Today was great. I went to a refugee camp about 2 hours from Nairobi that is now being converted into a farming community. There was a war between two tribes about 1 ½ years ago due to politics. Things got pretty ugly and many had to leave the area. During the height of the war women and children were sent to take refuge inside of a Church. What did the opposing tribe do? Torched the Church while all of the women and children were still inside. Needless to say, most died and the few women and children who survived have serious scars and nerve damage as their constant reminded. One woman who was holding her child threw him through the Church window when she realized her back was one fire. She woke up charred after passing out from pain and crawled to try and find her child. Miraculously her child was completely unharmed. She still has serious scars from her burns, but is doing well (well meaning alive).
Right now the people of this newly formed community are building houses and moving out of their UN Refugee tents. Progress has been slow because they have been displaced and now have no employment which means no income. They are all anxious to begin their new lives and have started cultivating the land they have been given. The positivity I sensed was incredible. These people literally have nothing but were all smiles and kept offering me tea or food.
As I was touring the community a line of curious children following me steadily grew. There are some impressive things starting in this community. One woman has started her own little business making umm I guess fried pastry things you could call them? She cooks all day then her husband delivers them to stores on his bike. She has even made a little table outside of the place where she cooks creating a restaurant like feel. There is also a young man about 20 years old who has started breeding rabbits. He bought one female, borrowed a male and now has about 20 rabbits. Apparently the type of breed sells for about 3,000 shilling which has the potential to provide a good income. They were cute to look at if nothing else!
After seeing the progress and speaking with mainly the mothers– their husbands have either abandoned them or gone to Nairobi to look for work, I got to entertain the children. I handed out cookies to them which started out civil and orderly and quickly turned into chaos. Pretty soon I had about 100 children hanging on me or trying to and screaming, “Muuuuzoonga!!!!” I definitely spelled that wrong but it’s the Swahili word for a white person.
Once the children had raided the cookie stash and calmed down I tried to get them to sing for me. They were being terribly shy so I decided to break the ice and started torturing them with my singing. Let’s just say they got a good laugh from this. I sang twinkle twinkle little star, row row row your boat, and head shoulders knees and toes. I also started dishing out ‘high fives’ and taught them up high, down low, around the back, to the side. This was also extremely entertaining for them (and me too!). I tried Miss Mary Mack but that was a little too complicated. They finally started to sing for me, and oh my God they have angel-like voices. They were all standing in front of me shoeless, sick, and dirty but had such innocent and adorable little smiles on their faces. I wanted to give them everything I had with me, I mean it was extremely hard for me to not just take everything off and give them what I had. I want their mothers to find jobs and be educated so badly so that these little children can go to school, have shoes, and not be sick!!! I was sad to leave them.
On my ride back to Nairobi I became very sad for those people. When I was there all day it was hard to feel sorry for them because they were all smiling and happy. Once I was away from the smiling faces, and had a chance to reflect on the conditions in which they are living I became very sad for them. I hope I can find a way to help them continue to improve their living situation and start their new lives. They need so much.
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