Slums in Kenya

Mara Gans

English BOE/personal narrative

 Nairobi Slums

 

 

    There are many things we do every day that we take for granted. Each day I flush my toilet, mop my floors, and water my garden with cleaner water than some people have to drink. Three years ago I visited a slum in Nairobi Kenya where this was in fact the case, not only was their water extremely dirty, but they had to struggle just to find it .  Visiting this slum in Nairobi Kenya was a crucial event that affected me in many ways and shaped my identity, making me who I am today.

        During this experience I learned just how lucky I am to be living my life. When I visited the slums I realized how horrible the poverty is that some people are living in. Compared to what they have to go through every day, I should be much more grateful for my current circumstances. This also affected me because now, whenever I am given the chance to donate food, money, shoes, or anything else to third world countries I jump on it, knowing how big of a difference it will make. . Many people don't get to see things like this, but I think it is so important because it teaches us so much about who we are. 

            The first thing I noticed when I entered the slums was the smell. Trash and sewage encrusted the filthy street, creating a horrendous smell that hung, like a shadow, over the slums.  After you eventually grew immune to the smell, you started to notice the rest of the slums. We entered on treacherous roads full of ruts and ridges several feet high. The ridges, however, were not made of piles of dirt, but rather heaps of trash. Streams of sewage trickled down the road, turning it into a mucky mess. Next, I noticed the buildings. Cardboard boxes and wooden shacks, barley holding their ramshackle form lined the streets, looking like the slightest breeze would send them crashing to the ground. Dirt covered everything: the road, the buildings, and the people’s poverty stricken faces. However, the decadence of the slums appearance was not the most significant part of this experience.

The people are what changed me. Here were people living in such poverty that I could have never imagined before. Women walked the streets trying to sell rotten fruit out of moldy boxes, their expressions worsening when people turned them down. Others attended one of the many tumble down shacks that lined the streets, selling anything from mattresses, to pots, to underwear. Their next meal depending upon selling things we would normally find in a dump. Children roamed the streets, playing with scraps of fabric, old tires, and other junk. Hanging about them, their clothes are too big or too small, and there is so much dirt coating them you cannot make out the true color.  The lucky ones have shoes and the holes in their clothes are patched up, but, the rest, face the precarious streets barefoot.

Somehow,  despite all the misery found in this place, people still managed to paint smiles upon their faces and enjoy themselves.  Children played in the streets, and when our van drove by they shouted “How are you, how are you!”  Their sweet little voices were bright yellow sunflowers in a field of ashes. We shouted back, “Good, how are you?” or “Habari Yako.” (Swahili for how are you). It filled me up with so much joy to see their smiling faces waving up at me despite their miserable condition. Later we visited a school, where the children put on a show for us. They sang a song similar to a song I used to sing when I was growing up. We all sang and danced around together, and everyone was happy playing togeter despite the massive differences between the worlds we grew up in.

I took many things away from this experience, but most importantly, I learned that no matter what cards life deals you, you can still do your best and enjoy living. Even when you’re having your nastiest of days, remember, someone has it worse, so instead plant a smile on your face, and wear it proudly because you’re lucky to be alive. In the end, we don’t have to be rich or famous, to have a good life because it’s the simple joys that make us happy.

This visit to the slums was an imperative experience in my life because it helped shape my identity and make me who I am today. I would be a very different person if I hadn’t experienced  this.