Lamu

Lamu!

It is a magical island off Kenya's North Coast - an old Arab city, full of history and magic. Way back in 2000, when Monica and I have decided to go around Kenya for a week in the middle of our work at Kerugoya School for the Deaf - it would be silly if we come to Kenya and stay in Kerugoya all the time when there's so much to visit.

We went to Mombasa - it was a big let-down for us - its commercialised and it's full of tourists etc. I said to Momoca that we have to go up the Coast to Lamu to see if it's any good as there were a lot of good reviews.

It turned out that the coast road was fucked up because of heavy rain etc, Monica and I decided to go by plane (how European!) - it wasn't cheap but we were glad we went for it.

Our few-days stay at Lamu was amazing - it was a beautiful place - great to rest and recharge our batteries etc - it helped me to get over my Welsh love a bit!

Two Deaf Teachers at Humble Hearts

Tobias Ochieng & Mary are the two Deaf teachers working at Humble Hearts School in the Donholm area of Nairobi. The school was set up by Beatrice Anunda and her family to support the poor children of Donholm.

I am very delighted that more and more deaf schools have started to employ Deaf teachers - it is very important for Deaf children to have positive role models. There are 10 members of staff at Maseno School for the Deaf who are Deaf which is excellent.

But the battle is not over yet - Deaf teachers needs more training, more understanding of sign bilingualism, how to develop bilingual education and training in KSL linguistics which is very important for Deaf pupils and the deaf community.

Humble Hearts is proud of the fact that it is one of a few sign bilingual schools in Kenya - along with Kenya Christian School for the Deaf and Kisii School for the Deaf.

WFD Global Education Project for Eastern Africa?

Some interesting information about the proposed WFD project - it would be good for Kenya - but compared to most of Africa, Kenya's Deaf community is very aware of their rights - its the lack of housing, decent jobs and education that is an issue in Kenya.

Safe and warm housing = security for deaf people

decent jobs = security for deaf people - that way they can build their lives

quality education = all the deaf schools are no good - there is no central authority to control all the deaf schools etc.

however, if you're interested in reading about the WFD details, see below - it is clipped from the WFD News (March 2007):

WFD will start preplanning for a global education project on the human rights of the Deaf this year 2007. During the preplanning period in 2007 – 2008, WFD will arrange 7 regional meetings in order to carry out a survey on the regional situation and needs of the Deaf in these regions. On the basis of the analysis, WFD will produce a project application containing a plan for a global educational project in human rights within WFD’s regional and national organisations.

The seven regions are South America; Eastern and Southern Africa; Eastern Europe and Middle Asia; Central America and the Caribbean; Asia and the Pacific; Arab Region; and West Africa.

Mr. Colin Allen from Australia is appointed as the project coordinator. Steering committee will include members from WFD, Swedish National Association of the Deaf (SDR), Finnish Association of the Deaf (KL) and Swedish Disabled People’s organization for development cooperation (SHIA).

The two-year pre-planning project is funded by the Swedish Agency for International Development Cooperation (Sida). Sincere thanks goes to Swedish Association of the Deaf (SDR), Finnish Association of the Deaf and also to other Nordic Deaf Associations for supporting WFD in this project.

Our Bhoys at Kerugoya!

When I was involved with Kenya Deaf Children Trust (KDCT), I wrote to Glasgow Celtics if they can donate anything to Kerugoya School for the Deaf. The publicity woman got in touch with me saying that they will send me something.


I was like yeah. I thought it will be a few shi

A week later several boxes arrived - I was like "What the f**k?" - several boxes full of Celtic t-shirts - the pure-cotton ones. Of course I was very delighted with them all - I knew Kerugoya School for the Deaf will love that. Thanks to Catherine for taking them all to Kenya (somhow!) and now they use the tops in football matches and when they go in competition - im quite happy with this.

Of course, Kerugoya do need more stuff like that and other things.

Thank you, Glasgow Celtic!

(now you have like 150 potential fans in the Kenyan highlands!)

iMac or PC?

I wonder which is better?

yours,

a iMac freak

Shiku at Humble Hearts School

Beatrice the director was saying to Shiku that it will be very difficult for her to find someone to replace my wife at the School because Shiku was very active in everything that goes on at Humble Hearts - she will go and interpret for the Deaf children, she will support Deaf teachers, she will ensure that KSL is used (when she can) at Humble Hearts etc. As you can see below in the first photograph, Shiku is in shock-pink, with lovely Beatrice in her sleeveless top with Tobias the Deaf teacher and Beatrice's mother in the zig-zag dress.

