Welcome to Lenana

After one day in the suburbs I moved out to Lenana where I will be staying with Martha and her family and working in the slum area with the HIV/AIDS program. It’s a small apartment building surrounded by the slum, a large gate and electric fence separate the two. The community seems very self sufficient, farm animals such as cows, goats, sheep and chickens wandering around producing eggs, milk and of course meat for the families of Lenana. The walk in from the main road passes by a little butchers hut with a animals strung from the rafters, customers choose which section they want and the butcher carves it up. There are little “stalls” setup on the side of the road, with people cooking and selling food, some of it looks simple like grilled corn, others crazy black sausage which is probably good, but looks scary. Other more established stores in little huts act as the bodegas or convenience stores of the slum. They sell anything from pre-paid topup cards, sodas (20KSH/$0.25 for a Coke), charcoal etc. There’s a small bar/shack where you can have a beer and watch the European soccer matches
There are dozens of the cutest little kids running around, rolling car tires, or pretend dogs they made out of wire. Some of the girls have afro braids with coloured beads, but they all say the same thing when they see me, a Mzungu they shout “How are you… How are you…” I don’t even think they know what it means, just that you say it when you see a white (non-African) person. They all seem very happy running around, I don’t think their parents told them not to stare, since that’s all they seem to do, but I don’t mind since I’m staring right back at them.

More photos after the break.