2008 Woodie Awards
Journey from the streets of Kenya to the SJU Classroom
Christina Moran '07
Issue date: 2/7/07 Section: Features
In the Hawk's Nest cafeteria, Michael Mungai Nyambura weaves his way through the lunchtime rush. His red puffer jacket and dark-rinse jeans blend with the ocean of crimson and grey t-shirts. Tugging a camera out of his backpack, he rests it on the table. His nearly-black eyes glance downward, directing attention to his footage from his previous summer in Kenya.
"I hope you've already eaten," he warns, "You will lose your appetite."
On the camera screen no larger than a cell phone, a miniature Nyambura wanders through the streets of his hometown of Nairobi, Kenya. A dusty toddler whimpers from her perch on a heap of scrap. Pixilated boys dance for him with bottles of glue dangling from their lips. Another boy hunches over and picks at his toenails with a bloody safety pin attempting to scratch out wriggling parasites.
For Nyambura, this is home, and these boys are his family. Here in the United States-even in the French-fry-filled cafeteria-he carries them with him.
The footage on his camera records Nyambura's summer in Kenya with St. Joe's graduate Mark Orrs. Together, they amassed 45 hours of raw footage, which he will edit into a documentary about what it takes to change the lives of Nairobi's street children. Many refused his help.
"These people are in a mess, and they just don't want to come out of the mess. And they know they are in a mess, but they are hooked. They are addicted to the mess they are in," Nyambura said.
Still, he stays optimistic. He of all people knows the power of the media to change lives.
Just five years earlier, Nyambura stood on the other side of a video production as the subject of Christof Putzel's 2001 documentary "Left Behind". The film, winner of HBO's Best International Student Film, captured the lives of the "chokora", the Kenyan children forced to live in extreme poverty on the streets,
In the documentary, Putzel interviews the boys as they hold grimy bottles of glue to their lips, sucking in the fumes with blank eyes. They are unwilling to surrender their bottles for more than a few minutes, even in exchange for food. Getting high dulls the hunger pangs, and, at times, the memories.
"I hope you've already eaten," he warns, "You will lose your appetite."
On the camera screen no larger than a cell phone, a miniature Nyambura wanders through the streets of his hometown of Nairobi, Kenya. A dusty toddler whimpers from her perch on a heap of scrap. Pixilated boys dance for him with bottles of glue dangling from their lips. Another boy hunches over and picks at his toenails with a bloody safety pin attempting to scratch out wriggling parasites.
For Nyambura, this is home, and these boys are his family. Here in the United States-even in the French-fry-filled cafeteria-he carries them with him.
The footage on his camera records Nyambura's summer in Kenya with St. Joe's graduate Mark Orrs. Together, they amassed 45 hours of raw footage, which he will edit into a documentary about what it takes to change the lives of Nairobi's street children. Many refused his help.
"These people are in a mess, and they just don't want to come out of the mess. And they know they are in a mess, but they are hooked. They are addicted to the mess they are in," Nyambura said.
Still, he stays optimistic. He of all people knows the power of the media to change lives.
Just five years earlier, Nyambura stood on the other side of a video production as the subject of Christof Putzel's 2001 documentary "Left Behind". The film, winner of HBO's Best International Student Film, captured the lives of the "chokora", the Kenyan children forced to live in extreme poverty on the streets,
In the documentary, Putzel interviews the boys as they hold grimy bottles of glue to their lips, sucking in the fumes with blank eyes. They are unwilling to surrender their bottles for more than a few minutes, even in exchange for food. Getting high dulls the hunger pangs, and, at times, the memories.
Be the first to comment on this story