Looks can be deceiving

Today we went to Mathare Valley, which is the second largest slum in Africa, with our contact and friend Julius . While entering the slum we asked ourselves several times, "Is this really a sane place to be?", but after a couple of hours of walking around and a thousand, "how are you"'s later, we felt pretty safe. It seems there exists a strong unity in Mathare which made our visit a very pleasant one. On the other hand, it could of course be Allan's power of exuding positive energy:)

Mathare is divided into many parts, a few of them are: Kosovo, Somalia, Nigeria and the corner. The part called Nigeria is a place where they sell cocaine and other drugs in huge quantities. We were of course not allowed to take any pictures, somehow we felt unwelcome:) Somalia is mainly where the Somalian refugees have settled, and the relationship between the Kenyans and Somalians where tense. Kosovo was the part in Mathare where it had been the most violence, understandable according to the name.

After a few hours we met some friends of Julius who showed us around Mathare, and invited us to play football with the kids. They also showed us the recording studio where the youth were given the opportunity to make songs. Afterwards we were invited home to Ann, one of Julius's friends. She lived with her mother, sister, and brother in a room about the size of a small bedroom (approximately 7m2).

By witnessing Mathare inside out we where very humbled in terms of what we in the western world consider a problematic life. The smile they always managed to maintain even though life seems unbearable, is something we must admire. If the world would end today the Kenyans would be the last to die, they are what we can definitely call survivors.