Yellow House

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...