First lady charms kids on Africa trip
Embraced by orphanage
NAIROBI, Kenya — Melania Trump briefly lost her footing when a baby elephant startled her with a sudden move, but the first lady was anything but out of step when children at an orphanage welcomed her to their home with African song and dance.
It didn’t take long for the typically reserved U.S. first lady to dive fully into the moment.
Trump arrived at The Nest orphanage yesterday after helping feed baby elephants, still clad in the riding pants and tall brown boots she had worn on a safari. A group of children who live at the orphanage and had been waiting for their American visitor broke into song and dance.
With a child’s hand clasped in each of hers, she led the group up a walkway toward the home for orphaned infants, sashaying to the music as she approached a bank of waiting news cameras.
The first lady was similarly immersed in the moment earlier at Nairobi National Park, where she had gone early yesterday to highlight elephant conservation.
Trump seemed reticent at first but she eventually stepped down from the platform she was standing on to take a large milk bottle and feed some of the orphaned elephants being raised at the park a few miles outside of downtown Nairobi.
Soon she was petting and stroking the elephants, smiling and laughing and having a good time.
A day earlier at a primary school in Malawi, she highlighted work done by the U.S. Agency for International Development to help improve child literacy in the country.
After donning a white pith helmet, she later climbed into an open-air vehicle for the 90-minute safari, taking photos on an iPhone and peering through binoculars for a closer look at zebras, giraffes, impalas, sleeping rhinos and hippos bobbing in water.
She also visited a site where 105 tons of ivory was burned as part of an effort to discourage the trade. Ivory can only be extracted from elephants after they have been killed.
Back at the orphanage, Trump left the same way she arrived.
After an outdoor book reading session, she was encircled by the same children she led up the driveway as they sang and danced some more. The first lady was quickly encircled by the gleeful children and she smiled and danced some more.