For the last 10+ years, the tiny community of speech language therapists (SLT) in Kenya have been pushing for a SLT training course. Discussions about need and complications with institutional partnership have stymied our efforts. This summer however, the questions I was getting from teachers made me wonder if perhaps we weren't jumping the gun a bit. I began to wonder if, as a profession, anyone actually knows what it is that we do..

So, in Isiolo the other week as I waited for the group of special educators to assemble for day 2 of 'Speech and Language Skills for Functional Communication' training, I put several question on the board about speech therapy. Nine people gave me their answers (each number represents a respondent).

What is a speech therapist?
1. He is a specialist who helps learners with speech problems
2. Speech therapist is a specialist who trains those with speech difficulties to overcome their speech problems through speech training, exercises etc
3. speech therapist is a specially trained person who trains people with speech problems to have one
4. A person who assists a learner to acquire language techniques in the right manner
5. Are professionals trained to assist with speech disorders
6. Is a qualified person who helps children with speech challenges (problems). He/she also identifies them
7. left blank
8. these are professionals who are trained to assist persons with speech problems
9. A person who is in charge (Change?) of children with special need e.g. deaf, stammerers making speech or describe, write or understand

What do they do?
1. Help learners with speech problems
2. They train those with speech problems how to vocalize, articulation and fluency
3. they give massage, physio therapy exercises to those with speech problems
4. They help learners to produce correct sounds when reading or speaking hence pronounce syllables correctly
5. They train the individuals to say or practice saying words after him/her
6. They train those children with speech problems
7. left blank
8. they correct speech disorders
9. they assist children with special needs either through exercises or if there is a need for medical assistance. Helps in making practice in either achieve pronouncing of putting up words

Describe speech therapy…
1. left blank
2. It’s a therapy given to those with speech problems
3. speech therapy involves checking all the organs of speech to find out if they are functional
4. In speech therapy you guide the learner to articulate sounds in their correct positions and help them to produce different sounds without the mother tongue interference of given sounds
5. Is an exercise which is carried out during training or practice
6. Speech therapy is the cure of speech problems
7. left blank
8. this is a process that involves assisting persons with speech disorders e.g. start teaching single letters, words and then sentences
9. a stammerer can be, a deaf, slow learner, mentally handicapped, any person/child who is not able to verbal or understand

Who do speech therapists work with?
1. teachers
2. They work with ENTs
3. They work with ENT specialists, OT’s and PT’s
4. It’s done with the help of a teacher or parent of the affected learner or person
5. trained personnel, doctors, volunteers
6. The health institutions and parents of the children with problems
7. left blank
8. they work with health workers, social workers and teachers
9. caretakers- e.g. parents, teachers and children or persons with certain disabilities

No one said children! Of all these teachers, no one thinks we actually work with kids!

Does Kenya need speech therapists?
1. yes
2. Kenya does need speech therapists as there are many children/people who have speech difficulties especially deaf, autistic, mentally handicapped and multiply handicapped
3. yes
4. yes
5. yes
6. yes
7. yes
8. yes it does
9. by all means possible

How will Kenya meet that need?
1.education
2. By training teachers through workshops, by training speech therapists by establishing institution where personnel were trained
3. By training more professionals in that area
4. By training more speech therapists and enabling more teachers to acquire the knowledge of speech therapists
5. Training of professionals, through induction courses, seminars/workshops
6. By giving training
7. They training and workshops
8. by training some professionals of speech therapy
9. by training children’s caretakers e.g. teachers though workshops. At least if possible every term teachers attend speech and language skills for functional communication seminars.

Interesting huh? I realised when I read through these responses that I myself have spent the last several years modelling that a speech therapist is a person who travels about the country training people. I train teachers, occupational therapists and parents, but rarely rarely work directly with children. When I do, it tends to be in a hospital context rather than in the classroom.

The take home message from all this is we need to increase awareness about what we do in an explicit way. I will start all my trainings with an activity that asks participants to consider the profession and scope of practice! b x

Hello from Kenya..

Lots of exciting things happening, but very little time online to report. However... our website http://www.yellowhousechildrens.org/ should be up in running within months. Hooray.

I'm please to report that we anticipate the Mombasa Children's Therapy Center opening sometime between now and January and we are about to be in a whirl of fundraising to make this actually happen.

b x

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

Speech Therapy in Kenya

August 2009
East Africa is synonymous with wildlife not speech therapists so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that in Kenya there are an estimated 6500 giraffes per clinican. But for the eight Kenyan based therapists the potential emergence of a Speech Language Therapy (SLT) training program and the formalization of a Kenyan Association of Speech Language Therapists (KASLT) could potentially increase the capacity of service provision nationwide as well as ensure professional standards and support both in-country and regionally.

Reportedly there has been a speech therapy presence in Kenya since the late 60’s and early 70’s through Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO). Of our current practitioners, Elisabeth Kruger- Scheltema has been working as an SLT in Kenya for over twenty years establishing a practice in Westlands and co-founding Special Education Professionals (www.sepkenya.com) which amongst its activities provides free multi-disciplinary assessments to children with special needs one Saturday per month at Gertrude’s Children’s Hospital. Emma Shah and Nuala Alibi have also been here for more than a decade and between them, these core members of the Kenyan profession have been working hard to treat children and adults as well as educate others about our discipline. Outside of SEP’s clinic and the VSO sponsored speech therapy positions (VSO has had 5 speech therapists each taking 2 year positions in the last 9 years) speech therapy has only been available to those who have been able to afford it.

Uganda’s speech therapy services were also propped up by VSO’s support of internationally trained SLT’s and so began a ten year process of creating a university program to train Ugandan students in the profession. Partnering with Makarere University, this program’s first cohort, who started classes in February 2008 are still half way through their three year degree. Whilst it was thought that having more than one speech therapy training program in the region would potentially strain resources, now the Uganda program is up and running, we are eager to do the adapt and modify the program to train Kenyan therapists . Our needs are as great and as the development industry looks toward sustainable programming it is clear that one way to create change and serve the special needs population as awareness about the field grows is to start a training program. Currently or biggest challenge has been to find a suitable ‘home’ or partnering institution. Whilst working within the Kenyan Institute of Special Education (KISE) would allow a widespread training within the special needs sector many argue that teachers are already overloaded with work and not able to provide the special attention to individual students. However, a possible benefit of teachers trained in communication therapy techniques includes language rich classrooms that actively support and engage children’s communication skills within the curriculum.

Nairobi University has also shown interest in taking on a curriculum which would provide the program with support from their faculty members as well as the possibility of training clinicians both in the medical and educational aspects of the field.

As our group of therapists engages with other stakeholders in the field, the myriad of factors that must be considered begins to highlight the difficulties in the process of establishing a speech therapy program. Yet we know from the work of Mary Wickenden in Sri Lanka, the budding programs in Bangladesh and Uganda, and the graduation of founding classes of speech therapists in Togo that it can be done. Whilst program models must be adapted to local needs we hope to gain understanding of the processes by communicating with those that have already been through the process.

Disability and rehabilitation has been on Kenya’s political agenda since the early 60’s and in 2009 what we have is a fairly comprehensive educational network that trains teachers to work in special education and gives parents of children with disabilities access to school via education assessment resource centres. While the quality of the teaching and services delivered through these centres varies widely from district to district there would be a structure in place for speech therapists to work within the Ministry of Education structures to target large caseloads of children with a specific region. In addition, Kenya has a system of provincial hospitals where pediatric occupational therapists already work to treat children from birth to five as needed.

