Neighborhood Dump Site
Street boys take the scraps they gather to one of the neighborhood dumps which purchase what they scavenged.
Foul Broth
Daring boys like John, wade into the foul Mathare River to scoop up metal scraps using a magnet tied to a string.
A Maze of Footpaths
Street boys earn money by collecting scraps. Each day they wander the streets and maze of footpaths between shacks collecting discarded plastic and metal.
Denizens of Galole St
In writing the book, John and I ventured back to Galole St where he had slept on the sidewalk for three years. Here we encountered a band of locals, some of whom John remembered from his days on the street 30 years ago
John’s classroom
A kindly security guard allowed us to enter the school grounds on a Saturday. He also let us into John’s kindergarten classroom. Although the wall posters have changed since John sat in this classroom 30 years ago, these are much like those he learned from in the late 1980s.
First Street
In his earliest years, John lived in the relatively more prosperous neighborhood of Eastleigh separated from the Mathare slum by a busy thoroughfare. He spent his first five years in the apartment building on the left with his mother (Keziah), half-brother (Daniel) and sister (Jane).