The showground

This is where the IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) have been placed. The majority are Kikuyus from Eldoret and the Black forest where they were chased away from their homes in fear of being murdered or having their homes burnt down. Many have lost relatives and are suffering illness and of course large amounts of trauma. These people arfe all displaced due to the post election violence. I was there, the previous week, as the first truckload came in, 60 or so people with all their belongings thinking, wow, what are we going to do with these people? By the 6th the place had estimated at around 150,000. People just kept piling in with as much as they could carry with them, you could tell they did not intend to go back. To leave your home and travel miles in a crammed lorry sitting precariously on top of your belongings holding your babies- what you were leaving behind must have been bad. The situation just grew to extents that no-one predicted, the sanitation, food everything had to be sorted at extremely short notice. It was somewhat like a festival, minus the bands and with no structure, who has a structure for a mass migration like that!? Us red crossers were running around doing all sorts gradually as the days progressed getting into the swing of it, but the first days, they were chaos. But equally people were leaving to new places, to friends, to family, wherever they could go. The situation was all over the news, reporters everywhere getting the story, (I even got myself on the ABC- Australian news and was seen by my granny!).

So shelter had to be sorted, to start with they were just in the showground arena on the grass, there was a room set aside for kids and mothers with babies but that was it. Then food, a committee was set up to cook for everybody. Then a medical station- luckily the showground is right next to PGH so over came all the councilors that I used to work with back in the Youth Centre along with their medicines and the student doctors- one of my days was spent in their room sorting out the tablets into envelopes- we were using old drink bottles for the syrups, that is how primitive it was. We also had our packs on and were giving out first aid. Then there had to be people to receive and register the IDPs, people to receive the donations, people to organize tracing- linking up people with lost relatives, security, night team, store team…

Before I had malaria I was in the store, somewhat cooler than in the sun sorting out the enormous pile of clothes into men’s, women’s and children’s!- I lasted roughly 2 hours of that before I was in a state of feeling faint! There I was working alongside two guys called Charles, one called Mash and our coordinator called Ron, then outside of it we had people recording the donations and others carrying them to us, it was important to keep the IDPs well away from the door and also the donators as the space was small and the IDPs might take things. We had to supply ALL requests for any type of donated item then record where it went. This was difficult for several reasons, 1, because the space we were operating in was small, smaller than out kitchen at home!(but with a bigger ceiling), 2, because SO many people came at the same time, 3, things kept getting lost under each other, 4, pens were scarce, 5, how to know who was genuine and who was just taking items- we had reports of people taking items in bulk from the store under the claim that they were going to distribute them out to the field then finding them leaving and selling them. So I was given the responsibility over the sanitary towel, toothpaste, soap, toilet paper, Vaseline distribution for the whole place to try and gain some coordination. This was difficult, to keep up with demand and to make sure that the items went to the IDPs not to people who might sell them. But I really enjoyed it, a chance for responsibility and to get to know some new people. The group in charge of the babies were fantastic, Farooq was catering for the needs of over 500 Babies, I felt privileged to be able to help these people.

A great highlight for me was WHEN I MET A REPORTER FROM ABC (AUSTRALIAN NEWS) WHO INTERVIEWED ME!!! And my granny and grandpa saw it!! International star or what.

Now, actually a week after I started writing this blog, the showground is still runnin with 4000 pople camed there, but now they are in tents for each family and the people running it are greatly reduced so as to get rid of the problems. The government wants the people to move on but where to? Their families and friends have also fled, they have no money to get anywhere. I dont know what will happen.