Last night in thinking about todays events I asked one of the guards Tuma, he is 24 and in secondary school, hoping to go to university soon and study business, to come with me to help translate. The first time when I went to visit on saturday the women and mothers that were there didn't speak any english and my swahili was not enough to communicate well. Tuma said yes, which was so nice since he would be up all night on watch and then go with me at 10 am. Anyways he was ready at 945 and off we went. He kept saying he was excited to see my placement, I tried many times to reassure him that this was not my normal class, and we were going to a different place with disabled children, he told me he understood but I wasn't convinced. First he tried to walk up to a tree with a mother and her child, when I asked him where he was going he said your placement, when I told him that my placement was not under the tree, he said "o thank god, I thought no one had shown up for you!"
Awesome.
Once we got there it was about 8 mothers, sisters and grandmothers and the various disabled children they had brought all sitting around laying on the floor of the cement hut. We sat with them and they just starred at us, we starred at them, all in silence. I asked Tuma to tell them we were just here to watch whatever they normally do and we would help with whatever they wanted. They responded that "this is what they do and asked what I was going to teach today?" Two months ago I would have panicked and thought about how unprepared and put on the spot I was, but being that "TIA" and I've run into this situation many times I was able to think on my feet...or so I thought.
The night before I grabbed a few things to bring, just in case this happened and created a few resources. I brought crayons and pictures for fine motor, a woven mat to do stretches with some of the children who have gross motor issues, and I made a bag with tactile toys and then filled in with sand from outside for some sensory stuff. Basically it was an unimpressive combination of whatever I could find!
But before I brought any of this out Tuma suggested I should sing a song to them. I would never be opposed to that but I can't sing in swahili and many of the children could not hear or speak. So I decided to give it a shot, the song I chose was (jumpstart!) "Open Shut Them!" accompanied by the clapping hand motions. There was no response or involvement to my singing...just crickets and a lot of blank stares, even from the mamas, I could see it in their eyes, "why is this crazy wazoongoo waving her hands and singing by herself?"
I asked Tuma to ask the mamas specifically which kids could "not hear, speak, see or walk" (there are no diagnostic terms for any disabilities here, but rather identified by their traits) that way I could better choose an activity knowing what the childrens abilities were. After a few minutes of back and forth Tuma pointed to all of the children who could not speak or hear, which was about 80 percent of them. He said "don't you have that sign language, it will be fine!" Yes I know some sign language Tuma...but in ENGLISH! He said "don't worry, once I went to primary school with a boy who could not hear and so I know how to translate." Great I thought, thinking he knew motions or sign langauge or something, but then he dissapeared and returned with a bucket and lid and a triumphant look as if he had solved world peace. So there was Tuma and I sitting in front of all these mamas and children, I sang "open shut them" while Tuma lifted the lid off the bucket and then put it back on...get it open, shut. I had no idea what he was doing with the bucket until I made the connection and he was sooo proud! It was a great attempt and probably hilarious to watch the two of us but pretty much a failure, in terms of gaining an interest from the kids.
So I decided to split the children up, I put a few younger children in one corner with tactile manipulatives and the sand bag, gave the babies some blocks to stack, the older children coloring and Tuma read one book to a little boy with downs syndrome, and I worked on stretching and sitting with a few children who had disfigured legs and low gross motor control. It was really working for a little while all the kids seemed entertained and happy, most were participating and the mamas seemed happy. Tuma stood up, mind you we had already been there for almost and hour, and said to me, looking around, "O my god! This is special class. Children different." Apparently he wasn't understanding what I had said earlier afterall, and I said "yes it is, this is what I do in america and now me and you are doing it together here!" He responded, "congratulations and god bless you," an odd combination but very sweet none the less.
While the children did they various activities Tuma said the mamas asked if we could teach them english. So together we taught the mamas a little bit of conversational english, "hi my name is, what is your name?" They were really excited and did well! Then Tuma and I left, he said he had so much fun and wanted to teach again together tomorrow, I told him I had to go back to my other class tomorrow but we can go again next wednesday. I have a feeling by then he will have created a syllabus!
I'm so sorry for the long post but my day was both challenging and humorous, and although you've never met Tuma or seen these kids but I wanted to share the very rewarding and comical experience.
I really liked the clinic, but from what I've gathered from the mamas and seen, its more like a support group for mamas with disabled children. Since the children don't go to school, instead of sitting at home with them, they all sit together at this hut. The types of disabilities I've seen there are downs syndrome, autism, multiple disability, cerebral palsy, albino children(which they consider a disability here) and one girl who seemed to have some type of regressive disorder, she was about 7 years old but was the size of a 2 year old and completely mentally handicapped with no motor function, she was just carried around on her sisters back. Its so interesting that they have no names or medical diagnosis, they mamas just recognize that they all different. Although it was very challenging to find an effective activity and communicate it was a fun day, filled with some smiles from the kids and laughs from me and Tuma, I look forward to going back next week.
After lunch I walked to the beach and laid out there for the day and that's about it.
Again sorry for the long post!
Love and miss
Jacqi
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Don't be sorry for the long posts -your stories are appreciated and admired from across the world! :-)
ReplyDelete