Many countries including Kenya still use 10% as the statistic for disability prevalence. This is based on World Health Organization data that may or may not reflect realities on the ground. Kenyan government has recognized that need to survey disability and is in the process of evaluating the framework to ascertain prevalence, desegregating gender, different disabilities and geographic prevalence. This data should be available in 2010 and will hopefully provide additional support for the emergence of our field. Looking at the assessment centre data recorded between 1999 and early 2007 in Kisumu district, 3439 children were assessed for a variety of reasons. Less than 5% of the children were diagnosed as presenting with speech or language difficulties (as a primary or concomitant diagnosis). Given that 21% of the children were identified as having some kind of learning or cognitive difficulties and 27% of the children presented with some kind of hearing related issues we can make the assumption that this is a huge under representation of presenting speech and language problems. It may be that what we find is a need for generating awareness about the field, however any marketing of the profession must go alongside the development of programs that meet individual’s needs as we can’t simply generate awareness and apologize that the services are unavailable.

To help consolidate our professional base, the Kenyan speech therapy community have been in the process of formalizing a Kenyan Association of Speech Language Therapists which will hopefully have an online presence later this year. The objectives and the mission of KASLT are still a work in progress but we hope that the organization can serve to bring together speech language professionals and others that work alongside them. We have seen an increasing number of entrepreneurial people billing themselves as speech therapists to fill the identified gap, we have also seen a number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that have visiting volunteer therapists for a short duration, but no follow up is possible as they are unaware of the SLT community in Kenya. KASLT also organizes a bi-annual East African Speech Therapy Conference which gives practicing clinicians an opportunity for continuing education provided by guest lecturers.

While the task of organizing both a professional body and a training program can seem daunting, especially as individuals members also have work and family commitments to honour, there is no doubt that we will get there albeit it ‘pole pole’ (slowly slowly) as they say in ki-Swahili.
______________________________________________________________________
Lynne Lenten, Jenny Cox, Laura Dykes, Emma Shah, Elisabeth Kruger, Rachael Tuckley, Poonam Shah and Nuala Alibhai are the current SLP service providers in Kenya. Members of KASLT hope to present on the emergence of the SLT field at both the American Speech and Hearing Association annual conference in 2009, and the International Association of Logopedia and Phonologica conference in 2010

The Role of Speech Therapy in East Africa

“This is the finest place I have known… an illusive place where nothing is as it seems… I am mesmerized”
David Livingstone 1866

East Africa is one of those regions that you already know about. Stanley met Livingstone here. Freddy Mercury was born here. Barack Obama has relatives here. You’ve read Kuki Gallmann’s “I dreamed of Africa” or seen Meryl Steep in “Out of Africa.” Maybe you loved “Gorillas in the Mist” or “The Last King of Scotland.” East Africa is in the media and it’s in literature and it’s everything or nothing depending on who is writing the story. It’s blessed with abundance or poverty depending on your point of view.

Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya are the three major players in the East African region with Burundi and Rwanda the newest members of the community. The countries are united as a relatively stable tourist destination (amongst other things) and it’s a place where people come to view vast panoramas, witness the migration of animals and experience the huge sky hung with sun, moon and stars like toys on a giant crib mobile. The region is also home to approximately thirteen speech therapists whose jobs seem to cover the gamut of services possible for our field. This article was written because of the continued interest expressed to our group by American based speech therapists who want to know who we are, what we do and how to join us.

Who are we and what do we do here?
To give you an idea about the types of work currently being done by speech therapists in East Africa, the following vignettes describe the varied jobs of six speech therapists based in Kenya and Uganda (One Kenya, one expatriate and four with Voluntary Services Overseas).

Fiona Bell & Sarah Bagnall

Almost a decade in the making February saw the beginning of a three year degree program granting a Bachelor of Science in Speech Language Therapy at Makarere University in Kampala. Oft looked at as one of the continent’s leading universities, speech therapy students will graduate with their degrees from Makarere’s school of Medicine. Thirteen students make up the first cohort and graduate late 2010. Because of the newness of the program and field all applicants were required to already have a related degree or diploma (for example there are occupational therapists, special education teachers etc) and go through an interview process prior to acceptance. Twenty two students were granted admission but due to the last minute fee hike by the university only thirteen were able to generate sufficient funds. It costs approximately $900 per school term with the total course costing $5400. Given that students are expected to attend full-time for three years money is expected to be an issue. The government has agreed to subsidize fees but not for this initial class.

The Makarere University program is currently being run by Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) speech therapists Sarah Bagnall and Fiona Bell with the support of VSO Uganda and Makarere’s own faculty. Based out of Mulago Hospital in Kampala, Uganda, Sarah and Fiona write lesson plans, teach around four courses each term and supervise clinic. The problem based learning curriculum was adapted from a speech therapy program in Trinidad and serves to provides students with all the foundation courses as well as give them opportunity to apply the information as they learn it. This provides a challenge for students who are a used to a much more rote memorization type of education.

Sarah and Fiona have an incredibly large work load but also continue with community outreach and to see outpatients as needed. As the curriculum diversifies to cover more specialized topics (feeding and swallowing, voice disorders) the plan is to have guest lecturers come for a month and teach on these subjects. It should be noted that while Mulago Hospital is 1500 bed hospital and Uganda’s largest national teaching, referral and research hospital at this time there is no inpatient speech therapy service. Aside from the lack of staff to fill these positions Sarah and Fiona report that work will have to be done to generate awareness within the medical field about our discipline and the services we can provide in relation to acute care.

In Kenya, whilst there has been talk of starting a degree granting program for the last 20 years at this time it is still only talk. Kenyatta University in Nairobi may be willing to take on a program but it is a long way from accepting their first class. Steps are being taken however as last September the Kenya Institute of Special Education (KISE) provided funds to pay for the speech therapy training of Grace Macharia at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom. Grace is an exceptionally talented special education teacher who is bonded to return to Kenya at the completion of her degree and practice in Kenya for at least two years.

Lynne Lenten

Lynne is Dutch educated speech therapist who came to Kenya for love and negotiated the wads of paperwork required to get an expatriate work permit. Since getting that very expensive and hard to come by piece of paper she has started her own private business. Lynne typically sees children for one-on-one or small group therapy in their home or at their school. By her report she sees individuals with a variety of diagnoses including autism spectrum disorder, developmental delays, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, specific language impairment, articulation issues and velopharyngeal insufficiency. Clients are seen one to three times week and individual 30-45 minute sessions of speech therapy cost between $20 and $35. This cost alone excludes services many of the needier children but for the four speech therapists that provide direct services it is a fact that whether you are at a hospital or running your own practice the bulk of your clients must be able to meet the fees. Lynne also collaborates extensively with the schools and parents who hire her, and is frequently called upon to come in and do trainings.

In late 2007 Gertrude’s Children’s Hospital also started a weekly multi-disciplinary child development clinic. Lynne is responsible for the speech therapy assessment portion of the evaluation though reportedly the multi-disciplinary piece hasn’t really taken off just yet. Lynne also volunteers with Operation Smile on their annual Kenya visit. Since last year Lynne has been providing ongoing speech therapy for one of their 22 year old female patients who received a sphincter surgery for velopharyngeal insufficiency.

Michael Terry

Mike is a British trained speech therapist who was recruited by VSO to work for the Nairobi branch of the Association of Physically Disabled Kenya (APDK). Founded in 1958 APDK is a well established organization that works across Kenya providing rehabilitation and integration services in a variety of settings. Mike’s primary role is to train other rehabilitation health care providers to assess and treat speech and language difficulties in children who are referred to APDK. Minor difficulties are rarely referred in Kenya so children who are seen by this organization tend to have significant issues sometimes related to factors such as cerebral malaria, hydrocephaly or multiple disabilities. Mike works with his colleagues encouraging them to consider the less visible issues relating to speech and language disabilities as they provide outreach in Makuru slum on the outskirts of Nairobi. Home to about half a million people APDK staff visit families in Makuru slum, evaluating children in their homes and providing recommendations for appropriate educational placement as well as therapy strategies for caregivers. Mike also works in consultation with a small day care initiated by parents and community members of Makuru in 2003. The children enrolled tend to have cerebral palsy or significant cognitive disabilities

Emma Shah

Emma is East Africa’s one adult focused speech therapist! She works part time at 2 major hospitals seeing patients who are referred by their doctors. Emma’s in-patient and out-patient caseload covers adult acquired disorders such as aphasia, dysarthria, dysphagia, voice, stuttering, as well as tracheostomy management. In addition she runs a monthly Laryngectomy group, a stuttering support group and an aphasia support group.
Emma reports that her biggest frustration is that lack of neurological rehabilitation unit in Kenya (South Africa is the nearest) so that even basic things like not feeding patients lying down is a problem (even in ICU). There are plans to start a ‘state of the art facility’ but there is little money for equipping the unit. Emma reports that there is virtually no team working concept among hospital based therapists although the doctors she works with can be very supportive.
For private and hospital based therapists the patients being seen are of course the slim minority that can afford to pay for the services. Whilst there are government schools and centers for children with disabilities they rarely have money in the budget for a speech therapist.

