Am going to Kibera slum tomorrow - finally. It's only 'finally', because I keep talking about going to visit our ex-askari who lives there (and invited us over) but never get around to it.
In fact, what happened was that I heard that my daughter's school were sending the parents association there to visit 'The Kigulu Shelter', (a small orphanage who are sponsored by the school) to deliver some christmas things. I'm not a member of the PA, but asked if I could come along anyway. It's about time I went and saw the Nairobi slum situation first hand. The senior kids in the school (age 13) go and visit after their common entrance exams, to re paint the shelter and carry out basic maintenance chores. Lots of schools here have similar arrangements with other slum schools/orphanages
It's one of the largest slums in Nairobi (home to 700,000 Kenyans), but by no means the only one sadly. 'Kibera' was made famous when it was featured in the film 'The Constant Gardener' last year.
I'll take my camera and tell you all about it.
Meanwhile, I'd like to confirm that I did buy the astronomical chocolate advent calendars for the kids and had peeled the price labels off them before I'd even left the shopping centre. After conducting a poll with a couple of friends we agreed that price labels we commonly peel off before getting home (in order to hide our excessive expenditure on silly little things from house staff) are: olive oil, bottles of wine, delicatessen cold cuts and chocolate.
For relevant previous posts see: 'Slum Statistics' and 'Donor Fatigue'
