Kenya: Back to Red Rose, Home Visit, Masai Market

Today we were back to Red Rose.  Here is a short of the morning meeting.  Several songs were sung and announcements given.  It's amazing how uninhibited these students are about singing.  It's so natural for them.  That's perhaps my favorite thing about being here.  There's none of this self conscious nonsense most Americans have about singing. 

After a couple morning lessons, I went with four of our high school students and some CoKF staff to visit the home of three red rose girls-- in classes 6, 3 and 1.  The two older girls walked with us.  Being in Kibera has been fascinating but once you get off the main roads and into the windy spaces where people live... it's a completely different story.  The odors are bad and intense... the spaces are narrow.... sewage runs through trenches in the street...

Visiting this home was so powerful.  Again, it's beyond any words or images I can put here.  Mercy (class 6) is being raised by her single aunt as both her parents are deceased.  In total there are eighth people living in their one-room house (about 8' x 11' I'd imagine).  Cooking in done on a small electric stove next to the bed.  One girl sleeps on the floor and several of them in small armchairs.  The rest share the bed.  The aunt sells vegetables so must rise and be out of the house between 4 and 5 a.m. to get to the central market before the quality vegetables are picked over.  She returns to Kibera and sets the vegetables out on a sack and sells them.  She earns about $60 USD a month and pays $30 in rent.  Mercy is up and out before 6 a.m.  She is a very promising student.  Her aunt spoke of how proud she was of Mercy.  It was very difficult for our high school students to be in this situation but I hope it will give them some perspective about how incredibly lucky we all are to have so many resources. 

We also experienced our first bit of Nairobi corruption today.  On the way to the Masai Market (where you bargain for your wares) we were stopped by the police and told we didn't have the proper permit to play music on the radio in the bus!!  Unbelievable.  It cost KES 7,000 ($85 USD).  Our driver, Joe, who is AMAZING, was mortified.  I felt really bad.

 

One of the other chaperones taught me how to bargain at the market today.  I didn't let my guilt get the best of me.  I did pretty well! :)