Day Trip to Nairobi

Friday, the seven mzungus (white people) on site went to Nairobi for the day.  Our first stop was the Village Market, a modern mall, and the Masai Market, where the local people display and sell their crafts.  I helped the local economy by buying a few things (although not as much as last year).  Also, to correct myself, you can buy diet Coke at the food court. (It is frequented mostly by mzungus.)  Then our driver took us by Kibera, one of 8 slums in Nairobi and the largest slum in Africa, with varying estimates of 350,000 to 1 million residents.  The driver told us to close our windows in case of "flying toilets".  These pictures, of course, don'tt capture the reality of the setting, and it certainly doesn't capture the smell.  Kibera is featured in the movie, The Constant Gardner.  But it is in some ways not a typical slum.  One of the best public schools in the city is there, and there are residents who do work and have money, but have grown up there and call it home and continue to reside there.  The government is trying to move people out of it and into other housing, but there are many issues involved here.  Also about every non profit you can think of has spent time in Kibera, and yet not much has changed in 20 years.  If you want to learn more, google Kibera.

Then we went to Nyumbani, an orphange for HIV positive children.  It was started in 1993 by a Jesuit priest who found that other orphanages would not accept these children.  He started with 3 boys, and it currently has over 100.  Father D'Agostino fought through the court system to force schools to admit these children.  He also fought with the pharmaceuticals for cheaper medicine.  He is reported as saying, "I am tired of doing funerals because some people are greedy."  At first they were averaging the death of one child every month; but they have had no deaths in the last three years.  They also have two outstanding community programs.  You can check out the amazing work they are doing at their website: http://www.nyumbani.org/.  They are a non-profit, and would gladly accept your donation.