We went on a driving tour of Nairobi the other day to see the sites. Part of the tour included driving around the perimeter of Kibera, the largest slum in East Africa-1 million people live there on less than $1 a day. It was unbelievable and we didn’t even go inside-there aren’t roads inside. All we could see was this sea of metal-roofed shacks with mud and stick walls and people all over the place. They’re pretty regularly dressed people too, just in slightly shabbier clothes which surprised me. It’s a city unto itself with markets and churches. I don’t understand yet quite how it all works and want to learn more about it. I just couldn’t believe how it exists right alongside the modern city of Nairobi. When it comes time to do our ICRP I’d really like to see if I could maybe do something in there. It’s a place where I’d love to bring my camera and shoot a ton of pictures, but I’d be nervous to bring it in. There are other slums like this in Kenya but this is the largest one. It felt strange to be a van full of white students driving around in a tourvan to see the “attraction” of Kibera. People just stared at us and kids yelled out “how ahhhh you??” to us. I really wanted to go and talk to some of those people. It’s hard being a mzungu though and not being able to blend in, I haven’t really figured out my place or attitude about it besides to just go with the flow as much as possible.
No comments:
Post a Comment