kibera.

I moved in with a host family a few days ago. they are lovely. they are also muslim and fasting for ramadan. one might think this would mean I would not be eating much .... au contraire my friends. my host mother has taken is upon herself to feed me all the corn in kenya. ALL OF IT. yesterday she may have fed me the equivalent of all the corn in nebraska.

kibera, the neighborhood I live in, houses one of the largest slums in africa. we visited a clinic in the heart of the slum. did you see slumdog millionaire? its like that only there's no epic music by m.i.a., you can smell everything and feel everything. the sewage runs down the street, the children have no shoes, the houses a quite literally shanties made of aluminum siding. I don't know how I feel about the whole experience - it was all too overwhelming. we were followed by a chorus of "how are you?" as sung by little children, who, I'm also fairly convinced, were playing a tag-the-white-person game. I felt almost as if I were at the zoo, which sounds terrible, but its genuinely how I felt. these people and their lives were essentially on display for my education. I felt like an intruder.

my host family, although they live in kibera, is very well-to-d0. my host family is retired from the banking business and my host mother runs two salons. the oldest daughter has graduated from college and works for an american NGO in sudan. the second daughter, mary, is wonderful. she goes to college in nairobi and is an excellent guide. she took me all around the nairobi national park (more on this later, needless to say: RAD!) and is happy to answer my questions. the youngest boy is away at boarding school elsewhere in nairobi, and I've spent only a little time with him.

but now its getting dark and they'll freak out if I'm not home before dark. kibera hasn't been the same since the post election violence in 2007, they tell me. and is definitely dangerous if you're out after dark. probably especially if you glow in the dark. like me.