Pic: Here is a picture of Uhuru park in downtown Nairobi to start off this blog. Uhuru Park is famous as many historical protests have taken place there, comparable to the mall in DC. As you can see, downtown Nairobi looks the same as many other cities in the states!
So, this blog is going to continue my life in Nairobi series of blogs that I started with the blog about my family there. Instead of events, these blogs are supposed to focus on what it's like to live in Nairobi. Most of this will be pictures, but I will be writing a little bit about picture themes. I hope you enjoy!
What do Kenyans do for work? Industrial sector in Nairobi and other pictures
While my Nairobi family has steady jobs in the city with paychecks, they are relatively lucky for Kenyan society. Many Kenyans are either out of work or have to find/create work for themselves. For a field trip back in Nairobi, one of our professors took us to the industrial area of Nairobi where all of the corporations headquarters are housed in addition to the informal industrial sector.
Near the corporations, we were unable to take pictures for security reasons (PR security as well as actually security, I'm sure . . .), but there were many men standing out side of the gates with hope that there would be odd jobs they could do that day. My professor said that many people get up at four or five in the morning to travel an hour or more (sometimes on foot) in hopes of finding a day’s work, and then go back late at night after either finding work or waiting all day in hopes for work only to try again the next day.There are sometimes construction jobs for people as large corporations keep building large, Western style headquarters in this area. We couldn't stop in the formal sector, again, for security reasons (the corporations wouldn't like it if we got out to 'tour' the formal industrial sector). The formal sector shows the ignorance of corporations for the communities around them: while the buildings are nice, there are huge gates around the buildings and the public area surrounding the corporations is a mess- dirty and not well-kept up.
The informal sector was equally as shocking to me as the men waiting for work in the formal sector. The informal sector is largely men making goods from scrap metal and women making crafts or selling the work of the men. And even though "men making goods from scrap metal" comes out easily enough on the keyboard in front of me, the process is dawn to dusk back-breaking work: most of the men lean over pieces of metal they are working on and pound . . . all. day. long. Here are a few pictures from this day:
Pic: Here is a picture of some men working with the metal. This man in the front was basically pounding out the metal bowls you see nearby into perfect ovals. You can't see it, but in the back of this picture, there are many more men in very close proximity also pounding away at the metal. You can hear many people pounding when you are standing where I was.
Pics: Here are many final products of the men working in informal industry. They look like anything you would buy at a department store for the most part.
Pic: These are metal suitcases also made by the men. I never saw women working with molding the metal, but I saw a few of them spray-painting these suitcases. My host parents in Nairobi says that many Kenyan families give their children these suitcases to take to boarding school, almost like a right of passage.
Pic: Here is a woman making baskets. Isn't it beautiful? I think she's been doing this for a while . . .
Transportation work
Pic: So, I can't remember if I've put this picture on the blog before, but this van thing is a matatu, the method of transportation that I am constantly talking about! The conductor is the one with his arm hanging out of the window, ready to open the door for exiting passengers. This matatu is relatively bland in comparison to some matatus that are painted all sorts of colors and have large decalls. Many young men find work driving matatus or working as conductors. All matatus play loud music, unless their stereo is broken, that is. Many people say that matatu workers are usually caught up in drugs, although I'm not sure how many drivers/conductors this applies to. Even though the driving is sometimes crazy, I always feel safe on a matatu.
Pic: Here, I am sitting in the front seat of one matatu (with a cracked windshielf) and looking at a bunch of other matatus waiting to depart from this matatu stage. In Mombasa, conductors wear red shirts (Nairobi is less formal).
Pic: Another form of what I'm calling 'transportation work' are people carrying heavy things on carts like this man. Many people do this on the side of the street both here in Mombasa and in Nairobi. These aren't air-filled balloons he is carrying or even clothing . . . his cart is filled with . . . potatoes. This must have been a light day for him as many workers, especially in Mombasa work shirtless because of the heat. He also is not running as some couriers do on their way.
(End work section) Garbage . . .
Garbage is a major problem in Nairobi and in Kenya/the developing world generally. I know that garbage is not a pleasant thing to hear about, but it is one of the everyday things that one has to interact with in a developing country, or at least Kenya, I think, so I thought I would share it. Garbage fills up ditches, rivers and markets. One day my walk to school in Nairobi, I saw a few pieces of electronic garbage lying together on the side of the road. I don’t think it is going anywhere anytime soon, or was it organized to be there in the first place, but it gets bigger and bigger regardless and only electronic- no other kind of garbage- joins the pile!
Pic: Pile of electronic garbage!
Also, on the news the other day, there was a story about how a particular garbage pile next to a military air base was becoming a problem. Because of the garbage, many birds, storks in particular, were flying in the air above the dump. There were enough birds that safety of flights flying over the dumps in airplanes was in question: if a bird got sucked into a plane’s propeller, the plane would likely crash and burn as the storks are fairly large. There was even an animated visual on multiple news stations of this happening! They removed this dump because of this hazard, but many other dumps that pose threats to poor people, instead of the military, still remain. Here are some garbage pictures . . .
Pic: Enough said: garbage in the market. . . not all areas are this bad, but many are.
Pic: The gentleman in the back of this picture, is, yep, burning garbage. This is a common sight on non-city highways and in ditches. I've also seen garbage burning in a few fields in Mombasa, especially next to slum residences. I'm still not sure about the economic incentive to work burning garbage, but I'm guessing some of the people are paid to collect garbage and then do away with it by burning . . . something for me to find out. Also, if you look closely here, the young boy with the luggage has one of the suitcases from above! It is the green rectangle on the end that looks like it has straps attached.
Pic: A stream with garbage; I hope you can see it; I know it is kind of small!
Pic: A ditch that resembles many here- filled with garbage. The ditches also have another more valuable resource- water. I see people filling buckets with this water sometimes . . . and one time a water bottle in a ditch with a little less garbage, but garbage nonetheless . . . I sincerely hope that this person had a filter/purifier!
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Okay, well, that's it for now. Another blog on Mombasa should come soon . . . thanks for reading!
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