My walk to work

8:00 Leave my apartment, lock up and go downstairs

8:02 Greet the day guard, Naktari, as he lets me out of the gate to our compound

8:07 Reach the Adam's arcade roundabout and attempt to cross Ngong Road's morning traffic. Nearly die.

8:09 Pass by a guy dropping off his disabled friend at his begging spot in toi market, he makes sure his friend is comfortable and arranges to pick him later. I carry on past the people setting up their second-hand clothes stalls for the day.

8:12 Turn right at 'Winners Chapel' and enter the most peaceful phase of the walk along a nice shadey suburban road lined by jacaranda trees. Peek in at the nice looking bungalows behind the walls. Pass the estate where apparently one resident smuggled a leopard until the Kenya Wildlife Service came to the rescue in a daring raid.

8:15 Turn off the nice suburban road onto the dusty track towards Kibera. Pass the detention centre for street children on the left. Walk past the tall brick walls and wonder what exactly goes on in there. Slowly the surroundings change from quaint looking bungalows to cheap looking flats to shabby iron-sheet shops and the concrete block one-room houses of Fort Jesus. Start passing kids who shout 'Howareyou!' all as one word.

8:20 Reach the junction with Karanja road and pick my way through the soapy streams created by some young men washing buses and matatus. Generally right in the way of oncoming traffic. Turn right and head up the hill towards the Olymic 'stage' (bus stop).

8:23 Enter the mayhem of Olympic stage. A hord of Matatu touts offer me a lift to town, I shake my head a lot and swerve several times to miss the bus's side mirrors which come close to smacking my head. Its a bit like walking into a wall of sound, on the left is a CD shop which blares music at full volume which blends horrifically with the bass sounds pounding out of the Matatus on my right, plus the touts shouting prices and places, plus the horns beeping as they hustle through the traffic.

8:25 Cross the multicoloured bridge over the railway line covered in graffitti calling for peace and unity and to keep Kibera clean.


8:26 Pass by the sweet smell of mandazi frying then get tempted by the spicy smell of samosas lined up at a road-side kiosk. I resist the temptation but probably will give in on my way home.

8:28 Turn left and enter Kibera proper, the 'howareyou's increase exponentially. Follow the muddy track down the hill until I see my friend whose name I never learned, I just call her mama. She sells oil from a bucket right where I need to turn right down a small alleyway between houses to the Kianda project.

8:30 Reach the Kianda project where I'm greeted by Jane the cook, Mary and Benson have already launched into the morning's teaching with the kids. Here ends my walk to work.