These past few weeks have been intensely eye-opening for me in a number of ways.
While I've already written about my exposure to situations of severe poverty in the AIC communities I've visited so far, I feel like I am really beginning to internalize the issues that are at hand. Mainly it is the injustice that I see played out clearly in the way some people live compared to others. When visiting another women's group in a slum area of Nairobi recently, I met a lady nam
ed Radempter Masitsa who took me to see her charcoal selling business. She explained that before she had joined the group, she was unemployed and was trying to support two young children as a single mother with no income. After joining the women's group she was able to take out a small loan of Ksh 5,000 ($66.00) in order to establish her business. Yet she is still struggling to make ends meet. As I was speaking with her, I realized that the meager mounds of charcoal I saw spread out in piles on a plastic tarp was this lady's entire livelihood. The very survival of her family depended on the charcoal and if the business failed, Radempter and her children would be left with absolutely nothing. I compare this situation with some of the people living in my apartment complex who have a huge house, two big fancy cars, and maidservants who do their laundry for them every day. While I do not condemn these people I wonder, where is the justice? Why do some live with so much and others live with next to nothing? How can we even begin to address this situation of drastic inequality in the way human beings live today?
Along with the exposure to poverty, I had another type of intense experience this past weekend as I attended a 'peace' concert (of all things) at Uhuru Park in downtown Nairobi. I arrived at the park with a Kenyan friend of mine to meet up with some other friends who were already there. As we were searching for our group, I noticed a huge crowd of people gathered in one area of the park. My friend told me that the crowd had beaten up what what was probably a thief. All of a sudden the crowd began running in another direction, chasing after a second thief in a chaotic frenzy. A small group of mounted police on horseback appeared, but seemed to do nothing about controlling the angry hoards of people.
While I've already written about my exposure to situations of severe poverty in the AIC communities I've visited so far, I feel like I am really beginning to internalize the issues that are at hand. Mainly it is the injustice that I see played out clearly in the way some people live compared to others. When visiting another women's group in a slum area of Nairobi recently, I met a lady nam
ed Radempter Masitsa who took me to see her charcoal selling business. She explained that before she had joined the group, she was unemployed and was trying to support two young children as a single mother with no income. After joining the women's group she was able to take out a small loan of Ksh 5,000 ($66.00) in order to establish her business. Yet she is still struggling to make ends meet. As I was speaking with her, I realized that the meager mounds of charcoal I saw spread out in piles on a plastic tarp was this lady's entire livelihood. The very survival of her family depended on the charcoal and if the business failed, Radempter and her children would be left with absolutely nothing. I compare this situation with some of the people living in my apartment complex who have a huge house, two big fancy cars, and maidservants who do their laundry for them every day. While I do not condemn these people I wonder, where is the justice? Why do some live with so much and others live with next to nothing? How can we even begin to address this situation of drastic inequality in the way human beings live today?Along with the exposure to poverty, I had another type of intense experience this past weekend as I attended a 'peace' concert (of all things) at Uhuru Park in downtown Nairobi. I arrived at the park with a Kenyan friend of mine to meet up with some other friends who were already there. As we were searching for our group, I noticed a huge crowd of people gathered in one area of the park. My friend told me that the crowd had beaten up what what was probably a thief. All of a sudden the crowd began running in another direction, chasing after a second thief in a chaotic frenzy. A small group of mounted police on horseback appeared, but seemed to do nothing about controlling the angry hoards of people.
We moved to another area of the park where the 'peace' concert was going on, found our friends there, and enjoyed the Reggae music for a while. Yet the image of the angry crowd stuck in my head as I began to imagine what the 2007 post election violence must have felt like to many Kenyans for two months straight. The feeling of fear and anger in the air, witnessing atrocities occurring, and realizing that the police and other authorities have no control over the situation is a pretty awful combination. I learned later on that it was drunk university students who had smashed a vender's soda bottles and caused the raucous.
Vic and Deanna as we watched the 'peace' concert in Uhuru Park, Nairobi
While they are intense and at times disheartening, I believe that these experiences have in fact enriched my perspective of life in Kenya. I realize that I must take in the bad with the good, and hope that my work here this year will, in some small way, improve tough situations for the better.
That sounds like a really scary situation, Mara. Please try to stay as safe as you can. Use your head in figuring out which kind of public events, like open-air concerts, are most likely to have people getting out of hand.
ReplyDelete