This post is only going to include our experience from today, visiting the Kibera Slum in Nairobi- the biggest slum community in Africa.
A girl in our group shared these lyrics tonight by Brooke Frazier: "Now that I have seen I am responsible." The question haunting all of us tonight after our trip to the slum is what now? How can we help?
To put a picture in your mind of what the slum is like, let me describe through the senses.
-Sight: Dirt roads infested with water, urine, feces, trash, dead animals. Tin homes composed with small and large sheets of metal screwed in place with bottle caps and nails. Streets filled with people, some "well" clothed and some in need. Children running about with what looks like no parental guidance. Markets filled with rotten fruit, poorly looking food, clothes shoes beads, anything that they can make money from.
-Smell: A lot of burning- food, trash, fires to mold resources. Body waste, walking past latrines is by far the worst stench I have ever experienced. Body odor. Car emission fumes.
-Sounds: People trying to sell things, people running around and screaming "Mzungu! How are you?" Children playing together. Cars and trucks and motorcycles. Dogs, goats, chickens. Some babies crying at their first sight mzungu's.
-Tastes: I tried to keep my mouth closed as much as possible since the air isn't even clean. For food though, I was able to avoid lunchtime and run to the market with a professor for drinks.
-Feelings: Dirty. Jumping over streams and shuffling through alleys I didn't even feel comfortable touching the walls for support because of what could be on there. Sitting with the kids, I watched others give them kisses but I couldn't even dare. Showers are not a necessity, they are a rare luxury. Clean homes and dishes and clothes are next to impossible. Everything is covered in filth.
We spent about six hours in the slum today, walking to the Exodus Church in the middle of the slum. I imagined a beautiful church in the midst of despair. Instead I was surprised (as I daily am) to walk into a dark cement building with a hole-filled tin roof. The church is without electricity as the whole slum is. It is extremely small, maybe 20'x20'. There are about 75 people who worship each Sunday, but during the week it is the home of the Kara Kibera Kids School. We visited with the kids all day- they put on a program for us, we fed them lunch, played with them, took so many pictures and watched their enthusiasm when they would flip through the pictures. The children loved seeing us, and we loved seeing them. They are so purely joyful and truly content with what they have- a soccer ball made of banana leaves, a rubber wheel and some string to entertain them, a rock, a ratty old doll. All the kids I know are constantly in front of an LCD screen playing video games, watching movies, listening to their iPod. Even with all of that they aren't content.
Tonight during our debriefing we shared the emotions we are feeling. Angry. Sad. Encouraged. Blessed. Guilty. Confused. Inspired. Mad. Responsible. Broken. Shocked. Grateful. Unsure. Called. Disconnected. Invested.
It's tough to understand how some people can live in such horrific conditions and we can leave the same horrific places and go back to our hotel and shower and clean off, put on clean clothes, enjoy a delicious meal. They cannot. Soon enough we will fly 17,000 miles home to places where we have big rooms, filled refrigerators, nice cars to take us anywhere, beautiful malls and supermarkets, places of entertainment like movie theaters, baseball games, concerts. All things we don't need but yet we think we do. How is it fair that I was born into my family instead of a slum-stricken family in Africa? In my family, I have been given everything I've ever needed, anything more I had to work for. It is so easy to look around me and see all the things my friends have given to them, no work involved. I am always looking up the economic ladder, wanting more thinking I need it. Today has inspired change in me. Walking in the shoes of these natives, I'm looking up their economic ladder. I have it SO good. God has blessed me. How can I think He hasn't? A nice home in the beautiful countryside, a loving family who care about me even when I'm a terrible person to them, a great church that blesses me not just on Sundays but every day, an education- much more a Christian education, food that I never have to worry about receiving, enough clothes to clothe the entire school plus more that we visited today, health. This is way more than they have. It shows me how selfish I am. And really, how selfish everyone I know is.
A verse that kept coming to mind today was Colossians 3:2 "Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things." Why do I measure wealth in the things I have? In truth, the people here are much more wealthy than me. Their dependence on God is so much greater than mine. Their faith in God is so much greater than mine. Their wealth is so much greater thank me, because material possessions are an incorrect measure of wealth. Listening to prayers here, they plead to God to provide their next meal because He is truly the only one who can deliver such a request. I have never once had a concern about where my next meal is coming from. Their prayers for healing are filled with tears, begging God to restore strength in their son or brother or wife because medicine cannot be afforded so the only healing that can take place is through our Healer's hand. I've gotten sick, broke an arm, hit my head, needed surgery. So my mom get me medicine, took me to the doctor, arranged countless appointments, paid for surgery. Again, I have never had a concern about getting the treatment I needed. They truly depend on God. I do not. THEY are wealthy. I am not.
Leaving today, I was talking with my professor, Cal, and sharing my feelings. I surprisingly don't feel guilty for the life I have been given, but I have turned to God in gratitude. I have really seen how good He has been to me- I have many material blessings in my life, what I don't have is a deep rooted appreciated for these things. A deep rooted appreciation would instill in me the fact that God has provided everything for me, I have not. I pray that I will now start to become a wealthy person- with a mind set on a relationship with God dependent on Him, not on earthy things.
Kibera still needs help, though. So what can we do to help these in need? Pray. Pray for the people here, that they continue to rely on God to provide for them as He faithfully does. Pray for teachers to be called to these places to educate these children, pray for doctors and nurses to be called to provide medical attention to these people, pray for carpenters to be called to help construct livable homes, pray for preachers to be called to spread te word of God. Prayer is a way to stay connected when we're not together. God will hear our prayers. They will feel our prayers.
Today we were supposed to be a blessing the the habitants of the Kibera Slum. Today the men and women and children blessed me and everyone else more than they will ever know. I hope one day you will have the chance to be changed through a life of a wealthy slum-living brother or sister who will rock your world. I challenge you to place yourself in such a vulnerable position. You won't regret it.
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