Final

Life in Slums

Many people whine all the time about how they live but do not realize the way they live is better than others situations. Like people who live in slums, which are run-down areas of a city characterized by poor housing and lack of security, also very crowded. Life at slums are dirty, overpopulated and unhealthy, but people are friendly and welcoming. The first point is about how slums are dirty.

Slums are very dirty “homes” if you can call them that. "The foul river carries not just sewage, but also chemicals from farming estates outside the slum. It's littered with refuse; too: plastic bags, glass bags." They literally live in trash. Every corner of their so called houses, are just plain trash put together to form something comfortable for them and for their families. Another struggle in slums is crowdedness.

Slums are tiny houses literally built side by side. They are the definition of crowded. “All eight of them are crowded into a one-room shack,” describing how Prisca Musanga lives. It is not right for that many people to live in a small room. Everyone needs privacy and space, and that is something you will not find at slums. The last point is about sanitation.

Slums are very unhealthy places. “A few steps into Kiberia, we encounter brown-green water flowing through an open ditch.” It is water coming from a sewage passing through the slum. There is no sanitation at all. It is unhealthy for everyone. Just having to smell that dirty thing can get people sick. Now if they are having to drink some of that dirty water it gets worse for them. Those are the three points.

But even though people living in slums are living with all these struggles they are content. They live through crowdedness, dirtiness, and lack of sanitation yet they do not complain. They are friendly and welcoming and happy with what they have. So next time you start to complain and whine remember about those living in slums. They have it worse. And they know how to live with it.