Out of Gigiri, Part I: Mathare
OK, so as I mentioned before, I've been living/working/hanging out in a part of Nairobi called Gigiri, which is about 5-7 kms north of Nairobi's city center. It's where the UN is, where all the expats live, and where all the embassies are. Every house is surrounded by a high wall, many with electric fences on top, and most people have 24-hour security guards (askaris). It's still very different from home, but it's basically a peaceful, chill, non-threatening place.
So this weekend, I finally saw some of the "real" Nairobi. On Friday afternoon, I went with a bunch of other interns to Mathare, which is Nairobi's second biggest slum. Kibera is the biggest -- over 800,000 people live in an area the size of Central Park -- and as such, it gets a lot of attention (it was in the movie Constant Gardener, it's in Sarah McLachlan's World on Fire music video). But there are four other major slums in Nairobi, and Mathare is the second largest -- between 500,000 and 600,000 people live there (unsurprisingly, the documentation isn't really all that good).
About a year ago, UN interns in Nairobi started working with the Mathare Community Educational Development Organization (MCEDO), which runs a non-formal school in Mathare. "Non-formal" means that there is no support from the government. The children are taught by volunteer teachers, and the UN interns are trying to help MCEDO get books and other supplies for the kids. They were successful in getting the World Food Programme to donate two meals a day for the children, which makes it a lot easier for them to concentrate on learning since they aren't as malnourished anymore.
There are a bunch of other projects that the UN interns are working on (more on these later, and I might ask one of you DC people to do me a favor and stop by the Foundation Center in the near future to help me do some research on foundations/NGOs that I can submit some grant proposals to). But in addition to these projects, a group of interns goes every Friday to play with the kids/put on skits/talk about HIV awareness/tell stories/etc. This Friday, we were planting some bamboo outside of the schoolroom with the kids, and playing games with some of them on a donated computer.
Mathare was exactly what I expected -- I'd seen photographs before -- but it was still an overwhelming experience to actually be there, to see row after row after row of shanties, to see goats and turkeys and pigs climbing on massive piles of trash, to smell the burning garbage, and to see hundreds of children running around and playing in the midst of it all.
As soon as we got there, a huge group of kids ran over to us, to come see the wazungu (white people). I think that the first thing that every white person they've ever met has said to them is, "How are you?" (Which, to be honest, would be the first thing that I would probably say.) So as they came over, they started singing, "how are you, how are you, how are you" to us. They all wanted to hold our hands, so I spent most of the afternoon with about four kids attached to me. They were very interested in my fingernails, which are pretty long at the moment, and kept trying to lift them up as if to see what was underneath them.
It's hard to really put into words what I felt when I was there. It definitely wasn't pity -- pity is the wrong emotion to have for people who are making the best out of practically nothing and living their lives, many with smiles on their faces. I did feel scared that so many of those children might not ever know life outside of the slum. But I felt hopeful that some would -- a lot of the volunteers at MCEDO have lived in the slum their whole lives, but have managed to educate themselves and are working so hard to improve the lives of the children there. Like I said, it's hard to describe. Let's just say I was feeling a lot of things all at once.
OK, I'll write more about Mathare and MCEDO later, but this is getting pretty long, so I think I'll stop here for now.
Stay tuned for Out of Gigiri, Part II: The City Centre, and Nairobi National Park (complete with photos)!
So this weekend, I finally saw some of the "real" Nairobi. On Friday afternoon, I went with a bunch of other interns to Mathare, which is Nairobi's second biggest slum. Kibera is the biggest -- over 800,000 people live in an area the size of Central Park -- and as such, it gets a lot of attention (it was in the movie Constant Gardener, it's in Sarah McLachlan's World on Fire music video). But there are four other major slums in Nairobi, and Mathare is the second largest -- between 500,000 and 600,000 people live there (unsurprisingly, the documentation isn't really all that good).
About a year ago, UN interns in Nairobi started working with the Mathare Community Educational Development Organization (MCEDO), which runs a non-formal school in Mathare. "Non-formal" means that there is no support from the government. The children are taught by volunteer teachers, and the UN interns are trying to help MCEDO get books and other supplies for the kids. They were successful in getting the World Food Programme to donate two meals a day for the children, which makes it a lot easier for them to concentrate on learning since they aren't as malnourished anymore.
