6 July 09, Monday Update from Toni:
Good day. We started the day by visiting Kibera slum and talking to our good friend Andrew Otieno, MD, who is the branch manager. Many wonderful changes have happened since I visited last year. There are 50,000 members now, which reflects an increase of 30,000 members since last year. We visited a number of them. Some remember our visiting them from last year. What was different this year was talking to the two youth leaders who coordinated the destruction after the elections of 2007. They were promised jobs by one political party if they intimidated people to vote a certain way. When the party lost, the political party forgot about their promises and left the youth again hopeless, so they retaliated by looting and burning Toi market in Kibera where they lived. Andrew met with them and asked them to stop. The only thing that prevented them from killing Andrew was the women shouting at them, “He is with Jamii Bora, and he gives us food. If you kill him we will kill you!” So Andrew’s life was spared. Slowly he won their trust, and in time got them to rebuild the market they once destroyed. Now they are leaders again, but this time in a strong positive way, as they rebuild their lives and lead the youth to a better future than they had. What a powerful experience!
Vanessa arrived today as scheduled. Now the four of us will continue our journey.
