Overdue Update!

In lieu of wedding gifts, my husband and I requested donations toward the building of a special education classroom in rural Kenya. We were married on May 25, 2013, and secured enough funds for Sirua Aulo to begin construction of the building the following month. We spent our honeymoon in Kenya in September and saw the building in mid-completion. 

The classroom was set in the middle of 5 other classrooms. The entire building block, including wheelchair ramp, was completed by the beginning of this year. Here is that special education classroom labeled with our signature name portmanteau!

In the meantime, there still was more to be done! Sponsorships had to be secured for the children with special needs to be able to attend. Uniforms and supplies had to be gathered. The school's special education teacher has been completing more trainings in Nairobi in preparation for taking over the class. The school itself had to make adjustments and alternative logistics for the children with special needs to be able to access water for washing without having to go to the river like the other students. 

Nevertheless, a handful of children with special needs will finally begin this September when school opens again after their holidays!

The school itself has been doing extremely well in the past year. They were featured in a Kenyan national newspaper, The Star, in July. Check out this article about them available online: "Non-violent policy secret behind success of Narok Academic Giant."

Sirua Aulo Academy has been doing so well that five other schools have visited them this year seeking to learn their methods. They are ranked 327 out of 23,000 schools in the country based on their national exam results, and continuing to rise every year. They've recently launched a campus bakery to provide income for the school, practical business experience for students, and local jobs for the community. 

Super Malaika (Angel) Bread: Sirua Aulo Best Bakery

We continue to thank you all for your generous support! 

Honeymoon in Kenya! Part 3b: Sirua Aulo Academy

Trophies won in the past few years!

** I've already written about all the ways Sirua Aulo is breaking the mold/mould. This post will simply chronicle our trip. **








School tour
- I will post pictures as if you were walking with us, starting from the bottom of the hill and walking up.

Main entrance to main building (with upper primary classes, library, and administrative offices)

Still walking up the hill past the main building. There's the 3-room block in which the middle will be the special education classroom! Behind that building to the left is the NEW dining hall donated by Northpointe Community Church in California.  

They are almost done with construction of the special education room.

Still walking up the hill past the special education room. That is the boy's dormitory at the top. You can see a little of the dining hall on the left. 

Standing in front of the special education room looking down, you can see the lower primary classrooms on the left and main building on the right. 

Same position from special ed classroom looking downhill, but panned toward the right. Main building in front of us, girl's dormitory directly to the right of it, and up the hill, closer to where I am standing, is the the building with the baby and nursery classes.

We are walking toward the lower primary classes...

... where this sign is posted! 

Looking downhill from left side of main building. Recognize that hill with the little bunch of trees? That's home!

Wednesday, September 11

Dan's aerodynamics lesson with Standard 8 students and paper airplane contest

After the lesson, we gave each student a piece of paper and taught them how to fold a paper airplane. Then we had them all write their names on their plane so that when we went outside, we'd know who won the contest!

Linda's first staff workshop: Discipline vs Punishment (The Power of Praise)
The Human Rights Watch published a summary of Kenya's culture of corporal punishment in September 1999. In it, it recommends that the international donor community:

• Fund workshops to train Kenyan teachers in non-physically abusive methods of classroom management, tie contributions to attendance and participation in these workshops, and support the creation and distribution of materials to instruct teachers in these methods.

That's YOU! Everyone who supported our trip and the special education classroom! From the inception of Sirua Aulo Academy in 2008, Emmanuel has established a firm no-physical-abuse policy in the school. However, neither he nor the staff had learned of any effective alternatives for discipline. They have been issuing detentions, extra homework, or labor tasks around the grounds. Some teachers are still in the habit of making negative examples of students, saying things like "Joey came late. Don't be like Joey."

This is not unusual anywhere in the world, both in the school and home environment. Dan says his art teacher used him as a negative example in his Australian elementary school. I myself have been given extra work for misbehavior in the American education system. The methods I shared over the next few days are considered the latest in evidence-based practice in special education. However, it is all entirely applicable, and in fact highly useful, for children in general education. And that is how I presented the information to the entire staff.

Staff sitting around the school's library, laughing because I had them partner up and pretend to be their naughtiest student so they can practice using positive language and praise. 

Thursday, September 12
Dan's hour-long lecture on electricity to Standards 6-8 in the new dining hall.
The lecture he gave was similar to the one given at Sister Freda's to the high school girls, except to about five times more students and with a dusty chalkboard instead of a marker board. Even though the subject was a bit over the head of the younger students, the Std 6 and 7 teachers said they didn't want their students to miss out, especially since they will eventually be covering electricity later.

