Soulfari Kenya

About Kenya

Nairobi, Kenya

The following information was derived from www.lonelyplanet.com

Kenya's capital is cosmopolitan, lively, interesting and pleasantly landscaped. Its central business district is handily compact and it's a great place to tune into modern urban African life. Unfortunately, it's also a great place to get mugged. Security, especially at night, is a definite concern.

Originally little more than a swampy watering hole for Maasai tribes, Nairobi grew with the advent of the railway and had became a substantial town by 1900. Five years later it succeeded Mombasa as the capital of the British protectorate. Today it's the largest city between Cairo and Johannesburg.

Like most cities, Nairobi has its crowded market, trading and transport areas, its middle class/office workers' suburbs and its spacious mansions and flower-decked gardens for the rich and powerful. The first is an area full of energy, aspirations and opportunism where manual workers, exhausted matatu (minibus) drivers, the unemployed, the devious, the down-and out and the disoriented mingle with budget travelers, whores, shopkeepers, high-school students, food vendors, drowsy security guards and those with life's little illicit goodies for sale. Centrally located, it's called River Road, and even if you're not staying in the area it's worth a look.

Area: 680 sq km
Population: 2.5 million
Country: Kenya
Time Zone: GMT/UTC +3
Telephone Area Code: 02

Orientation

The compact city centre is bounded by Uhuru Hwy, Haile Selassie Ave, Tom Mboya St and University Way. The main bus and train stations are within a few minutes walk of this area. The main budget accommodation area is centred on Latema Rd, just east of Tom Mboya St, and near River Rd (so take care!). The National Museum is to the north of the central area, while Westlands, a major shopping centre, is further north. Jomo Kenyatta International Airport is 15km (9mi) southeast of the centre; Wilson Airport is 6km (4mi) south of the centre.

When to Go

The best times to visit are during January and February and between June and October, when the weather is drier in and around Nairobi. Because Nairobi is located at the edge of the highlands, temperatures are cooler here compared with much of the rest of the country.

History

Nairobi is a completely modern, colonial creation and almost everything here has been built in the last 100 years. Until the advent of locomotive transport in the late 19th century, Nairobi was just a boggy waterhole for the Maasai people and of little interest to the European colonialists. When the Maasai were devastated by civil wars and a litany of diseases, including rinderpest, cholera and smallpox, the laibon - chief or spiritual leader - of the Maasai was forced to negotiate a treaty with the British allowing them to march the Mombasa-Uganda railway line right through the heart of the Maasai grazing lands. As the rails of the East Africa railway fell into place across the nation, a depot was established on the edge of a small stream known to the Maasai as uaso nairobi (cold water). Curiously, the Maasai's end-of-the-world myth spoke of an 'iron snake' that would one day crawl across their land.

Nairobi quickly became a tent city and a supply depot, and soon enough developed into the administrative nerve-centre of the Uganda Railway. The place became a convenient and relatively cool place for the Indian railway labourers and their British overlords to pause midway before tackling the arduous climb into the highlands.

With the completion of the railway, the headquarters of the colonial administration was moved from Mombasa to the cooler, small settlement of Nairobi. Now, as the capital of the British Protectorate, the future of the city on the swamp was assured. Once the railway was up and running, wealth began to flow into the city. Immediately, the colonialists began to show an interest in touring the country, and a stay in the relatively cool capital became a standard part of the trip to Kenya. The colonial government built some grand hotels to accommodate the first tourists to Kenya - big game hunters, lured by the attraction of shooting the country's almost naively tame wildlife. There was even a special chair on the front of the train to enable visiting dignitaries to bag lions and elephants on the trip from Mombasa to the capital.

White settlers soon began to move into the fertile highlands north and then south of Nairobi. This led to friction with the local Maasai and, later, the Kikuyu. Mixed agricultural farms were set up, with coffee plantations established at about the same time by new arrivals that included Karen Blixen and her husband, Brer. The number of white settlers rose to 9000 by 1920; by the 1950s it was 80,000. Alienated from their land, many Kikuyu people migrated to Nairobi during the same period, became part of the colonial economy, and formed associations whose principal aim was the return of land to the Kikuyu. One such person was Johnstone Kamau, who later changed his name to Jomo Kenyatta.

