Melania Trump on Friday danced to African music at an orphanage and laughed while she fed baby elephants, including one that bumped her gently and prompted a Secret Service agent to help steady her.
On her fourth day in Africa, the first lady received a warm welcome from children living at The Nest orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya, where she held hands with two children and began moving her hips as a group of children sang.
. @FLOTUS *dances* with the kids at Nest, entering the baby orphanage as they hold her hands and bring her inside pic.twitter.com/qWG8iNZsET
— Kate Bennett (@KateBennett_DC) October 5, 2018
She played with several infants and passed out “Be Best” blankets and teddy bears, commenting on how “well behaved” the children were.
“Thank you very much for your beautiful and warm welcome,” she told a group of older children while reading The Lion and the Mouse to them.
Earlier in the day, Trump fed baby elephants bottles of milk at Nairobi National Park and went on a safari. She laughed as one of the elephants suddenly moved toward her and knocked her backward into the arms of a Secret Service agent.
Trump wore riding pants, a pith helmet, and knee-high boots on a 90-minute safari, where she saw antelopes, impalas, rhinoceroses, giraffes, and zebras. Trump took out her smartphone to capture some of the scenes from her open-air vehicle.
Toward the end of her safari, she stopped to take in a site where ivory was burned in an effort to discourage trade of the material, a contrast with the Trump administration’s decision earlier this year to lift a ban on “trophy” elephant imports. The president’s sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, have also hunted big game in Africa.
Trump also met with Kenyan first lady Margaret Kenyatta, and later attended a dance performance at the National Theater in Nairobi. The performance was inspired by “being the best,” a woman who introduced the dancers said.
Trump is touring four countries in Africa as part of her “Be Best” initiative focusing on the well-being of children.
She visited Ghana and Malawi earlier in the week. Egypt is her final stop before she heads back to the U.S.
[Related: Melania Trump donates 1.4 million books to Malawi school]