God at work

Well I am unsure of where I can start! We have gone to visit 2 slums in Kenya today and it was a massive challenge. In the morning we travelled to Kierbera which is one of the largest slums in the world. We were heading to a Salvation Army compound in the middle of the slum where we would spend some time in the nursery and then go on to do home visitation. As we arrived in the slum, I and a few other members of the group were taken by a sense of evil surrounding the place. However once we arrived and the gates at the compound opened, the over whelming peace and presence of God was all around. We were greeted by the officer who was telling us there was 1000 members with average of 500 attending Sunday morning meetings. Although I can safely say that the smells, heat, and the things I could see were a shock to the system, more so was the quiet, and the recognition of the Salvation Army as work of God among the community. We were invited into one of the corps members homes, she was a single mother of 6 and 2 year old daughters she told us some things about what it is like living in the slum, what she does if her children's call ill. But what hit us most was that she was expected to pay 5 shillings per time she wanted to go to the toilet, and 5 shillings to be able to get water from the stream that was flowing through the slum. With 2 young children to look after this was a massive issue after due to not having a lot over after paying rent.
In the afternoon we went to Mathare slum where we visited a school. We were only aloud to go on the edge of Mathare slum as it was dangerous. Mathare was very vast and due to being on a hill you had opportunity to see just how big the slum is. Once we had been given a tour of the newly built primary school which was previously falling apart we were presented a song from the pupils lead by a little girl whom had an amazing spirit about her! After that we presented some gifts to the school such as pens, pencils, books and footballs. The Major who was at Mathare corps then invited us to walk a little further into the slum as he wanted to show us where illegal beer was made. As we walked down there was a strong smell of apples and we could begin to see the people using sewage water while going through the process of making the illegal beer. There was a lot of tension and as they looked up there was shouting over to us so we quickly walked back to where it was a bit more safe. That I think was something which was hard hitting as we only were 100yards down the road from the primary school. I think this day is something really difficult to explain in writing as there were so many emotions and things happening within one day. But I hope that you have an idea of what happened.
Asante sana (thank you very much)
La la salama (sleep well)

Fluent Swahili!
Beth Selfe