But the older Std 8 students were just as engaged and interested as the girls at Sister Freda's! It was great that Dan brought some demonstration material from Australia because the kids were learning about electricity and electromagnetism without batteries, bulbs, wires, or anything but their textbooks. Two years ago, an engineer volunteer installed and donated solar panels to the school for lighting, but of course the children are not allowed to touch those.

Linda's second staff workshop: The Individualized Education Plan
Emmanuel thought the idea was so good, it should be applied to ALL Sirua Aulo pupils. I explained that it can be quite extensive and over-kill to do it for ALL students... We settled on his implementing this for only the struggling students instead :-)

I went over all the basics... Present Levels of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance, Short-Term Objectives using the S.M.A.R.T.  technique, and determining the who/what/when/where/how of Long-Term/Annual Goals. Each teacher had to think of one student and one long-term goal, then from there consider how the student is doing now, and what the steps are in between. I made sure to emphasize their consideration of the child's STRENGTHS.

Dan's homework project

The Std 8 science teacher and Dan talked about how he could leave the demonstration materials with him on a set display board. Using found materials, Dan worked on it at home until it got too dark to work...

   

Friday, September 13

There wasn't enough material at home so Dan finished the project at school using more found material.

 

Dan did another paper airplane activity with the lower primary kids
Dan and I made over thirty paper airplanes for the kids, thinking we would work with one class at a time, but due to time constraints and the children's adamant interest, we had three classes at once! So the kids had to throw and then share with their neighbor... They really enjoyed it!

Linda's third staff workshop: Neurodiversity and Positive niche construction
I designed this entire lesson around a book titled Neurodiversity in the Classroom by Thomas Armstrong. It has fantastic information for teachers with kids of any caliber.

"Just as we celebrate diversity in nature and cultures, so too do we need to honor the diversity of brains among our students who learn, think, and behave differently.
In Neurodiversity in the Classroom, best-selling author Thomas Armstrong argues that we should embrace the strengths of such neurodiverse students to help them and their neurotypical peers thrive in school and beyond." 

Using the book as a guide, I compared teaching a child to growing a garden. If you want your plants to thrive, then you give them every necessary element. Why wouldn't you do the same for a child? Thomas Armstrong calls the creation of more favorable conditions so that the child has the best chance for growth "Positive Niche Construction."

Plants Need	and Children Need
- Sun	- Strengths-based learning
- Water	- Positive role models
- Fertilizer	- Assistive technologies/Universal design for learning
- Soil	- Environmental modifications
- Space	- Positive career aspirations
- Air	- Strength awareness
- Pruning	- Human resources

Saturday, September 14
Linda's fourth staff workshop: Intro to ABA and PBS... And conclusion
I talked about Applied Behavior Analysis and Positive Behavior Support only as an introduction to the concepts and theory behind them. I have no formal training in these areas, so that is my disclaimer. It was important to emphasize that childrens' behaviors tend to have a communicative or functional purpose. It was another way to help the teachers get out of reactionary punishment and into positive discipline development.

The drawings on the chalkboard are my attempt at explaining which children need our extra effort and care. I drew a bell curve and said to imagine that this was a graph of their students' academic and functional achievements. Teachers have the habit of teaching to the students in the upper 50%. That's because they usually behave better and accomplish more, so it's natural to cater lessons to them. They're the "easy" ones. However, I argued that though they get high grades, you shouldn't be too proud of their achievements. You didn't need to tend to that garden; it was already flourishing. If you left it alone, it will likely still do well.

Contrast them to the the lower 50%. These are the ones for whom you will have to till the soil, add more fertilizer, and give more sunlight. If you left this garden alone, it will likely not improve. But when they start to get better grades, behave more appropriately in class, work harder, you know it was because of your input.

Updates with sponsored kids
I've been sponsoring Brian and Lerionka since 2008. They have really grown!

                                      2008                                 ---->                                 2013

Honeymoon in Kenya! Part 3a: Oronkai

Tuesday, September 10

Google maps estimated that from Kitale to Oronkai village would take 4 hours. That's assuming roads are fully paved from point A to point B! In reality, it took 8 hours by car.

Almost "home"! Heading toward the second hill on the left.

Road congestion

We spent the rest of the day just resting and catching up with Emmanuel and his family. The following photos will be out of order from the four days we stayed here, so that the next blog posts will just be about the school.

A female calf was born while we were there! Emmanuel says they've named her Linda because I was there. If it were a boy he would have named it Dan. :-)

We chose to stay in the hut on the right. Two bunk beds separated by a partial wall fit inside. 

