What an interesting month it has been! I now realize and apologize for not posting about what happened after the whole incident with the woman. I am safe and everything turned out for the best. Two Peace Corps staff escorted me back to Meru where we then got the woman to come with us to the police station and solved matters. That’s the basis of it and there’s really no need to go further into detail about it.

On the second Sunday of June, I was lounging around outside on the grass in the front area of my school’s compound when I felt a wave of paternal instinct. It ranks as one of the most bizarre experiences of my life. I felt that wave and instantly knew to check up on my boys playing football (that’s soccer over here) at the church’s football field. I was painfully aware of the fact that I was wearing sandals, a bit shorter than usual swimming shorts, and a very long shirt that went halfway down my legs as I started sprinting towards the boys. No matter. Kenya’s cultural norms and customs can wait for one day. As I arrived at the field, I caught the tail end of a fight that broke out between my boys and a neighboring high school, initiated by the others, during their football scrimmage. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I caught sight of the hearing boys holding branches, some as thick as my leg; and one was holding a metal pole as thick as my wrist! They had beaten my boys with them!! I was livid and screamed at them but as I calmed down, I tried to solve the situation for good. To avoid any escalation, I herded my kids back to school when I realized that their ‘leaders’ were high on weed and miraa. When I returned to the school, a teacher that lives on the compound and two house mothers were told of what happened so we all went out to talk to them again, sans 90% of the kids. When we got out there, the people I had talked to earlier had disappeared. There was a search for them but that soon fell apart. Soon, we went to the Chief to explain the situation but while we were waiting, one of the men I talked to returned. The man explained the situation and asked me to confirm the fact that he was not holding any metal poles. There were two teachers standing where we all were now but my responsibility to the students came first so my voice came out. (Besides, I wasn’t on school grounds so it’s all good. They were bound to find out eventually.) As soon as that happened, I simultaneously felt a weight lift off my shoulders and a heavier, but different, weight descend upon my shoulders. The football situation got resolved but the fact that I can speak and hear is still a hot topic among the teachers at school, even today. Some people at school go the length to refusing to greet me until I communicate with them using my voice. This pisses me off. Big time. I understand and realize that the teachers believe wholeheartedly in the oral method of instruction but what I do not understand is how some of them can be so blind to the fact that they are letting more than half the students slip away in the education system just to benefit the handful of students whom happen to have a level of hearing where they can benefit from hearing aids and speech training. The other half of the students whom do not benefit from either are basically left guessing at what the teachers are saying as they sim-com with English and Signed Exact English (SEE). Now that they’ve discovered my ability to speak and hear, some go out of their way to ‘teach’ me more speech skills or try to convince me that I should be practicing how to speak as if it were all about me when it’s about the DEAF STUDENTS WE’RE SUPPOSED TO BE TEACHING. By teaching, I mean educational content. Teaching students how to lip-read and how to speak/formulate words or sounds is NOT educational AT ALL!!!!!! It takes AWAY from the time that the students have to learn about the various subjects that they are supposed to be learning about in the first place. I may come across as against speech-education, but I am not. I simply believe that speech-based education should take place at a time completely separate from regular instructions. Regular subject instructions should be completely focused on making the children understand the topic.

…and now I’m in Nairobi. I’ve been here since Thursday for Camp GLOW preparations. Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) is a camp designed to educate girls (both deaf and hearing) from all over Kenya about womens’ rights, HIV/AIDS prevention, career choices, and whatnot. It’ll be July 31- Aug 6 and 3 girls from my school are going. I am uber excited! Planning went along well and it’s always nice to be in Nairobi, feeling like an American again. Honestly, there were multiple moments during the weekend where I felt as if I was not in Kenya at all. But of course, it only takes a glance to the right to see a man trying to sell you souvenirs or the taxis jacking up the prices on the basis of our skin color to realize that I’m still in Kenya. I’ll be staying here until Tuesday for a dental appointment on Monday. I’ve been having lockjaw and my teeth feel tight. No idea. We’ll see how it goes.

I’m gonna go get ready to go out tonight. Cya.