My work

I work on a four year European Union funded project entitled “Children with Disabilities Empowerment Project” (CDEP) of which speech therapy is only one strand. When I was brought on in January 2008 I was given two months to get to know how my district Educational Assessment Resource Centre (EARC) worked and write a week long speech therapy course to train forty EARC staff and/or special education teachers from across Kenya. Those forty participants then went back to their twenty districts and each team of two was responsible for replicating the training to twenty teachers. In a nutshell, in addition to actual training, I support others training on speech therapy techniques and I make classroom follow-ups to support the teachers attempt to put some of the theory into action. We focus on ‘functional communication’ and I encourage teachers to support spoken words with written words, pictures and signs in a whole language type approach.

The Need

To give you a context of the need for speech therapists Kenya alone has an estimated 1.8 million individuals with disabilities under the age of 19 only 27,000 who are currently in school. Whilst there is a referral, assessment and school placement system in place, the reality and the quality of services within the system vary widely. Jochmann (2006) estimated 1.3 million Ugandans had communication or feeding disorders.

Supporting Organizations

Though there are many non-government organizations working in the field of disability in the region (Handicapped International, Leonard Cheshire etc.), Special Education Professionals (SEP) www.sepkenya.com is a home grown organization which has always been populated with Kenyan based speech therapists. Started in 1990 as a support group, in 1998 they started free monthly consultation days at Gertrude’s Children’s Hospitals. There are currently 25 volunteer member speech therapists, occupational therapists, special needs teachers, and an educational psychologist. Referrals tend to be by word-of-mouth. A part from free assessments and SEP members regularly run trainings in the community, at schools and with partnering organizations. They also visit schools and other centers for individuals with disabilities to provide education, support and recommendations.

I would be remiss not to mention also the work of the Autism Society of Kenya who has developed a special diet-based program for the several classrooms of children with Autism at City Primary School in Nairobi. Started by Felicity Nyambura, a grandmother of a child with autism who was shocked at the lack of support her grandchild was receiving and the lack of information available in Kenya, she promotes awareness about Autism nationwide.

The Issue of Languages

East Africa is multi-lingual. Throughout Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya it is common for classroom teachers to be working in three or more languages. I encourage special education teachers to work in local vernacular in their classrooms if the group of children is all from the same region, but in some areas where children come from a mix of ethnic/tribal backgrounds the teacher may not even speak a child’s mother tongue. There is definitely no one size fits all answer to the issues of language as the situation varies regionally.

As a volunteer in Tanzania a working knowledge of Swahili would be imperative, in Uganda it’s essential to know some Luganda. In Kenya while some knowledge of Swahili goes a long way towards begin accepted by community members beyond a few social phrases most of our work happens in English. University training is done in English so anytime you are working with teachers there is an expectation that it will be done in that language.

Differences in the work…

One evening I arrived home from work and my newly arrived housemate looked at me and said, “So this is what you do?” My face was covered in dirt so thick it looked like I was wearing badly applied makeup, I was sunburned, my hair looked like a shrubbery and I was completely dazed. I’d spent the day on the back of a motorbike visiting one rural school after the next in the back of beyond. At each school I was expected to observe a lesson then sit with the teacher and point out all the great things they were doing as well as make some recommendations and schedule a follow-up session. School visits also include mandatory tours of the facility, introductions to anyone who passes by and before and after meetings with the school principal. How is my work here different? I never had a day like that in the States.

Another time I was in a district about three hours from my home and we once again took a motorbike to a rural family home. As we waited under the tree in the family compound mothers started arriving with their little ones, unrolling their scarves for the children to lie on as the occupational therapist and I spent the next couple of hours doing a therapeutic play group with the parents. I never had a day like that in the States.

But generally the difference between the work here and the work in the United States all depends on the work that you do. Here I find I spend a lot more time at schools that have no materials. Not a few books on an old bookshelf as you might find in some low-resource neighborhoods in the States, but no bookshelf. Some schools literally have little more than mud walls, a tin ceiling and some wooden seats for the children to sit on. This forces me to be extremely creative in making recommendations for incorporating language techniques into the classroom routine! In these situations I definitely wonder if speech and language is perhaps their greatest need.

Another difference is the number of times you are likely to see a patient. If I see individual children at the hospital I find that follow-up is difficult for many families. Families might have come in for an initial evaluation but due to transport costs they will not be able to afford to return for treatment even if the actual therapy is free. Overall, therapists find them selves doing a lot more training of parents and caregivers and working to help people just understand the basic issues related to a child’s disability. People still want to believe there is a magic switch that we can hit to get their children to talk. It’s difficult to get people to change their behaviors to meet the needs of the child rather than expecting the child to do as they’re told.

Working in this part of the world has its ups and downs like any job. I personally think the highs are much higher and the lows are much lower. I frequently get frustrated when teachers are two hours late for a training and say “Oh Bea, it’s African time” as a way of apology. I often throw up my hands in disgust at the poor attitudes of adults who should know better. There was the teacher that blocked a special needs child from her classroom door because she didn’t “work with kids like that”, or the teacher who mocked a child with a stutter before a class of sixty peers. It gives me heartache to hear of adults turning a blind eye when a child with a physical disability is being kicked by able bodied peers on a playground. Or of principals that expel children with epilepsy because the other parents believe it’s contagious and threaten to remove their child from the school. But, but, on the other hand there are parents who will wait hours to see you because they heard you were there, and there are caregivers who have carried a sixty pound child on their back for a forty-five minute walk and then made a two hour bus journey so you could help their child. There are bus drivers who take their vehicles out of their way down a bumpy dirt alley to pick up a patient who has had a stroke and can no longer walk so well, there are teachers who create children’s books from memory using markers and crayons because they don’t have any. I worked with teachers in Chicago who didn’t crack a smile for a whole year and here where we work with nothing, no books, no materials, nothing, teachers are nearly always willing to give it a try. My colleagues are always welcoming and even though they sometimes look at me as if I’ve completely lost their marbles, when I return to their schools or clinics or assessment centers I can usually see an attempt at implementation.

As my own contract wraps up later this year and I begin the process of documenting my work including data on observable behavior changes I feel like I haven’t even begun to accomplish my goals. There are so many more parents, children and teachers to work with. And given my time here, did I even do anything? How can you tell? After much thought on these questions I’ve concluded that I don’t think you can ever record the true impact of your words and actions. Much of what we do is sow seeds, ideas and awareness. Perhaps all anyone heard was “we should be nice to children.” Perhaps they learned to use a picture schedule in their autism room or just to stop calling the children “stupid.” Of course maybe no-one was listening to that because they were waiting for me to suggest blowing feathers and balls of paper through straws and they just wanted their “speech kit” full of whistles and balloons which was administered by the Ministry of Education several years ago. It’s hard to tell who was paying attention, but perhaps one person got it and that one person will make the difference for one child. And perhaps that’s enough.

