Safari zangu katika Afrika ya Mashariki

MATHARE YOUTH SPORTS ASSOCIATION (MYSA)

Saturday was an amazing and very busy, exhausting day. At 8:30 in the morning, we drove to the Mathare Youth Sport Association. Mathare is the second largest slum in Nairobi. MYSA is an organization that supports children and youths in Mathare (and Nairobi in general) through football (ie. soccer) and community service. In addition to hosting football matches among community teams and across kenya, they encourage community service (often times as trash clean-ups) and education about HIV/AIDS and safe sex. In order for the teams to participate in their league, they have to give 60 hours of community service a season, and they even offer school scholarships to the children who do the most community service. They also hold forum theater in different communities to encourage discussion among children about HIV/AIDS to reduce stigma and to encourage safe sex and abstinence.

(Side Note: There is a commercial campaign running in Kenya right now that says "its cool to chill" which is targeted at middle school and high school students to encourage them to abstain from sex, since there is a very high rate of teenage pregnancies.)

We arrived at one of their sites, right outside of Mathare slums to help with one of their trash clean-ups. Throughout Nairobi, especially in the slums, waste disposal and waste management is a huge problem. There is no running water and rarely electricity in any of the slums, and affording a trashcan is considered a luxury. Most of the houses, made out of cardboard and metal siding, are actually built on a foundation of dirt and trash.

Our group, along with over 100 children set off to Mathare with wheelbarrows, shovels, and rakes. Most of the children that joined us where well under 10 years old, and they were by far the most enthusiastic workers. They pushed the wheelbarrows up and down the hills, and often took tools out of our hands because 'we weren't doing it right.' In fact, there were far more people than there were tools available, and they did not allow us to pick up trash with our hands since we did not have gloves. So, I spent most of my time observing and talking with the children. All the kids I talk to here are AMAZED that I know Swahili, and often laugh and giggle when I speak it to them. Whenever I pulled my camera out of my bag, all the children clamored in front of me so that I would take their picture. And afterwards they would look at the screen and point to themselves in the picture, "mimi!! mimi!!"

It was absolutely astonishing how much trash covered the streets and paths. It seemed that no matter how much we rakes and shoveled trash into the wheelbarrows, there was still more coming out from under layers of dirt. There were so many plastic bags (which is the main way people dispose of human waste), empty containers, torn up newspapers, wrappers, you name it. In addition to all of the trash, animals roamed freely through the streets: goats, chickens, ducks, pigs, even a horse. That being said, animal and human waste was everywhere. Although it was usually not in the street, right next to the road in a ditch, or in one of the may great piles of trash. After raking as much waste as we could collect into large piles, we would then just set the piles on fire, so that they would burn. The smell was indescribable.

After we participated in the clean-up, we walked through the heart of Mathare. There were quite literally rivers and streams of trash that ran between the houses. For most of the people living in Mathare, they describe their houses as 'three in one', that is, the one room of their house served as a living room, kitchen, bedroom, and sometimes even a business center for a familiy of 3, 4, 5, or more. As we walked through the slums, most people were very friendly, waving at us or greeting us with "mambo" (the Kenyan sheng equivalent of 'whats up'). At one point, I turned a corner and made eye contact with this adorable girl, who was probably 3 or 4 years old and she ran up to me and gave me a giant hug, and continued holding me hand for a minute or two as we walked. As we walked deeper into the slum, children ran to balconies and doorways to chant "How are you. How are you. How are you…." as we all walked by. The director of MYSA who was leading us through Mathare later told us that the children start chanting anytime a white person walks through the slum. Eventually, we headed into the Muslim part of Mathare, and saw many young girls running around in purple hijabs and women walking around in burkas or long colorful hijabs.

Eventually we came to the MYSA center. This space had a library, with many children's books, a computer lab, a library with books for adults, and a study room for high school and college students who needed a quiet space to study. The MYSA headquarter also serves as a spontaneous day care. As we walked into the center, a little boy who was less than 2 years old broke out sobbing when we saw the bunch of us. After touring us through their main center, they took us to their arts center, just several meters down the road.On the short walk over, two litter boys ran up to me and grabbed hold of both of my hands. One little boy's name was Stibika, and the other was too shy to tell me his name. The three of us walked hand in hand down the road, and they even followed us through the entire tour of the MYSA arts center.

The MYSA performing and visual arts center was INCREDIBLE. First they took us to their dance studio, were there was a group of men and women dancing to live drums. They have dance classes and teach traditional African, Modern, and Hip-hop dance. Next we visited their music studio, where they teach music theory and allow kids to come practice and learn instruments. We met a group called Playback that was a music group for the physically and mentally disabled. In their music studio they have several keyboards, guitars, a drum set, and traditional hand drums. There were three young down syndrome women as well as some children with minor physical disabilities. The arts center also has a recording studio so that the local Mathare artists are able to record their songs. And they are trying to start a radio station called Kijiji radio ("village radio") in order to give the local Mathare artists more airtime. They also had a visual arts studio were children learned how to paint and draw. Lastly, they have a modeling and clothes design club where young men and women try to design clothes from trash and waste. The center was incredible and inspiring. They said that there are over 800 youth members who get to participate in all of these arts for free. But sadly, they told us that the building they have been using for the arts center since 1998 was just sold to some rich Somalians who plan to demolish the building within the next two months, and they are still looking for a new building.

MORE FOOTBALL

After a hearty lunch, they took us to a football game at Nairobi's international stadium. We saw a match between a Kenyan and an Egyptian team (pro, but not national teams) and it was SO MUCH FUN! We were easily the only white people in the entire stadium, and also probably the loudest. Although, ironically, the three guys of the group quickly became disinterested and began a deep conversation about capitalism while all of the girls were deeply immersed in the game. It was a surprisingly quick game, and a great end to a very eventful day.

MAMA AND BABA FRANCIS

On Sunday, I finally got to meet Francis' family! After church, Francis' mother picked me up along with a young priest. I got to meet Francis' grandmother and father too! Mama Francis told me that she was going to teach me how to eat fish like a Kenyan. So we went to their apartment (which is only a block away form my school!) and she cooked an amazing lunch. Kenyans cook fish by simply frying it whole and cooking it in sauces and spices. So I thanked god that she cut me the tail end, because I would not have know what to do with the head of the fish. Lunch was delicious and ate until I felt like I was going to pop. I had a very long conversation with the priest about development, especially non-profits in Kibera, and then we all talked about Kenyan politics while trying to digest all of the food. It was a good day :)

Also, I heard some bad news this morning. The baby giraffe that we saw two weeks ago was eaten by a leopard.