I'll make it up one day...

Saturday

I didn't sleep last night. I finally fell asleep about an hour before my wake up call came.

I kept flipping through the pages of this book that Doug has of Kibera.

What was I going to see? What was I going to do? What would be waiting for me there?

Obviously, I would not be prepared for ANYTHING that I would see there. I'm not sure what the actual definition of "slum" is as the internet is down again at the AACC... But whatever the definition is, it certainly can not do it justice. The pictures, the videos, the stories... nothing do it justice. This is just one of the those things that you must see to believe.

Steve and Edward picked us up this morning, right on time (as always) and we set off to go the bank (to change some money in) and to pay our armed escort. Now before I go on... remember when I said that there was a LOT of corruption here?

I'll give you two guesses who didn't show up to escort us through Kibera.....

Anyway... we ran our errands and headed off to Kibera to meet up with Amos and Dalmas who were waiting at the church. Dalmas is an incredibly smart, educated man who has a total heart for the people of Kibera.

So, we start to drive through the slum. Everywhere you look there are these small shops/houses made of clay. I actually watched a man working on one. They use sticks and branches from trees as re-bar, then pat mud and clay onto the sticks and let it dry. Cover the roof with a sheet of aluminum and leave the floor uncovered and you've got yourself a nice little structure on the land.

You're so busy looking at all the people.. a lot of them crippled, begging for money, that you don't notice the smell. Not until you look on the side of the road (which is one American lane wide) to see the piles and PILES of trash that you realize it smells eerily like a port-a-potty on a busy construction site. Just fowl.

Here is the road that they walk on (a lot of them barefoot everyday.) It's COVERED with trash, burning trash, and poopie. Simply disgusting:

I happened to have my window down, and most everyone that we passed would speak. The woman would say: "Jambo", Swahili for "Hallo" (as they say it) or "How are you" (they're used the same here), the men would say: "Karibu" which means "Welcome", and the children would run around saying (in unison) "How are you" over and over again. It went something like this: How are you? How are you? How are you? How are you? How are you?

Get the picture?

We finally pulled over, and got out of the truck. Now, let me remind you that our AK-47 wielding escort did not show up. I put my leg out of the truck and set it on the ground... into a pile of dookie. Human? Animal? I'll never know.

As soon as both feet touched the ground, the truck was rushed by people who started grabbing all of our bags, including my gear! I thought "For real? Is Wayne Brady gonna hafta..." well, you know the rest...

The guys laughed at the panic on my face. See, these people were so excited about me being there that they wanted to have the honor of carrying my gear. Crazy! They would run around me calling me "Mwembamba" and "Mbwa Mkubwa", the first literally means "Slim" (they use a different words for 'Skinny', 'Thin' and 'Slim'), the second means "Big Dog" although some later started calling me "Mbwa Kali" which means FIERCE Dog.. haha....

We walked a short ways to the church, the NCOC - Nairobi Christian Outreach Centre. This church was in much better shape than George's... strange, considering George's church is in a MUCH better part of town.

They had a "brief" committee meeting (2.5 hours isn't very 'brief' to me!) and then opened the doors. A flood of widows and orphans filled the room. I didn't know that they were coming in, nor was I ready for them even if I HAD known. They pushed their way through to see the white Americans there and to hear what they had to say.

Doug and Amos spoke briefly about Micro-Financing, to see what they thought about it. Overall, it was a pretty good response, although some people still feel as if they should just get hand-outs. I got some good shots of the people... did my best to capture the moment.

After they spoke to all of the widows about micro-lending, they left and the orphans moved to the front.

There is an estimated 100,000 orphans in Kibera (remember, the size of Central Park, NY), though only 50 or so were at the church.

They didn't know what to think of Mwembamba at first. They were really confused and didn't like me sticking cameras in their faces... by the end it looked more like this:

The kids lightened up when I flipped my viewfinder so that they could see themselves as I filmed. I would take still pictures with the camera and show those to them as well. Most had never really seen that before.

See, most of the adults living in Kibera moved there when they were older. So they know of the world outside of Kibera. However, nearly ALL of the children were born there and don't know that anything else exists!

I fell in love with these kids. I fear for ever bringing Laura (or "Jua" as they call her here... Yes, she's already famous over here as the wife-to-be of the Mbwa Mkubwa!) as she will surely think of the most creative ways to sneak all of these lil' fiffers back to the states!

Shortly, they returned the love. They would come running to me to speak to me in Swahili, although I couldn't understand a word that they were saying, I would just laugh when they laughed and I seemed to get by alright!

Here are some of my new best friends:

Trying to leave was crazy! We left after meeting with an AIDs/HIV group there, to try to get them some help and work (nobody hires HIV positive people here.) As soon as I stepped out of the church and back onto the streets of Kibera, I was rushed by these kids:

They grabbed my shirt and my pants and tried to keep me from leaving, of course screaming "How are you? How are you? How are you? How are you?" over and over again. Edward ended up chasing them all off of me (REEEALLY funny, if you know Edward... he's not really the 'scary' type!)

We headed back to the truck and hit the road again, we were still smothered with: "Karibu's", "Jambo's" and "How are you's".

Back to the hotel, then out to lunch/dinner (at like 4pm, local) where I had this Cajun Chicken Burger... AMAZING! I said that I wouldn't eat the local food, but it's so hard not to! It's some of the best food I've ever eaten!

Back again to the AACC where I let Dougie B use the computer, since he hasn't been able to connect since we got here. I did a new magic routine that I call 'My Bleeding Heart', where I fuse 4 or 5 tricks together using the same cards, to utterly BLOW THE MINDS of the staff. A couple of them screamed and ran! It was awesome.

Later I showed them how a to do a "French Drop" (coin vanish) using a Kenya Shilling (Ksh, thier currancy) and a trick using a palming technique. That was like 3 hours ago, and they're STILL in the lobby (where I am) practicing and laughing.

I tried to get nap since I didn't sleep last night... couldn't... so I turned on the ol' boob tube and much to my surprise freakin' "Edward Scissorhands" was on! "Booyah!" I quietly said to myself.

Finished the Johnny Depp classic, then headed back to the lobby to try to get Internet again. No luck.

Oh well... it's 2 o'clock in the PM where you are... which means I should probably try to sleep again.

I miss youse guyses. Especially my sweet babe and precious Dude. I should've hugged her longer at the airport... and now that I think about it, I kind of wish my last words to her before boarding the plane weren't "Take care of my dog! Okaybye!"

I'll make it up one day....

S