KIBERA and Food Distribution from Main Warehouse

WARNING: ANOTHER LONG BLOG, BUT MOSTLY PICTURES!


I am posting this Monday night, at about 9:00 PM. Yesterday, Sunday the 24th of Feb, was really non-eventfull as we needed rest. Attended Nairobi Chapel; guest speaker was from.....Wisconsin. I told Pastor Oscar (the senior pastor) that I didn't come all the way from California to hear a white American preacher!! He got a big kick out of that.


Today was anything BUT what I had anticipated as a day in the office working on a micro-small finace proposal for JP. I had the opportunity to go out to the 'field' for food distributioin with Tina and Naria. The pictures below capture my time in Kibera and the distribution warehouse. I left the office at 10 and got back at 3:30.

HERE IS KIBERA...but I didn't even see the worst areas.

This is All that is left in many areas. Multiply this by thousands, and you will understand why food is necessary in Kibera, even though it is not an IDP camp.








Burned out homes on one side of the street; nice homes (picture below) on the opposite side, separated only by a gate and fence.











Nice homes on the corner of the burned out intersection shown below. Niara, WR's communicaiton manager for Kenya, told me today that her mother died in one of these homes (where she grew up) on December 29. She had high blood pressure, and violence just outside their home caused her to die from the trauma.







Burned out major intersection which was previously covered with stalls of businesses. This is just over the fence from Niara's home where her mother died.












Community leaders and church leaders determine who gets these cards; WR's objective is to get the food to the ones that cannot provide for themselves, i.e., AIDs victims too weak to work, and orphans. You have to have these cars to get the food; they know who represents these intended recipients.

Church in Kibera, all be it on the perimeter, that distributes the food sent by WR;I met with the pastor and prayed with him. He begged for more food. He has 11 other churches within Kibera, but this is the 'mother' church of over 2,000 people...all poor or desperate poor (two different classes as I have learned)













Business as usual for some.


Not your average Hilton. I asked if they were serious about this, and the answer was an emphatic YES. I then learned that it really meant 'restaurant'; I felt better, but passed even though I was starving at the time.










Note the empty concrete slabs--these use to be business stalls for the family business where they earned enough daily to buy food for the next day.



Poverty is everywhere in Kibera













A local artist's expression of the situation.


Open garbage burning along a main entrance to Kibera; this is necessary because the privately owned garbage company has refused to pick up in Kibera since the violence in late December and January.














AT THE MAIN FOOD DISTRIBUTION WAREHOUSE IN JAMBORI:

A World Food Program truck staffed by volunteers to load and deliver to designated sites.



Lucy, from ADRA, and Tina, from WR, try to figure out what happened to a whole truckload of food; in essence, it was determined to have been diverted to the wrong place, unauthroized; not an unusual occurence; corruption is rampant. It did reach the poor, but not the AIDs victims and orphans it was intended to reach. They are very careful not to supply those that can work.











A truck being loaded for delivery to Dandora...not a safe place even now.


The EU (European Union) has contributed also.












I am proud of the USA! Food distribution in 3rd world countries by the US has a totally new meaning to me.










A way bill for loading and delivery to Dandora today. Issac, from WR, told me late this afternoon that a small riot broke out and they had to pull out; they went to the local police and asked for help to come back in the morning at 6AM when not so many people would be up. Issac works for WR, and leads worship for our devotions. Pray for him


This art work was located just beside where the food trucks load on the warehouse grounds. What is it's message for you?


I finished the day at 6:30 after spending the last 2 hours on the micro finance project. I think it is ready to be submitted as a good concept document; JP was very happy to have it done. We'll see; pray for this. It could be significant for long term sustainability of a program to get people like those in Kibera out of poverty, even in times of crisis.

There is much talk of a strong undercurrent of troule brewing; our devotion time this morning just allowed staff members to articulate what they are hearing, and we prayed very hard on many fronts. There is great fear the worse is to come. God can intervened, and I believe the churches here are doing everything possible to rally the Christians. Keep them in your prayers. I understood even more this morning how deep and widely affected the people are. I can't describe it, nor can I relate it to anything in the US. We are an incredibly blessed people; we have no idea how much.

I am excited that I will get to spend 2 days with Darren starting in the morning. He had a trip planned to South Africa, and added in a stop in Nairobi when he found out I would be here. We have two full days planned...more on that next blog.