When Sue Ball describes her visit to Africa as a life-changing experience, she really means it.
 Sue Ball with a Masai youngster
Since arriving home from Kenya a couple of months ago, she’s been looking at how she can find time to return there to work among the tribal villagers for a period of months, dealing with children in particular.
"The children stole my heart", she says.
"What I saw was this incredible happiness radiating from youngsters who have absolutely nothing.
"Just joyous kids in desperate need of a bath and in desperate need of an education".
Sue, business manager with Harvey World Travel in Brisbane, mixed with the children during a visit to a Masai village on a Bench International fam trip.
When she took photographs she was almost mobbed by the youngsters, who wanted to see themselves on the camera screen.
"They don’t have mirrors, so they never see their own images, except on tourist cameras", she says.
"One little girl was fascinated by my painted nails, so I painted hers. She thought she was a queen.
"We went to the local school to hand out things we’d bought, like colouring-in books, coloured pencils and so on.
"The wide-eyed expressions on the kids’ faces were unforgettable. And they were so focussed and so keen to learn".
The school, effectively a tin shed of about 40 square metres, houses 63 children clustered around desks that Australian schools would have discarded years ago.
Sue says the Kenya-based owners of Bench International are working with the local community to construct a bigger and better building and employ a second teacher.
"When you travel to Africa, you expect to see wildlife, and we did. Plenty of it, and it was awesome.
"But what really got to me were the Masai children. They changed my life.
"I’m absolutely committed to going back to Kenya to help those kids in some shape or form.
"I don’t have much money, but I have me".
 A group of Masai children The village Sue visited is on part of a 2000-hectar private conservation area located near Mt Kilimanjaro, about 10kms from Amboseli National Park.
She and other members of her group were staying at nearby Satao Elerai resort.
For more about Bench International’s East Africa programs, click here
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