Until after WWII, Kenya's white rulers were in no mood to accommodate the demands of the Africans. However, African troops returning from the war were equally in no mood to accept the status quo and the bloody Mau Mau Rebellion, which mainly involved the Kikuyu, raged until 1956. Soon afterwards, Kenyatta was jailed and later placed under house arrest until 1961, although there was no evidence to link him with the rebellion. Pressure continued to build on the British and, on 12 December 1963 Kenya gained independence, with Kenyatta as its first president. Throughout the 20th century, Nairobi continued to grow. Almost all of the colonial-era buildings were replaced by bland modern office buildings during the burst of new construction that followed Uhuru (independence) in 1963. Nairobi is now the largest city between Cairo and Johannesburg. This growth has put pressure on the city's infrastructure.

In 1998 the US embassy on Moi Ave was blown up by militants linked to Osama Bin Laden, killing more than 200 Kenyans.

Today it's a bustling city in the grip of a seemingly endless crime wave, and heavy-handed policing and political disputes often result in violent demonstrations, particularly when the government embarks on one of its slum-clearing sprees. Religious violence is also on the increase.

Presidential elections in December 2002 were expected by some to be the spark to ignite the Nairobi tinderbox. Mwai Kibaki became the country's third president when President Moi - contrary to all expectations - relinquished power without a struggle after losing the poll.

Further Reading

• Petals of Blood by Ngugi wa Thiong'o: An uncompromisingly harrowing criticism of neocolonialist politics in Kenya.

• Kill Me Quick by Meja Mwangi: A good introduction to East African literature by a well-known Kenyan author. Another of his books, Going Down River Road, paints an equally bleak portrait of Nairobi streetlife.

• Flame Trees of Thika by Elspeth Huxley: Tells the story of the white settler experience through the eyes of a young girl.

• Present Moment by Marjorie Oludhe Magoye: A poignant and fascinating perspective on Kenyan life, centered around a diverse group of women and the old-age home they share in Nairobi.

Missionaries of Charity

The Missionaries of Charity was founded and established worldwide by Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Central to the mission of the Missionaries of Charity is caring for the poorest of the poor and in Nairobi, Kenya that means the children and aged that are abandoned on the streets in the slum areas called Huruma and Kibera. Mother Teresa defines the work of the Missionaries of Charity as “a means to put our love for Christ into action.” The Missionaries of Charity are women from all over the world who have renounced everything to follow Christ and devout their daily lives to serving the poorest of the poor. Their main concerns when they find an abandoned child or when a sick child is brought to them are making them clean, feeding them, teaching them, and preparing them for admission into regular schools. The medical care provided to the children by the Sisters is very basic because their medical training and supplies are very limited. While in Kenya, our work with the Missionaries of Charity will include a variety of tasks based on the immediate need. Those tasks may include: feeding, dressing, holding babies, washing clothes, cleaning, organizing activities, preparing food, maintenance, painting, and training local care providers.

“What is required of a Missionary of Charity is this: health of mind and body, ability to learn, a good does of good sense, and a joyous character.” -Mother Teresa

For more information on the Missionaries of Charity, check out the following resources from your nearby library or bookstore or borrow them from Sarah, the trip leader:

No Greater Love, by Mother Teresa
The Mother Teresa Reader: A Life for God Mother Teresa 1910-1997, by Joanna Hurley
In My Own Words, by Mother Teresa

Villa Teag of Dandora

Villa Teag Children Centre is located in Dandora, which is in the Eastlands of Nairobi, Kenya. It was officially inaugurated in 5th December 2003. Melitus Were (Soulfari Kenya founder Julius Were’s brother and a city councilor in the Dandora district) is the primary manager of Villa Teag. Emmanuel Were (also Julius’s brother) is also invested in providing for and watching over the children on a regular basis. Melitus Were has donated amble space for the children’s accommodation. Otherwise the home entirely depends on well wishers locally and overseas. The centre was started by admitting 35 orphaned children from age 3 to 12, with a majority having lost their parents to HIV/Aids. Presently there are over 50 children (boys and girls) learning and living at the centre on full board basis. The aims of Villa Teag are to empower the orphaned children to gain confidence, commitment and motivation to do great things on their own. Villa Teag ensures that all the children get access to education, receive proper health care, food, shelter and clothing, and protection from neglect and child abuses. Organizations that support Villa Teag include Soulfari Kenya (provide volunteers annually, school materials, and training for staff), Unicef (resources and information), Street Family Programme (provided water tank and food), Jack n’Jill (provide food on holidays), Pembe flour mills (provide maize flour), Home grown (vegetables), Dandora community (food, clothes, shoes, volunteers), International Partners Mission (funds for dairy project), and Mondoazzuro.



