A Survey of Kenyan Construction Methods

Today we had a meeting with a development venture capital fund, a business alliance, and the nutrition department at Kenyatta University, so there was nothing too interesting or shocking about the day.  The most dramatic moment was when I learned to first check the sinks for running water before pumping any handsoap.  I had to spend about two hours with papers and pens sticking to my hands like Clark Griswold with his Christmas tree.

Kenyatta University is located about 30 minutes outside Nairobi, so we got to drive through the slums and rural areas again.  I was taking pictures through the dirty, tinted windows of a van careening down a road / strip of rugged terrain deprived of vegetation, so they aren't my proudest photojournalistic achievements, but I think they're interesting nonetheless.  The thing that impressed me the most was the lack of modern building methods.

You will note that the scaffolding and cement forms are made from whatever branches and sticks could be rounded up.  If you look closely, you will see the unevenness and inconsistentcy of every aspect of the construction.  Windows aren't rectilinear because the blocks used to frame it are of all different sizes and shapes.  In the buildings that do have rebar, it's a tangled mess of protruding metal rods of different gages and lengths, even when the construction is "finished".  It's a miracle there aren't building collapses every day (though there was a major one the other day... I suppose most probably go unreported, as well).

The markets in rural areas and slums remind me of Wall St. - these people somehow manage to make a living by selling each other worthless crap.

With officially unemployment around 40%, you see a lot of people just sitting around because they literally have nothing else to do.