2.65 Billion Kenyan Shillings

It is pretty cool to experience a world event through the eyes of another country. Throughout my trip with the CFSIA program, I was pretty much deprived from all news, aside from the random newspaper floating around. When the revolution was occurring the Arab Spring, I was riding a truck around Kenya, living in a boma, with no access to media. Now that I am in Nairobi again. I have access to the news!

With yesterday's royal wedding taking place, I was so excited to watch it on a Kenyan television station (Good ol' KTN).
First of all, I completely forgot it was on until I saw some advertisements for the BBC wedding week at my friends' apartment in Hurlingham where they had Satellite TV. I didn't image I would be able to watch the wedding at the orphanage since they do not have Satellite TV but I guess I underestimated the magnitude of this event because I later learned that I missed it while everyone at the orphanage watched it love on the local news.I wasn't too sad. I was pretty satisfied to watch the Kenyan News Station do a recap of the highlights and it was really interesting to hear the facts from the wedding from a Kenyan perspective. For example, the cost of the wedding in total was 2.65 BILLION Kenyan shillings. Can you even image what a figure like that sounds to a kid where I'm working? Where, for them, paying 190 kshs (just over $2 Canadian dollars) is considered expensive for dried mangos....

Even more ironic was the news feature juxtaposed to the wedding story. The main issue in Kenya right now are the rising petrol prices. This has caused an increase in food prices and therefore, an increase in the overall cost of living in Kenya which MANY people are affected by and upset about. I personally know 45 children affected in a huge way who also just learned that they would no longer be getting bread every morning due to the rising costs of food and that it would be reduced to 3 times a week. Furthermore, chai (a cultural STAPLE) would only be given out on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, due to the rising cost of milk. Needless to say, everyone was extremely, EXTREMELY upset.
After hearing about these food cutbacks, I see a story about a wedding that involves a dress that costs almost half a million dollars. Although I enjoy watching the wedding moments as much as the next person, seeing it from over here in Kenya really puts things into perspective for me....