Reality of life in Kenya

April 5, 2012

Our room was nice, a little warm and muggy.  We were on the first floor and it sounded like someone was trying to get in through our window in the middle of the night so we did not sleep great.   We had a great breakfast with omelets and fruit and just about anything we could want at the Grace House Hotel. Then we headed off to Kibera.  Kibera is the second largest slum in Africa or maybe the world.  It is 1 square mile and over 1.5 million people live within that mile.  Small tin roof and side shacks comprise the housing.  Walking around, all the kids yell - “Hello, how are you?” - like it is a song or something.  But most of them don’t even know what they are saying.   But you hear it everywhere.   It was very muddy as it has been very rainy here for the last few days, but you don’t know if the mud is from the run or something else.  There is not adequate sanitation and it is not disposed of properly so there is waste in the streets.  Lots of street “stores” line the streets also.  People are out in front of their tin houses selling whatever it is they make – tomatoes, maybe some dish they cooked up or they have a sign for hair or nails, or whatever it may be. (It's hard to do it justice in words - check out YouTube to watch a video of the place.)  

We got to meet Paul's friend Stone and some of his relatives - his cousin Maureen walked around with us.  She has something wrong with her leg and the doctors are quite sure what it is, but she walks with one crutch and it is very painful. She needs to have surgery in Italy and they are working to raise money for that.  She is in school for website design. She wishes to develop an address directory for Kibera.   I have never seen a “Yellow Pages” in Kenya, even for businesses, let alone people.  To find orphanages, I had to have people (our amazing guide and friend Paul) go out searching for them and then ask if we could come and get contact information.  That is one thing, on adoption stuff I am working on formulating, a directory, going on the internet to find them all in the various areas so they can network together and accomplish more.   Anyway, that was a side note.  

For the most part, Sue walked with Maureen for the few hour trip through some of the area.  From Maureen, we got to know more details of life in Kibera:  the most disturbing being- girls going to the chemist to have abortions sometimes at 7 or 8 months along and the babies are still alive and dumped in piles in the back and also that woman are drinking bleach and other things like to because they think it will kill the baby but instead either kills them and/or they get very sick and they still have the baby.  It is hard to hear that and do nothing about it.  I guess that’s the biggest challenge of working in a Third World country, there is so much that needs to be done.  So much that is so urgent to avoid further suffering, but if you get involved in everything, nothing will get accomplished.  Though I wish I could get involved with this, I cannot do it all and if I try nothing will get accomplish anywhere.  It’s still hard to hear and then walk away from though.  Hopefully in the near future we will be able to do some education about adoption and maybe these situations can be changed.  

We also got a chance to meet Benta.  Benta is a woman who is working to get pregnant HIV positive woman to the doctor and on medicine and to get medicine to their children right after they are born so they will not be HIV positive possibly.  She was amazing.  Benta is HIV positive herself but her children though they were at birth, they are not HIV positive as she got them the medicine and it worked for them.   She also ran a small (6X8 room) school for HIV positive children.  When we first came over to the tin hut the kids were signing.  They were signing a song we knew though I cannot think of what it was at the time.  We came in to say hi and I think Paul might have known her.  We were signing and playing with the kids and then she told us that they were all HIV positive.  It was very hard to see that.  Here they are 1 year old up to maybe 5 and they are all so sick.  They will never have one day in their life where they will not be sick, and not only that, but that their parents are sick too, if their parents are even living anymore.  I left there crying.  The kids were very happy and looked healthy now.  I specifically remember, Hiliary Clinton there (a boy).  I was holding him when Benta shared that they all had HIV and my heart broke.  I am hoping to help Benta with her efforts as we start to raise money for our children's home I will be tithing 10 percent to her efforts to buy medicine for the children and expectant mom’s.  There is a chance to reverse the HIV diagnosis in a child if the mom does not breastfeed, if she takes medicine while she is pregnant, and the infants get medicine right away and consistently.  Benta is an amazing woman.  The kids sang for us and we all danced but my heart was heavy. 

We got to know Stone, Paul's friend also.  He was an orphan very young in Nairobi.  They moved him and some of his siblings (sisters) to the Salvation Army Children's Home in Mombasa.  He was grateful to them for his faith in God.  Then when he had to leave, he at least had an example of Jesus of how to run his life.  He was very, very good at swimming.  He was able to get through high school with the government paying his fees because of swimming abilities.  Then he started computer repair college and got a certificate, but he needs more schooling.  He has applied over 60 times to the government to get into college and they have denied him every time.  Now he is trying to get a laptop and enroll in Collins University online to finish a business management degree.  I pray for Stone that he can find employment and/or schooling.  Though he didn’t say it, it felt like there was a real struggling going on for him. 

After walking through Kibera, we went to the baby animal orphanage, since we missed the elephant feeding and that was really cool to see baby lions, leopards, giraffees, and other large animals too.  We went to the food court to eat.  They rush to bring you their menus so you order from their restaurant as you sit at the table and wait.  We had tilopia which was so good.  Then we sat at talked at Grace house for a few hours - learning about how they run the Kenya driving tests and how after they complete their 20 yards of driving they are told to GET OUT of the bus and walk back to the police station and wait for the full group to complete the test and then they will hand them out, and sometimes you don’t even drive at all!   Then we were talking about how the people of Kenya tell Masia jokes like we tell blonde jokes.  Then they had to leave for the airport.  We said goodbye and then at 5:30 pm we went to sleep.  Our flight leaves at 3:45 am tomorrow morning and we have to leave for the airport around 1am.