Its The Little Things Matter

When most people think of going on a mission  trip ,the first thing they do is fundraise ,everyone wants to come to Africa with a buck load of money ,to help the community they are going to live in ,uum that’s great economic sustenance is necessary  for Africa !!!!

But what most people  tend to forget is , by flying the thousands of mile to be here, smile ,give hugs and cry together with the Kids in Kibera ,Embul-bul,Mukuru kwa njega,is that by just doing all that and showing they care, is more than enough. A famous African writer once said “a person in the rain is reluctant to go back “, the problem with most African households is that we are not good with the heart to heart stuff, we don’t know how to be compassionate.

St fintans came visiting a while back in 2009 ,(and are due back this year to Kenya), and we had journeyed to this forsaken place in the middle of Oloolua forest where there is this school that  educates the most destitute of children with the kind support that you offer.

As soon as we got off the bus, the kids were all over us little angels smiling at you and holding your hand, makes you feel like a “rock star” and we took a tour of this institution in Nkaimurunya, before the fun and games started ,singing games back and forth .

As we left Nkaimurunya I couldn’t help but feel the tears, sense of satisfaction on the faces of this Irish group for the great work they had just achieved, they never came with money to build a school or lavish things, the much they had in material wealth, they gave whole heartedly, but this day they had given this 220+ kids the greatest gift of all ‘LOVE” and surpasses all else.

Sign Bigfoot

NOTHING GOING ON NGO'S

Non governmental organizations were the new phenomenal that hit kenya in the early 80's ,with the promise of bridging the gap left by the goverment where it came to providing for the communities ,

and so they came and came and billions of shillings solicited from good hearted and hard working people from all over the world started pouring in, but as the good organizations kept coming the only thing most of them did is setup test groups that they could get to show their donors of how successful their projects are and the rest of the cash was tabulated as administrative cost ,this orgs pay so well in terms of salaries that it is every ones dream to be employed by one of them .

It is so amaizing at times how this institutions are disconnected from the people they purport to serve that some can be seen hosting lunch or events at the hilton to talk about the problems facing people at the slum or even throw a capacity building & training  seminar and charge ksh 5000,for it ,how dare you charge 5000/- and this people you represent live on less than $1 dollar a day.

Last week alot of people insulted Tray Songz (an american artist) for twitting how he is thanking the Lord for being so blessed not to go through what the people in Kibera are going through,the same tweet was picked by cess and makbul on capital fm and it is beyond ridiculous how many people  bashed tray songs on air and yet have never been in there to see what the clamour about the biggest slum in Africa is all about ,mind you this is a slum with over 15 000 know NGO's puRpotedly helping communities in there and handling over ksh 6.7 billion a year,and nothing has changed in there for the last two decades apart from the increase in population "shame on you" no wonder your acronyn stands for "NOTHING GOING ON".

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THE BUNDU BASHER: Immersion safari

THE BUNDU BASHER: Immersion safari: "'are we going to be attacked in kibera?' is the question that is common with many guests that we have on our trips to Africa's largest ..."

mine

Immersion safari

"are we going to be attacked in kibera?" is the question that is common with many guests that we have on our trips to Africa's largest slum and "no and i will be with you all the way "is my answer to help calm those nerves that are looking to walk into an area,that has a population of 1million people all living on less than $1 a day .

"kindly carry your camera and leave what you dont need in the bus and whenever you want to take a picture with someone ask if its OK." is always my advice before we start the walk down hill from the C.B.S(Christian brothers society) Mary Rice center i always see the look in their eyes  a mixture of fear and curiosity, not knowing what it is like down there,and 20 mins into our walk in kibera and they get to "hop skip and jump "on the filth running through the slum and squeeze into small paths in between houses made of mud and iron sheets that reality starts to sink in ,how privileged they are to have loving parents,friends,a wife ,a husband who cares for them.The few that are able to finish the 1 hr walk always come back with heavy hearts and tears in there eyes,and the hardest thing for me is to tell them its okay ,when they have seen people living without any sanitary facilities  (flying toilets) not sure where todays "meal" will come from and they are still smiling and shouting "how are you" every time they pass by.

All said and done its putting that felling of seeing how blessed you ,and making you fully appreciate life that i do this everyday and woudnt do anything else because one day i was like them and someone game a chance.