It's All About Location

We turned off the main road and entered a bumpy land with mounds of garbage on either side.  In less than a kilometer from the main road we arrived at the garbage slum.  The first thing that hits you is the smell.  This is no place to visit, let alone live here.

But that is exactly what is happening here.  About 150 families, approximately 800 people, live here in the garbage slum near Nakuru, Kenya.  The first residents arrived in the 80s when there was a war with another tribe and they were displaced from their land and had nowhere to go so they build some tents in the garbage dump.  Over the years they have been chased off the land by the local government and they move to the side of the road, but they always move back because there is nowhere else for them to live.  Many of current families have lived there since the early nineties.  So many children have been born and grew up knowing no other life.  They survive by picking through the newly dumped garbage, looking for anything of value.  Some volunteers have started helping the woman create goods that the can sell to the other volunteers that come to see the slums on the outreach program.  One thing they sell is purses made out of plastic bags.   Their  ingenuity is inspiring.

We were invited into the house of the first slum resident.  She lives there with several of her 13 children and grandchildren.  

As with the IDP camp, we distributed bags of Ugali and our personal donations of soap, candles, matches, toothbrushes, toothpaste and sweets.  Chaos ensued, when the donations appeared.  If possible to believe these slum residents were even more desperate than the IDP camp residents.