The Morning Commute: #8 into Kibera

A few folks have asked about our living situation, how we get in and out of Kibera, what we do on a daily basis, etc.  This will be brief, but meant to give you a general sense of our daily routine.  The pictures aren't great -- we will post an update when we have better shots of Kibera, but we generally try not to use our camera too much when walking around there.

The Apartment:  We found a good size studio, on Ngong road, near Prestige plaza in Kilimani.  A nice neighborhood bordering Kibera. It isn't a lot of excess space, and has a ground-floor view of the parking lot, but it is comfortable, has a decent kitchen, washing machine, drying lines, and wifi.  Pretty much everything we need for the month we are staying here.

The Morning Commute: We are only a 5 minute walk to Prestige Plaza, which has a good supermarket and other shops.  It is also where we pick up the #8 Matatu (shared minivan) that takes us into Kibera in the morning.  It is a 5 - 10 minute, generally pretty squished, ride to the olympic stop - one of the nicer regions within Kibera.  From there, its another 5 minute walk to the office and Red Rose school where we have been working and teaching the high school workshop.  The walk through olympic is pretty vibrant - passing every kind of shop imaginable, all in 10x10 or smaller stalls -- butchers, tailors, computer training shops, fruit stands, hardware stores, kerosene pumps (since most people don't have electric lighting), machine shops that spill out into the street, outdoor matatu repair garages, charcoal stores, M-pesa stalls, etc.

Walking from the apartment to Prestige Plaza

Parking lot outside of Prestige.  The vans on the right are the matatus

Walking through Olympic. Not a great photo ;)

The Office: The Children of Kibera Foundation office sits in a little house, that also serves as a campus for grades 4-7 at the Red Rose School, a primary school where the organization sponsors 50 students.  There are a handful of desks, and a small conference room / library / resource room for the students at Red Rose and the High School Scholars.  CoKF has two full time staff members, and three Kenyan interns who are on break from university.

Entrance gate to the office.

Carrie outside the office.

The lower school, where we teach the workshop, is about a five minute walk away.

Just below the office are the famous railway tracks, and on the other side of the tracks is the true slum area of Kibera, without any roads.  Nearly all the kids we sponsor at Red Rose, and in the High School Scholar program, live on the slum side.

Railway tracks through Kibera.

For the curious, here is a map:

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