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I spent the last 2 weeks in Nairobi doing a voluntary community project. I was based in Buru Buru, which is on the eastern side of the city and supposedly one of the middle class areas although you wouldn't really associate it with the middle class of the western world. My host was John, the project coordinator and a single dad of 2 teenagers who are at boarding school (I later found out that his wife is an illegal immigrant in the UK as they made a decision 10 years ago that one of them should go to the UK to earn money!).
My placement was at the Magodo Orphanage and School which has around 80 resident children from babies to 18 year olds and then admits about 500 day pupils, most of whom live in the local slum (Kibera - one of the biggest and poorest slums in the whole of Kenya) and only go to that school so that they get fed as their parents can't afford to feed them. Children are admitted to Magodo through Social Services and the police after being found abandoned, orphaned, destitute, abused, defiled, neglected and vulnerable. The school provides shelter, food, clothing, medical care, education, vocational training, rehab and recreation.
I was pretty shocked the first day I went there as the school is basically a whole load of transport containers and tin structures that make up the classrooms. A proper stone building was recently constructed which is now the boarding house but it only has 4 toilets and the showers/taps are on the same cubicle as the toilet so from a western point of view, highly unhygienic. The entrance stinks of poo as you have to walk past the school toilets which are shacks containing long drop toilets and there is rubbish everywhere - something I have got very used to seeing in African and other Black countries.
On my first day, I was put into Class 2 which is 7-9 year olds - there were 50 in the class and 5 kids were crammed on each 'desk' - basically a piece of wood around a metre long. Some kids were sitting on the floor and all of them were battling for space. I generally found the teaching very frustrating - the teachers seem bored, with no motivation and basically write text onto the blackboard which the kids then copy. They don't know what they're doing or learning and they get no stimulation or interaction in the classroom and there's no scope for creativity. I spent a lot of my time at the school marking work and some just didn't have a clue - in maths they would write 21 for every answer and some can hardly write. They get no individual attention and are just left to struggle (one kid was shocked when I took her aside to try and explain how something worked but then she got it - yay!). The smart ones have potential but the sad thing is that they will never get anywhere as they will be brought down by the other 49 kids in the class and so the cycle of the slum continues.
I was shocked at the level of violence in the school. I seemed to spend the vast majority of my time yelling at kids to stop hitting eachother, while they continued to beat eachother and ball their eyes out. The problem is that violence is all they see so they think it's an acceptable way to behave - teachers hit kids, older kids hit younger kids and all the kids hit eachother - and I mean with weapons! Bits of wood, bits of metal, sticks etc. The teacher in my class would walk around with a stick and hit the on the hand and I witnessed one kid lying on the ground outside the staffroom being whacked on the back by a huge lump of wood. But what can you do?
Along with the general violence, there is no respect for anyone or anything - people, belongings or environment - they rip their books, carry razor blades around to sharpen their pencils and rip and break anything and everything that gets in their way. The school grounds were appalling - as soon as it rained, it became a quagmire and was horrendous. It desperately needs to be concreted over - if your surroundings are nice, you are more inclined to keep them nice. As it was, the kids dropped paper and rubbish everywhere and there were rough bits of wood, corrugated metal and huge nails sticking out everywhere - so dangerous!
The food situation was dire. On the first day I didn't know the score so someone rocked up with a huge plate of ugali - the local Kenyan cuisine which consists of a maize porridge type stuff and beans - that you eat with your hands. When done nicely, ugali can be bearable but this was awful and I struggled to swallow it. I almost had a Mr Bean situation where I was looking for somewhere to hide my leftovers. I managed to force down about a quarter of it but seriously thought I was going to throw up so I took the rest back to the kitchen and asked them to give it to the children. It was only afterwards that I realised how dire the food situation was. Every morning, 2 of the management staff traipse around businesses and churches in Nairobi and basically beg for food for the kids. They rely on handouts and well-wishers providing leftovers and some days the kids have to go without anything. One morning I helped in the kitchen and was sorting through the hard beans. I wouldn't even feed an animal on this stuff - I was removing stones and bits of crap so I think it was stuff that was being thrown away by whoever had donated it - shocking stuff.
Despite all of the shocking stuff and their plight, the kids were generally fantastic and never stopped smiling which is incredible when you consider what they've been through and what they're going through now - and also what their future prospects are. School finished at 3pm every day and I would then be accosted by the same kids every day - Alison, Maxi and Seth were 3 tiny tots who just wanted to be cuddled and hold my hand and then Flora, Michelle and Lillian were all 12 year olds who just wanted a friend and would take me to their room and dress up. They asked me to bring my camera and the whole school would cheer every time the flash went off. They took hundreds of pictures and I've posted them all on picasa - you'll see how happy they all are!
One of the funniest things, that the kids never got tired of, was their fascination with my skin, hair and eyes. They couldn't stop stroking me and found it amazing that my skin would go white when they poked and prodded it. They tried to braid my hair, asked if I ever shaved my head (as they all do) and were transfixed by my eyes as they'd never seen anything but brown before. Every day the girls would be flicking my hair and were jealous of how soft it was - asking what happened when it got wet, why was it so soft, why was it that colour, why did I not braid it etc etc!
