You would think that all poverty is one. Poverty is poverty but there is a difference, at least emotionally. The week in the dry lands of Turkana vs. the cold, wet, muddy urban poverty of Kibera – I am not sure if one is worse than the other – but they are not the same. Ben stays in Kibera. All in all, the place isn’t that bad or not as bad as other parts of Kibera. We got off the bus at Olympic, the center/business area of Kibera with its little kiosks, blaring stereos and wet sewage smells. We walked through the muddy streets passed multitudes of people coming home from work or somewhere. We head done the street to the place where Ben stays. We have to climb down a muddy, broken up ladder to a group of houses and a latrine. There are metal roofs everywhere and houses made of beat up metal drums. The train tracks are about 50 yards from the place. We will hear the trains later in the night. We enter the house, arrange our gear and get undressed to wade outside through the mud to a pit latrine/shower. Ben heated some water for us with an electric coil. The rain makes everything worse, instead of making everything fresh. We “bucket shower” in the darkness, laugh hysterically and head back into the rain to the house and off to bed. Don’t drink the water. There is no food. The rain pounds the tin roof. I feel like I am in a camp or fort I built as a boy. The train wakes me throughout the night, shaking everything. It sounds like it is coming through the door. In the morning I clean up inside the house using a bucket, not wanting to call attention to my white self. Last night I had the cover of darkness but not in the morning. We get cleaned up, pack up and head for Karen and the Children’s Orphanage of Nyumbani. We are packing up some sale items to send home. The profit will help both the slum program of Nyumbani and our Masai Project in Athi. The box we are sending weights 23KGs and will cost about $170 to send home by regular mail. After packing the box and dropping it at the Post Office in Karen (They made me put the 13,640ksh worth of stamps on the box. The stamps covered the whole side.) we traveled with Pascal to Kenyatta Hospital and then on to town for some food. We say goodbye to Pascal and head by Matatu back to Athi River. Ben will spend the weekend with me, glad to be away from Kibera, glad to be home from Turkana. It was a good trip.