	About Kenya About Kenya PDF Nairobi, Kenya The following information was derived from www.lonelyplanet.com Kenya's capital is cosmopolitan, lively, interesting and pleasantly landscaped. Its central business district is handily compact and it's a great place to tune into modern urban African life. Unfortunately, it's also a great place to get mugged. Security, especially at night, is a definite concern. Originally little more than a swampy watering hole for Maasai tribes, Nairobi grew with the advent of the railway and had became a substantial town by 1900. Five years later it succeeded Mombasa as the capital of the British protectorate. Today it's the largest city between Cairo and Johannesburg. Like most cities, Nairobi has its crowded market, trading and transport areas, its middle class/office workers' suburbs and its spacious mansions and flower-decked gardens for the rich and powerful. The first is an area full of energy, aspirations and opportunism where manual workers, exhausted matatu (minibus) drivers, the unemployed, the devious, the down-and out and the disoriented mingle with budget travelers, whores, shopkeepers, high-school students, food vendors, drowsy security guards and those with life's little illicit goodies for sale. Centrally located, it's called River Road, and even if you're not staying in the area it's worth a look. Area: 680 sq km Population: 2.5 million Country: Kenya Time Zone: GMT/UTC +3 Telephone Area Code: 02 Orientation The compact city centre is bounded by Uhuru Hwy, Haile Selassie Ave, Tom Mboya St and University Way. The main bus and train stations are within a few minutes walk of this area. The main budget accommodation area is centred on Latema Rd, just east of Tom Mboya St, and near River Rd (so take care!). The National Museum is to the north of the central area, while Westlands, a major shopping centre, is further north. Jomo Kenyatta International Airport is 15km (9mi) southeast of the centre; Wilson Airport is 6km (4mi) south of the centre. When to Go The best times to visit are during January and February and between June and October, when the weather is drier in and around Nairobi. Because Nairobi is located at the edge of the highlands, temperatures are cooler here compared with much of the rest of the country. History Nairobi is a completely modern, colonial creation and almost everything here has been built in the last 100 years. Until the advent of locomotive transport in the late 19th century, Nairobi was just a boggy waterhole for the Maasai people and of little interest to the European colonialists. When the Maasai were devastated by civil wars and a litany of diseases, including rinderpest, cholera and smallpox, the laibon - chief or spiritual leader - of the Maasai was forced to negotiate a treaty with the British allowing them to march the Mombasa-Uganda railway line right through the heart of the Maasai grazing lands. As the rails of the East Africa railway fell into place across the nation, a depot was established on the edge of a small stream known to the Maasai as uaso nairobi (cold water). Curiously, the Maasai's end-of-the-world myth spoke of an 'iron snake' that would one day crawl across their land. Nairobi quickly became a tent city and a supply depot, and soon enough developed into the administrative nerve-centre of the Uganda Railway. The place became a convenient and relatively cool place for the Indian railway labourers and their British overlords to pause midway before tackling the arduous climb into the highlands. With the completion of the railway, the headquarters of the colonial administration was moved from Mombasa to the cooler, small settlement of Nairobi. Now, as the capital of the British Protectorate, the future of the city on the swamp was assured. Once the railway was up and running, wealth began to flow into the city. Immediately, the colonialists began to show an interest in touring the country, and a stay in the relatively cool capital became a standard part of the trip to Kenya. The colonial government built some grand hotels to accommodate the first tourists to Kenya - big game hunters, lured by the attraction of shooting the country's almost naively tame wildlife. There was even a special chair on the front of the train to enable visiting dignitaries to bag lions and elephants on the trip from Mombasa to the capital. White settlers soon began to move into the fertile highlands north and then south of Nairobi. This led to friction with the local Maasai and, later, the Kikuyu. Mixed agricultural farms were set up, with coffee plantations established at about the same time by new arrivals that included Karen Blixen and her husband, Brer. The number of white settlers rose to 9000 by 1920; by the 1950s it was 80,000. Alienated from their land, many Kikuyu people migrated to Nairobi during the same period, became part of the colonial economy, and formed associations whose principal aim was the return of land to the Kikuyu. One such person was Johnstone Kamau, who later changed his name to Jomo Kenyatta. Until after WWII, Kenya's white rulers were in no mood to accommodate the demands of the Africans. However, African troops returning from the war were equally in no mood to accept the status quo and the bloody Mau Mau Rebellion, which mainly involved the