More thoughts

Moral outrage. While my previous post focused on some positive aspects of Kibera, it must be balanced with moral outrage. The idea that one faces rape simply to walk outside to a latrine when it is dark. The fact that a nice golf course borders Kibera (I actually saw golfers on the other side of the tall wall!). The fact that people live in a mud swamp filled with sewage when it rains in Kibera. This and more should absolutely offend our sense of justice and morality. The question is knowing how to channel that moral outrage and balance it alongside all the beautiful aspects of a community like Kibera. Such as the fact that there are no street children in Kibera--community members rotate caring for orphaned children, and while the kids stay at a different house every night of the week so it is a bit unstable, they have a roof over their head every night.

On Saturday, a handful of us visited another informal settlement called Mathare. We were given an inside tour, complete with a visit to a place where "pombe" is served (ie beer).

Here is part of the group with our new friends and guides.

I think Marine looks quite concerned in this pic because the photographer had just banged his head!

One interesting aspect of the informal settlements is that they consist of different neighborhoods and districts. Kibera has 13 districts. Some are nicer than others. When we were in Mathare, we were in a nicer section, much less slum-like. While people casually refer to all informal settlements as slums, they really do differ, from each other, and then from place to place within each slum.

We were invited into a Mathare home. It was actually on the 10th (or somewhere high--we walked up a LOT of stairs in the pitch black!--in the middle of the day too!) floor of the building, so the very fact that there are such buildings mark a difference from current Kibera, in which there are really none. Although the government has been promising for a while to build some.

It is also interesting to me that there is so little begging. In Nairobi in general, but particularly in the informal settlement areas. Of course we white people stand out and attract a lot of attention but the mzungu (or white people) cries are never accompanied by a demand for money (give me a dollar! which I have heard so many other places). I can't quite figure out why this is.

On another note, I offered a cooking lesson to the students last night. Quite a success! And my mother is famous in the group for teaching me such skillz. :)