Perous Secret Diary - Keep Out

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ghetto tourism

visited a community youth group, plastic recycling project in another part of mukuru: a village called kingston.

the manager, eric, showed us how to shred hard plastic in a shredder and stuck his arm inside the shedder to knock the plasctic down onto the blades.

i expressed some concern

'iit's ok: i know how far i can stick my arm in and where the blades are'

he also doesn't where goggles because they steam up and he can't see what he's doing.

he also doesn't wear a mask, despite the room being full of plastic dust particles.

after our demonstration in unhealth and non-saftey, we walked back through several other villages to jamaica: a village where some of the project came from, talking all the way about life in these places.

we are always escorted by community members in these places.

if we were not accompanied, i am assured, we would be robbed of anything valuable.

when fred, oxfam's film-maker asks someone if he can film him sweeping the rocky path of litter, the man refuses.

we are told he is a politician and doesn't want to be seen cleaning the street (doing a menial task)

i explain that in england, a politician is more likely to set up a shot of him cleaning the street and getting films crews and photographers to cover the fake good deeds.

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it's not a slum (apparently): it's an 'informal settlement'.

jamaica is just opposite one of two municipal dumps, separated by a stream, which many of the people living on the banks of this stream, use for thier waste disposal.

at night (and today) the dump burns what it can't recycle: filling the village with toxic smoke.

when there is a lot of rain, the sewers flood and deposit raw sewage all over kingston too.

niiice

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this was part of a mural that once said 'my village now' (with knackeed tin shacks) and 'my village in the future' which pictured a charming bungalow.

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welcome to the horror room 147

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sitting target

i try to avoid photographing children in places like there, as much as possible.

all children like to be photographed and/or don't say anything about it even if they don't want to be.

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under the tin

this is what a tin shack has underneath the corrugated sheets

this particular construction will be quite palacial, with several floors.

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smoking

smoking

a lot of the cooking is done on charcoal stoves

the opposite of clean fuel

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nairobi to uganda express

the train runs through the kibera, the largest slum in east africa: with 1 million inhabitants.

unfortunately we didn't get much time to see kibera because we were, as usual, stuck in a car in heavy traffic, trying to get somewhere: there.

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flying toilets

this is something the sanitary hygiene and toilet projects like oxfam's W.A.S.H project are trying to put a stop to.

when people shit in a bag and at night throw the bag away (but not far enough away), sometimes into other people's houses, sometimes just in the street, this is called a 'flying toilet'

the kids are being educated that shitting in a bag and chucking it, isn't dealing with it sensibly.

shit in a loo not in a plastic bag, dumping it on your neighbours' doorstep.

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