Life in Kibera Slum, Nairobi, Kenya
Copyright Susan Ogden
Mind blowing poverty...level upon level of poverty...dirt poor poverty to upscale poverty in Kibera. There is no way to really adequately describe the various levels of poverty in this place. Photographs help, but do not quite make understanding it really sink in without walking the streets and razor thin alley ways between the tin shack homes and “business” ventures along the streets. The filth....human excrement in the troughs, filthy water running through it to the stream below the slums....children barefoot and playing in the stream...food for sale, laying open on market stalls, curious looks of the inhabitants as we documented the plight and blight of this very much alive and thriving, albeit, at a cost to health and well being, place.
For the most part they were radiating joy at simply being alive...their eyes filled with hope and smiles filled with happiness for what little they have. What they have is their families and few...a very scant few, worldly possessions. Some mesmerized by our camera equipment...our pale skin and fair hair. They delighted in having their photo taken and then seeing their own faces for the first time!! They would get the BIGGEST smile ....a whole face smile and then laugh and become overcome with shyness when seeing their likeness on the back of the camera. Some asked to be photographed and others were too shy and politely declined...even tho they were curious and anxious to see the photos that their braver friends stepped forward for!
i will be working hard on my edits as soon as i have recovered from the jet lag...it was an exhausting trip of 12 hour days of shooting and collapsing into my mosquito netted bed in my little cottage in Kipkaren, high in the mountains of Kenya. Sometimes too tired to even eat....other times not eating because the menu simply did not agree with what my stomach thought of as a meal!
No...i do not eat lamb......or goat....and Ugali was not my cup of tea either, unless maybe with sugar and hot milk, as a sort of cereal....but that probably would have freaked them out since they eat it with stew that is more like a broth with tomatoes and beef and carrots and onion....so, PB&J was always a welcome meal!!
I am home in Hags Head...in my bed without the mosquito net which i affectionately termed my Princess Canopy! i was growing kind of fond of that, actually!! One mosquito bite in 2 weeks is pretty good...which reminds me....time for my malaria medication to finish off the prescription! Better safe than sorry as they say!
Have a beautiful Sunday....and rejoice in what you have!
Life in Kibera Slum, Nairobi, Kenya
Copyright Susan Ogden
Mind blowing poverty...level upon level of poverty...dirt poor poverty to upscale poverty in Kibera. There is no way to really adequately describe the various levels of poverty in this place. Photographs help, but do not quite make understanding it really sink in without walking the streets and razor thin alley ways between the tin shack homes and “business” ventures along the streets. The filth....human excrement in the troughs, filthy water running through it to the stream below the slums....children barefoot and playing in the stream...food for sale, laying open on market stalls, curious looks of the inhabitants as we documented the plight and blight of this very much alive and thriving, albeit, at a cost to health and well being, place.
For the most part they were radiating joy at simply being alive...their eyes filled with hope and smiles filled with happiness for what little they have. What they have is their families and few...a very scant few, worldly possessions. Some mesmerized by our camera equipment...our pale skin and fair hair. They delighted in having their photo taken and then seeing their own faces for the first time!! They would get the BIGGEST smile ....a whole face smile and then laugh and become overcome with shyness when seeing their likeness on the back of the camera. Some asked to be photographed and others were too shy and politely declined...even tho they were curious and anxious to see the photos that their braver friends stepped forward for!
i will be working hard on my edits as soon as i have recovered from the jet lag...it was an exhausting trip of 12 hour days of shooting and collapsing into my mosquito netted bed in my little cottage in Kipkaren, high in the mountains of Kenya. Sometimes too tired to even eat....other times not eating because the menu simply did not agree with what my stomach thought of as a meal!
No...i do not eat lamb......or goat....and Ugali was not my cup of tea either, unless maybe with sugar and hot milk, as a sort of cereal....but that probably would have freaked them out since they eat it with stew that is more like a broth with tomatoes and beef and carrots and onion....so, PB&J was always a welcome meal!!
I am home in Hags Head...in my bed without the mosquito net which i affectionately termed my Princess Canopy! i was growing kind of fond of that, actually!! One mosquito bite in 2 weeks is pretty good...which reminds me....time for my malaria medication to finish off the prescription! Better safe than sorry as they say!
Have a beautiful Sunday....and rejoice in what you have!