Day 2: Kibera and Kawangware School Visits

-Feed The Children Feeding Program at St. John’s Primary Academy in Kibera

-Candy distribution at Bible Baptist School in Kawangware

Today we visited two of Kenya’s  slums:  Kibera and Kawangware.  We started our day off with a scenic drive into the Kibera Slums.  Our drive into Kibera is difficult to put into words.  The homes are made of mud, wood framing, and tin for the roof. There are an estimated 1.2 million people that live throughout the 3 square mile radius of Kibera.

Along the main “roads” residents set up shops of all kind……….butcher shops, fruit stands, hotels, scrap metal, clothes and shoes, kerosene stands, wood shops, lots of live chickens, 

bars, cinemas, churches, medical clinics, you name it – and they have it!  The Kibera version might just be slightly different than what we are used to in America!  But, the streets were filled with people buying and selling their products.  The primary form of travel throughout Kibera is by foot.  So, when a large red 18 passenger bus today, we definitely became the center of attention.  The children we passed along the way were definitely excited to see us.  As we drove by we were greeted by the sound of the children asking, “How are you?...How are you?”Children learn English if they attend school.  The further along they are in school, the more English they learn.  So, the younger kids often only know two phrases, which they will repeat over and over again…..”How are you?” and “I am fine.”  Everywhere we went, the children greeted us with a very cheerful, “How are you?”

After about fifteen minutes of driving through 

Kibera, our bus stopped, and we all got out to walk down the

 hill towards St. John’s Primary Academy.  The school is tucked away at the edge of Kibera.  It is one of over 200 schools supported by Feed The Children.  During our last visit in July, the school’s enrollment was at 800.  Just seven months later, their enrollment is up to approximately 1200. The children attending the school range from Pre-Kindergarten all the way to the equivalent of 8^th Grade in the United States.  

Enrollment at this school is higher than many others throughout Kibera because of the Feeding Program supported by Feed The Children.  Children are given breakfast (pourage) and lunch (a mix of corn, pint of beans, some type of meat) when they attend school. 

The children were expecting our group today so they were all very excited to see us!  We arrived about fifteen minutes before they were to begin serving lunch so we broke up into small groups and visited each classroom to say hello and give them “sweets”.  Everyone in the group brought lollipops to pass out at our various school visits this week.  The children don’t know the word for lollipop, but they call them “sweets”!  Kenyan children already have beautiful smiles, but give them “sweets” and their smiles shine through even bigger!  In each classroom, we asked the children to sing us a song.  Some songs were the same, but they

changed a bit as the kids got older.  There was one common trend throughout many of the songs...they often sang about Jesus and His Love!  One class sang a song that everyone knows, ’If You’re Happy and You Know It”!  We were able to join in and sing along and the kids loved it!

After passing out lollipops, it was time for lunch!  Each day, the children come to school with a mug for their breakfast porage and a bowl for lunch.  The HUGE pots of food are brought outside of the kitchen to a bench.  Our group took turns scooping food into each child’s plate as they lined up to receive lunch.  The youngest children came first and we worked our way up to the oldest.

Our second visit was Bible Baptist School in Kawangware.  We stopped by to meet more children that benefit from the outreach of Feed The Children.  We passed out “sweets” to the 250 students and they treated us to a beautiful program.  The principal and his wife expressed their thanks and we enjoyed songs from the children.