Kenya: Day 20 - Week 3 in review

This week in review: Jah Army, Children's DVD, Cold.

Jah Army
==
Jah Army is a a group of about 20 guys (and a few girls) in their early to late 20s from, living, and working in Kibera. Jah is swahili for God. They mostly grew up together and do a lot of art together. They sing, draw, paint, act, make documentaries, write, and now, making movies. They do a lot of socially aware content with an eye towards being role models for others in the community and encouraging young people to explore their creative talents.

Children's DVD
==
There's this DVD of "children's" song that Jeremy (the 18 month old) absolutely loves. When it's on, he's entranced, he's quiet. I can understand the appeal of something like that to parents.

Far too often, the DVD is set on loop, even if Jeremy isn't there to be inprisoned by it. And I do mean inprisoned because it is a torturous affair.

Poorly lipsynced children singing to their own voices. Arduous fades between shots where normal cuts would be sufficient. Terrible camera angles. And of course the rancorous noise that's considered music. With lyrics such as "Blue bird blue bird, through my window"; "when the army is up they're up, when the army is down they're down"; "everybody should love Jesus"; "the farmer in the dell"; and of course, who can forget "the cheese stands alone".

I won't even get into the inherent flaws in theology in the songs.

It may seem like I'm spewing bile on what many would consider harmless. But trust me. There has to be some statute in the Geneva convention that defines subjecting humans of any age to this torture as a war crime.

I could try to justify my hatred with some logic such as how the DVD is adverse to Jeremy's development. How it's destroying his ability to hold a semblance of attention. Or even the idea of a DVD as baby sitter.

But I won't. This is unbridled hate towards the product. I hope the company that developed this material has long filed chapter 11 and moved on to more meaningful work.

Cold
==
We've entered winter here in Kena and the month of June is supposed to be the coldest. "Cold" seems to be in the mid 60's and overcast. There isn't any sort of heat in the house, so I often wear 1 of 2 hoodies that I brought.

There have been a few days where I wish I brought my Northface as I had originally intended. I had removed it in order to reach the weight limit for my luggage.

When the sun is out, it's gorgeous. And there were days when it was down right hot. Those days were great.

It doesn't help that it rains almost every night, keeping the air cool during the day. It's funny, because it's not supposed to rain as much as it has.

But the cold is a real problem for those in Kibera. A transformer that brings a lot of electricity deep into Kibera has been out of commission for the last 4 weeks, with little sign of it being fixed any time soon. Along with the cold, comes illness.

One of the members of Jah Army, Zayna, both her and her child has been sick for what seems like 2 weeks now.