Yellow House

I am going to start today by saying how impressed I am by my colleagues. Consistently. Veronica is 55, Gordon 45, Silas 53 and these three have no qualms about straddling bikes in their suits, getting in the back of trucks or as today proved trekking through muddy slums by foot. And they do it with humor. What's more.. whenever Veronica signs the visitors book she signs "Keep Up!" which amuses me, because what I think what she means is 'keep it up' and in keep up the good work, but when it comes to her, "Keep Up!" is probably more apt. Anyway .. yesterday.

I went up to Butere-Mumias Monday morning which was a lovely three hour jaunt into the west or western district (not so far from the Ugandan border). This is sugar cane country. The EARC center is based in Mumias and they have a very active program and a district that has been essentially split into two, but they are covering both sides for the time being. There are four staff at that site, one of whom is an occupational therapist (OT). They assess children interestingly enough as a team. This may be partially due to the lack of space. Apparently a school took over their EARC building and they now have only one room in a district education building. This was the first assessment center I saw that had interesting toys for the children to interact with and I am fairly impressed with the work already occurring there. This little boy was so sad to part with this Fisher Price thing that made sounds. His face began to crumble as he realised that they were leaving and the toy was not coming with.

Now in Kisumu they speak Luor (sp?) which is more like English than Swahili. In Mumias they speak a different language, the name escapes me. But when you listen to assessments they will code switch between languages the entire time. I mention this, because I was observing an assessment and one of the EARC staff said "we want to adapt the environment for the child, not change the child for the environment" in English in the midst of what was clearly the team trying to persuade the boy's mother to put him in school. And I thought. I have been trying to think of a succinct way to say just that for years. And here it is.

So.. in Butere-Mumias I will work with 10 schools, 2 community groups, early childhood teachers and finally train their OT's and perhaps Physical Therapists's (PT's) in speech stuff. Not all in the next term, but over 2007 and into 2008. I am so buoyed by their plan and organization and spirit and suggestions. I also visited the local hospital where the PT department is. And I must say it was lovely. Light breezy, nary a bad scent on ward. Compared to Swaziland, a paradise. They described the maternity ward as the 'production unit.' Ha. I like the Kenyan sense of humor.

Today however was a whole other kettle of fish. I saw my first school that I was literally grossed out by. The words shit-hole come to mind, but maybe fetid swamp is more accurate. Let's keep in mind this is dry season (and granted it has been pretty bloody wet) but this place was a bog. The whole school looks like it is going to be swallowed by mud. Add to that the fact you get to it via dirt track through a slum.. no wonder parents don't want to get referred there. They have a hearing impaired unit that we send kids to and although the school is abyssmal.. the classrooms were very nice and actually had some supplies. One room I peeked in was not so lucky. I think there were 95 small children in this room, because the room half of them were supposed to be in was uninhabitable. We couldn't do the audiometric testing we came to do, because there is no electricity. As it turns out.. even when there is electricity they don't get it becuase someone vandalized their wires.

I felt that I couldn't in good conscience refer kids there, but Veronica is very concerned that the unit remain open because if not, then there will be nowhere local to send children. Clearly those who can afford it board their hearing impaired kids in Nairobi or at Maseno Special. On a bright note. The special units as they are called were doing math activities with bottle caps, they had some toys, one room had a pile of mud with things growing in it in the corner - a "farm" with all the different farm things labelled (yay!) - and a shelf of empty packaging.. which I clearly took to be an attempt at a housekeeping area bless them.

Must fly. Big love to everyone. b