On my way back to the Amani Center from the airport, I saw some of what the news had already told me. Nairobi was flooded. Over the coming week, I’d see that my first glimpse of the flooding was far from the full picture of what was going on.
Flooding and Demolitions
During my first week back I got to see some of the destruction caused by the flooding within Mathare slum. Houses swept away and many more severely damaged. The schools were filled with people who had lost their homes. Alfajiri had suspended normal operations to go in and feed as many people as they could. The schools had to be emptied of all those displaced by the floods so that classes could resume. The problem was, these people had nowhere else to go. To make a bad situation worse, the government started demolishing hundreds of the homes along Mathare river that hadn’t been destr0yed by the flooding. One article I saw said that over 180,000 have lost their homes in Nairobi between the flooding and demolitions.
Before going into Mathare, I had been complaining with Matt about having to wade through knee-deep water to get to the gym and going 3 or 4 days at a time without power. You can imagine how we felt afterwards.
Tear Gas for Breakfast, Nothing for Lunch
One day I got a text from Vincent, our boss at Mododo. He said that Mododo was within the demolition zone and that they could use help moving everything to a new location just in case. We got to Mododo early the next morning, in time to see the church right across the river from us demolished. People were everywhere, frantically trying to get their belongings out before the demolition crews started working on their homes. Mixed in with them were looters, taking advantage of the chaos to take anything of value they could get their hands on. Mododo was guarded by two guys with machetes as we loaded up truck after truck with tables, desks, and chairs. While we were waiting for the last truck to arrive, the apartment building next to us started to get destroyed. First, soldiers came in and shot tear gas canisters into the building and the crowds around the building. Then the bulldozers started tearing down one side of the building as looters were still inside trying to find things to take. One of the tear gas canisters was set off right outside Mododo and we all suffered for it while loading the last truck. At this point we could hear rifles firing in the distance and decided we better get out of Mathare. We rode out hanging off the side of the last moving truck.
I have never seen devastation of this magnitude before in my life. Thousands of people given just a couple hours notice that there home was about to be destroyed. I have to imagine that Kenya’s policymakers have never seen the impact of this particular policy firsthand. If they had, they would have found a way to clear the riverbank without leaving so many of their people homeless and even more impoverished than they were already.
On a completely different note, when I first got back from Israel Matt had asked me if I wanted to try and do a 3-day fast with him. I agreed and we set a start date. It happened to be right after lunch on Thursday, the day we helped move everything out of Mododo. We decided that even though we’d had a very eventful day we were going to stick to our plan. The next day we moved everything again, this time into long-term storage. We bought the boys who helped us pizza for lunch and jealously watched them eat (about 30 hours in at this point). The next 2 days got progressively harder, but we kept ourselves busy by going to the gym, bowling, playing pool, and lots of reading. Finally it was time to break our fast and we went all out. We got 5 entrees between the 2 of us at one of the best restaurants in Nairobi. Unfortunately, our stomachs weren’t prepared to put down that kind of food and we had to take 2 entrees back with us. This ended up being a blessing as we had a second supper late that night.
During the fast I lost 8 pounds and Matt lost 13. We both gained about half of it back within a day and a half. We felt very weak by day 2 and only got weaker as the fast got longer. I can confidently say that this was the hardest mental challenge I’ve ever completed, and I know Matt would agree with me. I don’t know if I’ll do it again, but it’s good to know that my body can handle it if it needs to.
The End
Matt’s parents joined us for my last week in Nairobi and it was super fun to show them around the worksites. Now they’re off to Zanzibar and I continue on to Tanzania. The decision to join the BVC after college was undoubtedly one of the best decisions I’ve made. Now that it’s over, I can’t even fathom what my life would look like if I hadn’t done it. Saying goodbye to all the worksites was hard, but I feel mostly ready to come back home. It’ll be very interesting to see what’s changed. And I’m really looking forward to seeing family and friends. Not to mention the Chipotle/Coldstone stop on the way home from the airport.
Some of the highlights of my last weeks:
- Taking the Mododo kids swimming at a pool near where we live
- Alfajiri buying a cake for my last day of work there
- Dan’s Pub with Vincent, our boss from Mododo
- One last night out with Matt, ending with a climb to the top of the church’s belltower for a great view of the city
- Learning how to drive boda boda (motorcycle), courtesy of one of our favorite boda boda drivers from the year
- Solo Pizza Mojo visit while Matt and his parents were on safari
- Hash Grill chicken shawarma for my last meal in Nairobi
This marks the end of my time in the BVC. Just one more post with my plans for next year.
Thanks for reading! Hard to believe my first post was 9 months ago!