Life in the Mathare area

I'm giving guitar lessons to two kids named Jack and Lulu. Jack is 13 and Lulu is 16. They remind me a lot of myself when I was that age and learning guitar. They do things like try and play a scale too fast because they just want to learn it or play the same thing over and over, determined to get it right. Both of them are really smart, motivated, and eager to learn. They're also incredibly nice and easy-going kids.

On Friday, after the lesson, Lulu was arrested for playing pool at 2:00 in the afternoon for money. They decided Jack was too young to arrest, so they just kicked him around and sent him home. They locked Lulu away in a cell, claimed he was part of a gang called Mungiki, and demanded 200,000 Kenyan shillings as bail.

Two weeks ago, there was some pretty intense violence between two gangs in a nearby slum called Mathare. The gangs call themselves Mungiki and Taliban. Several people were killed and hundreds of homes were burned.

Now, security is extremely tight with a 7:00 p.m. curfew and many people have told me that police are arresting people (especially kids) with no real reason. They blame people for being involved with gangs based solely on their ethnicity or "tribe" or the fact that they're young.

There is no reason Lulu should have been arrested and definitely nothing that should make someone think he's part of a gang. I myself have played pool for money several times in Kenya and no one even had a second thought about it. When I mentioned that to George (the Haba na Haba director), he pointed out that I was probably in a little more upscale area. "That's life in the slums," he said. George himself is an incredible and inspirational guy making a huge difference in community development and working harder than most people I know. His girlfriend is THE web designer for Kenya Airways and another huge East African corporation. They live together in a tiny apartment that's decent, but in a really dirty and impoverished area.

The myth that people living in slums are lazy or unmotivated is completely and totally wrong. I've noticed that many people living in these areas are employed and extremely hard workers. About 90% of Nairobi's population lives on less than 20% of the land area. Every day, I see business men in suits get off of matatus and walk down muddy alleys to tin structures they've built themselves as homes.

Why should they have to live like this? Why does an incredibly intelligent young woman who recently graduated from college and is the primary web designer for Kenya Airways live in a tiny apartment with nothing for streets but giant mud holes filled with dirty water? Why does a brilliant, knowledge-thirsty 16 year-old get beaten and thrown in jail indefinitely with a 200,000 Ksh bail for shooting pool at 2 in the afternoon for a little extra money? Why are people in Kibera forced to consume their own shit because the only place for waste is their own water supply?

I'm sorry. I know this is not constructive and isn't helping anything. I'm just so sick and tired of the smartest, most motivated people I've ever met (now my friends) not being given a chance in life. These people could try harder than anyone you or I know and nothing would happen.

And what really gets me is they're still out helping people.

Saturday morning, I took a bus to Mathare for a feeding program that MYSA had coordinated. When I got off, I had to make my way through a huge crowd for several blocks before I finally squeezed my way up to the gate. These were all the people whose homes had been burned or who were simply too scared to return to their houses at the risk of the wrong person thinking they were part of a gang simply because they're Kikuyu or Luo.

Once inside, I climbed up and looked over the fence. The "line" stretched as far as I could see in every direction. For the next three hours, I stood inside this small compound behind a fifteen-foot wide gate with five thousand people on the other side, waiting to get in. The MYSA guys would open a little door and let twenty people or so in at a time. Every now and then, one of the guys trying to control the crowd would get an elbow in the face or get pushed around and have to force the door shut for a few minutes.

One of the hardest parts of the day was the moment the bags ran out and I had to watch the look on people's faces when they were handed only a bar of soap and a bag of sugar, then eventually, nothing. These people had been standing in pouring rain for four hours. The hardest were the mothers holding infants and the old women on crutches.

Overall, though, the day was a success and several thousand people got essential and basic food supplies. It just blows me away how these guys spend their Saturdays taking risks just to feed their own neighbors.

After the feeding program, I went with the drama group (most of whom had helped with the food as well) to a juvenille home for a performance. Again, I remembered why I was drawn to this program and how powerful music and drama can be. I watched these kids gather in their courtyard and saw the visible change on their faces once the performances started. A lot of the kids in the audience were about the same age as the MYSA kids and they got a kick out of seeing them dance, play the drums, and do acrobatics.

The drama section was definitely the biggest hit, though. They always start their performance by gathering in a circle, singing, and going into the center in pairs to do a little dance where they grind their butts together. It's hilarious and the kids always love it. Their favorite part was when one of the MYSA guys went into the crowd, grabbed one of the administrators, and made her dance with him in the middle of the circle. Then they performed their skit, drawing everyone in with humor, then delivering a powerful message about protecting yourself from HIV/AIDS.

Those few hours gave the kids an exciting and fun activity in the midst of an otherwise dull day. In a way, I saw it give them hope. And maybe just ten of those kids will use a condom if they decide to have sex. Maybe they'll tell a few of their friends to do the same. Once they're released from the home, maybe a few of them will even get involved with MYSA and spend their time educating communities instead of abusing drugs, committing crimes, or becoming prostitutes.

I am really glad I chose this as my IDS. The past week has definitely had ups and downs, as I'm sure the remaining three will. But the work these people are doing is inspirational and breathtaking to watch. I feel lucky to get to work with such an incredible group of people in an area with such a vibrant, kind, and resilient community.