side note- SIT (the school that I'm studying abroad through) requires a culminating project for the semester, usually a forty page paper. This is called the ISP. You get a month to work on it, doing research, interviews, etc. and then present it at the end of the semester.
Back. So my ISP is still a little up in the air, but in theory I'm researching the marginalization and stigmatization of children and families dealing with hydrocephalus and spina bifida. These neural tube disorders are surprisingly common here, mostly due to food insecurity and malnutrition. In Mombasa, which is dominated by a very traditional Swahili society and culture, disorders like sb and hydro are considered to be caused by witchcraft or bad luck, and women are frequently abandoned following the birth of their disabled child. Additionally, the Kenyan government isn't really tops at providing education and care for special needs children, making the mother's lives even more difficult. And since many of the women had special needs children because of malnutrition (i.e. poverty) the difficulties of a special needs child are compounded. Overall, it's going to be an interesting month. I'm going to get started officially down here tomorrow.
I did start a little bit while I was still in Nairobi, however. On my last day before I left, I took a matatu up to Thika, a city about an hour north of Nairobi and the namesake of the famous book The Flame Trees of Thika by Elspeth Huxley. The city itself wasn't that interesting, a lot like a less crowded version of Nairobi (colonial layout, markets, etc), but the special needs boarding school that I visited was pretty fascinating. It provides for the physically disabled, follows government protocol, but is donor funded. They provide for several spina bifida cases and fewer hydrocephalus (shunts normally go in too late here to save the majority of brain function). However, cases of abandonment and non-acceptance by parents are common, and the boarding school provides for an excellent out of sight out of mind refuge for parents of special needs children.
Leaving my homestay was surprisingly difficult. Even though I didn't actually spend that much time there (the longest time was barely two weeks), it was nice to have a family that I could always come back to. Packing my stuff and seeing the bedroom that had been my only constant for about three months was difficult, as was leaving my mamma, sister and househelp that had always been there for me. I had gotten into a pretty good routine with my family- when I got home early from school, Gladys (the househelp) and I would drink Cokes that I would buy from the kiosk down the street (run by our neighbor, Mamma Kip, who began to know the routine). When Mamma got home, we would drink chai and chat for awhile. Zainab would get back from school and demand a lollipop whenever I went to the kiosk. I would grudgingly buy one and give it to her, as well as one for Balthus, Gladys' son. They would speak Kiswahili over my head, and sometimes I would be able to pick up on little bits of it. It was nice, and I'm going to miss it a bit.
More later, still working on a Uganda/Rwanda total update and some more picture uploads from my other camera.
No comments:
Post a Comment