Kibera

Day 2 was spent in Kibera, the largest slum in Sub Saharan Africa, where close to 1.5 million Kenyans live in crowded tin shacks, haphazardly constructed among piles of trash and rivers of sewage that line the mud streets. And yet among these apalling conditions, we visited two amazing places; the Laini Saba School and the Leo Toto AIDS clinic.

As was the case with virtually everywhere we have been, we were met with odd looks from the adults in Kibera, but with enthusiasm, interest, and a never-ending chorus of "How are you" from the kids. We arrived at the school after a short walk through the muddy streets and across the train track that splits Kibera. The school sits on high ground and thus affords a good view of the endless rusted tin roofs of Kibera. Yesterday, we learned that little Kenyan kids love seeing themselves on camera; today we learned that little Kenyan kids love to be picked up and held, swung, or even thrown in the air.

This was a lesson that Maggie H. learned better than anybody, as she spent most of the rest of the trip with a Kenyan child or baby in her arms.

Anyway, the time at the school was split between playing with the kids during their recess, helping serve lunch, and watching a few classes. Scott was again a hit with the frisbee, and Marino's basic magic tricks made him a celebrity among the kids. Ted, Q, Maggie, Quinn, Tom, Scott, and others helped serve lunch to the kids.

The school is a pretty special place, providing an education for kids who otherwise would have none. The Kenyan government supposedly provides free education to all of its citizens, but the reality is that the government's contributions pay for only a portion of the education expenses, and therefore virtually every school has school fees that a family must pay for their child to attend school. And while Laini Saba has school fees too, they are minimal, and are often waved for families who simply have nothing to pay. But the school provides kids with more than just their education; it is a safe haven from the incredible struggles that exist outside its gates, and it also provides kids with two meals (breakfast and lunch) each day. Given the poverty in which these kids live, these are often their only meals of the day.

After lunch, we split up into three groups, each with its own translator/guide and made out way across Kibera to the Leo Toto (Swahili for "to raise a child") Children's HIV Center, a clinic/organization that provides care and medicine to 500 children living with HIV/AIDS in Kibera. Along the way, each group stopped at 4-5 "homes" of Leo Toto families and had the chance to learn about and talk with the adults caring for the kids. Sometimes those adults were their parents, but often they were other family members caring for kids whose parents had died of AIDS. This was the single most memorable experience of the trip for me, as we learned aobut life and struggle from the people on the furthest fringes of society. Cramming as many as 8 people in a 1 room tin shack, utilizing the flying toilet" (when you crap in a plastic bag and literally throw it out of your door) for "sanitation," struggling to find casual work each day, hoping to make as little as $.50 just so you can buy something for you and your family to eat, praying that the rains don't turn your "street" into a see of mud and garbage. Our guide was one of three social workers at Leo Toto. She had a caseload of 168 kids, and in addition to the kids, she helped the parents (who almost always were HIV positive) find work, buy food, or simply deal with their illness. It was an amazing experience, and it was capped off by a talk from the director of the Leo Toto Center about some of the difficuties of working with the HIV positive population in Kibera.

An exhausting day overall, but a memorable one.