Today I went with my friend Liz to her volunteer program at the WEEP center which stands for Women's Equality Empowerment Program. It is in Kibera as well and actually only a few doors down from my school...just thought I'd get another perspective for the day! The center is right next to a primary school so from the minute we got there...kids were hanging off our arms...fighting for our attention. The kids, everywhere really, love touching our skin because they think it is so soft (even though African skin is incredibly smooth and gorgeous) and they point at our freckles because they are practically foreign to them. The girls also love to touch my hair. I've noticed that no one woman has the same hairstyle in Kenya and I am constantly fascinated by their braids, however, I didnt realize they were just as jealous of mine. They didnt stop fighting over who could hold our hands until we started circling up to sing songs. A five year old girl named Michelle immediately took her place as the leader of the music and before I knew it we were all clapping and dancing...I dont think I could ever get tired of hearing those voices! Eventually it was classtime again for the kiddos and we headed into the sewing room to talk to the women. There are six women in total and they vary in age from 22 to around 50 and they are at the end of an 18 month educational program to help improve life skills. Also, all of them are HIV positive. We helped the women fill out forms monitoring their progress at WEEP and it was interesting, heartbreaking and inspiring to hear some of their stories and daily struggles. Currently Karin, a volunteer from Austria who is also one of my roommates, is teaching them sex ed and about female anatomy which seems so simple but it is so incredibly necessary for them to understand. We sat and chatted with the women for a bit and they asked Liz to teach them how to cook different foods so next week she will be baking a cake with them and showing them some simple meals with rice and veggies...once again, very basic yet vital.Then we went into the office to have tea with the center's social worker Edna. She is only 24 but she has gotten her college degree, went to culinary school and watches after her three sisters, her brother and her niece. Everyday she cooks for them and brings them to and from school and on top of that she runs the day to day work at the center...I was awestruck for the entire conversation. Her dream is to work with teenage single mothers to help them understand "you can fall and get back up again" in her own words. Yet again, I have met a walking billboard for women's empowerment. I was happy to visit the center today and I will definitely be back!
On a sidenote...Liz and I had a man tell us he loved us on our walk home from Kibera...love is in the air! JUST KIDDING
