Yesterday morning we went to the UN compound in Nairobi which is apparently the second largest UN base in the world (the US headquarters are bigger). The grounds were gorgeous though and we had a few lectures from people involved with UN habitat which does slum upgrading and water and sanitation development. It was intensely interesting and I took an obscene amount of notes that I still can't figure out what I'm ever going to do with...
In the Afternoon we went to Kibera (the second largest slum in all of Africa) to see some of the projects that UN habitat was putting in. About 1/3 of Nairobi's population lives in Kibera but it only takes up 1% of residential land so you can immagine how small and how packed together the little tin houses were. I wish I knew how to describe it, and the people we met there, but I've tried a whole bunch of times - and I think there just aren't words for it. Maybe once I've had some more time to process it, I'll be less tongue tied. Anyway it was a really incredible experience in both a good and a bad way, and if you google search 'kibera' there are some pictures of the houses.
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