pandemonium in kibera

This is an interesting Reuters photo that went out on international wires a couple of weeks ago. The setting of the shot is at a food distribution effort at the edge of the Kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya (Kibera is the largest slum in Africa and is home to one out of every three residents of Nairobi).

As you know, Kenya has recently been stricken with political/tribal issues, and we need to pray much for this land. The death toll is climbing, words like "ethnic cleansing" are being used, and there are whispers of civil war. At the same time, there are many stories of the church being mobilized to help stem the violence and provide much-needed relief. The photo above tells an interesting and realistic story about this effort.

Due to the calamities, there are thousands of hungry people all over the country. Kibera is no exception. In the photo, the man with the orange head sash was part of a security line at the food distribution, helping to keep order by keeping the crowds away from the food trucks. When the masses of people saw that the food was running out, they rushed the security line (that's when the photo was taken). The "muzungu" in the photo (muzungu = white person) is the country director of WR-Rwanda, Phil, who was helping to distribute food along with the WR-Kenya staff, other aid orgs, and lots of other church volunteers. When the security line was breached, Phil was knocked over, and the guy who looks like he's biting Phil's shoulder is actually just trying to grab a bag of food that Phil toppled onto.

Phil says that five seconds after this shot was taken, he was flat on his back, looking up into five or six media cameras snapping his downfall in the midst of the chaos. One of the security guys reached down to help him up, and the whole distribution team had to get out of there. All in a day's work.

Thank you for your continued prayers for peace in Kenya.

PS: I just read in Ev. Free's Newsbreak about Dan, a volunteer from the church who's headed out to Kenya in February to assist in reconciliation and relief efforts...please pray for him too....