Getting Involved:

September 9-13, 2008 East Africa’s speech therapists will be coming together for their second annual conference. Dr. Kate Gottfred, Dr. Laura Justice and Dr. Joan Kadeverak will all be attending as guest lecturers. If you are interested in attending or more information please email me at bea.staley@gmail.com

Volunteering with Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO)
If you are interested in more information about volunteering with VSO please contact them at www.vsoint.org. Americans are recruited through VSO’s Canadian office in Ottawa. Volunteers travel to Ottawa for an assessment day as well as two intensive trainings designed to prepare you for your time overseas. All of VSO’s positions are ‘skill sharing’ or training positions in an effort to create a sustainable impact once the volunteer has left. At the time of writing 2 year placements were available at both the Kenya Institute of Special Education located in Kassarani about 15km north of Nairobi and Makarere University in Kampala, Uganda. Personally I think both jobs are really interesting and varied, have great local teams and are in urban settings with great nightlife. VSO volunteers receive housing and monthly stipend of $200-300 depending on the country. Most volunteers find the stipend adequately covers all basic living costs, but it’s harder if you are in a big city like Nairobi or Kampala where there are more tempting diversions.

Short Term Volunteering
If you are interested in volunteering your time or expertise at Makarere University on a more short-term basis please email speechuganda@yahoo.com
If you are interested in volunteering in Kenya please contact the author at bea.staley@gmail.com
If you are an experienced therapist who has been involved in setting up a training course in a country where there was previously no SLP training we would love to hear from you.

Donations
Organizations like Leap Learning Systems and Linguisystems have been generous in their donation of texts and children’s books for our East African programming. Text book or other material donations continue to be most appreciated. Please send them to:

Speech Therapy Program
VSO Uganda
PO Box 2831
Kampala
Uganda

The blog -- I just haven't gotten around to deleting this far back yet. So here is remains and of minor interest in the world 9/09


September 18, 2007

I have been a moody grouch this week. I don’t know what happened.. well I do and I’ll tell you.. basically I have been despondent about the state of the world, and the way money runs everything etc etc.. I started classroom visits on top of this, and a consideration of the unsurmountable problems in the education world just about put me over the top. It was a pretty bad low to be honest. I wanted to dial back my life a couple of years and wake up in my bed on Wood Street. But as I was explaining to Jase on the phone this morning I have felt much cheerier since my humungous vomiting bout at midnight past. He thought throwing up depression was a good idea, and so now I am beginning to think part of the reason I was in such a slump was I was actually ill. I just hope it hasn’t put me off ndengue and rice for life.

Today I had a meeting with my program manager from VSO and I outlined all the project limitations from the top down. A really tight research study, both manageable and logistically feasible then emerged from the debris. Dinner followed and I had the pleasure of some pretty interesting company, and actually this is what has led me to write.

Sometimes I wonder why anyone bothers coming to Kenya or anywhere to do anything. It’s like wading through mud and to what end? In my work there are 400 classrooms involved in a project that sits on certain basic assumptions. Ideas like: head teachers support classroom teachers, and the Ministry of Education supports the schools. Like: children will attend school for more than 4 hours a day and approximately 6 months a year. Perhaps: children have pencils and papers and that the teaching is individualized to meet the needs of the learners. So when you go to a classroom and realize that speech concerns are like pimples on a warthog.. well.. there are only two solutions that come to me.. 1. an extended nap or 2. a good stiff drink. Anyway.. there’s my response and then there are people who take a project and turn it into something AMAZING. So I’ll write about that instead.

Kamlesh is a volunteer, and for the life of me I have no idea what organization he is with, a university? polytechnic? Who knows.. anyway he was given the job of increasing revenue (NGO speak: enterprise development). I am sure this position also has 609 constraints, and yet this is what he did. He worked at improving the cafeteria to generate income and increase business so that the people who produced the vegetables and other food stuffs got used to consistently supplying the goods. Farmers are often locked out of the market, but with the cafeteria buying products, farmers incomes have gone from around 400 kenyan shillings per month (~$6) to 1700 kenyan shillings per month ($25). He also expanded what was available by using the now highly successful cafeteria as a testing ground. Once he got his suppliers up and running he started going outside the organization to other businesses. For example, they buy 1 day old chicks and rear then for 8 weeks and sell them to restaurants and supermarkets. They make 50-100 Kenyan shillings per hen. When he arrived they sold 300 chickens a month. They are now selling something like 6000 a week. This surge of money is truly improving the quality of people’s lives. Suppliers are actually able to make a living.

So. This may seem like a stupid blog entry, but I’m feeling better. In summary. Good can be done. There is hope..

September 10, 2007

I have had guests more or less straight through since June, and so I have been getting about for pleasure rather more than I otherwise would have been. Abbie has gone, Dave arrived and left, Denise is currently here and leaves Thursday.

But I want to write about Zanzibar. It isn’t the most recent adventure. But it was recently. As a prelude, let me just say it was the heaven of heavens.

Zanzibar

Ever since I learned there was a Zanzibar, I have wanted to go there. It seemed like it would be an amazing place to visit because let’s see.. white sandy beach, seafood, blue waters, exotic location. I also always thought I should honey moon there (though to be fair Nova Scotia was a perfectly nice island too). When I realized I was getting divorced I wanted to sequester myself there for a month. It’s been on my mind for many years, but the thing that actually got me there was so mundane.. a conference. An occupational therapy conference of all things.

Living in Kenya and mixing with travelers you hear some fairly horrendous stories from time to time. Stories that include robbings, muggings, the occasional thwarted kidnapping. Over the years the worst stories, the ones that chill me to the bone have all by some coincidence occurred in Tanzania. I haven’t therefore really gone further south than Dianni beach though I am sure the same sorts of things could have as easily happened in Kenya or Malawi.

But anyway.. Dave and I arrive in Dar es Salaam and it’s a zoo. Immigration is a throbbing mess, it’s unclear where to stand and we have no American currency to get our visas. After much debate I just walk through immigration, pull Dave’s bag off the conveyor belt and return with all the dollars he’s stashed in his luggage (not really a recommended practice I might add). I share this experience in a few sentences, but the reality took close to two hours.

Once through the booths of stern men with big rubber stamps we were convinced by a baggage handler we had missed the last ferry to Zanzibar that goes at 4pm and we should fly to Stone Town. We thought we would and then once we were taken to a dodgy back room featureless save the extraordinarily crappy furniture we decided to go to the port and see for ourselves.

The next 45 minutes were fairly insane in retrospect. But they basically went like this:
- Get in a cab which we pay small fortune for with last of our dollars (the
return taxi turns out to be 1/3 of the price)
- Get stuck in traffic, 4:00 well and truly ticking by
- Arrive at port. Told that ferry is still there. Dave and I between us cannot generate the required amount of money for tickets in Kenyan Shillings or Dollars.
- I leave all the baggage with Dave and literally run to the cash machine and pull out money.. see.. just gets stupider
- We return and I hand some guy the equivalent of $120
- We attempt to get into the port, but some authority figure turns us back. We can’t even see ferry
- Man runs off with our money.

Dave and I look at each other. Me: “He’s gone hasn’t he? We are so damn stupid. I deserved that.”
- Man reappears (!) still with money and tickets for ferry.
- He fills them in, while I hold the cash
- We get on ferry

So.. it’s true we paid double what the tickets were worth, and it’s true we didn’t have seats but just perched on a bunch of luggage in a non-passenger section for several hours, but we were so happy! Happy to have made it on the ferry, happy to be on the Indian ocean, happy to see the sun set and have the cool breeze on our face.

And this brings me back to my opening point. Zanzibar is so heavenly. You really just have to see for yourself. The food is also unbelievable. There really were no lowlights (for me- Dave gave himself food poisoning), so to give you highlights I’d have to describe each and every meal.

We did so little there. Once we went to the east coast (north of Paje) we sat, swam, read, walked, drank copious amounts of beer and generally lolled about. We stayed in a place right on the beach with no electricity and dinner served on mats by lantern. The stars were endless.

