This was a very difficult day for me. Everywhere I look is waste, garbage, filth, and worst of all hopelessness. The hopelessness smells worse to me than the open sewage running down the hill into the river. One after another we visit “homes” in this slum. Sitting on their chairs in the “living room” which is about 6′ by 8′, the bedroom divided by a dirty sheet and is the size of a twin bed. No lights, no windows, no air. Lots of bugs, dirt floor, dirt everywhere. The people are all behind on their rent, school fees for the kids, without jobs or prospects.
Joan has two kids, 5 and 6 year olds. The 5 year old is the bigger of the two, and weighs in at about 30 lbs. The 6 year old is probably 25 lbs and mentally handicapped. She is 24 and her husband left as soon as he found out that she was HIV positive, and has not seen him since. Her handicapped son just got sent home from a special needs school because she doesn’t have school fees. She can’t work, even if there was a job because she has to care for her son. Without help she is stuck.
And on, and on, and on. It was just sucking the life out of me, we were all exhausted, but we had two more stops.
Enis was in her early 30’s I think and has 4 kids. Her husband left because she found out she was HIV positive. They do that, leave, rather than facing the truth. We walked down an alley about 4’ wide, ducking the laundry hanging from twine, with “something” running down the middle of the alley. Entering her home was like turning on a light. It was dark, as all the homes are because there are no lights or windows. But there was a ray of hope that lit the place up. She was smiling and happy, gracious and glad to see us. It was not an act because there were 3 little neighbor kids that were hanging out there, and it was clear they always did, you can’t pose for kids like that, they know the real story. She had just finished seamstress school and several patterns made out of paper hanging up. She explained that she used to make jewelry and purses but there was not a big enough market for it, so she will start a sowing business.
She pulled out a purse and a bunch of necklaces and they were really neat. I had an idea that I could sell these at the farmers market and make a pretty good mark up. With these profits I could send the money back to Nairobi and help others. Turned out to be about 30 bracelets and the bag. The cost was exactly enough for her to buy a sewing machine. Enis will soon have a sewing machine, and I entered into my first micro finance transaction.
The next lady we visited was Lucy, and is selling avocados and tomatoes to support her and her kids. She doesn’t have enough money to buy the produce wholesale (a case at a time), and sell it retail, so she has to have her prices too high and so doesn’t sell as much as she needs to. The profits from the sale of the necklaces and bag are going to this young mother as a micro loan so she can buy by the case and make a profit in her business.
This was our first morning in Nairobi.
Trestle Coffee 