I can't believe the conditions some of these people live in

My first weekend in Kenya I signed up to do an outreach program with some other volunteers. We were picked up on Friday morning, and taken to an Orphanage to help out. Once again I was amazed by the sheer ambition of some these volunteers. The man running the orphanage was young and had started it on his own just a few years ago. He had plans to fundraise over $1 million US, to build a proper school for the children. It made me feel as if I had done nothing important as of now when comparing myself to some of these extraordinary individuals. The orphanage gave us an idea of how much of a difference one individual can make when one truly sets their minds to something, and has the right intentions.

The next day we woke up early in the morning and started preparing food to bring to different slums in Kenya. We threw pounds of rice and cheese into over a hundred bags to deliver. The first slum we visited was unlike anything I had ever seen before. It was very similar to a refugee camp in which there were lines of tents placed one after another. These people had moved to these tents, after the violence of the elections in 2007 left them misplaced with nowhere to go. Some of them were accomplished businessmen and women who once lived a comfortable lifestyle. Now they were huddled into 6x6 foot tents that felt like a microwave when you walked in. It was depressing to see the conditions these people lived in. While there, we delivered food to many of them and played with kids who were all exuberant and excited to be with us. You could never tell these children were even upset with their living conditions.

I thought that would be the worse slum we would visit, but I was mistaken. The next place we visited was a landfill... except there were people on top of it. I was astounded with what I saw, there was a town placed in the middle of a huge dumpster. The smell was putrid, and my eyes burned with all the pollution built up. The sight was indescribable, there were children playing on heaps of trash. They even told us that the kids would even look in the trash for food to eat. I'm not one to cry, and I never like to show my emotion, but I started to tear up. I'm far from being the most empathetic person out there, but no one should have to live like this. Once again though, the children were more than welcoming, and their faces beamed with some of the largest smiles I'd ever seen. I spent my time playing with them while some others delivered food. There was one young girl who caught my attention. She spoke perfect english, and she seemed very intelligent for someone of her background. Our organization told us that it is possible to sponsor one of those children if we wished. This means that we can choose a child and pay for their schooling. I want to see if I can sponsor this young girl and pay for her education, so she cant get out of the dump she lives in (literally), and get her into a boarding school. Hopefully this works out.

I will be back with more posts soon, I wrote the past two entries very quickly, so they are very rough. I miss everyone back in the states!