CFK Visit

On Monday I departed from Mary's house in a rush to meet my darling Nina. She had agreed to accompany me into Kibera to visit Carolina for Kibera (CFK), one of the slum development organizations I most admire.

We had a really pleasant time talking to the current director, who appeared to have all the time in the world for us. Then a volunteer took us deep into the heart of the slum to visit the Tabitha Clinic that CFK runs. It had rained two days earlier, and every path and alley was still slick and gooey with mud. I normally get pretty emotional when I visit the slum, but this time it was all I could do to put one foot in front of the other without slipping and landing in rivers of sewage, so I hardly even got to think about it.

But the suffering there is so in your face, you really can't miss it. In the children and animals it is especially apparent, somehow.

The clinic is fantastic! They have a lab, X-ray facility, doctors, nutritionists, lots of clean and efficient services. I was most impressed to learn about their wireless record keeping system. I know these are common in the States, but I hardly expected to find something like that in the midst of some of the worst poverty in the world. Not only does the system save time and hassle, but it has additional functions. The CDC is able to more easily track the diseases in the area, things like cholera outbreaks can be quickly spotted and isolated, and all kinds of other useful statistical things.

Overall, it was a great visit and I was glad to connect a bit with the work, after reading "It Happened On the Way to War" by Rye Barcott, the organizations founder.

Afterward I bought Nina lunch at the Nakumatt food court and we bonded quite a bit. I was feeling sick again so I didn't eat.

Everywhere we went in the upscale shopping center, clumps of caked mud from the slum fell off of our shoes. I was uncomfortable with this juxtaposition, with how easily we left Kibera behind us and returned to our privileged lives.

My desire to really understand and make a difference in Kibera remains just out of arms reach, it seems. Maybe some day.