Nairobi…. Encouraging but heartbreaking at the same time….

I just wrapped up 3 days in Nairobi, Kenya. Actually it was 2 full days and travel days. Nairobi is a busy city with over 5 million people. I stayed in the city center and the smell of exhaust fumes was everywhere. Traffic could trump the 405, 101, or H1 at any time of day. As my driver pulled up to the hotel, the guards checked the trunk and under the car for anything suspicious. I entered the Nairobi Hilton where every person entering the hotel has to go through a metal detector. Security in the city is very tight no matter where you go.

On my way to my first meeting in the slum area of Mathare I see short busses, brightly painted with slogans or portraits and people packed into them like sardines. At one point I see a short bus with TuPac on the side…. Really???? That is so not right…. I see many with Bob Marley… That’s much better. Some of then scream “I love Jesus”, some of them say “player”….. I can’t help but giggle.

I meet with Steve from Dignitas Project at his church, and a little children’s choir is singing in Swahili. A little boy goes next and could have rivaled James Brown. I am taken to the roof and given a high level overview of the area. Each of the “blocks” are named after different things or places. The one to the left of the church down the dirt path is called “Vietnam”. The houses are made of metal sheets and are the no bigger than 15 feet by 15 feet, no electricity, no running water, and no facilities. I saw one government-run bathroom facility catering to blocks and blocks of these metal houses. The people have different sites that have hoses to fill water containers for all of their needs. The smell of raw sewage is almost overwhelming.

I am introduced to a beautiful woman named Emma who is HIV positive and takes care of patients who are bed ridden. She takes me to a few clients of hers who have been doing very well. A few things I keep hearing is that there is a stigma if people find out you're HIV positive, and many are abandoned by their family. The other thing is that even if a patient is blessed enough to obtain the antiviral medicines, they don’t always have food to take them with so they don’t take them. This also happens with TB meds. The problem with this is if you stop taking the TB meds you build up a tolerance and have to start a whole new regimen.

My driver Gibrani took me on a tour of the city. He took me to the site where the US Embassy used to be until the al-Qaida bombing in 1998. I saw a sculpture of twisted metal that was pieces from the building that collapsed. It was starting to make sense why the security was so tight all around the city. Next we went to the Kenya National Archives. This housed really beautiful art from all over Africa. Our final stop was Freedom Park. This is where the people celebrated their freedom. It kind of reminds me of Golden Gate Park or the Park in the middle of Buenos Aries. Big lake in the middle, lots of grass and an open amphitheater. They had a very excited crusade of some kind going on. I was dropped off at my hotel and was so tired I fell asleep by 8.