VISIT TO HOME OF GRACE IN SOWETO SLUM ‐ NAIROBI, KENYA
We packed our baking stuff and headed to Soweto slum. This time around I was a bit more excited than the first because it would be my first baking class where I was the teacher!
Our agenda for the day was:
To teach the girls how to bake a vanilla and chocolate cake
How to create an oven using a charcoal jiko
How to frost a cake using whipping cream
Accompanied by two assistants, we got to Soweto at around one in the afternoon and we were met by a class of ten students eagerly waiting to learn. We started off by me teaching them how to prepare a cake board using a box and a bit of foil paper. The idea was to show them they can do this using readily-available and cheap material. Then I decorated a cake that I had already baked and showed them how to prepare the cream and how to cover a cake.
After that we baked a vanilla cake using the simplest tools: a bowl, a wooden spoon, and of course, my hand as a mixer. We then poured the batter into a small pot and inserted it into a bigger pot with a few stones at the bottom and sealed it with foil paper. We placed it on the charcoal stove and placed some hot charcoal on top.
Once the cake was baked the students took turns to frost the cake. Class was adjourned and of course, we cut the cake and enjoyed eating it and saved the second one for the kids in school. After a short question and answer session, we were done for the day.
Next month I'm going to buy Maria and the babies a small stove... then we will do another baking class as this is getting the teenage girls something to do and earn their little money as we go along.
We also got them a bundle of clothes, mostly for the small ones and a few dress wear for the teenage girls in case they do get job interviews.
Chama Cha Wasichana
Nairobi, Kenya
HOME OF GRACE II
VISIT TO HOME OF GRACE IN SOWETO SLUM ‐ NAIROBI, KENYA
Our arrival at Home of Grace is met with a few peeks from shy kids hiding behind Maria's dress and a few teenage boys who come out to greet us. Maria, the very kind lady who caters for the kids, ushers us in to her humble home as the boys take the luggage from the car.
Our gifts are placed in one of the 2 rooms of the house, a shack made of corrugated iron sheets that all the 20 of them share. One room is where the boys sleep and the girls sleep in the other room. In one half of the room is a bed and in the other half is a small table and a lot of plates underneath. That's the kitchen, she says as she points to the table, the bathroom and toilet are outside. There is a small garden infront of the house where they grow vegetables.
We go out for introductions where the children tell us their names and what class they are in. There are three teenage girls who cleared their high school last year; two of them have children, one baby is a month old and the other is three months old. The third teenage girl is in a college trainning on dress making. Two of the boys are in high school while the rest are still in primary school.
Maria explains to us that she's the biologocal mum to three of the kids and the rest live with her because they have nowhere else to go and no relatives to support them so she has adopted.
At this point the only conversation going round is, "We want cake." The children break out into a song and after that we set the cake outside. Nyambura, the one month old mum, cuts the cake with the help of her friend.
After eating we get to a more intresting session where we talk to the teenage girls and give them hope that there is a future beyond having a baby at a young age. We take turns talking, sharing and motivating them while the little ones are still nibbling on the cupcakes. At this point it is getting late so we bid our good byes after Maria gives her vote of thanks.
