Kawanguare

Where the streets are used to walk and the sidewalks are used to let the hurried “matatus” pass by. A place, where you can smell food and garbage getting rotten both to your left and right. The goats walk with you eating what they can find on the streets and craping at the same time. If you look to your right, to your left, forward and back, you will see informal businesses everywhere, people are trying to survive. This place is called Kawangure and is one of the poorest slams in Nairobi.

Last Saturday Francisco and I went to pay a visit to the place, while Lucas was training the football team in Salem (short for Jerusalem, in East Lands). Here you can feel people welcoming you as you walk; being a “muzungu” in Kawanguare is even rarer than in other places of the city. Children are extremely happy to see a “muzungu” and they don’t stop saying “how are you?” as you pass. We were told that if we replied to their greetings they would get so excited that tell their friends, parents and teachers. But don’t think everyone is happy to see a white man, some people stare at you with a face in which you can read a: “How are you and what are you doing here?”.    

Aside from the people, you can find so many needs in the place. Being there for some people that haven’t visited a slam before can be a bit shocking. When you reach a point in which you are no longer walking in solid ground but in a mix of mud and garbage and you see boys and girls playing in the place, you feel that something is wrong in the world. The feeling of altruism arose in our heart; Francisco even gave his lunch to a mother with her children.

We were taken to the place by Paul, a fellow that Francisco met in the streets last Thursday. He is an owner of a clinic there and invited us to know the place. The clinic is about 60 m², really small to be called a clinic, but it has the basic necessities to help someone in an emergency. He told us that the main treatments he does are: receive babies, fight malaria and heal wounds.

After visiting the clinic we went to his house where we meet his wife and two of his smallest children. The house was about 30 m² and it had a sitting room, a kitchen and place to sleep for 6 people. The house was well cared and they look comfortable in it. In that moment we didn’t know what to say, because for us this house was really different from what we know. We tried to be as polite as we could. At the moment I remember that while walking on the streets some people called him their leader, so if the leader has this house I can’t imagine the house of the rest.

 

Being in Kawanguare was really good for me, it helped me realize where I am and who are the people that really need help. In this week I will try to show more images of the place for all you guys to know it better, until then you can imagine.

See you around guys.