Almost every weekend Fadhili hold outreach weekend where you get to experience a bunch of different programs in a couple days. I signed up to do outreach because I wanted to see a few different placements/programs besides my own. During the weekend I was taken to the KCC Slum, Hell’s Gate National Park (we all need a little fun, right?), Vumilia IDP Camp, and the Gioto Garbage Slum. On Friday we went to the KCC Slum (KCC stands for Kenyan Creamery Company) and got to see the school there. The school is an early childhood school just like the one I’m placed at, but the two schools are vastly different. KCC has been up and running for about 4 years, where as Vumilia has only had a school since September, so KCC is a lot more established. Don’t get me wrong, it is still small, and very much unlike any schools in the U.S. BUT, they are doing amazing things there! Unlike Vumilia, KCC has a separate classroom for baby, middle, and top classes…they also have a nursery for children age 2 and under. The classrooms are small with dirt floors and benches as seats and desk- much like Vumilia. At first the schools were taught strictly by volunteers, but as the years went on women from the slum were selected and trained, for free, to be teachers in the school. Now, volunteers are still placed there but assist the teachers as well as teach some lessons on their own. In addition to the classrooms there is also an amazing food program that has been established. The kids get a hot meal once a day (maybe they get ugi/porridge, too- I can’t remember)! This is a huge deal for these kids! For most of them that is their only meal for the day. When my group was there the kids had rice and beans and cabbage. There is a field right behind the school, and they buy their produce from there. The kitchen area is big, and there is room for two fires and a table for the cook to prepare everything. It was amazing to see fresh food being prepared. The kids absolutely loved it! A lot of the credit for the amazing things going on at KCC is goes to a volunteer named Marcus who has been in Kenya for a while now. He has been an integral part of the success at KCC and has help set up a website for the slum; www.kccslumproject.wordpress.com. They are going to be selling really cool t-shirts on the site soon that benefit the food program at the school. Marcus is doing his very best to make them self-sustainable, and he is really doing a fantastic job.
I really wish that there was a better food program at Vumilia; ugi isn’t enough for the kids there. Have I already explained what ugi is? Well, if not, it is flour, sugar, and water cooked together. I tried a tiny bit the other day and it tastes like a very bland cake batter…one you wouldn’t want to lick the bowl of after pouring it in the pans. But, the kids at Vumilia go nuts over it because it fills them up and is often the only “meal” they get all day. Some possible good news for Vumilia is that a government official was just at the camp the other day and he said that most of the people should be resettled within the next 2 weeks and the remaining families will be next. However, these people have been there since 2007, and the government is notoriously corrupt (just like most other “democracies” in Africa), so who knows if it’s true. But, I sincerely hope it is.
After seeing the school we saw the slum. About 7,000 people live in the slum and 700 are children. The slum is made up of tin and wood homes crammed together with mazes of paths leading through everything. The conditions are poor; trash is everywhere, dirty water lingers for days after the rain, kids are playing in the streets, and pit toilets are sporadically located throughout the camp. The children there are extremely friendly and were running up to all the mzungus and wanting to hold our hands. We first made our way to visit the women’s program. The program is made up of HIV positive women, and they all make jewelry out of magazine strips. The jewelry is their main source of income and it is beautiful. We sat in the room and watched a demonstration and learned more about the women. At the end we could buy things, and I decided to buy a gorgeous necklace and Cat and I bought a pair of earrings as a gift for each of our house mother’s granddaughters.
After the KCC slum we went to Hell’s Gate. It was absolutely stunning! I rode around in a van with the ceiling raised and was able to stand up and admire all of the beautiful scenery. Hell’s Gate is the place of inspiration for The Lion King and the Tomb Raider movies. From The Lion King, pride rock is there, but unfortunately it doesn’t really look like it did in the movie anymore. There was an earthquake and the part that juts out fell to the ground. There were zebras, giraffes, warthogs, meer cats, gazelles, and other animals roaming throughout the park. In Swahili, warthog is “pumba” and meer cat is “timon”, so you can see where Disney got the names from for the movie. Also, samba= lion and rafiki= friend. Interesting. I like that they used some of the Kenyan culture in the movie. After driving around for a while we hiked down into a gorge and walked through there for a couple hours. Getting down into and up out of the gorge was intense. Although, getting in was easier than getting out. To get out you had to climb up a very steep hill/cliff side and it was very scary for me. I didn’t think I was going to make it because I am intensely afraid of falling, and falling was a very real possibility. It was SO high!! But, with the help of Chomlee and Alex I made it up. Thank God.
On Saturday the group went to Vumilia, so Cat and I were able to show some people around and answer some questions. We all gave out flour and cooking fat to all of the families. After Vumilia we went to the Gioto Garbage Slum. I was very much looking forward to going there since before I left. I won’t get into great detail about the camp right now…all the info about the slum can be found at www.garbageslum.org. Basically thousands of people are living on top of a garbage dump; they make their homes, wear clothes/shoes, and eat all from the garbage. It is a very desperate situation for everyone there and rape, drugs, malnutrition, and HIV/AIDS are rampant. It is a very sad situation and there is a lot that needs to be done there. Fortunately, a volunteer named Ross is doing A LOT for these people. He is the one who started the website and has helped, along with other volunteers, get 40 children sponsored for boarding school. Like the KCC Slum, there is women’s program and the women make jewelry and purses. Ross should be saluted for the wonderful work he is doing there…it is truly inspiring. We gave out flour and cooking fat there as well. We couldn’t stay too long because it was about to rain, and it is impossible to drive out of the slum once all of the garbage is wet. Ross told us that the sludge is so deep you can barely walk let alone drive. The “road” you drive on is basically crushed, compressed garbage so you can imagine how that would be once wet. The kids, mostly bare foot, walk around on the garbage and broken glass is absolutely everywhere. My heart was breaking for those people, especially the kids. Maybe one day Anthony and I can sponsor one of them. All kids deserve a great education, and it is simply impossible to get that when living amongst garbage. I have limited computer time, so please check out the website for pictures.
I am sure I will have more thoughts/posts on all of this later...right now I'm just concentrating on getting everything written down. Thanks for reading! <3
Peace&Love
Ashley
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