As my school year wraps up, and after months of indecisiveness about my summer, I am officially going to Kenya for the better part of four months. When the panic caused by my end of quarter deadlines recedes, underneath there is just plain excitement. I am looking forward to being in a new space, to using my Ki Swahili and for the hot and dusty roads I will travel.

I have decided to blog this summer because I have to write papers (graduating mid 2013 is the goal!) and this form of reflective writing is a nice compliment to a more academic style of writing. As I have been told, it is through writing that educators and social scientists construct knowledge and meaning and make sense of experiences. It is through writing and processing that I become the learner rather than the teacher. So write I will.

My position in Kenya throughout 2007 & 2008 was on the Children with Disabilities Empowerment Project and I will return on the tail end of next phase which was funded by DFID and ends September 4th. The new and snappy acronym for the project fails to come to me at this time. The major difference in the two projects was a change in targeted districts and an increase in speech therapy service provision so that three speech therapists were covering the project area (one in Western Kenya, one in Nairobi and one in Eastern Kenya). I am picking up the Eastern Kenyan portion of the project which means I get to spend time working out of the rather heavenly Kilifi on the coast.

Having spent the past year thinking about pedagogy and diversity, equality and literacy, having the opportunity to go back to Kenya is also a chance to consider the systems and practices the CDEP project was attempting to support. As I pack my skirts, and select my books for the trip, I am thankful for the opportunity to revisit the learning experiences gifted to me by my colleagues. Here's to all that this summer will bring...  

Yellow House Children's Services has finally finally finally become a something!

So at this point, before I go onto update.. I need to say

Thanks so much to Patrick Moran for all his wonderful advice and wisdom and general commensensedness. Also for registering us as a non for profit.
Thanks to Meabh Friel for her work on our fabulous logo which we are in the process of finalizing.
Thanks to Matt Belcher for patiently explaining about websites, domain names and servers which we are also in the process of sorting out.
Thanks to Thomas and Mel Staley for their generous donation and Laura Voight for raising over $2000
Thanks to Jamie Kinder and Abbie Olszewski for agreeing to be on the advisory board and their hours and hours of listening, reading and giving sound advice.

So what are we doing?
In Mombasa - Dorothy Mvoi, (who will direct and run the Yellow House Children's Clinic) and Kennedy Otsola have filed the paper work to register Yellow House in Kenya and open a bank account (exceedingly complicated and lengthy bureaucratic processes) as well as gather a team so that we are in a position to rent a clinic space.

The clinic will serve as a day care/preschool for children with special needs so their parents can go to work. In addition we hope to provide speech therapy services to these children as well as out patients using volunteer as well as local therapists. We also intend to hire a part time occupational therapist.

In Vihiga - under the wonderful guidance of Wellington Manyola, the Yellow House Parent Teacher Resource Center has been registered and the team appear to have secured the costs of rehabilitating the building. Yellow House will provide funds to furnish and support operations of this community center which we envision to become a multi-purpose learning space. Once again the focus is helping the families and educators of children with special needs better support the children in their lives.

The Vihiga and Mombasa projects have come from the ideas and passion of both Dorothy and Wellington, and will continue to be directed under their vision and leadership. It is amazing to get to work with such dedicated people.

We will be doing fundraising events in Columbus, New York and Chicago in 2010 so that Dorothy and Wellington have the opportunity to bring their community centers to life. thank you thank you in advance for all your support.  

Bea x