our placement.

Hello everyone,

Since our last post, Kyle and I have moved from Nairobi to Nakuru. We met our host family, Ann and Pastor Antony, and their daughter Joy. There are three other volunteers placed here, and we getting along great. We also managed to get a cell phone (they are really inexpensive here) so we can call our parents every few weeks. Although, they are probably reading this thinking.. "you better call more often than that!" We love you.

Today Kyle and I went to our placement, the Gioto Garbage slum near Nakuru. It is like nothing we have ever seen before. We took a matatu (small 12 seat bus with 20 people crowded into it) to the slum and walked into the most extreme poverty that I have ever seen. As we arrived, a few of the children came out to greet us. They are amazing. Their spirits are high, and we were able to do some colouring and recite some of the names of colours in english. Most of the children only speak a small amount of english. They mostly speak swahili. There is a fenced in small area that we use as a classroom, and some of the boys went to a field to play with the soccer ball we brought.  That was in the morning.

At noon, a garbage truck comes and most of the children and some of the parents to go out to look through the new loads of garbage for food, clothing, and anything they can use. They leave the teaching area at this time, because the garbage trucks only come once a day, so this is their chance for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

As well as daily lessons, we are trying to establish a more scheduled kind of school, where the kids can learn writing and reading. It is hard because the land is government owned, so no school can be built there, and they cannot leave the garbage slum which they have made into their home. It is heart breaking.

The other volunteers here have started an initiative to bring the slum a water truck so everyone can have safe drinking water. We are having a truck come tomorrow. Also, the clothing that we brought (thanks Carman MCC!!) will be given out to the children tomorrow. We are doing a few projects to help their situation, but the volunteer's presence here is fairly new, so some of the families do not send their children to our makeshift school. Hopefully they will be able to see the work that we are doing, and start to trust.

Another initiative that the volunteers here have started, along with Pastor Antony, is to sponsor the kids to go to a boarding school. This is the absolute best option for them - and as of now there are about four children sponsored for the coming school-year. Their term starts in January, and Pastor Antony thinks that with more people hearing about the slum and the kids, we will be able to send two more before the school term begins. Sponsoring one of the kids from the garbage slum is about 720/yr.


Other than our totally eye-opening and overwhelming work day, there is not much else to say. The Rift Valley is very beautiful, and hopefully next time I post I will be able to share some photos.

Stay safe,
-Kate