Kids show off their favorite books at The Hope Library, Kibera slum, Nairobi, Kenya

[NAIROBI, Kenya] With a little bit of trepidation I made my fifth visit or so to this city’s Kibera slum – a “city within a city” of an estimated 600,000 to 1 million residents living in very challenging conditions – to check up on the state of The Hope Library. The project was started as an audacious dream after my first visit here, a casual daylong tour by a resident (Reuters photographer Noor Khamis) who introduced me to many facets of life here, including some folks who made it know how great was their desire for books, and how dire was their need. (Read original blog post of that encounter here.)

Sure, I’d returned six months ago and seen a church classroom full of kids enjoying our first shipment of books (about 1,200 at that time), but they were mostly picture books and it was a bit of a photo op. The books were kept in a small corner of a temporary space in the St. George Orthodox Church, but the gratitude of the adults and the enthusiasm of the kids pushed me on, to months of cajoling books out of my friends, as well as donations for shipping and other needs.

So began Phase II. In all, I estimate my social network (mainly via Facebook) accounted for about 2,000 more books (carefully selected to feature categories of most value to this community), as well as donations of about $2,750, to help defray shipping and other costs. (Almost all the books were donated, but it’s extremely expensive to ship them. I lucked out by connecting with American Friends of Kenya, and for a much reduced cost, piggybacked many boxes on a shipping container they successfully sent from the States to Kenya last month.)

I couldn’t thank my Facebook crowd enough when I visited today and saw that the enthusiasm for, and commitment toward, The Hope Library had multiplied by 100 in the past six months. I interviewed both kids and adults about the impact of reading specific books on their lives (video to come later), and enjoyed seeing the adults read to the kids in a program meant to foster not only literacy but stronger parent-child ties as well.

Other highlights of the day:

• the distribution of super cool soccer jerseys, with customized design donated by Antonio Garcia of GoodNightTV.com in Chicago.
• a special hot lunch (with meat!) cooked behind the church by women and men of the community, for about 100 kids. Facebook friends also made this possible. I was told that often, the kids are lucky to get one such hot meal a week.
• brainstorming and strategic planning with the adult steering committee for entering Phase III: the acquisition of permanent land and structure to house the library collection, as well as programs of the affiliated Nicofeli Youth and Kids Clubs.

While enthusiasm about their new library (the first in Kibera!) is running high, the needs here remain great.

The coaches of the boys soccer team expressed great gratitude for the new jerseys, and now of course are keen on getting other luxuries, like … proper shoes (about $12 a pair). A medical kit (maybe $10-15) for their inevitable injuries. Modest funds for transportation to and from matches with other teams in the region (about $12 each way).

The library, as stated, needs a permanent facility, with proper shelves to encourage browsing, and preferably chairs and nice lighting to allow relaxed reading (this isn’t really possible in most residences here, simple huts or shacks that often house 6 family members in a 12×12 ft. area). Eventually, computers with web support will connect them to the outside world, but that takes money as well. A bit of a connection has been made with a local trust, but a firm commitment has not yet been made.

Osir Caleb, Evans Otira,  and other leaders of the kids club and library are diligent in their record-keeping, showing me a growing stack of formal applications submitted to the Kenyan government, NGOs (non-government organizations), and other aid agencies, almost all marked REJECTED, in hopes of getting on more stable footing. But they have made some very modest gains, have garnered some very cool publicity (see this article from Nairobi’s Standard newspaper), and they will get there. As I counseled them: Persistence paid off. I shared my own story of doggedly pursuing internships and college aid many years ago; for every 100 letters of application I submitted, probably 99 were sent back with a “sorry, but good luck” sort of letter. But when the 1 of 100 comes in, BINGO, you are in business!

If you have an interest in contributing to any of the above needs for the library, kids club or soccer program (perhaps have your child’s school soccer team sponsor Nicofeli’s?) please email me at ron@artwithinreason.com and I will fill you in on how you can help. (At the moment all book acquisitions are on HOLD – they have plenty of great stuff to choose from, with the collection at 3,200 titles or more, and need to get on solid footing with their space needs before taking on additional titles. Stay tuned to hear if we are accepting donations in the future.)

To see other photos from this visit, see this photo album at Facebook. To learn more about the origins of Hope Library, and earlier fundraising efforts, go here.

Thanks again to all my Facebook friends (and some Facebook strangers!), as well as many others, who helped bring this crazy scheme this far! Stay tuned to this blog for updates in the future.

[TEL AVIV, 12 June 09] One of the joys of my travels – or perhaps anyone’s – is the serendipity of happening on the unusual, surprising, inspiring, or fun. All four combined when I was able to witness the weddings of five gay couples on the beach in Tel Aviv, part of the city’s month-long Pride festival. An extra bonus was having my photos published in the magazine, Time Out Tel Aviv. (See published spread here, in Hebrew!)

