Sawa Sawa, Kenya So Far

      Sawa means alright in Swahili, and that is where I am at now. I have grown accustomed to my new life in Kenya and I am now at the point where I can have an even mind and put some of my thoughts to paper. It has been the strangest experience I have ever undertaken so far in my life. I have been shocked so far by the Kenya I have seen so far because of stark contrasts. We in Canada live in a world of convenience and it seems everywhere I look, things are hard. Education is hard, buying and making food is hard, traveling is hard, living is seemingly hard. So why are the vast majority of the people so happy, and why do I see so much hope?

     My work has been with the Education for Life organization located in the Kariobangi, Huruma and Korogocho slums in Nairobi, Kenya. The organization mostly goes around to schools and teaches life skills that students do not necessarily receive from parents, guardians and teachers in the hectic and desperate world that a lot of the people in the slums live in. I have been involved in dealing with some of the most enthusiastic children I have ever met so far, especially since many of them rarely see a mazungo, the word for white guys which I hear around corner. I can safely expect that most times I hear raised voices on the street, it is about us, the white people that stand out so much. However, Education for Life has been a haven because of the difference I feel like I will be able to make over this summer, both in the people around me and in my own life.I will be helping out in three grade four to six classes each week, helping them discuss the issues they face in the slums and helping to ensure that they will become high character individuals in a difficult society. I will also be leading a weekly Youth Alive Club, where I will be in charge of leading a group of thirty kids in developing their talents and showing them that learning can be fun. I am also involved in working with youth that are setting up small businesses in Nairobi because of specific skills they have, such as woodworking and auto mechanics, and in overlooking garbage collection systems.

      I am extremely gracious at all the smiles and greetings I have been receiving the last five days, opposed to what I thought were malicious chants the first couple of days when I did not understand the language as well. Heads are turning but as I am greeting them in their language and smiling, I am receiving positive greetings back. What I attribute this to is that I think most Kenyans realize the position I was born in and instead of resenting me for it, they want to greet me and be nice to me. I think this mostly has to do with hope, where people live their lives as best they can and fight for improvement, whether for themselves or their children. I hate giving up and I think resiliency is an admirable quality of the Kenyan people. Maybe that is why they are such good long distance runners.

     Those are my immediate thoughts and I hope this blog was not too jumbled, I will write a cohesive post about what I have learned so far about corruption in Kenya in the next few days as well. Those are some of my first thoughts on what has so far been a humbling experience. I never realized how big the world's population was until I saw what is behind some of the numbers on poverty I have been researching for three years. But just like these Kenyans, I wish to live with hope for the future. There is one quote I have always really liked,"the courageous never surrender hope". I will try to live up to this while in the slums of Nairobi.