I did actually attend the conference. I did a poster which turned into an impromptu presentation as well as a workshop. I met the other Kenyan attendees and when they asked me to do trainings in coast I finally said something which I need to say more often..”if you sort out the funding and logistics, I will come and provide the knowledge.” VSO did give me $600 to train OT’s in Nyanza and Western province though so hallelujah.

So Zanzibar. Go there. We stayed at Clove Hotel in stone town and Robinson’s Place on the east side. They were both great. I envision myself there for the entire month of December.. sitting out the Kenyan elections. Karibu sana. If no one takes me up on the offer, I have a box of books ready to go.

More soon. B xx

p.s. I hugged a giraffe this week. It was awesome. I haven’t laughed so hard in a really long time. Photos on flickr..

I am having difficulty uploading photos, try this link... these are Abbie\s pictures which are WAY better than mine.

http://web.mac.com/abbieandalex/iWeb/sojourn/Blog/Blog.html

b x

September 1, 2007
The weeks are behind me like the miles of dusty Kenyan road and it’s hard to recall what I have been doing with my time. But finally I feel like I have a moment (and a new power cord enabling computer use at home) so I will attempt to recapture the travels I have been on.

Somewhere.
Abbie appeared in Nairobi the night she said she would. I hadn’t expected it, thinking that perhaps the new friends and Nakuru would hold her a little longer. But there she was and we were no closer to deciding what to do with our time. As my dad says “you only has so much time, and you only have so much money.” These were our parameters and truthfully not very helpful ones given the options.

We got up Tuesday morning and headed to the airport to try and fly to the coast, but Fly 540 claimed they didn’t know where their planes were and Kenyan Airlines were full, so that left us at square 1. Our backup plan had been Arusha, but we decided that no, we’d go back to itinerary #362 and thus ended in Naivasha. I am so very glad we did.

There.
Josephat lives in Naivasha. Though he is from Samburu originally he has lived there for the last 10 years or so with his grandmother. Tragedy strikes his family with an alarming frequency and his story telling is always melodramatic. I think he might be 23, self educated for the most part and so smart about so many things that if you have to spend three days hiking around the Rift Valley of course you would want to do it with Josephat (for the conversation alone). I know him because he is more or less an old flame of Tanya’s. “She opened up a new world to me” he says. Well I am sure she did.

Across.
So Tuesday night found me, glass of cold white wine in hand, looking over Lake Naivasha at the moon and stars, listening to the hippos splashing at the water’s edge and recalling why it is I had moved here. P. may constantly groan about all the white girl ‘big sky’ references, but I am compelled to write about it. Naivasha is known for its endless sky, isn’t that why you go there?

The lake is serenity, especially on a clear night.

In.
Wednesday then, we left early and biked into Hell’s Gate National Park. It is so beautiful there. We biked and looked at animals, biked and looked at animals. We did a little off roading through the bush. What fun!

When we got to the gorge we hiked in. Really by this point all I could think of was lunch which was my sole responsibility for the excursion. And it was delicious! Peanut butter and salt & vinegar chip sandwiches. I thought I had never eaten anything so good in my life.

That afternoon Abbie and I became the dorkiest people I know. We spent it collecting rocks, substantially extending the amount of time it would typically take getting down the gorge. It was such good old fashioned fun. The Rift Valley was formed (and this is a very loose and not necessarily correct interpretation of the scientific processes that occurred in the area) when two techtonic plates shifted. When whatever happended happened, it left a valley that drops perhaps 9000 metres at some point west of Nairobi. On the valley floor there are five lakes (crater, Nakuru, Bogoria, Baringo, Elmenteita & Naivasha) which apparently used to be one before this geographical activity. There is also Mount Longonot and a crater or two to say the least. Anyway, I tell you all this because with all the past volcanic activity the rocks are very very interesting and varied!

Abbie and I spent literally hours collecting samples of different rocks, and when I migrated from just the pretty sparkly black ones I had to limit myself to only one pocketful which meant a constant reassessment of my set.

Anyway hours later we emerged and getting back on the bike felt like a form of torture. I really had to ride the last 5 km on one butt cheek, it was terrible. By the time we got back to our accommodation my legs definitely had the wobbles and my skin was barbequed (apparently doxy makes you photosensitive, I would have thought this an important bit of info from my dr. but oh well!).

There was some drama with a buffalo, but as Josephat took care of it, I’ll not venture further down that path.

Up.
So Thursday we hiked Mount Longonot. It was amazing. We were joined by an Australian Felicity and I think I will let the photos speak for the beauty of the view. We were the sky. The avocado and cheese sandwiches at the top were definitely the best thing I had eaten since lunch the day before. I want a sash that says “Picnic Queen.”

Going down there was some drama with armed bandits/poachers, but as Josephat took care of it, we took a different path.

At.
Friday, as you might imagine, our enthusiasm for all this walking about malarkey had ebbed somewhat. We hiked to Crater Lake. We didn’t do it with half the bounce we might have earlier in the week. Actually the only thing pushing me on is that I thought we might be able to get a swank lunch at the lodge. Crater Lake, whilst green and small, is very pretty. Definitely worth a visit, though perhaps when your body feels a little less like mine did.

I have to say all the fresh air, wonderful conversation and exercise was fabulous. I really felt like I had gotten away. It was a holiday.

Beside.
Friday night I headed back to Nairobi for P’s book opening. A Canadian journalist pointed out that it was strangely comforting that book openings are the same everywhere in the world. Anyway, it was very nice

Over.
So since then.. well to prevent this becoming an epic entry I’ll just say we were in the Masai Mara. It was nice. The food was terrible (a letter to Savuka Travel is in the works). I can tolerate pit latrines and mosquitos but bad food is just ridiculous. The best bit about the trip was actually the company. There were a couple who live and work in Sudan and interestingly, just the day before I had applied for a position in Southern Sudan (dad I will not fight with you about this until it is actually a possibility). Anyway, they were very funny and very nice.

This morning I am sitting on the sofa drinking tea, and preparing for the conference in Zanzibar next week. I will eat Dave’s mndazi if he doesn’t get up soon, but it is so nice to be at home sleeping in my own bed.

I’m likely to be offline for the next couple of weeks. I am headed to that heavenly island Monday and then Dave leaves/Denise arrives and I go to Kajiado to make classroom visits. Amboseli is also in the plans before coming back to Kisumu.

So.. Soon. B xx

given how little I have written over the past two months,
and how little I have done today,
you would have thought,
that I would be able to generate a semi-interesting entry about something. Alas. It is just not that day.

Nairobi weather is snarly. I am beginning to think this country is unable to do anything in moderation. Today it rained and rained and rained. And I waited and waited and waited. It was unclear for a good part of the day exactly what I was waiting for. A diversion perhaps. I could have done with a diversion. I was at such a loose end at one point I actually went to see the doctor (this is what happens when your health care is fully covered - ha!). I needed a new prescription for malaria pills so it was a fairly useful visit as far as these things go.

Now you might recall I talked of Uganda this week. And you might wonder therefore why I am wandering around Nairobi listlessly getting wet. Well. There is a story. But this is neither the time nor place. I think the underlying problem is that there are just too many fabulous travel destinations. And I am currently unable to make decisions.

Last Monday, I place the burden of where we should go firmly on the shoulders of Abbie. Uganda it was. Until about 12 hours before she was leaving and a new stellar plan was devised. We would go to lake Bogoria and Baringo and I envisioned lazing (because that's all I am good for) in a devastating beautiful spot by the water with my book. It unravelled about 15 minutes after we reconnected, 5 days later. Abbie did go to the lakes, but just for a day trip. I came to Nairobi. I don't want to look at the lakes, I want to go there and breathe them in. So another time.

