If you have seen the movie The Constant Gardner then you have seen Kibera. It is the slum on the outskirts of  Nairobi. Approximately 750,000 people live there, crammed together in makeshift dwellings. They use anything that they can find to make their homes; corrugated tin, plastic bags, discarded lumber and metal. There is a stream of raw sewage that flows through it and the smell is unbelievable. It is hard to believe that people can live like this. The area is controlled by gangs and is very dangerous. I was warned about taking pictures so I only took a few when all adults were out of sight. These pictures cannot even demonstrate what we saw and there is no way for me to describe it to you. You will just have to come and see for yourself.

View from the North Side of Kiebra

Pastor Moses Muguro took us to visit a school there. The school was just on the outskirts of Kibera so it was easy for us to approach it with out having to walk through the heart of the slum. The school is made up of tree branches nailed together then slathered with cow dung. I have seen many buildings like this here but is this is the first one that I have seen that has two stories. We climbed these rickety stairs to the second story (I was actually very nervous that at any moment the building would collapse.) Seeing this school brought new meaning to over crowded classrooms. These people have hardly anything and they are making do and still holding classes for their children. I single classroom would be maybe 15 X 15 ft and 30 + children would be crammed into it. The only supplies they had was a single piece for slate hung on the wall, chalk, and benches. The Children had note paper and pencils so they could write down their lessons. Moses said that most of the teachers were volunteers who have gone to University for teaching degrees but who have been unable to find paying jobs. Moses said that sometimes if he had extra money he would make a donation to the school (this from someone who barley gets paid for his work.)

View from inside the school yard. (Myles talking with assistant director)

Over crowed classroom. We gave out candy and listened to the children sing and recite memory versus in English. Their level of education is phenomenal

After visiting this school Moses took us to visit another Children’s home. St. Francis Children’s home was created by a “wealthy” Kenyan woman (I put wealthy in quotations because she is in no way wealthy by American standards). This woman donated her home and property to become a children’s home 7 years ago. She now has 250 orphans living there with her. They have a dirt yard where they play, and 3 small buildings that serve as school rooms and at night dormitories (They drag out mattresses and sleep on the classroom floors). They are only living on her pension (which is pitiful) and the donations of food and clothing form others. They say they are “living by faith” because they don’t know if they will have food from one moth to the next and they just trust in God to provide for them. This woman’s generosity blows me away – I cannot imagine living like this – she has given up everything and is changing the lives of these children.

Some Girls that live at St. Francis Children’s home. The older children were apparently responsible for doing some chores – the girl on the right is holding a laundry bucket that she was washing clothes in.

A little boy showing me his ball.

(I know that I have spelled the name of the children’s home incorrectly but I don’t have my notes with me so I will have to correct it later.)

Thank you so much to everyone who made Hats, Scarves and Cloths for the Children and for those who bought toys and other items for the children. They were very well received. Here are a few pictures of the kids with items. I have a lot more and I will share later. There are now 43 children instead of the 36 that we thought. They are basically at capacity so they will not be able to take anymore children. However when someone brings an abandoned child to them it is very hard to say ‘no’ because the chance of that child’s survival on the street is very slim.

These are the little girls with their hats, scarves, clothes, and toys.

The kids are just precious – though you could tell they really craved one on one adult time. I asked Francis – one of the volunteers at the Home what they need the most and he told me “More volunteers to come hold, play with, and love the children”

All of these children have been tested for HIV/AIDS and only 3 are infected and they are receiving drugs. All of the children have had the basic immunizations that are now subsidized by the Kenyan government. Last year there was a little girl that came to the children’s home that had HIV around that time all of the children were infected with chicken pocks and the little girl with HIV was also infected. Because her immune system was so week from the HIV she got very ill and was hospitalized. She passed away last November. This was very sad and very hard on the other children.

According to Pastor George this Children’s home receives regular donations from a Church somewhere in the states. I am still trying to get information about this church because the home is far from being what I would consider “fully funded.” Last year they ran low on funding and they “had some problems with food” that’s George’s way of saying that the children skipped meals.

