South B - home

Well I've moved into my new home 'Plains View' in South B, Nairobi. Despite being forewarned about some unwanted house guests (rats & cockroaches) I'm enjoying being there and have become happily acquainted with our furry friends who seem to have no intention of going anywhere! I have a nice room which is simple but comfortable - the main downside of the room being that it looks out onto a busy street so sleep is proving a challenge. If I'm not being woken by the call to prayer from the nearby mosque then its a Matatu screeching past or the outside water tank filling up or a radio blaring some very 80's music into my ear. Bizarrely I find it all rather wonderful & exotic, maybe the novelty will soon wear off?

I share the house with 3 Slovakian girls who are all lovely but the language barrier is a problem and I feel a touch awkward at times as it would be so much easier for them to chat away in Slovakian which they do at times but they try hard to stick to English. Not sure why there are so many Slovakians in this area but they're everywhere!

This week has been another blinder - and it's only Wednesday. Yesterday I visited 2 schools in the slum area - both are basic in the extreme, have far few staff for the amount of children they accommodate (800 & 1300) but one of the schools broke my heart and brought about the first tears of my trip. It was in the middle of the Mukuru slum - surprisingly the poverty & conditions here were even more horrifying than in Kibera. It was a dusty, grotty area into which the children were crammed - classrooms were little more than tatty cattle sheds & each held about 50 or 60 children who had to share desks and chairs. They're all so adorable in their uniforms which are invariably mixed and matched and filthy and they rarely have a smile off their faces. One classroom of six year olds was full apart from a teacher - the little things were just sitting there alone because the teacher was off sick. So beautifully behaved yet expecting little more for themselves. A large river of sewage ran through the grounds which no one takes responsibility for so the poor teachers have to keep unblocking it and covering it up. I'm probably going to spend a couple of days in this school helping the children who struggle most with their studies but to be very honest, the thought of spending time there really fills me with dread as it is so bleak and vast so that the problem seems utterly unsolvable. I walked around the school with a lump in my throat - where on earth can we begin to change places like this? No one takes responsibility for changing the situation because so many are responsible; government, world debt, individual families. It's daunting and exasperating.

Today I went to another slum to do home visits with some girls who help mentally ill women & women with extreme difficulties to get some self-esteem back by counseling them and then helping them start up a business - this may just be selling maize in a little stall but it's a start and they can hold their heads up. We did a few surprise visits to see how the woman were coping. Many had 'disappeared' upon hearing that they were being checked up on but we met a few of the woman who invited us into their homes. These 'homes' were normally to be found down tiny little alleys which were thick with sewage (I was hopping and leaping all over the place again!) Going into the homes was an intriguing (I'm so nosy!) and incredible experience. They were no bigger than a typical downstairs loo in a British home - with a very small bed, perhaps a table with a stove for cooking (with paraffin so the smell is strong and harmful for children) and maybe a stool. One home had 4 baby white rabbits also sharing their floor - children have to share beds with their parents or sleep under the bed. They are privy to everything that goes on between their, often single, parents at night and so lose their innocence so young. There's nowhere for the children to do their homework or simply be children. One of the women we visited told us that her nextdoor neighbor had been 'slaughtered' (yes, literally slaughtered) that evening. Someone had taken her from her home and killed her in a house opposite. The police had been there just before us and demolished the house but there was a lot of blood on the floor and on the remains of the home. For some reason I felt no emotional reaction to seeing the blood or hearing about what had happened to her - I fear becoming desensitised but perhaps the reality was too ghastly to properly absorb & there was an element of self-protection kicking in?

Tomorrow I'm going to attend a large meeting of NGO heads in Kibera which will be an interesting experience no doubt. They're all discussing how they can work together & communicate better so it should give me an idea of how things work around here. Kibera seems to have a lot of attention and focus (perhaps partly in response to 'The Constant Gardener) but some of the other slums are utterly ignored and abandoned - I want to shout and scream at someone to come and sort them out but I'm sure if it was that simple it would have been done a long time ago. The people (mostly nuns) who dedicate their lives to setting up schools and children's homes should all be cannonised - amazing, glorious people of God who never have smile far from their faces and are indomitable in the face of hurdles. I have a lot to learn from them.


