Unclog Trenches, Check: 9-25

Clean up day! Today I woke up well rested with a heavy heart. After scraping the black eye crusties off my eyes, I was ready to roll out. We got to help the group we met in Mabatini last week do a community clean up day. Our task – unclog the drainage ditches. There was so much trash and sewage in the trenches that the water was just stagnate everywhere (which made the situation much grosser).

We rode a mutatu down to the village and popped on some latex gloves. I began in close quarters scraping out trash from standing water. People with shovels would then pick up the sludge that was left. We made large piles of nastiness everywhere. Eventually we got that area clear.

Next we went to a more open main walking area. There was a trench of clogged stagnate water running all the way down the path. I started by scraping out the trash and making piles all along the way. Children have to hop over this trench all the time. Adults have to cross it to shop or to go home. I was very encouraged by the group of young men who were not okay with this standard of living. They are doing something about it. It was amazing to be a part of it.

I ended up splashing myself with the sludge a number of times. I really didn’t mind. My gloves ended up ripping. I didn’t mind. As I kept on scraping, in front of some community members who were just sitting there watching, my hands became raw. I didn’t mind. My fingers started to blister. I didn’t mind. I breathed in the smells of life in Mathare, but I didn’t mind.

I got my area unclogged and the water began flowing for the first time in while. Taking a breather, I spotted Julie playing with a huge line of kids.She was spinning them around and they loved it. Leann and I walked over there. Those kids were so baffled by our hands and arms. About 7 kids grabbed my hands and arms. They examined me carefully. One kid even licked my arm.

We walked over to another area that was just covered in trash. We piled it up into two large piles and Daniel (from CHE) lit them on fire. So there we were, destroying our lungs with burning plastic. It was pretty brutal. At this point I felt pretty bad for my poor lungs. I was using my nose to breath so at least a little bit would be filtered out, but it burned my nostrils to inhale. Then I realized that the people living in the area deal with this stuff every day.

I took a sweet nap after a long luxurious shower. We had some Mexican style lasagna for dinner and then we did some sweet Tae-bo. I also practiced Taekwondo while I was in the workout mood.