... with Sirua Aulo Academy! 70 adorable charming students every day has done it to me. But more on that another time. I'm at an internet cafe and the connection is painstakingly slow and woefully expensive for what it's worth (that is, even though it's only 2 shillings/minute, it took 10 minutes for me to open up 1 email, after crashing twice over the previous 10 minutes). So here is a quick overview (I had pre-written it and copy/pasted here). Please be patient for the tons of pictures, videos, and details which can be uploaded when I'm back in the US with high speed internet and modern techology (i've no idea of the age of the hodpodge of computer parts I'm using right now)!!!!
June 22: 7 hour travel to Dago, arriving around 5:30pm
June 23: Joined meeting of Dago's community mentors from 8am (though with African time, we actually started at 10) till 5pm
June 24: Met and interviewed with two families dealing with disabilities
June 25: Returned to the Achieng family to provide counseling and assistance. I want to fundraise for these two children to receive medical attention, especially for a 12 year old girl named Jacquiline who I suspect has grand mal seizures so debilitating that mom says she becomes nonresponsive for a 10 day period while the moon is in the raising and lowering phases... Mom says the seizures last for 30 minutes on AVERAGE. Her other daughter, 10 year old Rose, functions like a 5 year old, and mom is afraid she will be just like Jacquiline, though I suspect she is more likely developmentally delayed.
June 26: Presented compasses, protractors, and graph paper to a Grade 8 math class-- Took pictures/video for proof :-); Visited Iago Primary School, the only school in the area with a special education program run by one person, Madam Rose. She cares for about 50 children in total, with 10-15 of them who cannot walk to school because of physical disabilities. She personally visits each home to provide care, home education, and other assistance, in addition to running a life-skills program and integrated special ed program, later walking each of her more severe kids home personally to ensure safety. I want to fundraise for her to receive a bicycle. She will also be an extremely important resource when helping start something similar at Sirua Aulo. Later that day, I walked to the town center with some new friends, where a 24 year old Daniel Odiambo suggested I become Mrs. Odiambo.
June 27: Officially presented donations to Dago Primary School (favorite moment: loud cheers of all the 200+ students when I said I've brought enough pencils for every student to receive a new one. One teacher than said let's give them out now, and they all lined up to shake the hand of the mzungu and receive a pencil); later went to city called Awendo with host mother for Market Day, riding in a matatu (made for 12 passengers max) overflowing with 23 people (yeah, they were hanging out the door, literally! yes, videos to come)
June 28: Video-recorded an orphan named Susan Adiambo as I told her two people named Elizabeth and Andrew will sponser her. A seed she was chewing fell out of her mouth and was speechless for the rest of the morning. :-D Later, at 2pm (actually, 4:30 African time), I went to the orphanage with 14 kids there waiting for me to play with them. By 6pm, the crowd swelled to 42 children. We read books, played Simon Says, they sang songs, we did math, etc. Initially, I used some donated stickers as reward for answering my questions, but quickly realized they will work for getting their picture taken with my digital camera.
June 29: Emmanuel came directly to Dago to pick me up. Had lunch in Kisii and met with the teachers/staff of Sirua Aulo. Kind of an introduction to me, the first white visitor, and the plan for the week.
June 30: Sat in on and assisted in the combined nursery + intro (i.e., kindergarten) class. After school (4:30pm), met with staff for an hour doing an in-service on vocabulary development and answering teachers' questions.
July 1: Intially intended for me to join the nursery/intro class again, but one teacher was very sick and had to go to the hospital, so I substituted her Class 2 (i.e., 2nd grade) class with Emmanuel helping to translate to KiSwahili to reinforce things and help teach. Didn't feel well all day b/c night prior I only slept a couple hours (mefloquine side effect?), and ended up sleeping after lunch leaving Emmanuel to teach the rest of the day. Cancelled after school inservice.
July 2: Attended Class 1 in the morning and co-taught. Introduced board books to nursery/intro
class who devoured and fought over them. After lunch, because Class 2's teacher was still absent and Class 3's teacher had to attend a funeral far away (Emmanuel had been running back and forth teaching both classes), we combined classes 1-3 and we co-taught using more donated books and a laminated safari board made by Kamiak HS's wonderful SLPA. Students devoured and fought over these simple books! In-serviced a bit to the two remaining teachers about reading with children.
Neuroplasticity: changes that occur in the brain as the result of experience
