Street Boys

One of the hardest things I have witnessed so far in Kenya is the street boys. There are many and they stand out dramatically in central Nakuru. Almost everyone walks around town wearing suits or nicer western style outfits. These boys are extremely dirty and dart through the crowds wearing tattered clothes. It is sad enough to see them, but even sadder when I learned about glue. Most of these boys use any money they get to buy glue. You can see them standing around, sometimes in the middle of the street, with the top of the bottle held open in their teeth. They keep on sniffing it and it gets them high. Most of the boys I have seen are very small. But their eyes are yellow and red. They look like little old men in children's bodies. It is sad because I feel like their is nothing I can do for them. Giving them money for "food" doesn't help because they just use it to get high. One ran up to me with an empty glue bottle in his hand asking me for money. I don't know what the future holds for these kids, but it makes me so sad to see them. They really have nothing to look forward to.

A float/truck supporting one of the political parties. They blast music and drive around town.

Most of the people following this truck are street boys.

On a happier note, today I got to go with one of my coworkers, Beatrice, to two schools. We went to visit with the children FAIR sponsors. The goal is to make sure they are going to school and doing well. Many of them had repeated grades and Beatrice says they are not very motivated. One pair of siblings were in 5 and 7th grades and neither could read. While it was hard to hear that, overall the kids that FAIR supports are doing well. One of the schools was an elementary school with almost 1,000 students. We were there during recess which was fun, especially when I couldn't move a foot without being surrounded by at least 50 kids.