2010-11-18 8:10pm

 

Whoooosh! What a day! (again!)

I got up at 7am, but going to sleep was a bit tricky and I haven’t slept very well… Cause of the braids :P
But after breakfast I went down town to meet up with Wesley at Hilton Arcade.
Then we took a bus to Kibera! 32C, I think…!

 

The Kibera experience was AMAZING!
I feel so lucky to have had Wesley show me around. It felt a lot better than if I had went with Kibera tours. He lived there for a while and knew so much about it, and it was such an interesting thing to experience!

 

He told me that one of the best things they’ve done for many slums so far is to put up lights. BIG lights… Like the ones that light up football fields!

That must be so nice for the people who live in Kibera. We walked around for maybe 2 hours, or more! But even though my knee hurts like hell, I didn’t care. It was an amazing experience.

 

And the kids were too cute! Just like in the movie “The constant gardener”… They yelled “how are you, how are you, how are you!?!”… Totally adorable!

 

And it was so funny…. Cause here in Kenya, if a black man is together with a mzungu woman, especially in the slums…EVERYONE assumes he’s hit the jackpot! And people were apparently saying so as well, in Kiswahili as we were walking through.
One friend of Wesley even said that since he now hit the jackpot and is with me, I could give him a little something.
But Wesley and I just laughed it all off. I thought it was hilarious! But people were so incredibly nice!
And walking around with my rasta braids, I drew extra attention. Ego boost to the max!
People just come up and say I look smart (Kenyan way of saying pretty). I love it!

 

After Kibera we went to an area called South B. He used to live there too, in a slum called Marigoini.
I’ve heard a lot of Kibera and how poor it is, and yes, it is poor, but as we were getting deeper and deeper into Marigoini, it just got worse and worse.
But the people were still so nice, and I was able to take many pictures all day!

One woman even told me that next time she would help me with braids for a much cheaper price! :)
She was adorable!

He told me so many interesting things about both Kibera and Marigoini… But I think I’m too overwhelmed right now to even remember. But it has been a wonderful day!

 

After Marigoini we went back to Hilton, and then I went back to YMCA, to drop off some things and change.
…My shoes were very muddy and one got soaked in a puddle of mud in Marigoini :P

 

Then I took a matatu to Kangemi and today I had the shirts and the MP3 player for Grace.
She loved them all, especially the MP3 player. But having something in private is impossible at Shangilia. There are curious heads finding their way everywhere… And some started asking Grace if they could have it.
But she’s keeping it with a teacher, and the same with the clothes. But today she was smiling a lot more. I think she got the closure she needed of going to Emily’s funeral.

 

I spent about 2 hours there, hanging out with the kids, and it was really nice. Some of them were practicing for a show that they’re gonna have, next week, I think.
It was such a nice and relaxing afternoon…

 

I started walking up to Kangemi matatu station at around 6:15pm… There were several to choose from, but the best thing is to get one that is the most full, that way you don’t have to wait so long…They don’t go until they are full…!
One guy started pulling my arm and refused to let me go… After I told him like 20 times, and told him I’m serious, LET ME GO, several times… He finally let go. Doof.

 

I got another matatu and we only waited for like 5 minutes…
However the traffic jam was baaaaaad, and the matatu driver decided to take a “short cut”… So we didn’t drive by where I was supposed to get off. We drove all the way to Hilton, Moi avenue (Hilton Arcade). And since it was dark, I decided to go to Nakumatt City hall and buy something to eat and drink, and then I called Simon, the cab driver from yesterday. He’s a really good cab driver. Very nice, and has good prices.
I just wanted to go home though, so I told him 300 would be fine.
And there was SUCH a traffic jam! I didn’t get home until around 8pm… Imagine it almost took me 2 hours to get back from Kangemi!
Not to self: Leave earlier than 6pm or later than 8pm….!

 

 

When I got back to YMCA I went to the terrace and had a cup of tea and started writing my blog :)
The staff here is so nice and they really take care of me :)
Haha, even other guests! I like my tea quite cool, otherwise I just burn my tongue, while Kenyans like their tea HOT HOT HOT! And this one man walked up to me saying he wanted to take my tea and get it re-heated for me! He couldn’t understand that I liked it cooler!
He’s been sitting next to me for a while, so I guess he thought it was very weird that I didn’t started drinking directly! He was funny :)

 

Now, I’m off to bed.
Tomorrow I will go to Java, Mama Ngina st. and meet up with Geoffrey, and then Mary and I will go to Village market, cause the Masai market is there tomorrow!
Then I’ll go to the Uniform centre in the afternoon and then off to Shangilia! :)

 

Nighty night!

 

Kibera, just arrived

Water container

On the road in Kibera...

Me : Wesley and I : Our Kibera tour guides and myself :)

Kibera

Electricity lines...

Kibera restrooms. You pay between 3-5 ksh to use them.

I will not hold back! Volunteer to stop rapes!
Found on a wall in Kibera.

One part of Kibera

By Kibera river

On the bridge from the Kibera slum area to the other side
where they have built apartment buildings, where the people
of Kibera were supposed to move in... But so far rich people
have bought most of the apartments...

The bridge

Arrived in South B.

About to enter the slum area called Marigoini in South B.

Deeper within Marigoini

Marigoini kids

Gracie is wearing the clothes I brought for her,
and she LOVED the mp3 player

Oh how I love Gracie... And her smile is the most wonderful ever!

Hanging out with the kids