Street living

My name is Elias Omondi.  I am 19 years old.  I live in Nairobi, Kenya in a slum called kibera. A slum is a place where people don’t live a self-contained life.  They live in one room houses.  The houses are built out of scrap metal, wood, mud, iron sheets, and anything found in the environment.  The hygiene is not good because there is too much sewage and garbage which is all over.  This is because we are too many, 20 or 30 living in a small area.  At night you can’t sleep well because there are many noises from bars, clubs, and stores.  My house is too close to the train tracks.  At night you wake up to the vibration of the train.  Sometimes they have to use the horn when someone is on the rails, so the sound of that horn is heard in a wide area. 

Scale Weighing

I live on my own because my mother died when I was 13 years old.  I have never seen my father but have heard stories that he lives up country.  When she died I lived with a neighbor until I decided to have my own house at the age of 16.  I tried to look for sponsorships but it wasn’t my luck to go back to school; so I just decided to hustle on my own

 I myself I earn my living by collecting scrap materials such as plastics and metals.  We sometimes buy materials from people and resell them to the recycling industry.  Maybe we’ll pay ten shillings for one kilo and resell it for 12 or 13 shillings.  It’s hard work but it is the only way you can earn your living. In a day I can walk 5 km.  sometimes you can walk all that distance and come with nothing or something like 

Before I started that work I was a student in Ayany primary school in kibera. I finished my primary education; but I could not join high school due to lack of money and a guardian.

these are my friends cooking lunch

Advertisement