After a long few days of kiswahili classes and lectures on the history of Kenya, we took a field trip on Friday to Carolina for Kibera. The NGO operates in Africa's largest slum known as Kibera. They run health, education, employment, and sports programs within the slum and manage to reach over 40,000 in some way. Walking into the slum, we were taken down Obama Ave. marked by a sign above the small pathway with “Welcome Senator”, where he apparently visited before his presidency.
We learned about the organization's programs as we walked through the tiny paths between the community's homes. It was fascinating to learn about their complex mapping and record keeping system. Every person or family associated with the organization receives an ID card which can be scanned by a handheld device at the clinic for instance, giving a worker or volunteer the person's health history, information on their family, etc.
Walking through Kibera, we stopped first at the clinic, then moved further into the slum, to a workshop associated with the orgainzation's recycling program. Here, men take old animal bones and turn them into jewelry. Walking into the workshop I was glad I don't have asthma, because I breathed in a whole lot of bone dust... After a short briefing by one of the workers, we were shown some finished pieces for purchase (which we all took advantage of). Waiting for our classmates to make up their minds, the rest of us continued to chat with some of the craftsmen working outside. I was immediately brought back to a memory in Egypt where we visited a rug factory where young girls were working and I had the opportunity to sit down next to one of the girls and tie a few knots in her rug. (I won't go into details about how the boss then made an offer to buy me after seeing my rug making capabilities...) This time, my new friend Kennedy showed me how to drill the tiny holes in the beads he was working on. Because the beads were pretty long and skinny, this required drilling from both sides. I tried about 5 or 6 times but couldn't get the holes to meet, so I decided to leave the work to Kennedy, but I was grateful he let me give it a shot.
After the workshop, we walked to see another one of the recycling projects being carried out for Carolina for Kibera. This room was full of old plastic bottles collected from the surrounding community waiting to be fed to the giant shredderator in the corner. The two men gave us a demonstration of the machine. My first thought was that Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs would totally eat this place up, but maybe more so I was having flashbacks to my father “chowdering” his finger in a wood chipper. I thought for sure that I would see some chowder right there as the man fed the plastic into the chipper with only another plastic bottle. After the demonstration, I couldn't help but ask if anyone had seriously injured themselves using the giant shredder. Thankfully, the answer was no. (Sorry Dad, you have no company with the plastic recyclers of Kibera.) Our visit to Carolina for Kibera was really inspiring, showing what can happen when development comes from the people it benefits.
Far from the livelihoods of those in Kibera, we enjoyed our first real night out this weekend.
I should mention this economic disparity, because it is truly astounding. After spending the day in Kibera, walking through what was likely feces, witnessing serious poverty, I found myself that afternoon in what felt like the Northshore Mall, treating myself to the new it thing – self-serve frozen yogurt. This has become a weekly treat, and it's awesome, but a large part of me absolutely hates stepping foot in the mall because I walk inside and feel that I've just apparated out of Kenya. But regardless, back to our evening out!
Our plan was to ease into the Nairobi night scene by spending our first night out at Carnivore, a bar/club/restaurant frequented by many of the local expats. Just judging from the name, I'm sure you can tell that this is totally my kind of place. The restaurant serves the Brazil barbeque way – meat on swords, what more could you want?! However, you get what you pay for and we decided we weren't quite ready for a splurge, so we decided to stop in at a local pub for some drinks and food before heading out. Unfortunately this place didn't have any food, so we did have to break down for the food on the club side of the upscale establishment, but my overpriced burger was definitely worth it!
Now I'm sure you're getting bored and starting to wonder why I'm even bothering to tell you about this, but here's where it gets exciting. So we're sitting in this local pub drinking Tusker, the official Kenyan brew, when all of a sudden Peter, one of our kiswahili language teachers, walks in. This was exciting enough, but then he offers to drive us to Carnivore when we tell him our plan. How many people can say that they're professor brought them to the club?! (You should know that we are instructed to use a particular driver whenever we go anywhere after dark, and apparently Peter works for him on the side, so it really wasn't that weird.) So, after an exciting ride to Carnivore with Peter while practicing some kiswahili, we payed the overpriced cover charge to get into the club. And come to find out, it's Bhangra night! We were clearly very early and it took a while for the place to fill up. This was another one of those cases where I felt that I was no longer in Kenya because my friends and I were the only non-Indians in the entire place. I made sure to show off my very limited bhangra skills that I've picked up from watching the UR Bhangra team, but we left the serious dancing to those who know what they were doing. To complement the dancing there were a few live music performances. Of course we had no idea who these people were, but it quickly became evident that these guys were legit, and in all honesty I think they were pretty famous. There was also no shortness of talent, and I especially enjoyed the traditional drum accompaniment. Every so often my friends and I would look at each other with the look of what-on-earth-are-we-doing-here, but I think we could all agree that the evening was totally worth the overpriced cover fee. It was certainly not a night we ever could have planned...
We're heading out to Mombasa at the end of the week for our rural homestay visit and other activities, so I likely won't post for a while. But hakuna matata, I'll be back soon!
Ali
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