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Published: October 28th 2009
Sorry it has taken me so long to blog again. I always seem to do this when I travel --- I’ll write a lot about my experiences at first and then get completely tied up in wherever I am and forget to keep people at home informed about what I’m doing as soon as I get settled.
For a really short account of what I’ve been doing since I last blogged (because this is a ridiculously long entry): I went to Tanzania, pet a cheetah, held a newborn lamb (eee!), started volunteering at the only library in Kibera (Africa’s largest slum), gone to school, hung out with my host family and other friends, eaten a lot of Kenyan food, and gone to church. That basically sums it all up.
The HOPE library (part of the Nicofeli club) in Kibera slum seeks to provide distractions from dangerous activities for kids (and adults) who live in the area by engaging them in the wonderful world of reading. And it is fantastic how many of the kids I meet there daily are so grateful for the library and the opportunity to read from an excellent selection of books (Kiah (my American friend) and I have each checked out numerous books from the library in our time there- it really is a good selection and not the poor selection of old, irrelevant books I expected to find in Africa’s largest slum’s only library….). While going through the books the kids have returned I’ve also found numerous scribbles saying things like “I love Nicofeli library” and “I love to read books here”…despite the fact that they have been told not to write in the books. Haha. Kiah and I have just been helping the library to classify their books according to the Dewey decimal system because the director - who has wanted to complete this project for a while now - is too busy doing other things like writing grants, scrambling for money, and checking the books out to the kids to be able to do this himself. There are also many “volunteers” from Kibera that are a part of the organization and introduce themselves as such, but talking to Osir it is clear that they never actually volunteer their time. Not that they are really at fault - their just too busy with surviving to be able to spend their little free time at the library. Of course our volunteer time there also involves a lottt of hanging out with the kids, who are adorable and shy and mischievous and funny and loud. I know I shouldn’t have favorites but I do - two little boys named Teddy and Ronny who are complete opposites and yet close friends. They’re both very shy, but Ronny has a smile on his face always and you can tell he has a wonderful heart. He is always sharing anything he has with the other kids even though you can tell he would really like to just have it all for himself, and happily lets the other kids grab things out of his hands without reacting violently as many of the other kids do. He responds to our questions in perfect English and is always happy to talk to us. And Teddy is adorable even despite his complete opposite temperament. He is always grabbing things from other kids and climbing all over the shelves and just generally being naughty, but his always scrubby, ripped clothes and the snot running down his face and his laugh and humor make him adorable. And when you scold him he looks up at you with these big eyes…hes so cute. And because he’s too young to attend school, he doesn’t yet speak English and so anything you say to him he responds with “yes.” This entertains Kiah, the other kids and me a lot because Kiah and I are always forgetting that he doesn’t speak English and we’ll be like “Teddy, you are the most naughty little kid” - to which he replies “yes,” or we’ll ask him what school he goes to, to which he’ll reply “yes.” He also acts like a “typical” American in that when we don’t understand his Kiswahili he’ll just repeat the exact same words but louder and louder until he finally gives up in frustration. It’s really hard to stay upset at him when he is being bad when he is so adorable. Really it’s hard to stay upset at any of the kids though.
The organization has been having a lot of difficulties, most all of them dealing with money. They own an empty spot of land within the slum on which they hope to build a library, but because of lack of funds they are stuck renting places at exhorbitant prices (Kibera is supposed to be in the worst of situations for slums in the world because instead of the low cost, low quality situation that characterizes most slums, it’s housing is high cost, low quality). This means that Osir, the director, wastes around $75 per month on a tiny room in which he only has room for two shelves of books and a couple of desks. Though $75 might not seem like a lot for an American room, over half of Kenyans live on a little over a dollar a day, and I’m sure people living in the Kibera slums (some of the worst conditions in the country) are no exception.
In come Kiah and I, American students who, though we don’t consider ourselves to be rich, could fairly easily afford this cost even when Osir, an adult with a family to support, cannot. Unfortunately I don’t think we could afford to pay for building a structure on the land that Nicofeli owns, otherwise we would readily do this, but it seems pointless to throw our money into the blackhole of paying rent in Kibera. We have instead helped to support the club’s feeding program, which was started when the director realized it was futile to try to engage kids in reading when they hadn’t had a meal in however long. Unfortunately due to lack of funds this program was pretty much discontinued when Kiah and I came, though we held a lunch last week and fed some 35 kids on Kenyatta day, a national holiday (this experience is what most of my recent facebook pictures are from).
