I am currently on holiday and decided to join a fellow volunteer on a trip to the Mukuru slums in south eastern Nairobi. The organization is Hope Worldwide and is actually an organization based in Philadelphia. The day was designed to do a clean up of the neighborhood as well as providing some food for a couple of the families in the area. It was a nice change of pace from my stuffy office life that I have even here in Kenya…can’t seem to escape it. 
Visiting the homes of the people was quite amazing. The homes are no bigger than a 10 x 10 foot square and is only one room which is separated by a sheet. Often there are 4 or 5 people living in this home. One woman we met with told of us how she is currently HIV-positive and is happy to know her status. Before she was getting sick and wasn’t sure of the cause. She has since been able to get medication to help her feel better and is really happy to know that her latest child did not have the virus passed onto him with the help of medications and information. This slum houses roughly 700,000 people, so I was told, and is the third largest in Nairobi. I then spent the afternoon playing run away from the local kids who love to climb on JB. They found my arms fascinating as though they couldn’t get enough. I’d have 2 at a time hanging from my arms and I’d pick them up off the ground. They also loved stealing my hat…good times. I did finally escape the children for long enough to play a game of football (soccer). Wasn’t the best because of my hiking boots, but I think I showed them that a mzungu can play at the game as well…I also now have a group I can play with more regularly at Nairobi university…awesome. 