When my Uncle Eric was here over a year ago one of the little boys, Zechariahs, was hospitalized for an infection. All the medical care here is a-la-carte so even though he was in the hospital the children’s home did not have enough money to buy the medicine that was necessary to fight the infection. The doctor told them that if Zechariahs did not get the medication he would die. When my Uncle discovered that the cost of the medication was the equivalent of $10 he forked over the money. But if he had not happened to be here at that time Zechariahs would probably not be with us – all for that lack of $10.

This is the children’s class room. They have a one room school house set up right now and they don’t even have desk. The children have plastic lawn chairs that they sit on in this class room. Right now an American is funding the building of another school building so this class room will become the girls dormitory (right now the girls sleep in the garage of the house.) the school will move to the new building which looks like it has multiple class rooms. I am trying to get more information on the American who is building the new school. According to George this American visited last year and was moved to help. George has promised to get me his name and contact information for me. It looks like the work on the new building is going very slowly so I doubt that the project is fully funded.

This is the boys dormitory, it is on the opposite side of the class room above. All of the beds are just crammed into this one little room. It works for the time being but the beds are toddler beds so the children will quickly be out growing them.

Ideally I would like to see the following list of things:

• A monthly food budget
• A monthly medical budget
• New school building completed
• Desk and school supplies for all the children
• Paid staffed teachers (right now all the staff are volunteers)
• A paid director
• Girls and boys dormitory stocked with full sized bunk beds.
• Possibly a shower house with baths and showers

George has promised to get me the information on the Church in the US

that is providing some funding to this Children’s Home. The Kenyan volunteers are doing a wonderful job with the resources that they have but obviously just a little bit of money could make a huge difference in the lives of these children. (A fully funded home would maybe need a $3000.00 monthly operating budget)

I should mention that the volunteer teachers get to live at the children’s home and they get their meals there – that is their compensation for volunteering. I was very moved by what these volunteers are doing and I will really like to see this home fully supported.

George assures me that this is one of the best Children’s homes in Nairobi and that there are many homes where the children do not even have beds. This makes me ashamed – I see no reason why every Children’s home in Nairobi could not be partnered with a Church in the States that could fully support it.

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world"

James 1:27

Edited to add a video of the children.

We have been very busy the last few days.

As it turns out that the internet café is only open for a few hours on Sundays and those happen to be the hours that we were in church. We went with George (a pastor that Uncle Eric has been working with) to his Church. The people at the Church were so unbelievably kind. Right before George pick us up he phone Uncle Eric and told him that he would be speaking at church. Uncle Eric was totally unprepared and so understandably very apprehensive. Good thing he is a quick thinker and did very well. Here is a picture of him speaking. The church is just a wood framed building with corrugated tin walls and rough but it works well. The people are very spirited and the singing was wonderful. We have been trying to upload a video but we have been very unsuccessful so far so that might have to wait until we get back to the States. George also asked Myles and I to sing for the congregation. Not having practiced it was pretty bad.

This is a picture of Uncle Eric explaining some of the software on one of the laptops that we brought to the gentlemen at Trans World Radio. They were very excited to have it. These are very nice Gentlemen and they have been helping Eric with the transfer of funds for various projects. Uncle Eric transfers them funds and they serve as an intermediary to whoever is receiving the funds making sure that they are used how they were intended.

Edited to add a video update.
This is a video that I made in church Sunday. I should have mentioned that since we were honored guest we were asked to sit up at the front of the church, the picture and the video are therefore from that perspective.

Nairobi is actually a very westernized city of approximately 3.5 million people. This is a photo of  Myles at the market picking out some biscuits for us.

This is the Nakumat – it is the equivalent  of our wallmart they sell everything.

We had a great time in London! We visited the Tower of London, The British Museum, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral, The London Science Museum, and the Kew Gardens. We packed in as much as we could. We did a lot of walking so we were pretty tired in the evenings.

Myles on the Millennium bridge looking back at St. Paul’s Cathedral

Emily in front of Westminster Abby

Myles from the top of St Paul’s

I just can’t get enough of those eyes!

This is what Myles looks like when he first wakes up in the morning…

Isn’t he cute! – got to love that hair

of course he has to have his coffee before he can function. 

My former Co-worker Glenn and his girlfriend Janet invited us to a bonfire at Carkeek Park. We watched the sunset and grilled burgers. It was absolutely beautiful.

Myles took this one of me  – he is learning how to use the D200 – he is going to get a lot of practice on our trip.