View toward the path leading to the road (opposite the huts). The cement fixture on the right is a water tank. 

Sun is starting to set!

Cattle are still very valuable in the Maasai culture and lifestyle. We drank fresh (boiled) cow's milk with chai every day... several times a day...

Larusi is Emmanuel and Lilian's youngest child at 3.5 yrs old!

Honeymoon in Kenya! Part 2: Sister Freda's Foundation

September 8

We caught the 7:15am flight from Nairobi to Kitale. We only had two days here, but I wanted Dan to meet the "Mother Teresa of Africa", an amazing woman named Sister Freda. She left her job as a nurse in a private hospital in 1994 to open a two-room clinic near the slums of Kitale in order to serve people who could not afford treatment or get to the hospital. With the support of Village Volunteers, she has since turned the clinic into a proper hospital with an operating theater, pharmacy, and laboratory! Only about 2% of her patients are charged for their healthcare because the rest come from extreme poverty.

Sister Freda's projects continued to expand and develop. In 2004, Sister Freda began offering a nursery school and daily feeding program due to the severity of the malnutrition and disease she saw in the children from nearby villages. At the same time, she has been running a small orphanage for the neediest. She soon opened up a nursing college and girl's high school in 2011. 

[See short videos from my April 2011 visit] 

Sister Freda picked us up at about 8:30am when we landed. She took us to brunch and then church. Service was held in one of the classrooms at the high school. Dan observed just how musically talented Kenyans are by the numerous spontaneous outbursts of song :-)

After church, Sister Freda gave us a tour of her campus. Her newest project is to complete a new building for the children in the nursery class. It will be in memory of her late husband, Richard Robinson. She is awaiting funds to complete the building. She has just secured enough funding from a past volunteer to complete the building!!!

We spent the evening enjoying dinner with Sister Freda and six American volunteers! There was another Village Volunteer there who arrived just a day before we did. Betty LaSorella is a 75-year-old writer from Chicago. She had great ideas to teach and work with the Girls High School students on creative writing. I bet they learned a lot from her, gained confidence, and embraced their imagination!

And there was a family of four from Texas who came to deliver a cargo container of used American medical supplies! The mother of the family was an assessor for Project C.U.R.E. She had come a year and a half ago to assess Sister Freda's work and her needs and came back this time with her sister, husband and daughter. WOW I think there was $400,000 worth of medical equipment in there (according to the Project C.U.R.E. website). Sister Freda requested to keep the container so that they can turn half into a consultation room and half into storage.

September 9

Dan began by teaching the children in the nursery classes about aerodynamics. Yeah, he's THAT good.

Ok actually he just explained that airplanes can fly without engines or pilots. This was demonstrated with paper airplanes.

In Kenya, English and Kiswahili are their national languages. But children grow up first learning their tribal language in their homes, and hearing Swahili in the villages and community. English is taught in school and used in most mass media and literature. That is why the teacher in the video has to translate for the children; they are still learning English. We started off in the classroom and then went into the playground, where the baby class joined us, too. The orderly line lasted about 5 minutes.

Later Dan did a lesson on electricity with the older students in the Dr. Ken Gerdis Girls High School. It was great timing, we were told, because the Form 8 students were just learning about it. The teacher was glad that Dan reviewed something he had just gone over.

The students were so engaged and interested! They asked great questions and seemed to be inspired by Dan's talk about the field of engineering. Dan brought some homemade electronics to demonstrate his topic. In this video, Dan had just explained that humans are also conductors of electricity, and electrons will flow if you complete a circuit even across two people.

Kitale and its surrounding areas are connected to the country's main power supply, so the students do have experience with having light in the rooms and access to a communal TV. However, the questions they asked at the end of Dan's talk were enlightening for us as to their daily experience and concerns. They had many questions about when it rains, such as "why does the power always go out when it rains?" and "why should we stay away from the walls of our house when it rains?"... and some clever questions about alternative energy! Several asked about solar power. One girl asked about geothermal energy and another asked why we can't harness the power of lightening.

After Dan's talk, I was taken to a class of second year nursing college students. I reviewed the normal swallowing process and introduced the types and risks of dysphagia. The students then paired up and practiced feeding each other as one acted as patient and the other as caregiver. The "patient" was to keep his/her eyes closed and arms crossed to simulate what it is like to be helpless and compensated. We then discussed the patient's experience and what they would've preferred, what are some safe feeding strategies. Hopefully they can then use the information/experience for when they train caregivers or feed their own patients.

