Ongata Rongai, Kenya

Twenty-five kilometers outside of Nairobi, stands the slum of Ongata Rongai, housing 45,000 people in a small area (one of which I do not know the exact dimensions). The main road is paved while off chutes are made of dirt, garbage and sewage. Small markets align the main dirt road to our work and home. Most of the items sold are second hand but every once in awhile newly packaged shoes or hats are sold as well. Coal is commonly sold and coal markets are found about every 30-40 meters.
In most cases, you can take a group of people out of Rongai and place them in the middle of New York City, and no one would ever think they came from a Kenyan slum. Donkeys, dogs and sometimes goats are found picking through the rubbish piles...these piles are our landmarks to identify the correct route home. Rongai is considered to be one of the safest areas during the day because as long as their is a crowd, no one will mug you. If someone attempts or does mug another in a crowd, most likely they will be killed by the crowd.

We live on a compound. Our host mum runs The Center, where we work and our host dad works at Nairobi airport. They have five children, two of which live on the compound. One with his wife, two year old son and house girl and the other still at university, has his own private room.
There are two adopted sisters who live in another part of the compound. In another week, a new couple of volunteers will arrive and will also be living with us. It is quite a busy house but a fun one.

As can be imagined, the culture here is quite different. The mother in the family runs the house and everything to do with it, while the father works to support the family. Any laundry, any financial issues, any cooking or questions concerning the house must go through the mum. Fathers work many hours and are hardly around. This is the case for our host dad and his married son. They both work at the airport and are almost never home. Public humiliation is common and considered appropriate. On the news, we saw a man who tried to steal a tire beaten, stripped and mocked by a crowd for committing his crime.
He was left to waddle around the city streets of Nairobi, naked to escape the following crowd that was laughing and jeering. Another man found his wife committing adultery. He locked the two in his house, went and grabbed a few of his friends, returned with the crowd and after pulling the other man out of his house, he caned him until his face was unrecognizable with blood. As our host family watched these two segments on the news, they laughed and mocked both men for their crimes. Another volunteer here witnessed something like this live and said it was one of the most horrific events she's ever seen. What she saw happened to a woman. This laughter isn't even a giggle, it is uncontrollable laughter while tears stream down their face because they are laughing so hard.

Poverty is a whole different idea. Moi was a dictator for 24 years here in Kenya and let the economy fall apart. Those who opposed Moi were found and killed, according to some. In the last four years, the new administration has worked very hard to restore the economy and safety of Nairobi. Things have changed considerably. Mawi Kibaki is the current president and with pending elections in December, most people I've spoken with are hoping he will stay in power.
Primary school is now free (with the exception of fees for uniforms, exams and books) and there is hope that one day soon secondary school will be free as well. Right now tuition for secondary school, high school, is about $400USD a year, per student. While safety is still a concern, most Kenyans feel safer walking around Nairobi now than they did four years ago.

The Center, which is run by our host mum, consists of a feeding program, three classes and a VCT (Voluntary Counseling and Treatment) center. It is an amazing center and it is run extremely well. VCTs are set up by the government for citizens to be tested for HIV. Most charge a fee to be tested but the VCT at The Center does not charge.
There is an abundance of stigmatization that occurs with a person being tested so it is difficult to convince some women to be tested. More women than men usually get tested. There are cases of women owning shops and now that they are positive, people refuse to go to their shops. It is hard for women to get help and therefore through The Center, our host mum has also set up support groups for women, youth and older women.

The classes offered are for children who either are positive or their parent or guardian is positive. The children are aged 5-10, I believe. There are around 45 children in the classes. The feeding program is for these children and others that go to school in the area but do not have access to food.
On a slow day, 90 children will be fed and on a busy day around 174. There are three teachers, a cook, a woman for the VCT, our host mum and her daughter in-law who all work at The Center. Everyone but the teachers are volunteers. The teachers are paid whenever there is enough money to pay them.

Under The Center's name is a new school that just started about three months ago in a nearby slum, Gataka. There are two people who work there. One teaches and the other helps and cooks lunch for the children. There are over 40 children between the ages of 2 and 8.
Because of lack of resources the teaching is very informal. Most of the children's families cannot afford food so the meal they get at school is usually the only one they get each day. These children are also very affected by HIV.

Upon our arrival, our goal was to work in the HIV/AIDS program. Because The Center and Gataka are set up so well and run efficiently on their own, there is no work for us. Instead, they need money. Because we do not have a lot of money, we wanted to donate our time but since that is not an available option, we have struggled with what to do here.
We have been reduced to dollar signs which is quite discouraging. Though we have been approached in a more passive manner, there is nothing consistent about each day here for us, and we have been told that we need to see the culture here. We stigmatize those who are positive because of the color of our skin. We symbolize money and are approached quite often by those on the street to give money and buy things or else they will go hungry.

Through the degradation we have decided to start a small library at Gataka and The Center. We are collecting books from other volunteers here and building bookshelves. There are some childrens books already here and we plan on finding a second hand bookshop in Nairobi to purchase a few more. We are hoping to have books not only for the children but also for their guardians. Even though our time is not really desired at this point, we at least have found a focus for the time being. Coupling the library idea and small trips, our last two weeks here should be quite nice.