But now.. now its Monday night. Abbie is yet to arrive from Nakuru, and I am gearing up to make a meal that is shockingly the sort of dinner I would prepare for my father. It's not worth describing. Re-reading this.. its clear that there is a lot of things I am leaving out. Ho-hum. So back I go.

I came to Nairobi for a book reading. It was a lovely night. No it was a cold night, but I enjoyed it immensly. It wasn't so much a book reading either as much as many people reading from an anthology and then congratulating each other on how brilliant they all are. Ha. But the thing is, they are. It was very good. One of the pieces was astoundingly fabulous and I would go far, on a bumpy road, via Kenayn public transportation, even if it was a Tuesday, just to see her again. Another was so emotionally raw, I'm not sure how she could stand there and read it. A certain reader I favoured above all others.

So there are four more days left of this week of many choices. A decision must be made. We have gone the gamut of plans.. hiking Mt. Longonot, flying to Lamu. Each plan had a pit fall, but maybe we just didn't want to nail ourselves down. Currently Abbie is petitioning for Mombasa, and I am rooting for Arusha. So we'll see..

Hope this finds you all happy and healthy. b xx

Hello. I realise it has been nearly a month since I have last written but I have been tired, am tired and am currently bogged down with much work to get done by next weekend.. so I can go away and play! Hallelujah. In the next few weeks I am hoping to get to Uganda, then Masai Mara and finally heaven at the end of the rainbow Zanzibar.

Just to recap the past few weeks though.. July 20th my sister had two very tiny baby girls at 27 weeks and I flew to New York to meet Margo and Phoebe and play with their big sister in central park which was lovely. I came back here early August which I guess was only last weekend, stayed with Tanya(activities were confined to sleeping lots, eating Italian food, drinking wine and bitching about Kenyan men) and picked my friend and coworker from Leap (Abbie) up at the airport Monday morning before flying back to Kisumu. Then Eldoret.. where I have been learning Swahili all week. Eldoret was rainy and muddy and fairly miserable. My coldest week in Kenya, though the company was delightful. The language didn't stick at all but I learned how to say chicken shit and a few other choice phrases. Now I need to study study.

On Tuesday I did have a jet-lagged/Isabel Losada inspiration for my post VSO life, but it'll have to wait as I am tired, hungry and grumpy. Indian buffet tonight.. that should snap me out of it. Lots of thoughts. Sorry my communication has been dismal. bx

I am home. I missed my flight this morning and bought another ticket. So stupid. The traffic was unfathomable. No cats for me. I couldn't find a cage/carrier in Nairobi for love nor money. Don't expect they are much in demand, and the airlines require it. Think a 9 hour bus trip would be too cruel. Pat Moran did remind me in an email that "You have a bad history with cats young lady! Need I bring up our little grey friend?" - point well taken.

So I am here for at least 3 weeks. VSO have scheduled a national volunteer conference the weekend early August but it ends the day before my 1 week language training in Eldoret (also in Western Kenya).. so we'll see how it all pans out. To work... soon. Perhaps. and I will get through my inbox in the next week or two. Sorry. b xx

Warning! Exceedingly long entry.

July 15, 2007
Well it has been a long time since I have sat down and put my thoughts on the screen. But here I am, back in Kassa-stinkin-rani and looking at an afternoon of complete nothingness before me. I would have typically gone into the city to check my email (it’s been a week) but I don’t have keys and the girls won’t be back until evening.

So let me revisit my weeks.. its been so long since I blogged that I don’t recall where I was when I last posted. My past weeks of travels.. here I go..

Mombasa
Mombasa is the city I love best. It is laid back. The air feels and smells different. At night it comes alive. In Kisumu darkness means a deserted main street, in Nairobi there is always that hint of menace about being out after dusk. Mombasa begs you to socialize, to eat or both. In summary of my activities I consumed my body weight in Indian food, though I did have some very average Chinese food one night (the two bottles of wine made up for it!)

In Mombasa I stay at the polytechnic guesthouse in Tudor on the main island. It is 500 ksh ($7) for a room and really quite fabulous. The architecture is that of a hot weather place so there are small shaped openings in the brickwork that allow the breeze in and spray the ceiling with stars of light at night. The calls to prayer at 4 am seep into your dreams and everything in the world must surely be well in a room so peaceful.

Nadia arrived in Nairobi on July 1st, and we headed by bus to Mombasa the next day. We arrived at the polytechnic after dark and not knowing our bearings, we bought bananas, passionfruit and mango from the cart outside the school gate rather than search for a meal. So we didn’t get our room all sticky we sat in the bathroom, perched on the bath and ate gobs of juicy fruit around the sink.

Dorothy is the assessment teacher at Mombasa E.A.R.C. and to say she is nice is an understatement. Sometimes she seems to grateful I think she will cry. When she met Nadia, she said “but she’s just a baby!” and I thought she was going to spill over right there on the footpath. Nadia is very young looking and Dorothy was ecstatic that she was visiting for the month. When last I heard from them, they were staying with Dorothy’s parents in Taita-Taveta while they supported that district’s training.

The Mombasa training was interesting. The participants fought over semantics, gave each other a hard time over comments and questions and were prepared to battle out the nuanced meanings of completely irrelevant crap. The expression, ‘didn’t see the forest for the trees is apt’. But anyway. I gave them a pre and post quiz and was dismayed to find that the participants did WORSE on some of the questions after the training. What to do?

My time in Mombasa was surprisingly social, which added to the general appeal of the place. Margo is the wife of a Dutch volunteer and she attended the training. Nadia was also around, though Dorothy had found her a ‘nice Christian’ family to stay with for the duration of her visit. Danielle also turned up on the coast with a special education teacher from Hawaii, and then there was Vipin.

Vipin is an Indian volunteer based on the coast, though sadly leaving before I am ready! He took this 5 day meditation retreat which Tanya has since taken and we had a massive chat about life, peace, energy and all that sort of thing. I’ve missed having discussions about what the spiritualists say, something Phil was particularly good for, if a tad regimented. Anyway Vipin has convinced me that I must really do the course, and I think I will. We actually met over coffee and then had a fabulous dinner the following night. But his talk was timed well, as I have been busy and unaware. It got me thinking about what I eat, and how I need to focus and all that good stuff that makes me a healthier human being. Vipin doesn’t eat garlic (because it scatters energy) or onion (because it sucks energy) but I figured I needed to take simpler measures (e.g. less beer and chips).

I am blessed with a really interesting cast of companions these days, which means conversation is rarely dull. Tanya and Sarah of course are my closest friends, and guaranteed to make me laugh, though I consider Tanya an all around partner in crime, while Sarah is insightful, thoughtful and generally the more responsible in this household I have gate crashed. Mike is so deadpan, and will listen to all sorts of rubbish in such a way that you realize.. ‘oh, that was all sorts of rubbish.’ Potash whom I love to hate and hate to love is so observant and astute, I wonder if perhaps he knows me better than I know myself, Vipin and Surreal playing typecast spiritualists and I could go on.. fortunately for you, I won’t.

Nyahururu
So I left Mombasa and came back to Nairobi. I then headed up to Nyahururu ‘to get away’ (which of course is ridiculous, because 1. I AM away and 2. I have now been traveling since Easter!). About 30 minutes from my cheap inn of choice, it was pointed out that it is much faster to take the road north from Nakuru rather than the circuitous route via Nyeri, but oh well, there would have been no scrumptious pineapple proffered at a gas station that way. I did arrive, and the destination was well worth the journey. Nyahururu is the site of Thomson’s Falls. They are there, they are pretty, and if you are going to find a place to sit and read, it’s a better spot than most. The inn (Thomson’s Fall Lodge) is fantastically located, and while it’s food is mediocre at best, and the service worse than that, it is all made up for by the fireplaces in the rooms. As the nights have started getting chilly in central Kenya, you can’t beat the opportunity to create some heat in a hotel room. Ha.