I was pretty glad when my first week was over as it had been exhausting - physically and mentally. I had arranged to meet Jonny for drinks on the Friday evening. Jonny is one of the Dragoman tour leaders and I had met him the previous weekend at the end of our trip. A he was also in Nairobi for the week, we decided to catch up. John was terrified that I would get lost in the city so he asked his nephew to accompany me into town to make sure I got on the right matatu etc. A matatu is a privately owned minibus type thing which crams a million people inside and is driven by a maniac. They usually have blacked out windows, flashing lights and pump out incredibly loud reggae and hiphop music so you feel like the whole vehicle is pulsating as you drive along - you can actually feel the music drilling through your body!! They have semi-set routes but will basically pick up and drop off anywhere so you end up jerking around as the driver brakes and accelerates like an idiot.
Anyway, Brian (the nephew) took me into the city centre and put me on the next matatu. Over 2 hours after I left home, I finally reached Jonny, by which point I was desperate for a drink! Several Savanna ciders and a pizza later, I decided to get a taxi home. Of course I had no idea where I lived so John had told me to call him and he would speak to the taxi driver. He wasn't picking up so I told the driver Buru Buru and we would keep calling John along the way. The taxi driver was great and kept saying he would make sure I got home safely. We got back to Buru Buru but I only knew the route to walk. Luckily I remembered the name of a local primary school near my house so we stopped and asked 2 people who pointed us in the right direction. We finally reached my gate to find it bolted shut from the inside - b*****! John was still not picking up the phone. I have to admit, I did start to panic a little. The taxi driver pushed and shoved the gate and finally broke in! Thank God! He waited til I was safely in the house where I found John in bed, fast asleep. I called him a few times but he was dead to the world (I've never met anyone who sleeps so soundly!). I switched off all the lights and figured John would realise I was home. At 4am, I was jolted awake as my bedroom door burst open and the light came on. It was John, in a blind panic as he had woken up, got my text, tried calling the taxi driver (no answer), tried calling me (phone on silent) and thought I had been kidnapped or something! All's well that ends well though and i was quite prou of myself for managing to get home (somehow!).
On the Saturday, Brian was enlisted again to babysit me and took me into town to the Maasai market, City market and the national museum (which was s*** by the way!). We met John and Lydia (the other project coordinator) in a local pub that evening for drinks and goat (which was very good despite having to eat it all with my hands!). On the Sunday, John took me to the David Sheldrick elephant orphanage, the giraffe centre (where I hand-fed a giraffe!) and City Park, which is teeming with vervet monkeys that leap all over you - all good fun!
Monday came around again and for the 3rd day running we had no water - yuk! Couldn't shower, wash hands, couldn't cook - nasty! It finally came back on in the evening - just as I was losing the will to live. I can (and have) go a few days without a shower when camping and stuff but when you're being mauled by dirty children every day and you get home looking like a miner, you really do need a thorough wash and baby wipes just don't do the job properly!
My 2nd week was more of the same - I'm really not sure how useful I was in the school as I'm not a teacher and could not control the class (or get them to keep quiet!) but the time I sent with the kids after school was definitely worthwhile, from both sides. I took the last Friday off and Lydia took me to the Imani centre which is a baby orphanage and another project that they coordinate. What a difference. It was spotless and we had to wear cloths over our shoes for every different room we went into. They have around 70 babies from a few days old to 2 years old. 3 months ago they had 120 but they have managed to adopt out a load of them which is fantastic. Most of them end up going to wealthy Kenyan families so end up very fortunate. The centre was fabulous and Imani (the owner) gave up her life for this mission She stared it 30 years ago and climbs mountains every year to raise funds, as well as relying on local and international donations. The babies all seemed very content and happy - a lot of them come from teenage pregnancy and some are simply abandoned in dustbins - some have HIV which was really heartbreaking although most babies test negative between 6 months and 3 years old. After the baby centre we went to have a peek into one of the slums. We couldn't go too far in as it would have been too dangerous but it was horrendous - open channels of sewerage running through the 'streets'; some of them run through people's homes. The houses are built by any rubbish the owners can find and have no services, not even water. Simply awful.
So, that was my volunteering experience - I'm glad I did it but I did find it hard. In some ways I detached myself from the reality as you end up wanting to fix the world and you simply can't do it - I mean, where do you stop? It really opens your eyes to how it really is though. We all see this stuff on TV but seeing it with your own eyes is very different - shocking
- comments
Mum Well, you won't forget that in a hurry, sounds hurrendous but I am proud that you did it and you sound a though you got something out of the 2 weeks anyway. Makes you happy to be healthy, clean and well fed, doesn't it? Mum xx
gwen You are my hero !! What an experience.. I'm sure the children gained a lot and you did to .... hummm wonder if I could have survived in heels ????