Honeymoon in Kenya! Part 1: Mombasa

September 3-4

Our honeymoon began with nonstop travel from Melbourne to Mombasa. Three flights and a 45-minute taxi ride finally settled us into a social dinner at Nguuni Sanctuary hosted by the East African Conference on Communication Disability. 

Giraffes came to pose for us in the sunset!

I took a picture of everyone taking a picture of the event's cake :-)

There, we met with some incredible people from all over the world. Perhaps about half of the attendees were from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Ethiopia, but the others were from Rwanda, Ghana, Germany, the USA, and even Australia (besides us, that is). I was also surprised to find that only some were speech therapists! The rest were special education teachers, general education teachers, PTs, OTs, and school directors. 

Exhausted, we slept very well that night. 

September 5

I spent the following day attending conference proceedings at the hotel while Dan had a relaxing time editing papers on the laptop we brought. Views from around the hotel overlooking the Indian Ocean:

The population of Kenya is about 43 million. The country does not have any training or degree programs for speech therapists, so it is quite amazing that the Association of Speech and Language Therapists Kenya (ASLTK), founded earlier this year, already has 17 members, nine of them practicing SLTs. The others are volunteers, affiliates, assistants, or honorary members. Of the practicing  SLTs, seven work in Nairobi and two in Mombasa. I was one of the only ones at the conference representing therapy work in the rural Western areas.

One of the presenters invited her Ghanian colleague to the front to show us a song and dance she invented to encourage kids with and without special needs to participate together. In Ghana, it is typical for a person to be given a nickname based on the day of the week he or she was born. This song celebrates each birthday-name. This example was for Thursday birthdays. 

September 6

Finally, a whole day to ourselves! We decided to visit two places -- Fort Jesus and Bombolulu Village.

Fort Jesus(Forte Jesus de Mombaça) is Portuguese fort built in 1591 by order of King Philip I of Portugal (King Philip II of Spain), then ruler of the joint Portuguese and Spanish Kingdoms, located on Mombasa Island to guard the Old Port of Mombasa, Kenya. It was built in the shape of a man (viewed from the air), and was given the name of Jesus. In 2011, the fort was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, highlighted as one of the most outstanding and well preserved examples of 16th-century Portuguese military fortifications. Between 1631 and 1875 the fort was won and lost nine times by the nations contesting control of Kenya. 

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Jesus

Dan pretending to push me along in the seat in which Queen Elizabeth II sat when she visited in 1952. 

I knew that we ought to get a tour guide from within the museum to ensure we get a fair and honest tour guide. Well, Kenya got one over me anyway. The guide showed us around the inside and then said we were now his friends and as friends, we would get special treatment. By that he meant he would show us the outside of the Fort and even take us on a tour of Old Town. And at the end of it (actually after I told him we ought to return to the taxi driver who had been waiting for us the past two hours!), we got his special request for his extra services... to the tune of 3,000 ksh! We only gave him about 1,000 ksh (about $11-$12 USD/AUD) for his guilt trip and parted ways. 

This is how we got into/out of the Fort's perimeters! VIPs only!

A snippet of what Old Town looks like

Our taxi driver said this tour guide was employed by Fort Jesus museum and was not allowed to ask for money within the walls... that's why he gave us this "special" tour outside of it. In any case, Dan was glad to have seen it because of its historical and cultural value. Old Town has actually been submitted for approval as another UNESCO World Heritage site, but it would not have been safe for us to explore the area without a guide. We decided it was worth the few extra bucks solicited.

Our last stop was to Bombolulu Village. The following is their own description. 

Bombolulu Workshops and Cultural Centre... works with more than 100 people with different abilities, men  and women artisans to help them overcome their physical limitations and empower them economically and socially to become fully integrated members of their communities, also providing social benefits to the workers e.g. Clinic, Nursery School, Social Hall, Sports, HIV Prevention, etc. Bombolulu started in 1969 and the Association for the Physically Disabled of Kenya took over in 1987.

My favorite part was discovering that their Mobility Aid Workshop is a Wheelchair Provision and Assembly Center (WPAC) through Whirlwind Wheelchair International! Run by local people with disabilities, they put together the RoughRider all-terrain wheelchair and distribute them as their own independent shop. I've run into two other functioning and fantastic WPACs in other countries as well. Always satisfying to see great international development models succeed! 

September 7

Spent the day lounging in the hotel before taking our one hour flight back to Nairobi for the night. There, we were picked up and welcomed by a Village Volunteer driver and host. We were fed dinner and had a nice night's sleep in preparation for our early morning flight the next day, to Kitale (See: blog Part 2).