Kikuyu, raged until 1956. Soon afterwards, Kenyatta was jailed and later placed under house arrest until 1961, although there was no evidence to link him with the rebellion. Pressure continued to build on the British and, on 12 December 1963 Kenya gained independence, with Kenyatta as its first president. Throughout the 20th century, Nairobi continued to grow. Almost all of the colonial-era buildings were replaced by bland modern office buildings during the burst of new construction that followed Uhuru (independence) in 1963. Nairobi is now the largest city between Cairo and Johannesburg. This growth has put pressure on the city's infrastructure. In 1998 the US embassy on Moi Ave was blown up by militants linked to Osama Bin Laden, killing more than 200 Kenyans. Today it's a bustling city in the grip of a seemingly endless crime wave, and heavy-handed policing and political disputes often result in violent demonstrations, particularly when the government embarks on one of its slum-clearing sprees. Religious violence is also on the increase. Presidential elections in December 2002 were expected by some to be the spark to ignite the Nairobi tinderbox. Mwai Kibaki became the country's third president when President Moi - contrary to all expectations - relinquished power without a struggle after losing the poll. Further Reading • Petals of Blood by Ngugi wa Thiong'o: An uncompromisingly harrowing criticism of neocolonialist politics in Kenya. • Kill Me Quick by Meja Mwangi: A good introduction to East African literature by a well-known Kenyan author. Another of his books, Going Down River Road, paints an equally bleak portrait of Nairobi streetlife. • Flame Trees of Thika by Elspeth Huxley: Tells the story of the white settler experience through the eyes of a young girl. • Present Moment by Marjorie Oludhe Magoye: A poignant and fascinating perspective on Kenyan life, centered around a diverse group of women and the old-age home they share in Nairobi. Missionaries of Charity The Missionaries of Charity was founded and established worldwide by Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Central to the mission of the Missionaries of Charity is caring for the poorest of the poor and in Nairobi, Kenya that means the children and aged that are abandoned on the streets in the slum areas called Huruma and Kibera. Mother Teresa defines the work of the Missionaries of Charity as “a means to put our love for Christ into action.” The Missionaries of Charity are women from all over the world who have renounced everything to follow Christ and devout their daily lives to serving the poorest of the poor. Their main concerns when they find an abandoned child or when a sick child is brought to them are making them clean, feeding them, teaching them, and preparing them for admission into regular schools. The medical care provided to the children by the Sisters is very basic because their medical training and supplies are very limited. While in Kenya, our work with the Missionaries of Charity will include a variety of tasks based on the immediate need. Those tasks may include: feeding, dressing, holding babies, washing clothes, cleaning, organizing activities, preparing food, maintenance, painting, and training local care providers. “What is required of a Missionary of Charity is this: health of mind and body, ability to learn, a good does of good sense, and a joyous character.” -Mother Teresa For more information on the Missionaries of Charity, check out the following resources from your nearby library or bookstore or borrow them from Sarah, the trip leader: No Greater Love, by Mother Teresa The Mother Teresa Reader: A Life for God Mother Teresa 1910-1997, by Joanna Hurley In My Own Words, by Mother Teresa Villa Teag of Dandora Villa Teag Children Centre is located in Dandora, which is in the Eastlands of Nairobi, Kenya. It was officially inaugurated in 5th December 2003. Melitus Were (Soulfari Kenya founder Julius Were’s brother and a city councilor in the Dandora district) is the primary manager of Villa Teag. Emmanuel Were (also Julius’s brother) is also invested in providing for and watching over the children on a regular basis. Melitus Were has donated amble space for the children’s accommodation. Otherwise the home entirely depends on well wishers locally and overseas. The centre was started by admitting 35 orphaned children from age 3 to 12, with a majority having lost their parents to HIV/Aids. Presently there are over 50 children (boys and girls) learning and living at the centre on full board basis. The aims of Villa Teag are to empower the orphaned children to gain confidence, commitment and motivation to do great things on their own. Villa Teag ensures that all the children get access to education, receive proper health care, food, shelter and clothing, and protection from neglect and child abuses. Organizations that support Villa Teag include Soulfari Kenya (provide volunteers annually, school materials, and training for staff), Unicef (resources and information), Street Family Programme (provided water tank and food), Jack n’Jill (provide food on holidays), Pembe flour mills (provide maize flour), Home grown (vegetables), Dandora community (food, clothes, shoes, volunteers), International Partners Mission (funds for dairy project), and Mondoazzuro.