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Published: January 18th 2007
The last couple of days have been pretty intense. I think the last time I'd written we'd been through Nairobi and in the national park, and stuff has only been more interesting since.
Elaboration: yesterday we went into the University of Nairobi and met some of the students. It gave me entirely new perspective on my own schooling and what a privilege it is for me to even BE a student. They took us on walking tours through Nairobi, it was the first time I'd set foot on the ground outside of a compound. This city is definitely not as bad as people make it out to be so long as you're smart about how you act. The parks throughout the city are unbelievable, they're so green and expansive. The people are very chill - both literally and figuratively. At any time during the day you can find a bunch of people hanging out and napping in the parks, just enjoying the awesome climate and life in general. Additionally, they find the current temperatures to be kind of cold, people were dressed in full suits and tracksuits! For the record, I feel like this is Canadian July. All I want to do is wear tank tops and shorts, but we've been dressing pretty "conservatively" out of respect for the culture. I can't wait to get into the field so I can sport ratty shorts and cut off t-shirts, I'll be back in my element!
Today was probably the most eye-opening of them all. We spent our morning at the UN office in Nairobi and sat in on a conference type presentation with the head of UN Habitat. They spoke about the rehabilitation and upgrading of the slum regions around the world but in Kenya specifically. We learned that 60% of Nairobi's population lives on 5% of the land...this equates to a population density of 90 000/km (squared) in some regions. Though all of the efforts seem promising and they have some good ideas, it's an enormous challenge....in fact, UN HAB has about 400 employees that are in charge of rehabilitating the nearly 3 billion people world wide that live in slum conditions.
Another initiative they're employing is bringing clean water and sanitation to smaller urban centres around Lake Victoria. This should help with general health and may prevent the migration of rural populations towards cities like Nairobi that are experiencing rapid growth and expansion without the infrastructure to support everybody. I'll have more to write on this later on as we'll be visiting these regions in due time.
After lunchtime we got on our buses and headed to Kibare slum, as I mentioned before this is the biggest slum in Kenya and possibly the world. It's divided into 12 regions and the UN has only managed to work with one part of one region. This is the area we toured through...there's not a lot I can say that can possibly explain the sheer magnitude of the slum regions. We had a group debriefing afterwards and emotions ranged from relief to despair concerning our experience there.
Personally, I was really pumped to get in there. I thought that I'd be hugging cute little kids and seeing the general lifestyles of people. To me, the slums were just a place that people lived in really bad conditions. I can't really explain it - though I'm sure everybody understands the feeling. We can't seriously fathom what slum-living would entail. As we were walking through everything was still kind of surreal and I was taking pictures left and right. I had a moment of shame where I suddenly realized that I was treating these people like a spectacle, touring through, taking pictures and smiling at everyone. I wanted to talk to people but became shy, you can tell that this is a place where it takes time and effort to gain some degree of familiarity and trust.
We were surrounded by the worst living conditions that I've ever seen. I knew that people lived like this, but was taken aback by the amounts of garbage, the sludge, the malnutrition and the attitudes of people there...you'd think that they'd be full of despair, but it was the exact opposite. We were surrounded by kids who were smiling and incredibly excited to see us. Nobody asked me for money, they really aren't looking for pity, but you can tell that they put their best faces forward in spite of the conditions. I could never live like that, but I totally want to go back someday to work and volunteer.
We're heading out of ICIPE tomorrow (sad - the food and lodging here is awesome) to test out our camping gear...staying at an OSTRICH FARM!!! Half of us fly out to Entebbe in Uganda on Saturday and the rest are going on Saturday. This is the last post I'll be making for the next 10 days! No internet and no coffee? I don't think I'll have any vices once this trip is done!
Definitely brought way too much stuff with me, I'm leaving half of it behind to be picked up following Uganda.
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Dad
non-member comment
Fantastic
Sounds like you are seeing and experienceing a lot of new things, Very exciting. Sent you an e-mail