This Weekend - A Visit to Makuru Slum in Nairobi

This weekend was really great. It all started with a quiet afternoon on Friday when all of my roommates headed off to Machacos to the open market. I was totally out of funds because I could not find a bank in Machacos that was willing to cash my travelers cheques. On Saturday, we would be heading into Nairobi so I was hoping that with it being a large international centre, the banks would be willing to cash it there. Anyways, it was such a treat to have some time to myself. I washed clothes, e-mailed, read and listened to my radio (a huge luxury) while I was puttering around. The girls had a great time in Machacos and came back laden down with produce for smoothies - a blended drink of fruit and green leafy vegetables that we supplement out diet with - as well as a number of purses and a dress. Friday night after everyone had returned home, it started to pour outside. This was the first rain we had had since last August! We were all pretty excited when we saw it pelting down because it meant that we would not have to haul buckets of water out to our gardens to water them that evening. On Saturday, we headed off to Nairobi with a few of our classmates. My 3 roommates, Ian (a Civil Engineer from Tanzania), Warrio and Addis (two classmates from Ethiopia)and I hit the road around 9:00 A.M. We had arranged to visit the slum that Warrio grew up in. He had been sent there as a young boy to live with an older brother. Lynda and Dale, the founders of Organics 4 Orphans, had suggested that we visit The Kibara slum while we were here as it was one of the largest slums in the world and something worth experiencing. We shared this with some of our classmates from Kenya and they told us we would not be allowed to enter without armed police guarding us as Al Shaabab had taken up residence in this area. They are the terrorist group that has taken over much of Somalia and are presently at war with Kenya. We decided we did not want to be depending on the police to protect our lives as being a policeman in Kenya is just a license to take bribes. They do not seem very trustworthy and I remember when I was in Mozambique with Heidi and Roland baker that Heidi told me she told her children that if they ever saw the police to start walking in the opposite direction. Most of them are quite corrupt. Since Warrio grew up in an adjacent slum to Kibara we asked him if he would be willing to show us around his old stomping grounds. He was very happy to do so and suggested that we head off early in the morning before the sun was too hot and the stench too bad in the slum. We took a matatu (public bus) into Nairobi. That is always an experience in itself. These guys drive like maniacs. They are always in a hurry because time is money so they constantly pass other vehicles on the shoulder of the highway, in the ditches, or just by flinging themselves in front of oncoming traffic and hoping that they will slow down and let them into their lane of traffic rather than collide with them. It's best to keep your eyes off the road when riding these buses because you constantly feel like screaming out warnings to the driver. We walked from the main highway to the slum that was Warrio's old neighborhood. We passed through a shopping mall collinade and stepped into a whole new world. The slums were not too bad at this point because the main street was still paved and people lived in cinderblock apartment blocks where families would live in either a 1 or 2 room apartment. Clothes were drying in the wind as they hung from all the balconies and from clothes lines on the roof tops. There were sewage ditches on the sides of the road and planks across them where stalls were set up and people were selling their wares. People were everywhere! As we walked deeper into the slums it became much dirtier. The streets were just mud and the homes were made from sticks and sheets of corrugated tin. There were goats walking everywhere and garbage cluttering the streets and gutters. There was feces on the street as many just squat and go where they are. We passed some men rolling oil drums through the streets and were told that they were collecting feces and removing it to a place just outside the slum. People still had their businesses set up on the side of the road beside the gutters but they were tiny booths made from sticks with plastic to shade them from the sun. It was interesting to see people getting their hair cut by the side of the road and then they would burn the hair in front of the beauty salon. There was a number for the fire department painted on one of the walls so I asked Warrio how long it would take them to arrive at the fire. He just laughed and said normally 2 hours and by then the residents had put it out. There is absolutely no space between buildings so I could see that they would really need to get the fire out quickly. Warrio met up with a number of his old friends and after introducing them to us, they joined us on our walk. We went down a tiny, muddy side street and came to a school where one of Warrio's friends, Kim, worked. Warrio had worked along side him for 7 years in his old neighborhood. Kim was an absolute delight as is Warrio by the way. They are both such gentle, loving guys that you really wonder how they turned out so well living in this environment their whole lives. Warrio said that 75% of the kids he knew growing up are dead now from diseases, violence and drugs. Kim showed us around his school. It was in a very confined area with tiny classrooms. Hoever, each of these classrooms housed about 30 students and a teacher - I have know idea how they all fit in there! He had 9 teachers and 300 students at his school. These students were street children and other kids who had fallen through the cracks in the educational system. We were there on Saturday so he only had the kids requiring extra help with their classes at school that day. He was so gentle and loving with the children and it was obvious that they adored him. Kim is also providing nutritional classes to adults with AIDS and teaching others hygiene classes. He invited us to come back and teach some of the classes or help other adults set of micro businesses. Kim stayed with us for the rest of the tour and then walked us to the bus stop to say good-bye. We got on a city bus and headed for the city centre in Nairobi. We were in a rush to get to the bank before it closed.