20p a time?

Here’s some things the Fuhomi interns were telling me over the past few days…

"Prices for commercial sex workers in Naivasha

20 – 100KSH (20p - £1) – usual clients – truck drivers, drunk men from local clubs

200 – 500KSH (£2 - £5) – usual clients – local men from all backgrounds, including pastors and church elders.

500ksh + is paid by tourist drivers and tourists themselves. Foreign tourists pay more – Europeans demand more from the women and are the most abusive. They pay less if the woman doesn’t know many positions.

Prices charged also depend on appearance. The more physically attractive a woman is – the more she can demand from a client.

HIV+ men pay 10,000ksh and above for sex without a condom. They pay to go “freestyle”. Some men tell CSWs their status before – some tell them afterwards. One left a note – “it was nice spending time with you – this money is for your coffin.” Some clients will refuse to use a condom. Other clients tear their own condoms. Some CSWs refuse to sleep with such clients whilst others think of their kids and go ahead with the job.

Some clients buy CSWs food instead of paying them – they’ll buy them food but deduct it from the salary. Other clients are violent towards the women, sexually assaulting them and then refusing to pay them. Some clients steal CSWs’ money, their clothes or their phones. Ironically it is the CSWs who are arrested the most by the police who charge them with soliciting and even rape!

CSWs do their business in clubs in town or lodgings. Places like Kafico, Total Bliss, Heritage, Sweet Banana, Fischers, Antonios, Silver Hotel, Guest Inn, Blues, Crayfish, Fishermans, Gilgil…they’re full of CSWs at night time."

I think this speaks for itself. There are over 2000 women in this business in Naivasha alone and the number is growing. I feel kind of powerless in what seems to be a sea of desperation at times. With food prices high these days, many ladies in the flower farms are working during the day in the farm and then going to town at night to supplement the 150ksh a day wages they get picking flowers.

Think about this stuff the next time you buy flowers from Sainsburys…or Tescos….or Asda…or Morrisons…all these supermarkets buy flowers from Naivasha.

As for Fuhomi – things continue. Some ex CSWs are still working for a local NGO – they have been given work until the end of January and then will go on a 2 month break until the boss gets back from abroad. Unless they can find a market for their goods – then they’ll be able to stay on longer. Which would be good as I really don’t want to accommodate the idea of these women who’ve come so far having to go back to the streets in order to feed their kids.

I sometimes wonder if I stepped into a parallel universe when I arrived in this place. People are the same the world over so theres little difference in a way in that I have friends, we hang out, we watch movies, we take the mickey out of each other, we go to the office and work, we meet for lunch…

But the day to day challenges of life are on a different level…in some parts of the world people are complaining about having to buy Tesco’s own brand tomato sauce rather than Heinz. Here some of my friends’ are wondering where tomorrow’s dinner is going to come from. I don’t want to back up the horrific misportrayal of helpless poverty stricken Africa that the Western media gives because that isn’t what its like at all. But the West’s financial mess is really having a bad knock on effect here…high food and fuel prices are draining people’s salaries. And its damn stressful living like that. Having to be responsible for so many members of your family because you are the only wage earner. Having to figure out how to pay the house rent when you only have enough money for food. It’s really, really stressful. And I can see the strain on my friends faces at times. I don’t think I had appreciated the emotional stress of having so little money in a world of high prices. It means sleepless nights for many. It makes me think yes I need to speak up against things like the European Partnership Agreements which are unfairly forced on African countries, damaging their economies and stopping development. I need to speak up against corruption. I need to give from the money I have which I use to buy crap which I rarely use or wear just a few times a year…I need to use that money more wisely. I was listening to a guy I’ve gotten to know over the past few weeks talk about how God gives us things, gives us money - and sometimes takes them away – but for a good purpose as he can use what we may see as a loss to be somebody elses gain. This guy’s phone was stolen last week and that is how he was looking at it…he’s a cook for one of the ex-pats around here and quite a philosophical one too. I’ve been humbled by his humility – and his wisdom as well. Quiet wisdom – worth listening to. Some of my friends here …they have dreams of going to uni, of getting jobs and doing something they enjoy in life…but these dreams are too often frustrated…that’s more of a loss than I think I’ll probably ever experience. The loss of hope…I guess it what drives me on with this kind of work.