There are a bunch of other projects that the UN interns are working on (more on these later, and I might ask one of you DC people to do me a favor and stop by the Foundation Center in the near future to help me do some research on foundations/NGOs that I can submit some grant proposals to). But in addition to these projects, a group of interns goes every Friday to play with the kids/put on skits/talk about HIV awareness/tell stories/etc. This Friday, we were planting some bamboo outside of the schoolroom with the kids, and playing games with some of them on a donated computer.
Mathare was exactly what I expected -- I'd seen photographs before -- but it was still an overwhelming experience to actually be there, to see row after row after row of shanties, to see goats and turkeys and pigs climbing on massive piles of trash, to smell the burning garbage, and to see hundreds of children running around and playing in the midst of it all.
As soon as we got there, a huge group of kids ran over to us, to come see the wazungu (white people). I think that the first thing that every white person they've ever met has said to them is, "How are you?" (Which, to be honest, would be the first thing that I would probably say.) So as they came over, they started singing, "how are you, how are you, how are you" to us. They all wanted to hold our hands, so I spent most of the afternoon with about four kids attached to me. They were very interested in my fingernails, which are pretty long at the moment, and kept trying to lift them up as if to see what was underneath them.
It's hard to really put into words what I felt when I was there. It definitely wasn't pity -- pity is the wrong emotion to have for people who are making the best out of practically nothing and living their lives, many with smiles on their faces. I did feel scared that so many of those children might not ever know life outside of the slum. But I felt hopeful that some would -- a lot of the volunteers at MCEDO have lived in the slum their whole lives, but have managed to educate themselves and are working so hard to improve the lives of the children there. Like I said, it's hard to describe. Let's just say I was feeling a lot of things all at once.
OK, I'll write more about Mathare and MCEDO later, but this is getting pretty long, so I think I'll stop here for now.
Stay tuned for Out of Gigiri, Part II: The City Centre, and Nairobi National Park (complete with photos)!
posted by Erica at
12:40 PM
2 Comments:
The first paragraph of your posting reminded me of the phone calls and emails we used to get from Rachel and Christina... "I was chased by dogs, ate cheese in dirt and bleech, there are demonstrations in the streets...all in all things are normal."
Were you able to take pictures in Mathare?
What are the primary concerns about going into Nairobi alone? Is it better to go as a large group of people, even if you are all white?
Thanks for sharing!
ET
By
Erin, at 12:29 PM
Hey Anuradha and Erin,
First of all, you're right Erin – it's amazing how quickly your baseline idea of "normal" can change!
OK, Anuradha, to answer your questions, the people who live in slums aren’t refugees or IDPs, they're just regular residents of Nairobi. I'm not sure about the exact statistics, but I think that around half of Nairobi's population live in the slums. I think one of the reasons is that lots of people come to Nairobi from other parts of Kenya, looking for work and if they can't find any, or if they find low paying work, their only option is to live in the slums.
A lot of families live in the slums, but there are also a lot of single mothers and orphans. I'll try to provide some links to more information soon (and a MCEDO website is currently being developed – as soon as it's ready, I'll post the link).
Most affluent Kenyans and expats live in communities like Westlands, Parklands, and Gigiri – which are physically pretty close to the center of town but really feel like suburbs. There is a middle class as well, but what really strikes me is the huge disparity between the very rich and the very poor.
OK, Erin, I’ll write more on downtown Nairobi tomorrow, but basically during the day the primary concerns are pickpockets and con artists. At night, because the streets really empty very quickly after dark, more violent crime is a problem. Honestly, I really don't think being white makes too much of a difference. During the day, everyone just has to be careful about their belongings, and at night, the conventional wisdom is that you really shouldn't walk anywhere, even a few blocks, and that you should take a taxi instead. (I haven’t actually been downtown at night yet.)
So more tomorrow, but just know that I'm being safe but not living in a bubble!
Cheers,
Erica
By
Erica, at 5:18 PM
Post a Comment
<< Home