Nairobi is a quite nice town. The city centre was full of tall business-buildings, there were plenty of shops, a variety of restaurants, a nice park, and we happened to drive through one of the nicest neighbourhoods of Nairobi, and that was indeed very nice. We saw businessmen running around, a lot of schoolclasses in uniforms wandering around in museums, we saw the Nairobi university with well-kept lawns and big buildings. We saw big hotels with lots of flags on, we saw Coca Cola everywhere.
But a ten minutes matatu-ride out of the centre, what do you find?
The second biggest slum of Africa, the Kibera slum. And the Korogocho slum, where we're going to be working. People who came to Nairobi hoping for a better future, but ended up in the circle of slum poverty. It's expensive to be poor, since you have to buy everything in small quantities, and thus it's hard to save up any money to improve the way of living.
I've been told that it's not unusual for a Kenyan to never have been in a slum. How come? Is it simple ignorance? Is it because they don't want to face the truth? Is it because they are successfull, while those in the slums are not? Is it just like us europeans, «out of sight, out of mind» (directly translated from Norwegian, sorry)? Are they afraid of the slums? Or is it simply that they have no business there, then why go there?
I don't know what it is, but I hope to find out.
1 kommentar:
I think what you will find is that the people who have money like to think that poverty really doesn't exsist. The old saying of ignorance is bliss, if you know what I mean. It happens in other places but not where they know or live. That is pretty much the same feeling here in the states. The other part is if you have never seen poverty, you don't realize to what extent it can go. Much easier to stay in the nice warm comfort of what you know than to venture out and care or do something about it. Some feel overwhelmed and figure poverty is such a big issue that 1 person could never make a difference. Not even realizing that even if they help just one person, the hope that it empowers others with, will start a movement...all from just one person ;)
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