Naivasha at night

My last night in Kenya. We decided to go to the streets to meet the CSWs on their own turf. I was more than mildly apprehensive. At night Naivasha becomes a different place, a darker, more sinister place. There are no street lamps in town...just gloomy light from the various boarding houses, bars and clubs that come alive at night. Lorres and trucks line the streets - its trucker city with many drivers making the town their stop over point on their way to other parts of Kenya. We set off at 10 with the interns and 2 former CSWs who Fuhomi helped find jobs. They seem excited to show us their former turf...I'm just nervous about what I'm going to see. We unload out of the car at around 10pm and stroll along the street towards a bar. Within less than a minute our guide has met with some of her former collegues. She introduces us and we begin to talk. A small crowd of women gradually surrounds us...wondering who these people are who just want to talk to them and listen to them. There's the whole range...teenage girls, young mums, older ladies. It seemed like a communal outpouring of pain as they talked animatedly about how when rape them they can't go to the police, how the police accuse them of rape, how men steal their belongings, how people yell "prostitute" at them in the street, how they fear their kids growing up and meeting them in town and night and finding out what their mothers do for a living, how they get drunk and take drugs as a way of escape, how they have to do this job to feed their children...I felt a bit powerless as I listened to this mountain of problems. But I could see the very act of standing and listening with respect, treating them like human beings was having an impact. We listened and listened and after around an hour we prayed. Prayed for a way out of this hell, for provision for their kids, for healing for their pain, for God's love to penetrate their lives. It must have seemed a strange sight. A crowd of prostitutes praying on a street corner. But also something amazing I think. Afterwards we went into a bar to relax a little and take in a bit of the night life. Seedy would be a large understatement when describing that place. Prostitutes were dancing provocatively on the dancefloor, trying to show themselves off. Another heavily pregnant woman was sat at the bar, talking to a potential client. After a while they disappeared into a room at the back...coming back after 5 minutes once business was done. A young girl, no older than 17 sat with a sad face at the back of the room - new to the job it seems. The only people out that night were drunk men and CSWs. And there are so many CSWs - flocks of them...each group with their own area - teenagers, young women in their 20s, older ladies... The interns have been at a club making contact with other women...there were only CSWs in that club tonight. Apparantly one woman was dancing trying to attract clients - but she was so pregnant - and so drunk. It was a pitiful sight. After a while we decide to head back to the car - and back home. It feels good going home with our two giudes. Knowing we don't have to leave them on the streets anymore. I just wish they weren't the only 2 that night. The whole atmosphere of that place at night seems oppressive, dirty, hopeless.

There is so much work to be done.