Jambo Maweni

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Kenya Trip Journal July / August 2007

Finally, on July 16, 2007 I arrive in Nairobi.  After a long period of absence I can finally be back in my beloved Kenya. The goal of my journey is the collection of impressions and information.  I want to visit children’s homes and obtain input for our project.  At the same time I want to use this opportunity to establish communication with the homes’ managers.  By visiting hospitals I hope to gain an insight in the level of medical support and local conditions. 

By visiting various kindergartens and schools I also want to gain an overview to help decide if the creation and location of our children’s home in or around Nairobi will enable us to provide and a good and safe home for children.  Obviously, we will need a piece of land in the near future as a location for the building.  This means that I will also look at various proposals. 

This time, I am staying at a hotel in the center of Nairobi, truly the devil’s city. “Too large, too loud, too fast. At least as far as I am concerned.”

Members of the family of Charles and Grace, our Kenyan members, are helping with words and deeds – Hilda and David. Without they are helpfulness, knowledge of the localities and their constant effort I would never have been able to complete my mission.  For that, I wish to thank them sincerely in the name of Maweni e.V.

My research starts at Raini. I visit the Karen Academy where the school principal and teachers give me a very friendly reception. Karen Academy is a very nice elementary and middle school.  Some of the children draw pictures for us showing their vision of a good future.  All of the children are drawing pictures of their respective dream profession.  Some of them are orphans and are sponsored by the school principal.  So these children associate a good job with a good future.  “Very nice, this confirms our belief that children with an education are children with a future.”

I visit a Christian multi purpose facility near Banana Hills and Raini named “Little Sister’s Servant”. They operate an excellent outpatient medical facility. There is also a kindergarten for children from very poor families and a school for children eight years old and up who have never before attended school. At Little Sister’s Servant they are being educated and prepared for high school. The boys and girls also learn how to weave, sew and cook. The products of their artisan crafts are being sold and the profits flow back into the project. This facility is a wonderful refuge for children.

Also in the vicinity of Banana Hills is a kindergarten named “Care Babies on Day” that I was permitted to visit. In its neighborhood I discover a property of 2.000 m² – a beautiful piece of land – unfortunately much too expensive. In this area we would have to pay approximately 25,000 Euro for the required size of real estate (3.000 m²). In general I am concerned about the prices of various properties that I visit in the Nairobi area. Properties in the vicinity of roads, electricity, schools, kindergartens and hospitals are generally unaffordable. Those that are affordable are far away from all of that.

After my shock over real estate prices within and around Nairobi I instantly experience another. A visit to a public hospital is beyond my expectations. How anyone would leave this place healthy is beyond me. Their supply of medicine is not much larger than that of most homes in our country. I am glad I was able to bring medicine donated by my pharmacy in Frankfurt into the country. Perhaps it will help improve a few people’s health in combination with antibiotics or other drugs available. The place is an expression of incomprehensible poverty where all things look improvised and very old. The thought of having to come here in dire need for help is almost unbearable. Equally, leaving a sick child at this place is unthinkable to me.

My next visit was to “The Nest”, a beautiful children’s home with an amazing female principal. The tour makes me somewhat more optimistic again.  The Nest is in Limuru and its inhabitants appear to be very happy.  “Happy children in a beautiful home – this gives me hope.”

The following visit is to the immediate neighborhood and throws me off completely.  The place lacks any kind of structure, way too many children are living, learning and playing in a very confined space.  Not a place to play, rest or retreat as far as I’m concerned.  Unbelievably dirty bathrooms and a kitchen unrecognizable as such put tears in my eyes. 

My stay in general is filled with equal amounts of hope and sadness.  My own health deteriorates day by day.  I am unable to breathe and am sure that this can not only be caused by Nairobi’s pollution which is recognizable even 50km away from the city center. 

I am particularly saddened by the many street kids I meet in Nairobi.  Almost all children (some not older than four years) are holding the only item of relevance to them in their hands, a bottle of glue which they sniff.  They are clutching their bottles as if it was something to give them stability.  These children and juveniles really look sad and very alone. 

But there is hope even in such misery.  From my hotel room I can see three children every day, each of them three or four years old.  They are not sniffing glue, they are children without hope but they act very normal.  They use rubber bands to shoot little stones around, they are laughing and living.  “May they never become addicted to this sniffing stuff.”

One of the boys sees me, I waive at him which makes him very happy. So I won’t have a hotel breakfast. But every time I come outside to bring them food they are gone. This makes me very nervous, I am too lame and they are too fast. I keep rushing down the stairs but I am always too late. Eventually I meet them upon my return from the city. They are begging, no one is even looking at them. So finally I can give them some food. How I would like to take them with me, save them from what still lies in front of them. The way it looks nobody around here cares about what will become of them. The people of Nairobi are used to seeing famished children everywhere, they just ignore them.

I have an increasing a feeling of going insane at this place. The Nairobi metro area is not a good place for me to try and change anything.

The next public hospital is in very bad condition. There are two infants, each of them weighing no more than 2 pounds, in a very absurd intensive care unit. As the incubators are routinely broken a very old wood oven is used to save their lives. I am very happy to have brought some baby care products. The beds are oozing with dirt. “I can not believe this.” The bathrooms make me gag, the kitchen is a nightmare.

A visit to the Maasai Market is a supposed to change my mood. It is not working. Another children’s home near Kiambu is in pitiable condition. Children in a very confined space without any room for privacy make me so sad that I do not know what to do anymore.

Please don’t get me wrong. I do not want to criticize the work of those who are trying in any way to help these children. I admire all of these people. However, my idea of how children should grow up is very different from what I see here. I wish every child in this world would have a little more room to itself and its life.

The principal of The Nest, a very involved woman, takes me to the center of Nairobi to a baby station embedded in a social center. This is where I see my vision as reality. The baby station is perfect. Everything is very clean. There are cuddly toys. The older children have a "room" for themselves and it is easily recognizable that each child knows where it is at home. Each room has a maximum of six beds and thus each child has a chance to decorate its own a small space to its liking. "Thank you for allowing me to see this".

At this time I would like to mention that of course I know all of the locations and institutions I visited by name. In recognition of the efforts and accomplishments of the people there and out of respect for the help they are trying to give I am, however, leaving out detailed information. These people are trying to help even in disastrous conditions and that’s all that counts.

After all my experiences in and around Nairobi I decide to visit another part of the country. I contact the directress of the Kenia Hilfe e.V. association of Cologne, Germany, and ask her for guidance. She arranges for a place to stay and people who care for me. I fly to Mombasa. Her local contacts take me to Ukunda ( Approximately 30 km from Mombasa) where I find a place to rest.

I can see I came to a good place. The local hospital gives me hope, the schools are quite good. The people are like most people I met in Africa. No one walks past an ill or famished child. Everybody helps each other as good as he or she can.

A piece of land in Mwabungo, Mvindeni district, costs have as much as in Nairobi. “Electricity, water and hope.”

In and around Ukunda I can see opportunities to turn our plans into reality. It is a good place to start.

Thank you, Hilda and David.

Thank you, Kenia Hilfe Köln for your support

Thank you, people of Ukunda

Thank you, Members of Maveni e.V. for trusting in me and my work.

Asante Sana Kwaheri,  Anita Aretz