Earlier in the day, Pride kicked off with a parade in which an estimated 20,000 people marched and/or observed (for most it was one and the same). This led to the beach, where a very fun afternoon festival commenced, with live (and lots of lip-synched!) musical acts performed from all over Europe, and the crowd enjoyed dancing when not swimming and sunning. At sunset, wedding bells – or the Jewish version thereof – commenced.

At first dismayed that I hadn’t gotten stage-front access to photograph the action, my response turned to delight when I went behind the stage, where almost no photographers had thought to go, and found some great shots of preparation for the big event – makeup, hair adjustment, posing for family photos, the flower girl awaiting her big moment. Sometimes the hidden view is the best!

From a report by Sara Miller in the Haaretz newspaper:

“Five gay couples wed Friday in a ceremonial marriage on Tel Aviv beach, at the culmination of the city’s 11th annual Gay Pride Parade, which saw more than 20,000 people take to the streets to promote gay rights.

“The ceremony, held at sundown after a boisterous disco on the sand, began with a serenade by gay pop star Ivri Lider as the three female and two male same-sex couples walked up to the Chuppah, the Jewish wedding altar.

“The ceremony was performed according to Jewish marriage rites, with each couple exchanging rings and Hebrew vows before breaking the traditional glass as the crowd erupted in applause.  Nitzan Horowitz of Meretz, the Knesset’s first openly gay parliamentarian, attended the wedding, along with Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai.

“I hope that from this day weddings like this can happen in every place in Israel and not just in Tel Aviv,” Horowitz told Haaretz. “Weddings for everyone – man and woman, man and man, and woman and woman, and this will be the end of the monopoly of the ultra-Orthodox over our lives in Israel.”

“Israeli director Eytan Fox, whose movies “Walk on Water” and “The Bubble” deal with gay issues in Israel, was also there to mark the occasion.

“It’s a very important and historic day,” he said. “It’s very exciting and in the end the good guys won.”

“The parade was sponsored by Tel Aviv municipality as part of the city’s cetennial celebrations. The floats with their dancers, scantily clad youths and blasting pop music started out from Meir Park before winding their way through the city’s streets to the beachfront.

“A small group of right-wing and religious protesters demonstrated against the parade, holding up banners reading: “God hates debauchery.”

“Interior Minister Eli Yishai had called on Huldai and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cancel the parade. On June 25, Jerusalem will host its own pride parade, an event which has in previous years sparked fierce opposition from Jewish and Muslim clerics and politicians.

Will close with my favorite photo from the event, an emotional one for me, is actually of a spectator with this evocative tattoo:

Sofitel hotel … fluffy bed (maybe a little too much – bad back in the morning) … concrete wall shuts out the outside world … impossible wi-fi (how on earth do these people blog?) … amazingly weak orange juice … large in-room safe … power goes out (unbelievably inadequate power grid, thanks to corruption of previous regime – everyone’s on generators) … locals along the road balancing stuff on their head like nobody’s business … a client who wants to change the course of an abused nation … nighttime visit to funky boutique hotel/arts colony, wondering, should we stay here on the next visit? visiting Exxon consultants recommend it … sharing of gigantic Star beer (favored here but from Ghana) … chatting about local culture and challenges with the literati, including Kiszo, a Nollywood film producer (their version of Hollywood, or Bollywood, and apparently, huge) who has just returned from time in L.A. and Atlanta … we meet a local musician, who claims to be an inventor of a unique model of square bongos as well as the reincarnation of my colleague Mario … picked up daily and driven to work by client’s drivers, served lunch and picked-up-after by his man-servants – he calls them “stewards” – I’m thinking I need someone like this at home (Erich’s reading this, thinking, “been there, done that”) … dinner companion tells an exotic tale of juju (voodoo), a politician’s naked wife and a severed head on the kitchen floor … afternoon driving tour of the three islands, viewing structures that once were obviously proud and at least middle class, driven to ruin by political anarchy … nice long swim in the hotel pool which is quite nice, like bathwater … we visit the office of the prospective editor, and view a terrific collection of work by a local artist … a nice contrast to some of the scenery on the way there …  fantastic, elegant cocktail party held by our clients, with eclectic mix of piano players, singers, movers and shakers from Lagos and beyond …

(Watch this space for later observations on Lagos, as several visits are scheduled in the coming months …) 

Also: Incredible photo-op drive around the Burj Dubai, the world’s tallest building and growing; overnight at posh, dripping-with-marble Emirates Towers Hotel; quick tour of the old port (creek) area and souks (markets); chance viewing of fantastic exhibit on the use of Arabic lettering in just about every form of media possible, and another exhibit of highlights from the JP Morgan modern art collection (Warhol et al), and a hilarious encounter with a Moroccan dwarf selling bottled water in the spice markets.