We went on a field trip about a month ago to the industrial section of Nairobi. It was kind of depression but really interesting to go to. They make EVERYTHING there oh my goodness. Anything you can possibly think to make out of metal they had - like wheelbarrows, pots, pans (esp chapati pans), refrigerators, jewelry, everything. And the people were there just hammering away (it was so loud) and laughing at how interested we were in what they deemed to be pretty boring work. It was also really dirty and depressing, because there were scores of people that had walked as much as three hours from home that day in order to try and find work in the temporary sector, which reigns in this part of Nairobi. Imagine walking three hours each way because you can’t afford the 50 cent fare (Ksh 40) and then not finding work for the day (where you would only earn ~Ksh100). These are the people I walk with everyday on my way to/from school and the reason that I cant complain about walking an hour each way to get there.
On our field trip we also went to Uhuru park, which we had been to before, and which is also one of the only public parks in Nairobi. It was depressingly dry though because of the drought (and therefore ugly), but our teacher told us how on national holidays it is packed with people who bring a loaf of bread for the day and their entire family because they can’t afford any other forms of recreation for their children. It is ridiculous how easy it is to escape facing people with poverty in Nairobi though. If you had a car especially it would be so easy to just commute around the rich areas and go to malls, work, home, etc. without even saying a word to the majority of people who live on less than a dollar a day. That’s kind of how my life here used to be which is why I wasn’t that happy for like a week and a hlaf (it was like being in the US without my friends or family).
At home, my life has been great. I am obsessed with how adorable my little sisters are (and the older one is so funny), my househelp is hilarious, my mom is really friendly and laughs at everything, my dad is also funny and jokes around with me a lot, and they are just generally wonderful. There is also a little kid next door who always asks where the mzungu (me) is, but when I come home he won’t say a word. It’s like it was with my little sister at first where I just assumed she didn’t speak English because she wouldn’t respond to anything I said, but really she’s just shy at first (not at all anymore oh my gosh). However, my little sister didn’t cry when I approached her like this little boy! My househelp and little sisters just laughed but I felt so bad haha he was terrified of me. Poor little baby.
I guess the only thing that has bothered my about my host dad has been how he deals with religion. He is a pastor and his work is to convert people, but he seems so sure that he is right. A couple of weeks ago he was showing me a video that he had taken of his last visit, where he organized a public debate between a Muslim and a Christian, like religious issues can actually be hashed out legitimately in a public argument. They were talking in Kiswahili so I didn’t understand much of the argument, but you could tell it was really heated and my dad was really proud of himself. I just don’t really think that’s the way to go about converting people, but I obviously didn’t say anything to him because other than that he is a wonderful person. Ohhh well.
Our visit to Tanzania was pretty tame. We didn’t really do much except visit markets or party, but we were there long enough to realize that most Tanzanians are way friendlier and nicer than most Kenyans, and everyone I’ve talked to about it in Kenya agrees. Why didn’t I go to Tanzania?! On the downside though, apparently albinos have to go into hiding in Tanzania (and many come to Kenya to find sanctuary), because they are often brutally murdered in Tanzania, where they are believed to be demons or something. So boo Tanzania. On another note, my friends here have a hard time believing that there are white albinos too. Yeppp.
I finally went to a Greek Orthodox church here in Nairobi. It was really nice to attend, especially as it reminds me a lot of Greek churches in Greece. It is a lot smaller than my church at home and more intimate, though I of course miss some aspects of the Seattle service. They have beautiful chanting here and even sing a lot of traditional Kenyan songs (especially during communion) so the service is very wonderful to go to. I would say they divide it up into 1/3 Greek, 1/3 English, and 1/3 Kiswahili, because a significant portion of the people who regularly attend the church are monolingual in one of those three languages (and many others speak two or all three). When I met the Greeks that go to that church, they were so excited and invited me to their house for “tea” (aka a huge feast where in one sitting I ate more than I eat in 2 days in Kenya). I’ve been invited to their house numerous other times during my stay here, and am excited to go again on Saturday with my friend Milton, who was invited along with me when he came to church with me this week.
This coming Sunday I will be going to Kianjokoma near Embu town in the Mount Kenya region. I am reallllly excited to start the internship phase of this program (the classroom phase finally ended today), although I have to say I will miss my time at Nicofeli Kids Club and with my host family here in Nairobi. I will probably also miss city life (because lets face it I don’t really like many rural areas as much as I try to convince myself I do), but right now I can’t wait to get away from Nairobi, even though it will mean leaving my friends and going to a new town completely on my own where the closest students are an hour away from me…how perfect.
I have a lottt more to write about but because I am so busy I’m going to have to save them for another time. I would be impressed if you even made it this far, anyway. Love to allll. I miss you!
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Dad
non-member comment
Spectacular
Becca - what wonderful descriptions! I feel like I'm there with you. Really proud of you, boops. Love, Dad