--I wanted to share some insights about Tenderfeet from a recent visitor.
The visitor is Cheryl Fyfe (pictured right with Mama Margaret), a retired nurse from Canada who has been traveling to Ugandan and Sudanese orphanages as a volunteer the past 8 years. Here is an article about Cheryl and the work she does. She also has written about her experiences here.
She has seen a great deal of poverty up close. Cheryl recently visited Tenderfeet and wrote three accounts about her experience. Below is the first one, reprinted with Cheryl's permission.
Kibera - What can I say. It is a different world. I don't think you could ever prepare yourself for it. But it is a place I knew I had to see, I really need to understand Africa the good and the bad. Kibera is one of the largest slums areas in Africa. It is a frightening area, an area simmering with hatred and despair, a place of dark ugliness an area.
Tensions are boiling just under the surface ready to explode at any time. But it is also a place that houses some of the most courageous people I have ever met and a beacon of light shines through the darkness of despair, a school called Tenderfeet. This is my goal to see this school.
Edwin had come to pick me up at Mayfield, the place I am staying we walked to catch a local bus, crowded mini van, as we left our area we passed a massive beautiful Baptist Church whose congregation numbers in the thousands. Getting aboard the bus is an experience, shoved like sardines in this van, when someone needs to get off the conductor who hangs out the door pounds on the van, why couldn't he just tell the driver to stop? Because the radio is blasting so loud no one could hear anything! The area was becoming poorer and poorer, shacks of corrugated steel,piles of garbage strewn about and soon we were in the middle of Kibera.
Edwin is a tall strong young African man who was my guide, he is associated with an organization in USA called Lahash, and he is a godsend I thanked my lucky stars I had him to help me. He instructed me to stay very close to him which believe me I was more than willing to do. My feminist attitudes flew out the window- and I was so thankful he was there with me. We went down this rutted little alley into a courtyard full of garbage. We picked our way through the garbage and came to another gate of tin and knocked. We entered another area with tin shacks and I could not believe it I was at the school called Tenderfeet. A school in the middle of the slums run by a remarkable woman called Margaret.
I have never admired someone so much as I do her. She leaves the security of her home and travels to Kibera to teach the children of the slums. No charge, the school is free to the children, children with HIV are welcomed and treated the same as other children. In Nairobi there are still very great tribal tensions, and since the elections they have spilled over into violence. Margaret was telling me that just a short time ago just in the street outside of the school 8 people were killed. In the past Margaret has had to move school three times, due to violence. Not too long ago school was attacked and ransacked everything destroyed, desks smashed papers destroyed for what? Because she is from a different tribe.
Another time a gang of thugs brought kerosene ready to burn the school down she was inside, not knowing if she was about to be burned alive. She prayed and one of the thugs realized she had taught him as a child and she and school were spared. This remarkable woman was still there the next day to help with the children. Now this is courage! As she was telling me her story we could hear a lot of screaming and shouting, the noise was getting closer and closer, Edwin told me to stay exactly where I was, I certainly did as I was told. Edwin came back and said there was demonstrations in the street and it would not be safe on the streets. We sat huddled in the school and we were speaking in whispers not to advertise the fact there was a white person among them. We smelt smoke and watched as a cloud of black smoke very close by billowed up into the air. They were burning tires. After an eternity it seemed the commotion drifted away then frighteningly they would be back and it seemed they were right outside the school. After about an hour or so the rabble drifted away and Edwin went outside again to see if it was safe to walk.
We would not be visiting any other place today, as Edwin said it was too volatile. We started walking rather quickly trying to make our way to a main street where we would catch transportation. We walked past railroad tracks that had been destroyed by the crowds, it was an area strewn with garbage. We walked past a group of 5 young guys, who started shouting Edwin told me to walk ahead of him and to stay close, it was rather nerve wracking- Luckily they did not follow us for long. We then went through a huge market bustling with life, the people still looked sullen and I moved along as quickly as I could. The noise of the rioting crowds had quieted down. We finally reached the area to catch the van I breathed a sigh of relief.
I was sitting in the middle of three seats with Edwin beside me and another young man on the other side. The young man began to crowd me a bit, then all of a sudden Edwin leaned over me yelled at the guy and grabbed his arm and started wrestling with him I was confused. What on earth was Edwin doing he grabbed the guys coat and searched the pockets, by this time the guy was screaming at Edwin and fighting back- he escaped into the streets and Edwin grabbed my purse and showed me how the guy was unzippering my purse, using his coat as a shield. Even Edwin was a bit shaken he kept saying "That was close".
This is Nairobi -- I am sure some are saying are you crazy to be doing this? My answer I may be but it is something I have to do for I have met remarkable courageous people working in desperate conditions and remember this is their everyday life. I need to understand their life. I will go back Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday if conditions settle down a bit. Now I have a greater understanding of the area and certainly understand the need for help needed for this school.
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