Life after the riots; for now!

There is a lot going on today. Lot’s of running around trying to connect with people and just generally getting a feel for how things are now. I don’t have a lot of time to type right now but I thought I would at least post a couple pictures and share a little about how people seem to be doing here.

 

Jason and I were walking around some today to see how things have changed. There are a number of areas that have been completely burned down. They are starting to rebuild most of them but it has completely changed the way things look. There is a big church near where we work in the area and it got vandalized and burnt by a group of thugs. I talked to one of the staff there today and he gave us the story of what happened. It was a beautiful church and now they have to completely rebuild the roof and window and other portions. If they didn’t build with concrete the entire building would be demolished.

 

There is a major market for the slum that was burnt to the ground and one of the estates was heavily damaged by looting and fire as well.  I will try and take some more pictures later so that you can see how they are rebuilding.

 

The three things that I noticed today were awe at how inhumane people were, hope that Kenya will be able to move beyond this and a hesitancy to trust.

 

A picture of the inhumane

One of our friends, referring to the time of all the violence and destruction said, “Not even animals would do this sort of thing to one another!”

 

A glimpse of hope

As Jason and I walked through the Toi market I was amazed at how the entire thing had been rebuilt. There is a lot of work to be done still because people lost a lot of their supplies, but to see the new construction happening brought a sense of hope that many have verbalized as well.

 

A hesitancy to trust

As I sat with an old friend today and talked about the last few months she told stories about how she has moved a number of times in the last few months in order to avoid the violence. As we talked and caught up I asked if she was going to move out of the area. Her response was this, “I can’t leave this is my home! These days I just pray and hope that God will protect us.”

 

Hopefully that gives you a glimpse of what is going on with us in Kenya.

More soon,

scott