NEARLY MOVED IN:

Dear All - I'm just making the most of my aunt's computer until I move into my new home tonight where electricity is on a meter so there's no computer or TV (or hair straighteners - eeek!) so I'll have to track down an internet cafe for my next update. I'm going to be living with a group of Slovakins who are working out here in the slums as volunteers. I've just received a text from one of the girls who lives there saying that they've got an infestation of rats! Nice, I think I'll pack a hammer!

This week has been a real feast of experiences - the highlights being visting Kibera (the main slum), driving myself around Nairobi which is an experience in itself and familiarising myself with the Matatus (small buses which hurtle around Nairobi at great speed). It may sound silly but it felt like quite an achievement braving these buses as they are always rammed full of people & you have to leap on them as they rarely stop for you to get on, just slow down and you have to hurl yourself in and hope that you're on the right one! I was a little taken-aback when I had a bath later in the day and the water turned black - they're not the cleanest way to travel that's for sure!

My first experience of Nairobi's slums was a jaw dropping one. Kibera is home to about 1 million Kenyans but only covers an area about the size of a golf course. Every single inch of land is taken up with homes / shacks, stalls selling a variety of wares, open fires cooking maize and other snacks and people sitting around chatting. Kibera is a network of narrow alleyways & the main 'street' is a railway line. Sewage runs along every street so you have to walk along with your eyes firmly on the ground so you can leap over puddles of muck every other step. While I was walking along the railway line heading to one of the projects I was suddenly shouted at & when I turned around I saw an industrial train chugging steadily towards me. I had to leap over a stream of sewage onto a large pile of compost to avoid this vast locomotion as it thundered past. I must have looked so funny - a white girl teetering precariously on a pile of rotting vegetables with a rather shocked expression on her face! It's extraordinary to think that people live with this danger every day - there was no way the train was going\nto stop so I hate to think what would happen if a child could't get out of the way in time.

Walking through the slums I was constantly surrounded by little children who were an absolute delight - they all chorus 'how are you' and shake your hand and then run off squealing, for some reason they found me hilarous -hmmmm! The project I visited was a real oasis amongst so much poverty and filth. It runs a primary & secondary school (the latter of which is being threatened with closure - something to do with title deeds but is essentially beuracracy gone mad - if the school closes there will be about 120 children back on the streets with nothing to keep them out of trouble, it makes no sense) They also have a health clinic, a pro-life councelling service, training courses in mechanics and dressmaking which provides a lifeline out of the slums and into employment, as well as a drop in centre for street children. If I end up working for this project I'll probably be teaching in the primary school & helping to run the drop in centre which means that I'll work closely with the social workers, organising home visits to establish why the children aren't in school and encouraging them to come to the project. The project also runs a feeding programme as hunger prevents many children from being able to concentrate at school. It was a wonderful place but vastly understaffed - there were only 2 volunteers working there so an extra pair of hands will go a long way.

Next week I am going to the women's prison in Langata to take provisions (loo roll, soap etc) and see how the children who live with their mothers there are getting on. It's a vile place the prison - cramming over a thousand women into a place that is only built to accomodate around 300. I'm also going to spend time in another slum area - Makuru - which has 4 primary schools an orphanage and various drop in centers. I've been asked to do a couple of afternoons / evenings at the orphanage to help the children with their homework and to play with them...even something as simple as being there to talk to the orphans and play games is apparently something which is desperatley needed. So simple yet so precious. I'm also going to have Swahili lessons which I'm quite excited about. So far my 'where's the loo', 'a cold beer please' 'I'd love a cup of tea' and various other phrases have proved pretty useless.

So that's pretty much it from me for now - I will endeavour to write again once I have more news...hopefully news of rat exterminations!

Much love to you all - thank you for your messages & prayers - they mean the world to me.

Bridget x