We went to Mathare twice this week. The first time was to join in a children's program with the library boys. The library is now run by three boys--the girl who used to run it is about to have a baby and has moved out of Mathare. Whenever we walk through Mathare, we are always accompanied by at least one of them and often all three. They keep anyone away from harassing us. Yesterday, someone approached Malachi but just before he could touch him, one of the library boys grabbed his outstretched arm and stopped him. Last year when I was here, I was always approached and asked for money or food. It hasn't happened once in Mathare this time. And these boys have such good intentions. They love helping the children with their homework in the library or helping an adult that is struggling with literacy.
Anyways, I digress. We walked through Mathare to a 'nursery' school. The building was...rustic. The floor was rough concrete. There were no lights on inside, so I am not sure if they have electricity. It was lit inside by a couple of "skylights" where the corrugated plastic roof wasn't layered and more daylight came through. It was pretty dark. There were about 80 children there sitting at little tables and desks. They all wore dark green uniforms and many also wore touques. (it was 26 degrees that day). We arrived at the start of lunchtime so they all filed past us to wash their hands at a little water dispenser.
After lunch we accompanied them with one of their teachers to the park (the organization that I am working with built the park a few years ago--I wrote about it last time I was here). The library boy brought a soccer ball, 2 badminton racquets, and a volleyball. He got Lizzie to teach some kids how to play badminton and Malachi to teach some how to play volleyball.
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| Can you see the boy with the unraveled sleeve? |
These kids were about 4-5 years old, and hadn't yet learned English, so teaching them wasn't easy. They kept crowding in on Malachi. One of the kids sweater was unravelling, but he didn't seem to care. We taught them a janken game where the loser has to lengthen their step until one of them falls over. It was fun.
Afterwards, we walked them back to their school. The younger ones were napping with their heads on the table. The owner of the school came and talked to me. From what I gathered, this is a service she provides to the mothers in Mathare. The kids bring 10 shillings (11 cents) to school everyday and from that she makes their lunch (beans and rice). It seemed to me she does not collect a wage from this. But I never clarified.
I have been working on a report about Mathare so I have learned some of the alarming statistics. It is the 2nd largest informal settlement in Nairobi and one of the most densely populated places in the world. There are 70,000 people per square kilometre. Most people subsist on less than $2 a day which they earn through informal labour. 50 of the 55 participants in our study rated severely food insecure. It makes me feel sad. But it just makes me admire the people volunteering here even more.
There are no private toilets in Mathare. Several families will share one toilet. It may be 200 metres away from their home and it costs 10 shillings every time they use it. In my research I read that some people instead, make use of "flying toilets," which means they do their business in a bag, then step outside and throw it--anywhere. I didn't believe it, so I asked one of the library boys and he confirmed that it happens (mostly at night).
Saturday we were invited to join in a tree planting event and to watch the Mathare river queens football match. When we arrived, our library boy escorts were waiting for us. They brought us down to the river where there was a big clean up happening. The asked us which side of the road we preferred to work on, and the organizer was about to encourage us to work on the side without trees, but Malachi was adamant he wanted to work on the side with trees (it was hot!) . He soon came to regret this decision when we discovered that we had to carefully watch our steps because they area has been "used as a toilet" by some people and there was all kinds of human feces in various states of decay. Ewww. The task was to move the garbage to the edge of the road into a big pile. We were given shovels to help out.
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| I don't think pictures can convey the scope or magnitude of how much garbage there was |
Eventually people came and took over from us. The reds told me that the library boys kept saying "your mother is very tired"...maybe I was moving too slowly? Once the pile was near the road, they just lit it on fire.
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| This fire was left to burn itself out |
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| The people across the river are planting trees. |
From there we went and sat in the gazebo which felt nice and cool. Although after sitting there for awhile, Malachi said "my butt keeps falling through the holes." The benches were made of wood slats that had one inch gaps between them.
Eventually the gazebo filled up with all the people that were working to clean up the area. It was very crowded. Some brave children gathered around Elizabeth and were touching her hair and stroking her braid. Some reached across her back to pet Malachi too. My hair was up so they mostly left me alone. We had a brief meeting all in Swahili where a bunch of different leaders were introduced. Lastly, I was asked to say a few words...what? So I just introduced myself. Then the food came out. Everybody was handed a loaf of bread and a bag of milk. We brought our own sandwiches so we were walked back to the office for lunch.
Then we went to watch the football match. It was way on the other end of Mathare. While we were walking, a young boy starting talking to Elizabeth. I thought he was about 9 or 10 years old. As it turned out, 'he' was a 16 year old she--that was on the team. To be fair, I only saw her from behind. The soccer game was played on a red dirt field. It was so hot. Our team lost, but at least they scored a goal--that's always exciting.
Today was stake conference. The building was so full. My highlight was the choir. Usually on Sundays it feels like Lizzie and I are doing a duet. We can't hear anyone else. This choir sounded like what I expected the singing to be like in Africa. I loved it. It was a good Sunday.
Click here to listen to a snippet of the Nairobi East Stake choir recording
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