Just back from a long weekend in Nairobi. I met with my Washington DC sleuth-reporter friend Kristina, there to do a stories on an orphanage she's been connected with over the years in the Kibera slum (of 'Constant Gardener' fame), and Baraka Obama's interesting tribal background, the Luo tribe. (for one thing the Luo don't believe HIV exists- but i had to leave before she did her interview on the fantastic luo women we met there) She and I had a great time sampling the budget hotel offerings of the city, -actually she didn't take to them quite as readily as myself. We also had endless interesting interactions with the people she's connected to there in Kibera. At first glance Kibera was actually a vibrant and appealing place, with all sorts of life and bustle, open markets, people frying fish and dishing out chai, vegetable stands, little winding allies full of business and life, no sense of 'ghetto' danger you might expect. Our first day at the orphanage the director sat me down with a group of neighborhood women who volunteer there, for me to talk to them about HIV. I've learned from my earlier days doing this sort of thing not to preach about condoms, etc, which they've all heard, but rather try to open up discussion. I think it's one of the most important areas for improvement- open communication about this taboo subject.
The second day we met with an HIV positive group- all but one of them women. They talked about how they had fallen ill and so tested and discovered their status. All but one said when she told her husband, the likely source of infection, he left her and the kids behind without himself testing. So then there they are in Kibera with 5 or so kids to provide for. I realized eventually that most of them were confessing that they prostitute to raise the money they need. Their clients won't pay full fare if they use a condom, so they don't. They get ARV medication for free, but no food, and no business initiatives that they are aware of. with all the money pouring in for AIDS in Africa, and especially to famous Kibera, is there really no initiative to address poverty? they and the orphanage director were unaware of any. Isn't that amazing. All that money going to ARV's. Not even to food. Meanwhile, as long as poverty is not addressed, the recipients of the ARVs may feel no option but to knowingly spread the disease! I've read it and heard it before, but as it slowly sank in it was shocking to be sitting there with these women and realize what they were saying! They were fresh-faced bright young women, some with toddlers in tow. Some of them counsel in their neighborhoods, educating about HIV and encouraging others to test. They said if they could have some other way to make money they would stop the prostituting. Since they have no land available to cultivate i asked if they knew about 'sack gardens', we promote for urban settings- a 3 foot tall narrow sack filled with soil and poked with holes, out of which grow veggies. They said they have no room even for this. Walking around we saw that's not true, there is room. But the orphanage director said she'd tried growing veggies but with all the open sewage the flies contaminated her greens and it wasn't safe. Kibera was starting to feel less like a paradise. Indeed the latrine we used was one of my more shockingly unsanitary experiences. I feel like it's Kenya's shame not even to provide proper sewage construction for this place. It's also such a tough situation there that many residents are trapped without any land to farm, which sustains so many other east Africans through hard times. Well that's my social commentary for the day, address poverty, not just AIDS infections. Or you're getting nowhere. To end on a positive note, Kristina and I had a great time, nice to have some female bonding. The women we met there who were locals volunteering (in hopes of eventually getting paid) were some of the most vibrant women I've met, and we had a truly great tea party one afternoon. They wanted us to sleep over there in their actually very cozy house, then said next time we come back they'll have fancier houses so we don't have to stay in hotels. We described our hotel accommodation to them and assured them we weren't fancy. Kristina and I also managed one night out on town for live music. I want to end on an assurance note that we were being very security conscious through all of this and not doing anything unnecessarily risky!