Tomorrow will be her last day at Humble Hearts - she was staying for another two weeks to give the older children extra tutition at the summer school - she was very delighted when Beatrice have asked her if she can be in charge of the summer school.

When the school was closed for the summer two weeks ago, they insisted that Shiku had to attend the end-of-year party for the teachers as she wanted to leave early for Kerugoya. She emailed me asking me if she should go. I said go, as it was to be her last full day at Humble Hearts.When she came, it turned out to be a surprise farewell party for her. She was very emotional about it! As you see the photo above (the 2nd one), you can see her colleagues, the teachers at Humble Hearts in the staff room. I took the photo way back in June when I was over in Nairobi. They were very delighted to hear about me and Shiku.

Shiku said that she was glad I did bring her to go and work at Humble Hearts - because I was very concerned that she didn't teach deaf children for two years (she used to teach younger children at Kerugoya School for the Deaf but she left to work at a hearing school near Kikuyu Town where her mate owned a private school) - I remember meeting her again after many years at Hilton Nairobi - she can't sign properly (very rusty) but thankfully her pretty KSL is now back!

Mwangi's Musings...

It is my exams this week - I do hope i have done okay so far. Social Anthropology, Modern History and Byzantine Studies - i ll focus on Social Anthropology in the second year - thats if I am to pass the exams in the first place!

I am trying to get together the documentations needed for Shiku to come here to Belfast - the UK visa people can be very strict and I am worried that they might not let her come - it can be a big blow for Shiku however we will see how it will go.

Austine (photo: beside the yellow telephone boxes) was at the Deaf Christian youth camp last week - now he is back at Maseno. We haven't heard from Kenyatta University yet about whether he can get into the school-based degree programme there or not - it is not fair on him as he got D+ and it wasn't enough for the University or not. It wasn't his fault Kuja Secondary (one of the 3 secondary schools for the Deaf in Kenya) have failed their duty to provide quality education. We will see if Austine can get into Maseno University as a full-time student on their Special Educations degree programme.

Dr Peter Oracha is the assistant Professor there so fingers crossed he ll make efforts for Austine to get in. I got the text from Austine today saying that he will know for sure next week.

Evans is back in Luhyaland - Webuye this time - to work at St Anthony's School for the Deaf, a Catholic school there. He emailed me last week saying that he's trying to encourage deaf kids there to be positive and to focus on getting into university. It isn't easy as the teachers there are just doing their 'jobs'.

There is a deaf volunteer there at Webuye from California - hes called Frank Lester - he have done a good job on the KSL poster - I will write more about that later on.

Back to work!

Shane or Mwangi or Snowie or Xue-Shan?

Some people have asked me what it is about my names:

SHANE: that is what my family called me when I was born - but later on, they changed it to Peter-Shane however I dropped Peter way back in 1999 and since then, I was Shane. There are still people who refers to me as Peter-Shane. Shane is an Irish name, the Northern version of the name Sean.

MWANGI: that is what Shiku have chosen for me - it is my Kikuyu name. It means a tall guy with fat cheeks but it also means an European - that's what she have said! We are thinking of calling our kid Mwangi or Mwathi - but we will decide once we get him! To East Africans, I refer to myself as Shane Mwangi. When writing articles etc, I usually sign off as Shane Mwangi rather than using my full name (which is complicated for many East Africans)

SNOWIE: because I love white jeans and white tracksuits, Gary my mate in Wolverhampton called me Snowie - but I think it was because I used to fancy that really fit guy called Snowy whose house Gary and I viewed in Tooting (South London) as we were going to rent. I was obsessed with him - and Gary started to call me Snow Snow. Some people thought I have called myself after Tintin's dog Snowy (!) and my "nephews" in Derby were so concerned I called myself after their cat Snowy!!!

XUE SHAN: It was Jia Jia's fault - Jia is my mate in Shanghai. Junhui Yang my mate in Preston told me that I can call myself SHAN using the Chinese character for mountain/hill (which is EASY to write) and then when Jia Jia and I first talked on MSN, he saw my name SNOWIE and then the Chinese character 'SHAN', he called me Snow Mountain since then :-)

It doesn't matter which name you call me - I ll answer to them all!