hello all, we made it to Nairobi, a few days ago actually. Time is so strange here, it either stretches until it almost snaps or passes so quickly i lose track of days. It never moves at the pace i expect. We're focusing our time now in Kibera now. if you've seen The Constant Gardener, you've seen this slum area outside of Nairobi, home to somewhere between 800,000 and 1 million residents. We're working with about 12-14 young people and Fred, their fearless leader. We're also incredibly grateful that Felix Masi, professional photojournalist, is volunteering his time to hang out with us, mentor the students, and take us to cool places like the Java House. Felix started an organization called Voiceless Children (www.voicelesschildren.org) and uses his talents as a photographer to advocate for children who have no voice. His mission and ours complement one another and I hope we'll be able to continue a relationship between JUMP and Voiceless Children.

We're working in a small center that the Kibera Community Youth Program recently rented. it's in Kibera, but on the outskirts and has a security guard. It seems safe and the equipment should be secure. It has three small rooms where our teams break into groups to work on podcasts, photography and digital stories. Though I don't like to play favorites, our digital story team rocks! We're almost done with our first production...we filmed a street performance of a young man (next academy award winner), slightly mad, slightly intoxicated, who cries out against a society and his brothers and sisters who have made him an outcast because of his HIV status. In the background four talented Kibera JUMPers sang, played guitar and drums and heightened the emotion of his powerful monologue. You'll see it soon on the Internet, once we can compress it enough to get it up with the slow connection speeds here. We're trying to beat the podcast team. It shouldn't be hard, in between every recording they break out the deck of cards. I heard Andrew asking for a bunch of coins earlier today, but don't worry, gambling is strictly forbidden. I'm sure that was on line 26 of the student contract.

We break for lunch around 12:30...and today we hopped in the matatus and drove a few minutes up the dirt road in Kibera to a tiny cafe that served traditional swahili dishes. we piled into the tiny rooms and spilled out onto the street while the owners quickly served us about 30+ dishes of everything from rice (pilau) and chapatis to traditional fried fish (tilapia, heads and all). A few were sad they were out of the savory cow intestines. What an incredible meal...I heard Rory say it was some of the best food he's ever eaten. Eric Devlin ate all the leftovers, his primary role.

Speaking of food, it's time to go again. Tonight it's Jamaican food down the block.

more to come...thanks for all the aloha from home.

Kwaheri,
Robin