GO BEARS!

For those of you concerned about the absence of NFL in africa and my withdrawal symptoms fear no more my friend Taryn has somehow managed to get a satellite feed or something because we're pulling an all nighter to watch it...which is why I'm posting today not tomorrow because tomorrow what I write may be uncomprehendable. Due to the eight hour time difference we'll be watching the kickoff at 2:30 am monday morning...don't you wish you were here?

Anyway, to more interesting things for the rest of the population who could care less about football...kerianne this is for you...I just finished my first project proposal. Its kind of scary that this project is based on most of my research but oh well! Bridget will still look it over and submit the final copy but I am responsible for a lot of what's written in it. So the next big thing is a trip out of the smoggy city! I think my lungs must have a pound of exhaust fumes in them by now. We're going to Western province, near Lake Victoria, to help with some mediation training and check up on how things are going there.

Last week was mostly research, but I did get to visit Kibera. Most people now say that it's the biggest slum in Africa, maybe the world but I've had people give me varying numbers on its size. I think it's around 1 million people. Anyway, there's a pretty big microfinance bank called Jamii Bora that has a branch there so I was visiting some of the businesses of their clients. We went to a "hospital" that had a blood testing lab. Pretty basic looking but they offer the tests at half cost. Then there was a lady who bough a maize grinder which was busy working the whole time I was there since the staple food here is pretty much maize flour and water cooked into something that looks like mashed potatoes but definitely isn't. The last place we went to was a restaurant where I was fed what looked like green mashed potatoes and maize. Really they add some green vegetable to mashed potatoes and maize flour and it actually tasted pretty good but not as good as actually eating mashed potatoes. What I saw puts to rest any thought someone might have that the poor aren't willing to work or don't want to work. No one wants to live in Kibera or any other slum in Nairobi for that matter. Given even a small amount people are willing to work. The first loans Jamii Bora will give out are capped at 10,000 shillings or $160 CDN but you have to have at least half that amount in a savings account. Its pretty hard to get ahead here, walking through only a small part of the market in Kibera you see dozens of people selling the same thing and really low prices. It makes you wonder how much people can actually make from their business selling vegetables or used clothes. But lots of people are optimistic and still have hope. If they can somehow get their kids through primary school with good grades maybe they'll get a bursary for secondary school. The main thing is keeping kids busy so that they don't get involved with crime which is a huge problem here, like any city I guess.

That's all for now, I'm off to watch some football (not soccer)!