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ALBANY — Stephen Andersen has stared into the face of dire
poverty and disease and cannot turn away.
Andersen, who works for IBM in Albany, returned in
2007 from a two-year stint with the Peace Corps in Kibera, Kenya,
Africa's second largest slum.
''Imagine a million and a half people crammed
into an area about the size of Central Park in New York City with no
sewer system or running water," Andersen, 57, said on a recent day in
the sanctuary of the First Church on Pearl Street. "I've seen some of
the poorest people in the world in conditions that are very repugnant."
But he said he can't wait to go back to the place
depicted in the movie "The Constant Gardener."
In Kibera, where the people called him Zumana,
Andersen helped organize small enterprises to help residents support
themselves. It was where he met Raphael Otieno. Otieno leaves at night
to walk into Nairobi and to the restaurants for the well-to-do to ask
for discarded animal bones from dinner plates. Otieno and a group of
workers then craft the bones into necklaces, earrings and bracelets, an
age-old tribal practice in the country.
Andersen and the Albany congregation are now
offering the Kibera Bone Jewelry for sale. All proceeds go right back
to Kibera.
"I just wired Raphael $600 from our sales,"
Andersen said. "Right now it's going to support a nursery school to
help widows and children."
Church member Marilyn Paarlberg said sales have
gone well.
"We're an enthusiastic group of five people, and
have frankly been a little stunned at the way this project has soared,"
Paarlberg said.
Andersen is making arrangements to return to help
the people who have made a deep impression on his life.
"The first few weeks there were horrible, and I
really didn't think I was going to make it," Andersen said.
He recalled how he had to constantly remind
himself why he was there and pointed to a picture he took of two
children laughing amid harsh conditions.
"The kids would take a piece of string and tie it
to an empty sardine can and run up and down the alleys dragging it,
laughing with glee," Andersen said. "You look into those kind and happy
faces and you empathize with them and tears come to your eyes. Then you
know why you came."
Boning up
For more information about ordering jewelry or
providing other support to the Kibera community, contact First Church
in Albany at 463-4449 or Andersen at 944-3474.
To see pictures and learn more about the Kibera
Bone Jewelry, go to http://sites.google.com/site/kiberabonejewelry/Home.
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