This was the question I asked myself on Saturday. I travelled to Nairobi Saturday morning on a matatu - it was the first time I'd been on a matatu since coming to Kenya and I must confess I prefer travelling by mat than by car! We zoomed from Naivasha to Nairobi with the usual over speeding and erratic driving – love it! I got to read an entire paper... a rare occurrence these busy days.
When I arrived in Nairobi I walked into the centre of town and got on a bus to Langatta to go and see a friend. There was a massive free reggae concert being held near her house (it was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) so there were hordes of young people flocking to Langatta… meaning that as we came back to town we got stuck in what is known here as “the jam” – i.e complete nose to tail traffic from junction to junction. In the afternoon we headed to Ngong Racecourse to a craft fair where there was supposed to be lots of charities with stalls selling their products. I wanted to do market research to see what kind of crafts were on the market…. to try and figure out what competition there would be for Fuhomi CSWs if they were to start making some kinds of crafts. As we arrived, I quickly realised that this was no charity affair. The majority of the stands were manned by Europeans selling highly priced, exclusive ranges of various furniture and ornaments - on one stall there was a lampshade selling for around £500! There was the occasional charity dotted amongst the sea of overpriced goods but they were few and far between. But the strangest thing was -- out of all of the masses of people at the event -- around 80% of them must have been European. It was bizarre -- hardly a Kenyan in sight! Some girls walked past wearing hotpants -- I did a double take -- if a Kenyan girl wore those in Naivasha they would probably be forced, physically, by other people to cover up! I felt like I'd walked into a summer fair being held at an exclusive private school in rural England. It seemed most people were ex-patriots or missionaries. And that's another thing I don't get -- missionaries are supposed to get on a level with the people they are trying to reach -- but this kind of event was so beyond the level of normal Kenyans it was ridiculous! I know I was there to do market research but I still felt strange and extremely uncomfortable. The thing which really took the biscuit for me was when I was stood at a cheese stall, next to a rather large European lady. I watched in disbelief as the lady shed tears because there was a particular kind of cheese she could never get in Kenya but had managed to get at this particular stall. "It's so hard... it's so hard” she sniffled - without a hint of irony! I felt physically sick and had to drag myself away from the stall before I said something offensive!
Once I had gathered all the information I needed from the charities which had managed to get into this exclusive event and I had endured enough of white Kenya, I escaped onto a matatu and went to meet another friend further down Ngong Road. Once I had met her and her friends, we had to wait for another matatu to get to her house. By this time another jam had hit so we stood on the street corner, watching packed mats creep past us and wondering when we would eventually get home! We began to sing songs which we had sung as kids in Sunday school -- getting more than a few amused looks from people around us waiting for the mat! Back at my friend's place it was good to just talk… and talk… and talk…. and talk some more to catch up on the last few months.
On Sunday I went to my friend's Church – Mavuno Church which is a plant from Nairobi Chapel. They meet in a massive tent on some land next to Mombasa Road, on your way to the airport. It was an inspiring service -- as it is Christmas the preacher was speaking about how Jesus is the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 6) and how we cannot have peace in our lives unless we have Jesus in our lives. The church seems quite active in their community as well -- they have been buying beds and mattresses for prisoners in the local prisons as in Kenya, criminals have to sleep on the floor as there are no provisions for them. In the evening I came back to Naivasha – thoroughly shattered but satisfied from a good weekend.
Today I did some goalsetting with the interns for their work with commercial sex workers. They were telling me some things which really shocked me -- and I thought that I had gone beyond being shocked when it comes to this kind of thing. Apparently there are three categories of clients that CSWs have. The lowest range are usually truck drivers who will pay between 20 and 100ksh for a job ( around 20p - £1). The middle range pay £2 - £5 -- they are often the drivers of the tourist buses which come to Naivasha to take tourists around Hells Gate National Park and Lake Naivasha. Then you have the upper range – rich men, tourists and European flower farmers. These guys pay £10 and above… but apparently the Europeans are the worst when it comes to abuse. They use the women in the worst ways and make them do disgusting things -- and then underpay them if they don't have “ experience" in these things. The European flower farmers are also paying rent boys for sex it seems. Men who are HIV+ will pay around £100 for a CSW to sleep with them without a condom... that is those who disclose their status. Others will not disclose their status until afterwards -- 1 guy left a note saying "it was nice spending time with you and here’s some money for your coffin.” and the stories go on and on…..
The good thing is though that the interns really want to make a difference to these women's lives. They love these ladies -- they want to spend time just listening to them because a lot of these women just need someone to be there to listen to all of the stress that they are undergoing and offer an understanding ear when they need to talk about the abuse they have endured. The interns are going to try and get hold of female condoms, rape alarms and other things which will help the CSWs protect themselves. But most of all the interns are keen to show these women that they are not judging them -- some of these CSWs find it hard to believe that the team are Christians because the only experience they have had of Christians in the past is judgement. They think all Christians are supposed to be judgemental people who live their lives by a set of rules… so they question whether the team are really Christians as they have been so loving and accepting of them! It's good that these women are getting a real encounter with Jesus -- not a fake one like they have had in the past. The team are also looking to do lots of market research to figure out the best way of helping these women to get regular, stable, sufficient employment. It's going to take time but the vision is there. When you know that there are girls on the streets and in the clubs just a few minutes drive away, selling their bodies for 20p - you have to hold on to that vision and strive to make it happen.
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