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Lake Navashu
What an amazing trip we had to Lake Navashu. It’s over 8000ft above sea level (that’s almost twice the height of britain’s highest mountain).
It was stunning. We also had a view of the great rift valley.
We went to meet a group of people and have a look at the land where they hope to build a church. There are about 40 of them and many neighbours would come if they had a building. It seems that Africans don’t take a church seriously if they don’t have their own premises to meet in. They have saved for two years and have some land and some of the building materials.
We were the first white men the children had ever met and they stared at us with great interest!!
Rob was asked to preach to them, which he did off the top of his head very well! Afterwards they fed us some lunch.
Later there was yet another torrential rain fall. You have to see it to believe.
Two more days till we leave…
Upcountry
Today Rob and I went with Pastor Anthony to “upcountry” which is a term people use for their rural village. Many people leave their village to go to Nairobi hoping for work.
It was an eventful day which included:
The car being clamped for wrong parking
2 flat tyres!!!
Torrential downpour
Getting the car stuck in a pot hole (imagine how big the hole was!)
Eating arrow roots
Picking tea leaves
And much more…
On a sad note, one of the young women who works at our guesthouse lost 7 of her friends in a terrible accident. If you google “dead at hell’s gate Kenya” you can read all about it. It was her church youth group.
Tomorrow we go to Navishu.
On Thursday and Friday I expect to be in Kibera again.
Hospitality in Kibera
We had a wonderful night at our friend Barracks house.
To enter a home, one doesn’t knock, but instead calls out, “Hodi…Hodi.” The response is usually, “Karibu” (welcome). Inside most of the homes, everything is clean – worn, old, and falling apart – but freshly washed. The floor is washed once or twice a day. But, more importantly, inside most homes is a family that provides the warmest welcome. Be prepared to be overwhelmed with respect, attention and appreciation of your visit from everyone there, including every neighbour who just happened to see you enter the home. It may not look like much, but it’s their home, and one can’t help feeling good about being invited in.
We felt so privileged, as most visitors to Kibera never get the chance to see the real living areas there and the routines of daily living.
We were invited to enjoy some “chai” (boiled milk with sugar, lightly flavoured with tea) and some donut style dough.
We were introduced to all of their children and extended family.
For dinner we had rice, fish, beef stew and chapattis! Yum!
We all shared stories about how we met our spouses. It was so fun. We laughed and then we prayed together.
Kibera is not attractive from the outside. But on the inside you’ll meet men, women and children who, given a little of your time, will open up to you and invite you into their lives.
Individuals you will come to love and who will love you back as they become your friends, moja moja.
My friend Daniel and his brother Drogba!
my friend Daniel
Thanks to Carol Phua for taking these photos.
In the slums again
For 10 Kenyan shillings (about 10 pence), a vendor sells a customer a small bucket filled with charcoal – about a day’s worth. The same amount of charcoal, purchased in bulk, costs the vendor 6 pence. Everyone in the slum cooks with charcoal, so a vendor who lives in Kibera and has a good location without too much competition can make a living.
According to one source, 60% of Nairobi’s population lives in the various slums of Nairobi, of which Kibera is by far the largest. It is a city within a city, complete with its own districts, services, schools, churches, shopping areas, medical clinics and bus stations.
Garbage is often discarded on the paths or in the streets. The bulk of it is collected in huge roadside piles and left for the scavengers and goats to search. Vendors line the mainroadways, many with booths running side by side along the sidewalk, sometimes two deep, space allowing. Others lay their products out on the ground along the edge of the road. Most of the property in Kibera is actually government owned land, on which occupants are technically squatters. But though the land isn’t owned by the inhabitants legally, they take “ownership” of its structures, which are bought, sold and rented just as in every other neighborhood in Nairobi.
The homes, most of which are just shacks, are either made out of mud, plastered over sticks and boards, or made from mabati (corrugated iron sheets). A few are plastered over with cement.
The roofs are all made from mabati (corrugated iron), which, looking out over the top of Kibera, gives it a great rusted checkerboard texture. Some of the homes are divided into two rooms, often by a sheet, each room approximately 8 feet by 8 feet. Each home may house anywhere from two to a dozen people.
The paths leading through the homes are narrow, so narrow in places that you can actually touch the buildings on both sides of the path if you stretch out your arms. Many of the pathways are divided right down the middle by a smelly ditch which helps carry the water away, both rainwater and waste water. After any amount of rain, the paths turn to mud for a few days. The walkways become very slippery, and shoes and clothing quickly become splattered with mud.
The pathways consist of a mixture of red dirt packed down together with all kinds of the refuse used in human habitation: plastic bags, clothing, rocks, foam rubber, wood, pieces of metal, broken glass, plastic, worn shoes, empty lighters, cardboard and anything else you can imagine. Trying to maintain balance on these pathways can be a challenge. One must often hop from side to side and from mound to mound in order to support your weight and keep from slipping into the ditch as you walk along. Often you also need to duck down to pass under the low eaves of the metal roofs and wet laundry hanging from lines strung diagonally along the path. Occasionally, an open space appears, next to which is a tiny duka, a mini-market (the size of an desk) or just a stand selling soft drinks, soap, sweets, cigarettes, cooking oil, ugali (corn flour), or fresh vegetables and fruit.
The smells in Kibera are also constantly changing – generally either from the smoke of the burning charcoal and the food cooking upon it, or the smell of human waste.
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