So what have I been doing ? Well, I want to go back to Kenya a.s.a.p. ... but ... there's lots of 'buts'. I need much more knowledge, more skills, more reason to go back.
Firstly, I've been doing lots of reading about Kenya in particular and Africa in general ... politics, education, people. This is resulting in me wanting to research more about how African society breaks down, and how kids end up on the streets, and families live in slums like Kibera in Nairobi, or Pandipieri in Kisumu.
It soon occurred to me that street kids in African towns have a lot in common with the poor described by Dickens and other Victorian authors and reformers. Fagins boys ... pick-pockets; Tom the chimney sweep; the Little Match Girl. So I've been trying to find out how these social situations changed ... and to consider if that sort of change can be applied to Africa. I've found it very hard to find books describing social reform dealing particularly with children but I'm still searching. Maybe Mr Google is my next port of call !
Meanwhile, eastern Africa is suffering once again from drought and the resulting famine. Huge numbers from Somalia have crossed the border into N E Kenya, itself in a drought situation, and ended up in Dadaab refugee camp, which isn't a camp ... rather a small city in the desert with a population of up to a million people. Children in the camp have been there for so long, they are now adults. They can't return to Somalia; they can't be assimilated into Kenya which hasn't enough employment, food, housing for its own population.
Googling for information about Kibera, I found this blog ... well worth reading. It could equally well apply to parts of Kisumu.
http://hannahinafrica.wordpress.com/2010/04/30/kibera/
Hannah has an up to date blog, for she has returned to Kenya ... here it is ...
http://comealivewithme.wordpress.com/
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