To build a home

I found out this week that there are people who actually read this blog. I was fairly convinced my mum was the only one to read it as there are never any comments. I feel the pressure now to make it interesting!

I’ve hardly been to the slums where God is this week but when I did go God was very much there. On Monday Jon and I helped Betty move into her new home. Betty is a single mum to four kids – Emmanuel, Rosa and Clover who is cute as and the oldest boy whose name Ive forgotten sorry! Their house was burned down in January in the violence so they have been living in the porch of a building at the D.O.s on the edge of Kibera where we park our car when we go to the project.

A few weeks ago, the kids started coming down to the project for food and we started chatting to Betty about getting a house. The government have been giving money to people who lost their homes in January to build new ones so the District Officer found her a piece of land and she bought the iron sheets she needed but still needed money for wood and builders etc. Turning Point paid for that stuff so Betty was able to build a house for her family and they moved in on Monday. We crammed all their possessions into the back of the landrover, along with me and Kariuki crammed in the back with our faces squished up against the back window.

Their new place is over the other side of Kibera, right on the edge where the higgledy piggledy mess of tin shacks piled on top of each other suddenly stops and turns into grass and trees and bright red African dirt. Their new front door faces away from Kibera so you can’t even see the slum, just green hills. Betty told me now she owns the house she doesn’t have to worry about rent. Also there is a river nearby for clothes washing so they wont have to buy so much water, the forest is close so they can collect firewood instead of spending money on charcoal and there is a small bit of land where she can plant vegetables so she will even save money on food. She is so chuffed. Its still Kibera but life will be a bit easier now and fewer costs mean she might just be able to save enough to get somewhere even better. Good times for Betty.

To build a home is a song by Cinematic Orchestra, have a listen if you can. I think it probably says a little about how Betty must feel about the home she has built for her kids. Ooo it will make you cry!