Luo Laughter "I speak of Africa and golden joys"



Friday, 11 March 2011

Comic Relief ... Kibera

By some miracle I managed to iPlayer this Comic Relief programme this morning, about how Angela Rippon and others managed to live in Kibera for a few days.   Kibera is one of the largest slums in Kenya ... in the whole of Africa.  I have never been there, only seen it from a distance.

But while we were in Kenya, living in the comparative luxury of a somewhat basic apartment by British standards ... (we had been expecting and were prepared for much worse !) we often saw very poor housing, knee deep rubbish everywhere, and smelt the smells ...

... well, I don't know what to think ... its all a question of 'wants' and 'needs' ... which I'll discuss another day.   I got to thinking about the lives we lead here in the UK while I was queueing in the bank the other day, and looked across the road to the National Trust shop, with its windows full of this and that ... none of which was one of lifes necessities ... it was all 'wants' ...



Here are some pictures of the shanty town areas of Kisumu ... and we didn't see the worst. People were always cheerful and seemed to be coping wonderfully with poverty, a lack of running water, no electricity ... and yet ...

I tried to avoid taking pictures of people with their houses; it struck me as intrusive enough to be taking secret pictures of their homes ...







The laundry is always spotless ... how do they manage it ?










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