Following Nyahururu came Nanyuki, and at some point out of town the matatu we were riding veered off the road onto a barely visible track. This is how I found myself on an impromptu game drive. The driver had taken a route that cut directly east (almost along the equator) which propitiously also ran along the boundary of one of the private game parks. The driver (now tour guide) kept slowing to make sure I had seen the zebra, rhinocerous and other assorted animals along the way. It was very amusing and quite delightful.

Nanyuki
In Nanyuki, the training went as scheduled. The highlight was definitely lunch at the Trout Tree restaurant. How I do love that place. And Claire was right about their chocolate cake.

Isiolo
From Nanyuki we went to Isiolo. Isiolo is like the last real Kenyan town in the north east. It’s like Marsabit and Wajir don’t really exist- mere mirages out there. The border between Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya blurs in this vast tract of land. Apparently it’s lawless and it always has been. A few metres outside of Isiolo the paved road stops and they sign you out, I’m told it’s so the government can write off all responsibility for you! Hmm. The area covered by Isiolo E.A.R.C. is over 200 km in one direction. It’s massive. They have divided their district into 6 sub-divisions and they get to each one, once every 2 years. The place is hot and dusty and feels distinctly Arab. The camels roam around like goats might elsewhere. On Thursday morning as the taxi took us out the assessment center, I had a very surreal moment. The cabbie was playing local music and it was so perfect for this novel environment that it fit just like a movie soundtrack.

The second morning, the facilitators came to me and said “it’s Friday, the participants want to leave at noon so they can go to the mosque.” I asked them which session they planned to cut then, and they choose to omit session 4, which was good.. because I was supposed to lead it and I had a thumping headache from the plethora of Tusker Malts the previous night. Danielle and I conferred and then decided seeing as we had a whole afternoon off, we should go up to Sumburu/Buffalo Springs Nature reserve for a bit of game spotting. The hotel had given me a number of someone to call and we organized a vehicle and some guides. Then at noon as the participants got ready to leave I told them I’d see them tomorrow and we would start on time. Ali looked at me in confusion and said “so they won’t be back this afternoon?’ to which I said “what? They’re coming back?”
“yes at 2.”
“but then why did we cut session 4 this morning?”
“….”
“okay, well that’s great.” And in the spirit of abandoning any sense of responsibility about why I was in Isiolo in the first place “.. but I won’t be here. I’ve organized a game drive.”
Samburu & Buffalo Springs Nature Reserve
We were picked up at our hotel at 1 o’clock and the afternoon was glorious. I could bang on and on about African landscapes, gently rolling hills in gradiated hues of shadow, big blue skies smudged with cloud, panoramas to fill your soul and what not, but I’ll just upload the photos next week.

Very early into our excursion we came upon a leopard in a tree, perhaps 2 metres from us and at eye level with where we were standing in the vehicle. The scaredy puss in me was very uncomfortable with the proximity. What to say? Amazing. Beautiful. The rest of the day was spent with elephants. There were elephants here, there and everywhere. Around each bend, behind each tree. Who’d have thought. No lions, few giraffe but lots of lovely pachyderms. After leaving the park we drove through Archer’s post which was busy with residents milling about as the sun went down. The size of the dot on the map betray’s the town’s size. In fact even the word ‘town’ is an exaggeration. As we headed back to Isiolo the stars came out one by one. It was so serene. Even my (probably unwarranted) fear of being hijacked by bandits couldn’t stop it from being a gorgeous drive home.

Nyeri
Saturday afternoon we finished up in Isiolo and made it as far south as Nyeri. We checked into the Green Hills Hotel and I crawled into bed to make a serious attempt to finish my book. I was reading “The Post-Birthday World” by Lionel Shriver and it is EXCELLENT. One of the smartest and best reads I have ever encountered. Definitely a top 5 book for me (and in company with her book “We need to talk about Kevin”). It’s funny, but this is the second book I have read recently –the other was short stories “I think of you” (?) by an Egyptian author – that has a main female character reflecting on the home she shared with a now ex- love. Something I can relate to right now as Phil’s Wood street apartment is such a powerful symbol (maybe not the right word??) of our relationship for me though the my memory of that space is now transposed with Melissa’s changes (and she’s much more gifted at home decorating than me). Perhaps the places stay in your mind longer, and present themselves for mulling over more frequently because they are less painful to reflect on than the person you shared them with. Or perhaps because a relationship occurs in the area between two people and this is usually encapsulated in the place you live, this is the concrete memento of the relationship. Anyway, the book rocks.

I didn’t get the book finished last night because at about 11:30 pm I found myself in the hotel’s basement club. I said ‘club’, but think of a high school cafeteria with a D.J. Here it is Saturday night and Danielle, Potash and I are literally the only people in the place save the staff. A single curvy female in a track suit did come in and dance alone and then a man in cowboy boots and a cowboy hat joined the floor with lots of attempts at square dancing mixed with god knows what. A couple came in later to make out along the back wall, but that was it. So we did what was called for, namely, ordered several more beers each, and started dancing. Potash did his ‘this is how a white boy dances’ imitation which was fine, until around 2 am when my dancing had pretty much deteriorated to that same flinging of limbs. It was a tremendously fun time.

So here I am. 4 pages later, I think I have recapped the highlights. Danielle leaves tomorrow and I head back to Kisumu Tuesday for 3 possibly 6 weeks in Western Kenya (can you believe it!) with my two new kitty cats. I had a tempting offer to take a dhow trip next week from Lamu to a tiny island north of Pate and south of Somalia (as far as I can tell), but in a practical moment I sadly declined. Pirates and beach boy fantasies aside I need to go home and recalibrate.

What a lucky girl I am. B xx

i wrote an epic 4 page blog entry and it isn't opening from my zip. alas. i will try another computer and see how it goes. i will be devastated if it is lost in a computer void.

i am in Nairobi albeit briefly. last week took me through Nyahururu, Nanyuki, Isiolo and Nyeri.. the missing entry will fill in the blanks. back home tomorrow. b xx

I am in Mombasa. What a delightful place to be. The air just smells better here. Mombasa is to Nairobi what Nice is to Paris (San Diego is to New York??) It's the laid back smaller sister.

The training is going fine. I am sick to death of district trainings and only have 2 more to go. This one is better than most though the group will argue semantics(e.g. educational record vs. educational background) without regard to the point of the exercise until it degenerates into complete mayhem. With a fight to the death policy, participants get increasingly stubborn and insistent as the discussion advances. Who'd have thought there was so much to debate when talking about speech and language in special needs populations. I completely abandoned the session on measurable goal setting becuase I didn't have the mettle at 4pm to continue. Perhaps it is best dealt with as they are creating their IEP's (Individualized Education Plans - taken straight out of the US and plopped without consideration of context or supporting systems into Kenyan law).

So. Once again. Too exhausted to write much, nearly finished Tom Robbin's "Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates." It is such a joyeus romp of a book I will be sad to read the final paragraph. I could write the man a love letter I have enjoyed it so much. On deck is Lionel Shriver's newest and "The Icarus(sp?) Girl" by Helen O-someone.

soon. b

Hello.. A brief update, but very brief I am afraid.. in Nairobi.. headed to Mombasa tomorrow. 2 more weeks on the road and 3 more district trainings to go. Then me and the 2 kitties are heading west for about 3 whole very dull weeks in my aqua house, Kisumu. I am hoping to be bored senseless so i can get around to the multitude of things I haven't done but should have.. I may take a brief personal break north to Lake Baringo for Sarah's birthday but that is not yet confirmed.

This weekend I came to Nairobi for a speech therapist meeting (all 6 Kenyan based SLP's in the same room- you can bet it was a jolly old time) and the American embassy 4th of July party, but then i didn't go because rumour had it my Kenyan friend would not be admitted. It may have been myth but I really couldn't be bothered to traipse all the way out there to test it. I spent the weekend at Upper Hill Campsite with many many many Peace Corp volunteers who were also there for the above mentioned party and a 4th of July Toga Party Prom. Yes. If you think it seems unusual to have a prom when you are graduated from college, or strange to have a 4th July toga party, then you are not alone in your thoughts. My neighbor Brian was there though and he is a rather amusing chap.

