We’ve had a lot of families stay at Ololo over the years, and one thing that always makes us laugh is what the kids actually remember.
You would think it would be the lions. Or seeing a rhino for the first time, or giraffes walking across the park. And obviously they love all of that.
But quite often it’s something much more ordinary.
It’s finding an egg in the chicken house. Trying to milk a cow (usually not very successfully the first time). Feeding something to the pigs and then jumping backwards when they all come running over. Or just wandering around the farm asking about a million questions.
I think there’s something really nice about kids getting to see all this stuff up close. So much of our food is quite removed from where it actually comes from now. Eggs come in a box, milk comes in a bottle, vegetables come clean and wrapped up.
Here it’s all a bit messier than that.
There are chickens running around your feet, mud in the shamba, pigs making a racket and usually somebody somewhere trying to fix a fence. It’s a working farm and definitely not always picture perfect, which I think is part of the fun of it.
We also like that the kids can make the connection between the farm and what they eat later. They might see vegetables being picked in the morning and then recognise them at lunch. Or collect eggs and then suddenly breakfast the next day means something slightly different.
None of this is meant to be a big educational experience. We don’t really want it to feel like that. They just come along, get involved if they want to, get a bit dirty and see what everyone on the farm is doing.
And to be fair, some kids are more interested than others. Some want to know absolutely everything. Others just want to chase chickens around for twenty minutes. Both are fine.
Anyway, after all these years it still surprises us a little. Parents will be talking about the amazing lion they saw that morning and the kids are telling everyone about the pig they met afterwards.
Maybe that’s the nice thing about Ololo. You get the safari, but you also get all the small stuff in between.
