Weekly journal, 16,July

I just heard the gun shot when I was having dinner. This is my first time to hear the gun shot led by the street crime.
This Saturday I joined Rotarack( Youth in Rotary) in Kenya. We went to the Kambiu slum issuing blankets. This slum, compared with the others, is quite well-organized. (see now I am well- experienced to evaluate different slums :P) The blankets are sponsored by Rotarians. In order to make sure they give the blanket to the right people (those in need), they asked the council in the slum to make the list. When we got there, we gave the blankets to the people on it. I was a celebrity there!!! I showed up my poor Swahili and played games with children.

In Taiwan, I don’t smile that much. But now when I walk in the slum, I would like to take initiative smiling at them. When I am in a strange place, I always smile no matter what happens to me so that I can keep myself safe and people won’t take advantage of me. Smile is a good way, also a good weapon, to show my confidence and fearlessness.

Spoiled children like me would never come up the idea of issuing the blankets in the slum. If I don’t understand how hard the life is in the slum, I can’t get the way to help the people out. It will never be a good choice to give the money to people in the slum for the drug and alcohol abuse is deteriorating there.

The politicians took this advantage to give a public speech. A lot of them do nothing but show up and speak out. The president election is coming in December, so election is always the headline of newspaper, which I am not interested in at all. I had lunch and danced with young Kenyans. That’s the first time I had lamb and Ugali (taste like cake but not sweet at all. It can make u stuffed very easily.) by my hands. That’s the Kenyan style!!!

Once they asked me how I call the Taiwanese currency, I said ‘NT’ dollars, which they misunderstood to ‘auntie’ dollars. They thought I was joking them. This is really funny.

Almost every shop in Kenya has the photo of Kenyan president on the wall, which looks very old-fashioned for me. They do it because when they get some troubles they can show that they are always together with the president and the country. So, when the new president comes out, they will replace a new one. The photo just shows that they respect the country and law.

On Sunday, I went to the Indian shop to buy Indian breakfast. After that, mama and I went to the slum Runda joining the feeding program. I saw Rotary again!! It built the male dorms for the elders. This program is sponsored by one religious association of Indian community. People in the association make contribution and they buy food like bread, fruit, milk, sweets to feed the children and elders in the slum every Sunday morning. Children have to wait on line to get the food. It’s a long queue.

Why Kenyans are so poor?
Just the same as Taiwan, the price is going up like crazy in Kenya recently but the salary still remains the same. Living cost is too high but the salary is not enough for people to survive. All the agricultural products are exported to the other countries, and all money goes into the small population of Kenyans. Water and electricity are always the big problems for Kenyans. The poor can’t afford them. People in the slum don’t have their own houses they have to pay rent to the landlords in the big town.
The poor have to spend every penny they earn putting their children through school.
The modern day slavery problem is still there in Kenya. A lot of companies are biting poverty by hiring casual and cheap labors. The companies ask them to do a lot or they will be labeled ‘non-performance’ and get unemployed.
The poor will never clear their loans and their children have to inherit their poverty if the children can’t get the job in the big city.
The poor young females are especially unfortunately. The poor young females are easily viewed as the games in the eyes of rich men. They are easily falling into the flesh trade market. 80% of prostitutes are from the slums.

In Kenya, poor people can’t be treated equally. For example, if you are poor and in hospital and you might be in your final hours, your families will still be kept waiting at the gate for hours. The poor can’t get the right in Kenya. Poor people are the easy target of every policeman. When the police want to find the criminals, they go to the slum first.

I think, to help the poor out, better education, more awareness, more sensitivity is the only way out.