So. Last week I was in Siaya, the week before has been completely obliterated from my mind.. it shall all resurface in let's say ... August. But I am well. A little moody at times, but apparently i can blame it on my malaria medication. hahahaha. actually that may well explain why I am so freakin' tired all the time.

There is it. The play by play. In a severe break of my non-meat eating principles I have of late consumed bacon, 1 sausage and 1/4 of a fried chicken. Flexitarian.

Must fly back to Kassarani to catch up with my girlie pals. love, love. b xx

oh.. and I might be moving. which is very exciting to me.. but it's only just a thought these days.. hoping to become a reality sometime in the next 6 months.

June 18, 2007

I haven’t got the energy to write really. I did take a nap today, but I used the recharged brain power on editing an article I have quite literally been writing since February. I think it’s finally done. I would read it and bore myself so it needed work! Ha. I was inspired to do it tonight because I sent a draft copy to Martin in Mumias and basically my overt fawning over his amazing work means the rest of the team feel jilted (more on this later). In reworking the piece I put in some lip service to the dedicated leadership of the assessment program. I’ve never really done well respecting work hierarchies.

I had my palm read yesterday. It was a fairly gutting experience. Fortunately I was just finishing up Benjamin Hoff’s “The Te of Piglet” and I thought his words on Taoism were particularly useful for me as a coping strategy!! Ha. Okay I exaggerate, but only slightly. When Surreal got to Danielle’s palm he said “this one is much better!”

In a nutshell, I have a temper (well Brenda does mean ‘firebrand’ or something like that) I need to control –and wearing a brown sapphire will help me with this – I suck at relationships and will continue to keep leaving them, I should chant the guard three mantra 100x each morning which will have a very positive effect on my body and increase my success (? I think.. sun line), I am prone to diabetes and need to take care of my health in my 40’s reducing sugar and alcohol consumption, and to conclude if I “feel salty.. try cold water”! On my head was the implication. The bright side I will always have lots of friends.

The Taoists are all about transforming the negative into positive.. and like that wonderful story in Jon Muth’s “Zen Shorts” what appears bad may be good. Good may be bad.

So. Where am I? In Machakos.

Last night was spent in Kitui. We did some classroom visits and are now at the Lysak Hotel which has the feel of an upmarket trailer park. The district training starts tomorrow and we will be here until Thursday afternoon. Danielle – a volunteer speechie from Chicago- is with me for the month. Immediate plans -- We head to Nakuru Friday to catch up with the lovely Sofia, then onto Kisumu for Siaya’s district training next week. I still haven’t written about Mwingi.. and I wanted to tell about a most fabulous Ethiopian meal I had Saturday night, but alas… bed beckons (actually I have been in it for hours now, but I’m going to sleep). B xx

Abbie – this is for you. August. Training in Kitui. Week 3. Sign language in the morning, speech and language in the afternoon. More soon.

June 10, 2007
Who steals my days and tucks them into the crevices of my brain as mere memories? I’m constantly in shock, physical shock at the date.

I am in Kassarani tonight. I am staying at the Sports View Hotel and as I had John drop me off before taking my friends home across the field I wondered why I had decided to stay here and not at Sarah and Tanya’s! CDEP (Children with Disabilities Empowerment Project) is going into its 4th year so there is a week long planning meeting with all the primary and secondary districts. I was invited to join in proceedings and did so today though I will leave tomorrow for Mwingi.
Mike Terry the other VSO speechie in Kenya is coming with me and we are getting a ride from a VSO driver in a car. Relative luxury! We’ll be back Wednesday afternoon though.

This is a complete aside- There is a woman .. Wambui.. that works for VSO and she is my hero. She has been working with VSO and the ministries of this and that for years and years and years. I have seen her name on old school meeting reports.. anyway she is here, and I love her. She can explain everything. Why thing are done the way they are, which things are cultural, which are because of the government, which are inexcusable.. it’s fantastic. I now know that the Ministry of Education condones sitting stipends for conferences because they know they pay teachers so poorly and its one way to infuse their salary and get them to additional trainings! Anyway today after a presentation Wambui called this women out about all sorts of issues she had in a way I have previously not seen before. Usually I find at workshops people say lots of nice meaningless things but Wambui cut the crap and was all business. She wants to run the best project possible, and I think she is amazing. I am so glad to be a part of this work when I meet her. All the districts are here actually so it is nice to see the people you are working with come together in one room.

Anyway. This weekend. In a weird moment I decided to come to Nairobi a day early, and because I am so sick of Easy Coach taking 9 hours I thought I would come on a shuttle (just a newer mildly fancier version of a matatu). It was fine. The waiting 75 minutes for it to fill was making me anxious because I didn’t want to arrive in Nairobi in the dark, but other than that I think it is much more convenient than the stupid bus which moves at the pace of a one legged grandmother. One of the other participants at this workshop was complaining about the journey. He said “I am so exhausted after I have spent all those hours dancing around in the back of the bus.” It’s a bit like that. But I got here.

Sunday I went to Village Market the mzungu enclave for United Nations and American Embassy families. It was all that you would expect.

So here I am. Tonight. Crossed legged on bed in pyjamas. Was looking for the Nairobi news of the bombing today but all I can get on my TV in the room is the Al Jazeer network and they don’t have news for another hour. I was actually downtown today for dinner. Fede is leaving Kenya tonight which is sad as he was always enjoyable company. Tanya, Sarah, Fede, Mike and I met for Chinese and Tanya made the farewell appropriately teary and dramatic. I am such a hard hearted Harriet. It makes me think I need to excavate my emotional core.

So… this is my update. About as exciting as a plate of ugali. Sorry. Right now I work, sleep and when I am staying with Sarah and Tanya I giggle to myself in the kitchen (per them!). That’s all. B xx

June 4, 2007 - How on earth can it be June already?

Whenever I read anything by Mem Fox I want to change my life. I quite literally find my mind churning about everything I have ever read, or written. I ponder my teaching strategies and the way I am training adults and I want to overhaul the whole lot. Do the people I am working with know that I think what I do is important? They need to know and should know by the way I act says Mem Fox (more or less!).

I am in the midst of Ishmael Beah’s “A Long Way Gone” and while I like his writing and I think the book pretty much reads itself, it’s depressing. It is really, really depressing. I fell asleep mid chapter in Mumias and had a yakky dream about it and I was none too pleased. In case you haven’t caught the Starbucks hype about this book it is written by an ex-boy soldier in Sierra Leone.

Last night I was exhausted. I wanted to go to bed, I wanted to read, but the thought of that book actually made report writing seem like a pleasure. So I left Beah in the spare room and snuggled down with Mem’s “Radical Reflections. Passionate opinions on teaching, learning and living.” It’s been a long time since I read Mem’s adult stuff, but it’s a treat. She just gets so excited about what she does and loves teaching children to read so much that I can’t but help think I should be doing more. I am bored with the district trainings, and no doubt this is affecting my delivery to teachers, which in turn affects their learning and the way they might approach their class the following week. I think it might be time to shake things up a bit. Ha!

The participatory approach we use isn’t always well received, and I think part of the reason is because we aren’t having fun with it. It’s an approach designed to engage learners and get discussion going. Unfortunately the formality that it is being presented with is stifling. I am just so sick of presenting the same information in the same way, I am hardly inspiring the other facilitators to consider their methods or these teachers to provide language rich environments in fun and novel ways. So, I am going to change some of the sessions up because variety is the spice of life. Also the last session is consistently cut short because of the closing remarks and certificate presentations. I’m going to revise the way we do day 3. I’m going to make it fun and energetic even if I have to fake it. I’m in Kakamega and Vihiga this week. I’ll let you know how it goes.