Rural Kenya

This past week we have been traveling through the Eastern and Central Province of Kenya. The first stop we made was in a place called Embu. Embu is the largest city in the Eastern Province. When we arrived we split up into groups of two to three people and explored. We had two hours to explore Embu and find several landmarks; the district commissioners office, a hospital, a blood transfusion center, and a mosque. The point of this assignment was for us to walk around, talk to and observe the people of Embu.

After exploring for a few hours we headed to the hotel we were staying at for the night. It was straight out of the Tim Burton film Edward Scissorhands. The walls of the exterior building were painted Mary Kay pink. Somehow we each managed to get our own rooms, mine was complete with leopard print sheets!

The next morning, Wednesday, we were greeted by a young man named Davis Kirambo. Davis was a student of Professor Sperling(our International Studies and Islam instructor) a few years ago. Currently he works for the Clinton Foundation in Nairobi. He took us to his village where he is building a high-school.

*Entire Sperling Paper*

After visiting the village we headed to Meru. In Meru I saw my first glue kids. These children are mostly orphans or run-aways who have taken to sniffing glue as an appetite suppressant. It was quite disturbing seeing them walking around with a glue filled container (plastic vodka bottle) hanging from their mouths. The containers hanging from their mouths had a brown like substance in them. This substance is industrial glue that can be purchased at hardware stores, stores that sadly exist all over.

Looking back on my trip to rural Kenya I realize that this is one of the first times rural poverty has affected me. I have seen more people in El Salvador, but for some reason these glue kids greatly affected me.

In addition to me standing out in these places, the destitute conditions of the people living in these cities stood out to me. There were times I honestly did not want to step out of the bus. I just wanted to curl up and pretend that what I was seeing didn’t disturb me. But it did and has. As a group we are constantly making jokes about the glue kids, trying to hide the fact that we are all so disturbed by them that we have no other option but to laugh. Sometimes laughing is the only option one has to keep from crying.

I am so glad I am here in Kenya experiencing all that I am, I know that this probably won’t be the last time I am seriously affected by what I see. But honestly its good to be uncomfortable sometimes. When we are always comfortable we deprive ourselves of seeing, or being aware of, the differences that exist in the world. I have been blessed that thus far in my life I have not been confronted with the pain of poverty that exists in this world. But I am thankful that I have been exposed to the reality of it.