Just Shut Your Eyes And Go.

Signals We Are Free EP at www.grmnygrmny.com .

This song stuck out to me as I believe it was kind of what I was thinking as I left for Kenya nearly two months ago now. All I had wanted since I left east Africa in 2009 was to get back here, yet in the final few weeks before leaving for my internship with Street Kids International all I could do was cling to my life in Abbotsford. Finally it came to that sometimes you have to Just Shut Your Eyes And Go.

My first month in Kenya was not unexpected; the city of Nairobi was just as insanely busy, smog filled, congested and expensive as everyone had warned me about, Mukuru slum was just as poor and underdeveloped, Make A Better World Kenya (MABWOK) just as short on resources, despite their big heart and vision. I’ve worked in East Africa before, and I get how to communicate culturally with locals and how to barter my way into a decent price for a taxi. I know that everything moves 1000 times slower (or just differently) than I am used to in Canada. I know that my Way-Over-Pro-active personality needs to chill out and take a breather here. However; head knowledge is nothing to experiential knowledge, even past experiential knowledge that has, over the years, turned into head knowledge. I have never been so extremely frustrated with a place I’ve been living, I’ve never ended up in tears after sitting in a sweaty congested bus stuck in a traffic jam for 3 hours.

Through my second month I have grown in my knowledge and understanding of life in the slum and of the Community Based Organization which is Make A Better World Kenya (MABWOK). Amongst the hundreds of NGOs, CBOs, Government organizations, private sector organizations, societies, social enterprises, and non-profits that exist simultaneously in Nairobi, MABWOK has formed as a group of street kids themselves with originally no support except from the community of Mukuru and its inhabitants, with a vision to change the lives of their peers, the youth, and the children, for the better. Through the past ten years they have seen growth and struggle with finances and commitment of street youth, struggled with resources for the children, struggled to pay their teachers and keep spirits high. Coming out of 5 years of support from Irish NGO GOAL has made them re-think their strategy for the future and we are brainstorming along the lines of social enterprise, to employ youth in a socially conscious business which will generate income for them and also support for MABWOK, so they can be self sufficient and no longer need to rely on donor support.

It’s this attitude that I’m encouraged by, and in turn have discovered my main duty here is to encourage and support them as they fight for change in the slums. Despite my frustrations with Nairobi as a city itself, Kenya is still Kenya, and I am blessed to be here.

With love,

Vicki.