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.
