The Contrasts of Nairobi

Dear Friends and Family,

Today was another interesting day in Nairobi. We started the day with a visit to Karen Blixen's home. The movie "Out of Africa" was based on a book Karen wrote about her life here in Nairobi. Karen was a Danish woman who came to Kenya with her Baron husband and started a 6000 acre coffee plantation. She had over 700 African workers on her plantation, and what set her apart from other land barons, she PAID her workers and had schooling and gave medical care to their families and children. This was back in the days when the Africans worked for no pay on these large estates, and received only food for their labor. Although her coffee plantation was not a success....wrong kind of climate and mineral content in the soil......she is to this day a much beloved figure here in Kenya. Most of her land she gave to her faithful workers when she returned to Denmark and the rest she gave to the State. This woman changed the way business was done with the African workers, and they love her because she treated them so well and loved them so much.

After leaving the Blixen home, we stopped at a local bead factory. What a fun place! This enterprise was begun back in the 70's by a woman and two workers, single moms who needed to support their children. Today they have over 300 women and a few men, working there, making the clay, forming the different shaped beads, firing them, painting them then firing again, and finally stringing them into beautiful pieces of jewelry. We were allowed to take pictures, and the women enjoyed posing for us. I was so impressed with the way they enjoyed their work and creating such lovely pieces.

Leaving the factory, we traveled on the highway that ran past the Kibera slum. This slum of about 1 million persons, is the largest slum in all of Africa. It is not safe to travel inside the slum, but just to see it in the distance was heartbreaking...........tin roofed shacks for as far as you could see. There is no running water, electricity or sanitation in Kibera, just a great deal of misery and hopelessness. Surrounding the slum on the hillsides, are highrise apartments, and I couldn't help but wonder how the people who lived there could bear to look out over such squalor.

Our driver today was very interesting, and it was great to be able to ask him questions about his view on the situation in Nairobi and Kenya. Jared works in Nairobi, but like many African men, he has a wife and child who live elsewhere. His family stays in his home village and he is able to visit about every 2 months. His baby girl is only a year old, so he is missing precious time of her babyhood. This is a sacrifice many men have to make to earn a living in Kenya. Someday, he would like to return to his village and be a farmer like his father.

Tomorrow we are looking forward to our visit to St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church. African worship services are long and joyful. I'm sure we'll seem very reserved in such a setting, but it should be an experience.

Thanks again for all you prayers and emails. It's so good to be connected to "home".

Love and a big hug,
Kitty