A journey into Karagita, Naivasha’s largest slum (May 15, 2011)

Today was yet another first for me; the first time I have ever visited a slum.  In contrast to the lovely guarded property on which we are living, the largest slum on the lake, called Karagita, sits right across the road.  The reason for the occasion was the collection of 40 disposable cameras that had been distributed to members of the community the week before.  Participants were asked to take pictures of “the good, the bad and the ugly” in their community.  The goal is to use the pictures that result to inform a documentary about Lake Naivasha that will be made later this summer. 

So off we went, the 5 students, walking 25 minutes into Karagita to attend the meeting at the chief’s house.  The first thing that one notices on such a walk is that the children are either excited or terrified to see a ‘muzungu’.  Most of them are excited.  They run after you, all of them repeating: “How are you?”, “How are you!?”, “How are you, muzungu?”.  (When you reply, they usually smile sheepishly but aren’t quite sure what to say anymore.)  Some of the children even sneak a feel of your arm, just in case muzungu skin is in some way different than their own.  I’m not sure what they think about the touch of my skin, but I hope it reassures them that I am more similar to them than they might think.

The beginning of our walk down the dirt roads of Karagita 

      My second major observation of the day is the type of traffic that lines the bumpy dirt roads of Karagita.  There are 2 common types of vehicles.  The first type are the picapicas.  These are motorcycle taxis, which shuffle one or more customers from place to place.  The second type of vehicle is the donkey drawn cart.  I find these much more interesting.  The carts are pulled by between 1-3 donkeys and carry a driver and 1-3 large buckets of water.  I suspect that this is the water has recently been collected from the shore of the lake and it is brought back to Karagita where it is sold to the community, most of whom lack running water.

These men collecting water are not using the carts seen on the roads of Karagita.  They are collecting containers of water and securing them directly to their donkeys for the walk back to the settlement.

Along the same vein as water collection by donkey, I am reminded of a story recently told to me by our documentary expert.  While she was working in the community, she was giving out tasty treats to the children.  When her bag of treats was empty, she moved to throw out her Ziploc bag, only to find that the children were more excited to take her bag from her than they were about the treats.  They planned to use it to collect water.  This story makes me so reflective and grateful for the basic services that I take for granted at home.  I have NEVER had to ask myself where or how I would collect my water.  I have always taken for granted that I would simply walk to a tap and pour myself a nice cold glass of clean water.  I won’t ever take that for granted again.