Into Kibera and off to Nyumbani Village near Katui

We drove into Kibera and were meet by Daniel one of the Staff at Lea Toto. He explained much of what this program does. See Nyumbani.org and click on Lea Toto.
One aspect is a day care for some of the many HIV positive children in this huge slum. Kibera is roughly 2 Kilometres squared with an estimated population of 1 million people. There are no residential buildings over a single story. The average home size in Kibera is 3 meters by 3 meters, with an average of five persons per dwelling. Urban services such as water or sanitation are minimal. There is an average of one pit latrine for every 50 to 500 people.

There is also a clinic where children receive medical help as well as meds and nutritional supplements for their HIV and AIDS positive bodies.







We also walked around the area and found this small orphanage/school that is little more than 15 by 15 feet with at least 12 kids.
On the left is Sister Joyce one of the Lea Toto staff who provide counseling for the many families. Then there is Martha the lady who is the Mother/Teacher for the children in this small home.


In the middle a volunteer who helps Martha with the children during the day.







This is a home where we spent some time. Sister councils the family where both the parents and two of the 4 children are HIV positive.





Trash is thrown anywhere and everywhere. Included in this are 'flying toilets', which are essentially plastic bags full of you know what that are thrown anywhere and everywhere.


Paul another one of the staff which run Lea Toto.



We then went back to the Nyumbani Village and their Clinic before going out to Kitui.


They not only test children there but also test blood for them from the surrounding Hospitals.

We then traveled out to Kitui which was an epic journey to say the least. Wish I had some photos to capture this. We left the orphanage at 4 and went to pick up one of the staff in town before going on towards Kitui. We did not get to the Village until 11:30 that evening after a hour long stop for dinner. It is supposed to only be a three hour journey. About two and a half were in the city and the rest was weaving on and off of two lane roads passing busses, and trucks. Much of the road was under construction and when it was the road detoured onto what seemed like a dirt and mud off-road vehicle course. What was incredible was that cars and busses were going on this road. Some was smooth or little was. Most had huge pot holes.
Got up at sunrise the next morning with Ed and walk around.

Ran into many of the Kids walking to school.





Kenyans win Gold Metals in the Olympics for good reason. They are fast.



They recycle almost everything even everyone's poop.

They are a 100 % organic farm. The water that they collect from wells are pumped via solar power into drip irrigation. This is all done in a semi-arid part of the country.
The guy in the middle scares away all of the Monkeys and Baboons.
Ed is the head of the volunteers who sold everything to come here.
This is Don a 77 year old man who has utilized wood cutting equipment donated by an Italian to make desks for the school. He is going to be here for three months.









Don with John who had just arrived from Cleveland that day will be there for 6 months.
Nicholas who heads not only this project but also Lea Toto is just amazing.





This is where they make the bricks that are utilized for the making of the buildings. The only thing that is brought in are the steel roofs for construction. They are even starting to make Italian style tile for the roofs. The goal is that within 5 years it will become fully self sustaining without any outside investment. It is quite amazing how they have identified a problem in society where children and grandparents have been orphaned by AIDS and how they have created this new sustainable village. Can't wait to go back and spend more time. This is my kind of place. So glad I got to spend some of the day there on my B-Day. By the way thanks for all the B-day love. We wanted to stay longer but there was no guaranteed ride back later so we returned. Luckily we went back another way that had much better roads. Even an newly paved one. We returned to the city and then went to a really good dinner at Cedars, an amazing Lebanese restaurant. Overall a life changing two days.