Planet of Kristina: september 2010

We met a guy who calls himself The Lion. He is a football player, who lives in a middle class house not far from where we are staying. It is less than a year since he moved away from the place he grew up; the Mathare - the next biggest slum in Kenya.

He wants to show Sigri and me his childhood home, and assures us that it is safe, 'cause he knows everyone there. We are eager to go, but a bit concerned aswell. We know the conditions in Mathare is really bad. With nothing but our camera and (luckily Sigri remembered to bring some) money we find a Matatu and head of to the slums.

Music. LOUD reggae music. The Matatus always play really loud music. The road is bumpy. The man who have the tickets and controls the door is halfways outside the bus, door open, trying to get more passengers. Soon, the Matatu is full.

The boy next to me starts singing to the reggae song. He has never met a white woman before, he tells me. "It's my lucky day".

The Lion waves us out of the bus and we walk a bit. Loads of trash. We are standing on a height, looking over the huge slum. The houses are small and close together. They look very unstable, One floor, holes in the walls and only one room in each house. There is dirt, plastic, shit, rotten food and torn clothes on the ground and in the river. The smell of excrements hits me. How can anyone live here?!

We walk down some stairs, meet some friends of the Lion, walk on, try not to step into too much crap. The kids yell to us. "HOW ARE YOU?" They run towards us and repeat the question. It is almost like a song. "How are you. Picture" they say and smile. They surround us and we take many pictures of them. We walk on. Around every corner the children smiles and ask us "how are you?" and want to pose for us. They are so adoreable! The Lion introduces us to many people, his friends and his family. We visit some of the houses. One tiny room. Dirty. Some posters on the wall. One bed.

There is almost no space between the houses and we watch our steps all the time, not to step in excrements or chickens. There are chickens, hens, dogs, ducks and pigs just walking around, trying to find something to eat. The pigs and dogs look for food in the brown, polluted river. They look very unhealthy. The kids play right next to them, not afraid of falling into the river.

Some of the kids go to school, the tiny school with one room and to benches. There are many kids who just do nothing, just play, hang around by the river and don't have any scool or program to go to. Many of them are orphans, who have no adults who care for them. These kids are most likely to grow up to be criminals or prostitutes. They have no education, so it's hard to get a proper job. The rent is 1000 Kenyan chilling a month, and they have to have those money to have a house to sleep in. To some, selling their body or dealing with drugs are the only oppurtunity.

And still, this kids are so happy and smiling towards us...