I must admit, my current day in the life involves getting up, drinking tea, admiring Sam's gorgeus view (see below.. though this was taken during a much greener time of year.. september 06 maybe??), reviewing ASHA submissions, reading, attempting to work, staring into the suitcase that looks like it exploded in the hallway, and finally settling down for a massive nap.
But anyway.. this was actually a VSO requirement, but typically serves as my answer to the "yeah, but what do you actually do" ..
A Day in the Life…
Because of the travel inherent in my position and the variety of districts covered, my day to day and week to week schedule changes and this is one of my favorite things about the job. When I am at home in Kisumu however my days typically unfold as follows…
I tend to stir around six a.m. ish because strangely enough, in my small compound this seems to be a time of relative calm and quiet before things get geared up for the day. Shortly after the morning has taken a breath, the roosters start crowing and people begin moving around, usually fetching water from the pump outside my window as they start their day. I actually get out of bed well after seven and wash my face and dress quickly before I grab a matatu (Kenyan version of the mini bus) to head into town. In the mornings transportation rarely makes it up to my street corner, so I walk the five minutes to an area called car wash and join the hustle to get myself a seat on a vehicle.
Then, what happens with my day depends on the schedule (which I plan with the team many months in advance!). Sometimes I will head to the Educational Assessment Resource Center (EARC) to meet my colleagues before heading out, or other days we meet at the main matatu stage downtown if we are going further afield.
Every Wednesday I try and remain at the center because this is our assessment day (but also Vihiga’s). On assessment days we are insanely busy evaluating children until the mid afternoon when we might break for tea. On Fridays we try and have staff meetings to discuss cases and schools, but it depends what else is going on. On days I know I will be at the center I may also see clients for therapy. They tend to be children referred from the Association of the Physically Disabled Kenya (APDK) located at the nearby provincial hospital or children I have assessed and want to follow up with. I also do speech evaluation days at the hospital periodically though not as frequently as they would want.
The function of the EARC (there is one in each district) is to identify, assess and place children with special needs. Much of what the staff does involves educating teachers, administrators, parents and other community members about the needs of individuals with disabilities. They often go out to communities or schools to provide services as needed. In Kisumu they have perhaps 50 special education sub units that they work with as well as two community based rehabilitation groups.
When we do site visits, we can perform a variety of functions. Sometimes the point is to ‘sensitize’ the community to issues related to disabilities, sometimes we will go specifically to do mobile assessment clinics, where we meet the parent, the child, complete a questionnaire, assess the child for appropriate services and make referrals as needed. We are often in schools to also support teachers on strategies for teaching, or on working with their children.
Special education (introduced in about 1984 largely because of money and input from the Danish government) in Kenya is well meaning, but often under funded and rife with misunderstanding about the needs of the children. All too often, the children are placed in classrooms where there is little planning or implementation directed at their current levels of functioning. Part of this is due to issues in training special education teachers (which is slowly but surely improving) and material resources for the children.
If I am lucky, on the average day I may get in 3-5 good hours of work with teachers, children and parents. More typically, by the time we have traveled somewhere and by the time people have shown up and gotten situated we are lucky for 1-2 hours of actual work! I usually go into town late afternoon and try and use internet, or complete chores that I need to do. I then go to the market and select vegetables for dinner (my favorite part of the day) before boarding a matatu and heading home. Once home, the first thing I usually do is collect enough water for a bucket bath, dinner, and washing up. I will then take a bath. I prefer to do this before dark, because if I have to take a “shower” with the light on I am just a feast for the mosquitos. I then make a simple dinner which is usually a variation on vegetables and rice. The availability of produce in Kisumu is wonderful so it isn’t as dull as it sounds! I typically spend my evenings working on my computer, writing letters, or reading and head to bed at about 10pm. I have an American friend that comes for dinner and Scrabble on Tuesdays and on the weekends I go out for dinner and crazy dancing.
Having said all this, at least half of the time I am on the road and so my schedule is less organized! Each district I visit comes with preferred activities for the region. In Mumias for example I try and spend the evening with some Dutch doctors and nurses that reside on St. Mary’s hospital campus, in Laikipia I can usually watch television!! In Nairobi I definitely try to make the most of the fabulous nightlife.
When I am visiting other districts I usually stop by to greet the District Education Officer and then visit a school, a community based rehabilitation group or do whatever it is I came to do. In Mumias I try to always schedule my visits around the Wednesday morning therapeutic playgroups which I attend with the occupational therapist. In Vihiga I have been doing additional training with their Kenya Institute of Education distance learners so will travel to meet with them. I am exceptionally busy but my colleagues and I have a good idea of the things we hope to get achieved and the time frame in which we want to do them. Next term I will be covering about 14 districts and supporting district teacher trainings, the following term I plan to support teachers in their classrooms and start training the physical and occupational therapists in the western districts. Next year we would like to work more with the early childhood teachers to enhance their use of language strategies in the classroom and identify children with special needs earlier. This is perhaps an ambitious plan but my coworkers are all very competent and knowledgeable so typically do much with very small suggestions!
The job involves working with lots of different people, but I think it is a well conceived project, with clear objectives that allow a certain amount of flexibility to serve the individuals in each district as they request. Training teachers and supporting them in their classrooms provides me with a nice mix of working with adults and children, and also allows me to see exactly how teachers are using the skills I am training on. There are many fundamental misconceptions about speech and language that have had to be overcome but for the most part by providing teachers with concrete and functional activities, they are able to immediately implement strategies and see the improvement in their children for themselves.
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