Kibera

The past week was very trying emotionally. We’ll start with our house visits we did last week.

On Tuesday and Wednesday the team split up and did house visits in Kibera. We were trying to go into the homes of the children that we are teaching in our classes. It is very eye opening to walk into the homes (and by homes I mean a 15’x15’ shack made dried mud that usually houses 6 or more people). These people are so thankful for us to take the time to go into their homes, listen to their struggles, and pray for them. The thing that tugs on my heartstrings the most is the fact that every time I walk in Kibera I get to leave. These children, these single mothers, and these disabled men live here. To these people, Kibera is not a picture on the internet it is not a statistic; it is not a 10-day mission trip visit to make you feel good about yourself. To these people, Kibera is a reality. It is what they wake up to everyday and go to sleep to every night. The poverty that they are entangled in controls almost every aspect of their life…but they have joy.

Read Psalm 1.

“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, not sits at the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and n his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.”

The Christians in Kibera are like the tree in that psalm. They draw their source of happiness and life from God. They do not rely on some sort of circumstance, acceptance letter, salary, vehicle, or family situation to have joy. They have the Creator of the universe, the Creator of every molecule, the Creator of physics, language, and art as their Lord and Savior, and that is more than they need. After spending over a month in Kibera, it is obvious to me that there is no correlation between happiness and material possessions.

On one of our house visits last week I went with pastor Wycliffe to do some first aid for different people close to the church. The first house we visited had a child about 2-years-old with some very infected scrapes. In the US, we would have but some antibacterial cream and a band-aid to keep this from happening, but these people do not have the luxury of band-aids. They do not have clean water to wash the scrapes. Washing an injury with water would be like pouring the bacteria directly on the wound. When we arrived, I washed the scrape, put some antibiotic cream on it, and used a band-aid to keep it from getting even more infected. The infection was all over the child’s left shin and the bottom of her right foot. I received word from one of the members on the team who did a follow-up visit this week that the child’s infection was completely gone. Praise the Lord!

On that same day, we went to a home where a man had been beaten by his son. The son used some sort of rod over the man’s head and caused an extremely severe gash in the man’s head. When we walked into the home, the first thing I noticed was the blood all over the sheets and floor. All he had to stop the bleeding was a piece of gauze. Somehow (despite seeing his skull at the deepest part of the gash) I cleaned the injury and re-bandaged it using the supplies we had. Pastor Wycliffe told me later that week that the man finally was able to go to a hospital to have it stitched.

Last week was extremely eye-opening. This is where these people live. This poverty is a reality.

He must increase, i must decrease,

Justin