A Sobering Side of Kenya

On the way back from Nukuru National Park we stpped at a Internall Displaced Victims tent camp.  These Kenyan citizens have been living in these tents since the uprisings during the Kenyan elections of 2008.  When we parked our car - children appeared seemingly out of nowhere.  Luckily we had a bag of cookies that we could share.  In moments they had been gobbled up.  They all said thank you and with their eyes pleaded for more.  Our driver says the Kenyan government makes token visits and food distributions, but only when it serve a political purpose.  There are no current plans to move these citizens out of this sad sad place.

Tent camp children

Drop in center

I visited a boys drop in shelter yesterday afternoon.  These are all boys that live on the streets.  This center offers them a respite from the toughness they must exude every minute just to survive.  Their families live in extreme poverty and this has pushed them to make their own life as best they can.  This center offers them a porridge breakfast, hot water (heated over a fire) bathing, basic classes in math, science, english, kiswahili and lifeskills.  They can earn points for articles of clothing by attending the classes, staying for a skype session with an Indiana elementary school, playing Xbox and leaving the glue bottles that they sniff at the gate of the center.  It is certainly a bright spot in an otherwise tough and brutal life.  It is the goal of this center to try to enroll these boys in a regular public school.  Out of the approximate 60 - 80 boys that come every Mon., Wed., and Friday - 6 boys are on the pathway of entering real school.

This is the outside fire pit that heats the water for the boys baths