The Caves of Kwale

It had been a very cold morning and the sky was grey with heavy clouds. Barasa had wanted to stay in bed longer because it was warm, but he had an exam. He got out of bed, cleaned his face, put on his uniform, had his breakfast, brushed his teeth, and off to school he went.

In class, they had just started writing their composition exam when it started raining heavily and hailstones started falling.

“Some places are just like fairy tales and dreams,” Barasa thinks watching the hailstones fall.

Barasa forgot about his exam and started daydreaming of being at the beach with his cousins in Kwale. The heat, blue skies, swimming in warm water and off to Kwale Barasa’s mind went. His memory was stuck on the beauty of the Shimba Hills National Park, the marine park he had visited.

Last Easter holiday Barasa and his family went to Kwale to visit his cousins. It was there that he got to see dwarf elephants! He had never seen nor heard of dwarf elephants.

That’s right, just like humans vary in height, so do elephants. Despite the small size of dwarf elephants, they are just as strong. They too can raid and destroy a maize shamba.

Suddenly the electricity went out. You would think that this would prompt Barasa to go back to his exam, but no, it only transported him to the historical places he saw in Kwale that had low lighting.

Off his mind went to the Shimoni Caves.

This was where Arabs held slaves before they shipped them off to the Middle and Far East. It is sad to think how scared they must have been to leave their homes and families when they were enslaved.

Someone’s pen clattered to the floor startling Barasa.