I went to the Uhuru
park today, just to get a time off and enjoying the life in Nairobi from the
park. So I took with me my book(Barnepiken)
and of course my camera.
While I was
reading this man came slowly towards me and asked politely: "could you
give me some help?" with a tone that showed that he really needed it and
didn't want me to feel pity for him. At first I was surprised that he didn’t
ask for food or money. So I asked him what kind of help he needed. "That
you could take me to a school or a place where I could be educated, or talk
with me, I just need something, anything you think would help." he said. I
knew I couldn't give him the opportunity for education or somewhere he could go
where he could learn for a longer term. But I could give him my time I had, where
we could learn from each other. So I asked him to sit down and talk to
me. He wasn't late in sitting down, and asked me if I knew what he had in
the bottle. But by the smell it was easy to know that this was glue. He
continued to ask if I knew how this worked, but I've just heard about it and
how bad it affects people. I also knew that for a person that is addicted to
something it is really hard to say that they are addicts. But he told it at
ones and said that he needed help to stop it because he couldn't do it by
himself.
We started talking about his opportunities, and tried to figure out what he could do to get education. He explained to me that since he’s an adult, and the opportunities are only given to children, not adults, his situation of getting any help is minimal. That is also a situation where only those that are taking the seriousness about the opportunities at ones would get it. Opportunities that doesn’t look like it at all.
Imagine yourself at the time you just wanted to break rules and don’t listen to someone else that called themselves experienced or “know how it is to be in that age”, then take away the safety you felt around these experienced people. Do you think you would believe them? Or do you really think that you would let them decide what they thought were best for you, when you already had freedom of deciding everything by yourself. For example when you wanted to be with your friends, staying up longer or just have the opportunity to lay on the grass watching the stars while you have your best friend by your side.
People that are raised in families where they have everything would never understand how it is to be poor before they’ve tried. People that are raised by the street aren't used to have older people to tell them in what to do, so they run away because they haven't experienced more than the freedom of living in the streets. Then, when they have been realizing that they actually need help they're too old to get any. George, that was his name understood this too late. But does it mean that it is too late for him?
While talking I told him about the program I'm in now and how we are learning about the different cultures that are within our globe. That we, through the preparatory course, have been in the slum here in Nairobi to see and learn how that is. He meant then that I should visit the street children to see how their life is, and experience the real life they have every day with both good and challenging experiences.
Something that amazed me was how he said that he was thanking and praising God every morning for his life and that he was okay. This is something that made me think that George, who doesn’t have money for enough food, water or shelter, is a lot richer than me.
