring President Kenyatta and the presidents from Uganda and Tanzania was well as president Obama.  After this  President Kenyatta and President Obama would give a speech each and then they would mingle with the all the guests at the garden party when they would have chance to meet the presidents.

“Ohh how exciting “squealed Gillan, “Yes quite an adventure” Marty replied with a big smile on his face.

As Marty and Gillian wandered round the garden of the State House, chatting to the other guests while helping themselves to bowls of twigs and leaves (the only food that Marty and Gillian will eat) when Marty noticed that a group of officials including Mr Rono were all stood in a huddle talking excitingly.

“Mmm” thought Marty “there seems to be a problem”

As Marty walked a little closer to the huddle of officials he heard one exclaim “that it would be impossible for a car to get through the busy Nairobi traffic to pick them up and get them back here in time”.

“That gives me an idea” exclaimed and turned round and shouted “Marty come here”

Marty was already stood quite close so he just lowered his long neck so his head was level with Mr Rono and stated “I’m here”

“Excellent, we have a problem that I think you can solve.  The company supplying the PA system have forgotten to bring the microphones with the rest of the equipment and they are back in their shop on the other side of the City. Do you still have your motorcycle and do you have it with you?”

“I certainly do and it’s parked just over there” replied Marty

“Well then I am sure you can help” said Mr Rono “only a skilled motorcyclist could make it through the busy Nairobi traffic to ensure the microphones are in time for the presidents to deliver their speeches.”

“Just leave it to me” shouted Marty as he raced off towards his motorcycle, shouting to Gillian that he was on a special mission.

“Don’t worry” Mr Rono said to the rest of the officials” we have the fastest motorcyclist in all of Kenya on the case”

Soon Marty was on his motorcycle whizzing through the Nairobi streets, weaving in and out of the traffic and going so fast he was just a blur to anyone who saw him go by.  After a short while Marty finally arrived at the PA companies shop. Outside stood a shop worker with a box of microphones as Marty pulled up to the shop, the shop worker walked up to him and said.

“Jambo you must be Marty”

“How did you know is me?” asked Marty

“Well I was told to look out for a giraffe on a motorcycle and we don’t see many motorcycling giraffes around here”

“No” laughed Marty “I think my wife and I are the only two motorcycling giraffes in the world”

The shop worker , who was called Charles, put the box of microphones into the top box of Marty’s motorcycle and Marty jumped back on  shouted  “Asante,  kawahri “ (thank you, goodbye)to Charles and whizzed off back through the busy Nairobi streets all the way to the state house.

In no time at all Marty arrived back at the State House, Mr Rono   rushed up to Marty to collect the microphones and ran off to the stage shouting back over his shoulder “well done Marty you’ve saved the day.”

“Happy to help” smiled Marty and he set off to rejoin Gillian in the garden party.

Mr Rono then took to the stage and called for everyone’s attention as the presidents of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania and the former president of the USA would all like to say a few words.

After the speeches were finished and the loud round of applause from the garden party guests had died down, Mr Rono announced that the presidents would now mingle with the garden party guests and hoped to be able to meet and to talk to as many of them as possible.

As Marty and Gillian were enjoying the lovely atmosphere of the garden party they were approached by the President Obama.

“Well Marty we meet again, if I remember rightly last time was in Los Angeles and you were the hero that day as well.”

“Not really a hero sir” replied Marty bashfully.

“Nonsense of course you are” said President Obama you then asked who the lovely lady Marty was with was.   Marty introduced Gillian to President Obama

“Very pleased to meet you Gillian, it’s nice to hear Marty has settled down and has such a lovely wife.” 

This made Gillian blush as she stammered in reply “Asante Mr President and we have a lovely baby son back at the Maasai Mara too”

“Well” said President Obama “things have certainly turned out well for you Marty and we are very grateful for your actions today, but unfortunately as I am no longer the president of the USA and we are not in America I cannot award you a medal today!”

“But I can” said a voice from behind Marty.  Marty turned around to see standing there with a large medal in his hand, President Kenyatta, the president of Kenya.

Marty beamed with pride as he bent forward to receive his medal, getting a medal from the president of his own country was very special indeed.

Soon the garden party came to an end and it was time for Marty and Gillian to get on their motorbikes (well Gillian of course has a pink motor scooter) and ride back to the Maasai Mara.

“Well that was a fantastic day” cried Gillian

“Yes it certainly was” replied Marty, proudly wearing his new medal, “but it will be nice to get back to the Maasai Mara and our family and of course our lovely little boy”.

“Yes, I have missed little Gregory” smiled Gillian

But as they started the long ride home Marty couldn’t help wondering what other adventure lay in store for Marty the Motorcycling giraffe and his family.