Greetings,
Tomorrow we set out for the Sudan. We have our travel documents and hopefully will have no trouble as we fly north. We are excited to go. The visit here in Kenya has been rich but we are all ready to engage in the CHE work. While in Kenya we have been to First Love Kenya, Mavuno Downtown, the Kibera slum, and the school in Kibera that First Love has its feeding and support program.
The school blew me away. It was amazing to see how little these children have and how high they reach. I helped serve corn porridge in the morning and corn and beans in the afternoon to all ages. It is the exact same meal that they get every day. We walked around the campus and stepped into one of the primary classrooms. The room was crowded and many of the windows looking in on it were broken out. On the chalkboard written in very clear hand was information about erosion, environmental issues, and the water cycle. Each student had a note book that looked more like a text book as it was filled with very detailed notes representing the information on the board. Elsewhere, in a jam packed room- the same we served lunch and breakfast in - High School students were holding a compelling open forum discussion on government and leadership and the impact of the media – its good and bad aspects. Students were elbow to elbow and a moderator would call on individuals who would stand and enter into an improvised discussion. I was deeply impressed. There is a certain spark that you see in the eyes of a leader and I watched a half dozen of them and it gave me a great hope for the future of the residents of Kibera.
In fact, hope was the pervasive feeling I had as I walked through what might seem the most hopeless of places on earth. I am sure that it helped to see the school first. It was a horrible environment in which to live, let alone raise children. The trails/alleys were mud and water running with sewage. The shacks were made of tin and mud and the odd patch of concrete. Electrical wires hung too low for Cal to walk under and bent and twisted TV antennas poked up in sky. Dogs picked at the layers of garbage that were cast off by people sitting idle by their darkened shacks. Walking into tattered laundry or poles sticking out from the roofs was a very real danger since we were afraid to take our eyes off the trail for fear of slipping or stepping into something that should never be in a walkway. In fact we later learned of the practice of flying toilets which a preferred alternative to using the pay toilets which are a long walk for people, especially at night. People use plastic bags for their business and then give them a good fling out the door or down the alley to where a waterway might (or might not) be running. Kibera alone among the 5 major slums of Nairobi houses an estimated 1.3 million people.
As I finish typing this last piece, I find myself asking why I felt hope. I think it is because in the faces I did not feel the burning anger or despair that I expected. It is possible that the rate at which the country is developing and the level of education that has recently become available to the children and the awareness that global media is bringing to the community about what it is like in other places all contribute to a sense that there is a future. I stood at the door of the High School debate and I am convinced that this is the generation that will break the cycle of slum living for the people of Kenya. Our guides through the slum were two men who had both grown up in Kibera and now are staff at the school raising the eyes of the children that are following them.
I will sign off at this point, I am confident I went over whatever word allowance I was given for blogging. As you pray for us, pray for the ability to listen well and wisely and deeply once we set foot in Labone. It is going to be so critical that we hear as much as possible in the few short days before we begin to speak.
Your coworker in the gospel,
Jon
