Last Thursday, Jenn, Heather, Clare, Lyndsay, Lauren and I made our first trip to the IDP(internally displaced persons) camps. These camps came about when the political violence broke in 2007, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without homes. The government provided each family with a very small amount to 're-start' their lives, an unfathomable request. Therefore, most of them joined together and purchased land in several areas hours away from Nairobi. The families were given tents to live in that were supposed to suffice for only six months; However, two years later these are the same roofs over their heads.


Jenn, who arrived in Kenya before any of us, tried to warn us of the current situation in the camps, stating their extreme levels of need. No matter what she said, there was no true way to prepare us for what we saw.


We first visited Baruku IDP camp, which is home to about 1300 people. When we pulled up to the site, I cannot even begin to describe the number of children who ran up to the van with beaming, but dirty, faces. Jenn and Irene (VICDA's founder) first coined the term "dust babies" to describe Baruku's young inhabitants, and I now know why. Each child was equally covered from head to toe in dirt, but every one of them seemed unfazed. So, each of us volunteers tried to join them in their carelessness and jump into their pool of exuberant playtime. We pulled out all the three big "B's": Bubbles, books and biscuits - and my gosh, what a hit! It seemd to have kept them satiated for hours (And who know? Maybe even days) to follow. We also gave each child we saw a new item of clothing, whether it was a shirt, pair of pants or a onesie. They loved their new digs, and it was awesome (not to mention humbling) to see some of them sporting the "Cookie Monster" and "Snoopy: Rockstar Dog" shirts my brothers and I wore when we were their age.

We're heading back for our third visit to Baruku tomorrow, and I am anxiously awaiting being pounced on and tickled by all of the "dust babies" once again. They may not know it, but they light up my day just as much as I hope to light up theirs.