Leah’s Travel Page

After our long foray around the Mara, as February turned into March, we stopped back in Nairobi for a few days before heading north and then to the coast. Although the stay was brief, there were a few things of note about it. First of all, there were the first signs that the rainy season was imminent – tons of heavy rain, which was a nuisance in that we couldn’t do our laundry if we wanted it to dry, but really was a blessing. I can now appreciate it so much more having been through some of the more arid regions during this horrendous drought. The second thing of note was that we got to see President Kibaki, as he was laying the cornerstone for a new wing of the National Museum (one of our profs is the director of the Kenya Museums, so he hooked us up). Now, this is not necessarily that auspicious since Kibaki is currently embroiled in a massive corruption scandal and about to be deposed, but nonetheless, it’s always cool to see a head of government (Well, maybe not Canada’s Head of government, but that’s another story).

The best experience we all had was spending a few days with MYSA, the Mathare Youth Sports Association. Nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, the organization was started by a man from St. Catharine’s, Ontario. The purpose of the organization began in the Mathare slum of north-east Nairobi, and involved organizing soccer leagues for youth to play in to get them involved in something worthwhile outside of their squalid living conditions. It has now spread to many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, getting kids playing soccer, doing dance and performing some AMAZING acrobatics. Many of the kids have gone on to get scholarships at North American universities, and it is involved in an annual tournament in Norway, that some of the most talented and dedicated youth can get to attend. It really is a source of inspiration for the entire Mathare community. We also became friends with many of the people involved with MYSA, and so got the chance to visit their homes in Mathare. As in previous experiences, it is always extraordinary to visit a slum, see inside the tiny homes, walk the miniature pathways filled with rubbish, try to imagine where people collect their water or go to the bathroom. We also got to visit one of Mathare’s elementary schools, which has been there for 10 years but you’d never know it – it’s basically been put together makeshift-style in what I imagine was once a small abandoned office building of some sort. Definitely some of the most cramped teaching quarters I’ve seen yet. A couple of people in our group are doing work with MYSA after the program…I don’t think I’ve really done it justice with my hurried summary, but I think you can check it out at www.mysa.org, so please do because it’s a really extraordinary example of a community coming together to try and make an improvement in the lives of their children.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 29th, 2006 at 12:22 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.