Leah’s Travel Page

Yesterday morning, we got up early and headed over to the UN compound. Security was pretty tight (especially because it’s right across from the US Embassy where security is REALLY tight)…we had to go through the same sort of security as you do at the airport, and then you’re not allowed to take pictures on the whole site. Once we got through the many layers of gates, though, the UN in Nairobi is soooo much nicer than the one in New York. It’s basically like a big park, with tons of grass and trees…you’re hardly even aware that there are buildings around.

We walked up a pathway lined by all of the UN country flags to the main UNEP (UN Environment Program) building. The reason we were there was to talk to people from UN-HABITAT about slums and informal settlements in sub-Saharan Africa, and more specifically in Kenya. We got to sit in one of the conference rooms that comes to mind immediately when you think of the UN – all the desks facing each other in a square, with little microphones and ear-pieces (which we got to wear!) at each spot. It was all very cool.

In trtue UN fashion, it was a bunch of Swedes who were in charge, and they spent the whole morning telling us about informal housing settlements around the world. 1 billion people in the world live in slums with inadequate water, sanitation, health care access, representation, etc etc. Later on, they switched the focus to Nairobi, where the 2nd largest slum in Africa is located, called Kibera (there are other informal housing settlements in Nairobi too, but none as big as this one). Kibera is located in the south of the city next to the trtarin tracks, and in an area probably no bigger than Stanley Park, there are about 1-1.25 million people living.

In the afternoon, we got the chance to visit Kibera with UN-HABITAT, to just a small corner of the slum known as Soweto East (there are 12 ‘villages’ in Kibera). A lot of us were a little apprehensive, not that we’d be in danger, but more that the people living there would be offended by a big group of rich mzungu (“white people”) were coming to gawk at the slum-dwellers. It was, in fact, quite the contrary. Everyone in Soweto East was incredibly welcoming and friendly and really excited to have us there. After a brief introduction at the HABITAT office (basically just a small, one-room house with a table and chairs), we divided up into small groups of 5 and were toured around Soweto East by members of their elected council. It’s hard to describe, really, because in a lot of ways, the slum was exactly what I expected to see… There were rivers of garbage everywhere with flies all over it, tiny one-storey shacks made of mud and tin and sticks, pigs and dogs running in amongst the trash, no roads, just narrow paths that you could sometimes barely fit two people through, no open spaces to play or socialize or have a market so people were just standing around the entrance to their houses. But all that not withstanding, there was an incredible sense of community and openness. Everyone seemed to know each other, the people came up to us and asked us questions about where we were from…we all felt perfectly safe the entire time. Some of the women were more reserved, but the children in particular seemed so excited that we had come. We went into one of the primary schools and all the kids came running out of their classrooms in their uniforms, shouting “Mzungu!!!” and “How are you? How are you? How are you?” (I think that’s the first phrase most of them learn how to say. All the kids clambored to get their photos taken (“Picha? Picha?”)… I didn’t bring my camera because I felt it a bit inappropriate, and some of the adult did seem apprehensive when others took their cameras out, but the kids loved it, especially when people with digital cameras could show them the pictures on the screen. Also, everyone wanted to shake our hands…the children would run up to us and just hold them out, saying “How are you” over and over again.

Another surprise was the number of small businesses people had set up in Kibera. There were pharmacies, shops selling shoes and scrap metal and Fanta and vegatables. We went into the local bar where they were distilling their local alcohol (which I did NOT try). Many people also invited us into their homes, often a family of four would be sleeping in a tiny bed made of sticks in a room no bigger than a closet. But they were happy to show us what their situation was like, in the hopes that we wouldn’t forget them.

I think a lot of that paints a bit of a rosy picture, and we all had a great experience. At times, it was hard to remember that one out of every four children we met was an orphan, and that diseases such as typhoid, cholera and AIDS are rampant there. There was a hospital not far away, but many could not afford to go, and those that saved would often not be able to afford medication. A lot of the time, the condition were disgusting… streams where people got there water from were full of trash and human waste. It’s not an easy existence. HABITAT is working on upgrading housing, but sometimes this is hard because then rents go up and the poorest people are forced out of their homes. In the next year, they hope to set up a recycling program, because most of the garbage was plastic.

I could write about it forever, but it could never fully describe the visit itself. It was definitely eye-opening. It was definitely tragic. But at the same time, it was definitely hopeful.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 19th, 2006 at 8:42 am and is filed under Kenya, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.