A day in a Powerwoman’s life
The day starts early at sunrise, about 5 a.m. A first taks is to provide water for the family, which means carrying it for a long way back home. Then clothes, mostly from the children, have to be washed. Breakfast is prepared on the previous day with the aid of coals. In this way, the children can get ready themselves. They drink tea without milk and have a bit of ugali. Often, they do not get any lunch. Its size and frequency depends on the money we earn.
The first tea is served at 7 a.m. Afterwards, we look for additional jobs such as washing clothes, cleaning etc. If we find one, it will occupy us until 4 p.m. Some of us have even further durable jobs, such as a cloth store. And there is of course the work at the Powerwomen Shop. Most of the products are produced at home or by the help of our men (e.g. bone items). We take turns in being present in the shop.
Sleeping hour is at 9 p.m. after it became dark.
Money is needed not only for food (about 200 KSH), the house rent (about 600 KSH) and electricity (about 300 KSH per plug). We also need to pay the public toilets and showers of Kibera (50 KSH). The education is quite expensive for us: A primary private school costs about 1800 KSH per term (according to the age of the child). In addition we have to pay for the lunch, the tuition, the uniforms, the books, the exams etc. Private schools have the advantage of small classes, only about 35 pupils per class. In public schoos we pay about 300 KSH but therefore the teachers cannot attend the 70 pupils as they should.
We also need to consider the costs of illnesses (medecine, hospital, injections etc.) such as pneumonia, malaria, asthma, ulcels etc. If someone passes away, we support her children.
Additionaly, we are saving to realise some of our future plans. We would like to buy a house in the Olympic Estate, near the main road. This would cost 3.500 KSH including electricity and water. There we would not only establish our shop but also offer computer classes for the children as we think new media crucial for the future. Our customers could profit of better accomodation and perhaps we even could engage some employees or establish a daycare school. We also would like to buy a washing machine.