My name is Lorenzo. I’ve seen many places around the world, but I’ve always been a tourist. In August 2019, I decided to get involved. I left for Kenya for a volunteering experience—three weeks at the AINA Children’s Home center in Nchiru, Meru County.

As soon as I landed in Nairobi, I was hit by the smell of dust and gasoline, and the disregard for beauty as we Europeans conceive it. The mass of people at the airport spilled into the even larger square in front of it, where a local driver asked, “Where are you going?”
“To Meru,” I replied.
He squinted. “To Meru?!? And what are you going to do in Meru?”
“Volunteer,” I said.
“Very good.” He smiled—the first Kenyan smile. The first of many Kenyan smiles.

Three weeks are short—too short to absorb all those looks and smiles, to meet all those children who run to greet you, calling your name as soon as they see you, who hug you and ask nothing in return except for another hug. Three weeks is little time to truly understand Kenya, what AINA Children’s Home is, and how life really functions on the other side of the world.

I arrived at the center at night and went straight to sleep, not even aware of what was around me. I discovered it the next morning: Mount Kenya on the horizon, an expanse of plantains, green meadows, and red earth—like the sun that heats but does not burn. And then there were many, many children who study, play, and live. Yes, they are all HIV-positive, and yes, many are orphans with family situations so heartbreaking that they are almost beyond belief. But they laugh. They look at you and laugh. They greet you in Swahili, even though they know you won’t know how to respond—or maybe exactly because of that.

Three weeks is a short time. It’s just a small taste of a world so different, it might be incomprehensible to many. But even just three weeks is enough to leave with tears in your eyes, surrounded by children who hold on tight, not wanting to let go, who want to smile but can’t because they’re sad to see you leave. I miss those smiles—smiles you won’t find anywhere else. I hope to go back one day to see them again, again and again. Who knows, maybe someday.