Mathare and Angelica

Today we headed into the Mathare slum in Nairobi. We had a class at a community center there: 33 girls.

Above is a scene on the way. There has been a LOT of laundry hanging out this trip. The last few years have seen an extreme drought here. This appears to have finally broken. We have had rain, often very hard, every day we’ve been here. (Rwanda too, but it is more expected there.) As a result, no one’s laundry is drying. It rains again before the clothes dry. So it is hanging all over.

The store on the left, with the stack of big dirty white bags, is selling charcoal. You can see the cans of it on the white tarp. This is for cooking.

Below is a Mathare Uber. They run to catch up to the truck and hitch a ride.

Below is the courtyard of the building where we met.

We had 33 girls, 2 group leaders, and my team of 5 in the tiny room. It was hot and airless. Of course, first thing we had the girls do is stack the chairs.

As crowded as the room was, it was pretty chaotic. We struggled to keep the girls in their lines. OK, we failed miserably at that. It helps us if they stay put so we can tell who has done a technique and who we still need to get to. But we managed. Below, you can see Cedric, Wangari, and me all working with different girls.

Wangari and Cedric are both getting better at this every class.

The girl in the green T-shirt on the mattress, Yvonne, impressed the hell out of me. She could barely walk due to an ankle or foot injury. I offered to let her sit for the class and she wouldn’t do it. She wanted to participate. When it came time for volunteers for the ground work (in pic below) she was an early volunteer. I moved her to the other side to enable her to do it better on her bum ankle. But her dedication was impressive.

Below, Sarah is handing out keychains. We really try not to get into lots of trading keychains to get a pattern they like better. It could take all week. We offer a stack and let them pick one. Then they can trade among themselves.

Below that is a class picture. The girls are holding up keychains and/or menstrual pads. I gave away both. I also bought lunch for the girls. In many cases, it would be the only meal they have all day. Food scarcity is a big problem in the area. Girls will be hungry and start trading sex for food.

One girl is holding a toddler. The toddler was with us the entire time, with someone holding her. I don’t know if she was a little sister or daughter of the girl in the red/white knit hat. I keep telling myself “little sister” but know deep down I could easily be wrong.

Afterward, I spoke to Daniel and Francis, who run the program. Francis had been to a similar class a few years before. He was impressed that our class was far better, due to being designed exactly for these girls and the risks they face. I said that was my goal. The entire curriculum was developed for at-risk African girls and what they face.

Last Saturday, we had a cancellation in our schedule. Cedric and I talked about who we could call to fit in. I suggested we go back to the Angelica Children’s Home. When we were there for our second class of this trip, Marian said some girls were taking exams that day. I suggested we go back and at least have one class with those girls, since it is such an extremely high-risk area. (As is Mathare, but we hadn’t been there yet.)

We had 10 girls who had missed, plus a couple girls who wanted to repeat the class, and a couple more adults.

One of the adults was Marian’s mother, in the red shawl. Marian, in the blue track suit, had met us before. She and her mom run the facility.

One of the very first techniques, I was working with the 55-ish-year-old mother. She successfully yanked her hand out of my grip, circled around, and punched me right in the groin. She was mortified! The two younger women, Marian and the woman in pink in the lower right, both nearly died laughing. All the girls heard about it and were laughing too. Honestly, so was I, just from her reaction. One of the perils of the trade, as far as I’m concerned.

After the class, we spoke about our intersecting worlds. They are doing so much for the girls (and the few boys they have) to keep them off the streets and safe. They provide food, shelter, and love. Missing any one of these can drive a girl in the area to selling herself. My self-defense classes can’t protect a girl from that.