Yellow House

Hello.. I have been receiving ALL SORTS of mail lately and I just want to say a big big thank you. It is so wonderful to get letters and packages. The kids are loving the stickers, cars and finger puppets. And books -especially novels!- by the way rock! If you have any trashy Anita Shreve, Jodie Pichoult or other ridiculous chick lit. sitting read on your shelf please consider sending them to me (surface mail's fine.. I have time!!) This is my genre of choice currently (after slogging through two education/disability reads). I am presently devouring "The Cotton Queen" by Pamela Morsi. Reminds me of "Ya-Ya Sisterhood", but not as many interesting characters. I am such a girl these days. I think my brain can only take so many serious thoughts.

So. This morning I was amazingly productive. Wrote a massive section of my training on speech disorders and was very self congradualatory about how much stuff i could remember from grad school days! Ha. And then started thinking about John Lybolt falling asleep during his stuttering client and was laughing out loud.

Alright. Back to my computer. We are spending a lot of time together. I think I have carpal tunnel in my shoulder. Is it possible? But I've also started doing push up so I might be doing them wrong? Must fly like a bird. b

March 14, 2007

Today was one of those great days when I was so happy just to be. I was in Mumias. I went to a community based rehab group. And I had skumawiki (shredded greens sautéed with a little onion and tomato) and chapattis for lunch.

Mumias looks exactly the way I anticipated my life in Africa to look. Mumias is Kenya’s sugar growing capital and home to a large rather nice hospital that I have previously mentioned. The Dutch girls live in a house on a hospital compound which could have featured in my memory. Soetinah is a last year medical student, her two room mates nurses. It’s lovely to be up there. The tropical foliage clusters around the buildings and the gardens and fields intermingle. The main street is more or less two parallel rows of businesses dominated by the bustling matatu stage. Last night I joined the girls for a delicious dinner and a discussion of books and a possible trip to Lamu before retiring to St Mary’s guesthouse.

I met Martin (Mumias’ occupational therapist/OT) at the EARC at 9 this morning and he had scheduled a couple of patients for me. One who may be a late talker but more likely has some significant oral motor issues according to his mother’s accounts of meal times. The other.. I think he has cranial nerve damage. I don’t know what else to think. I have to do some research. His tongue is as good as dysfunctional. Absolutely no range of motion, barely any protrusion. It is, as the saying goes in my family, as limp as “a wet slug.” He swallows by tilting his head all the way back. People are amazing.

Anyway, after consultations, Martin and I took the motor bike and headed out to the community. Francis (Vihiga’s OT) also joined us, as we are hoping to roll out this model of service provision in their district too. Once again it was a beautiful day and a cluster of mothers attended with their little ones. Both the OT’s got to work on sensory integration activities, muscle work (range of motion I’d guess) and teaching parents how to interact with their children. I tried for joint attention, back and forth vocalizing and general language stimulation. You show up to things once around here and your presence is appreciated. You show up twice and people treat you like you mean business. It’s only a slight shift in attitude but it’s noticeable. It made me think that these groups get a lot of one time visitors. Mumias is running a very successful program so I imagine VSO sends people out to look all the time.

Anyway, there was a new baby (Jamila) since last time. She was 5 though!! I kid you not she was tiny. I was thinking months old. Her motor skills, head control, balance, that kind of thing was more advanced than an infant but the child was as small as a doll. Both OT’s to their credit were spending a lot of time talking about nutrition today.

After the therapy when all the babes promptly fell asleep we spent some time under the trees talking about speech and communication. They asked questions and I tried to give clear simple answers. The grand finale .. “so in your country (what is my country I wonder?).. so in your country, do eggs stop children talking?”

I am back in Kisumu and the rest of my week is in upheaval. Vihiga didn’t schedule the teacher meeting tomorrow from the sounds of things. “Which teachers?” Super. But it gives me much needed time to continue prepping for this five day circus.

I’m making Claire and I spicy eggplant stir fry tonight. Lovely jubbely. b