This past week, Toa Nafasi has continued to make connections in the area of special education with other organizations in Moshi. We had already conducted clinics at the hospital, KCMC, and a disability center, CCBRT, both of which were successful (and to be repeated shortly), but we made our first foray into a possible long-term partnership with one particular organization that I think will be very important in the future.
The Gabriella Rehabilitation Center located in Kibosho, just outside of Moshi proper, is an NGO aimed at supporting children with
disabilities. Their goals are to identify these kids early, assess them properly, and assist them to
eventually become self-sufficient members of the community. Sound familiar....?!
Gabriella consists of an integrated primary school for both disabled
and non-disabled students as well as a full-time boarding facility for those who
need it. They also have on-site occupational therapists and teachers to assist kids with
autism and learning disabilities, and to provide education and awareness to parents and the community at
large.
Angi and I had visited the Center on a recon mission some weeks ago, but this time I went with eight of the students from Msaranga who we were most concerned about to get them assessed by Gabriella standards and to compare the findings with our own assessment. I chose not to take photos out of deference to the Gabriella staff but, next time we go, I will at least take pictures of the grounds which are extremely nice. (You can also check out Angi's blog which has a few shots of the environment at www. blogs.umb.edu/angelastone/.)
Anyway, all of the children were assessed and their parents gathered for the results. The bottom line: Brenda, the Gabriella director, wants to see everybody back for a "Week of Therapy" in October during which they will conduct more in-depth examinations of each child and the home environment. But we have confirmed that all these kids do indeed have issues that must be addressed and that perhaps two or three of them will need to be enrolled at the Gabriella school because we don't think they can succeed at Msaranga Primary, even with Vumi's and my interventions. So, come October, Vumi's gonna step up and be the "Head Mbongo In Charge" and organize the Week of Therapy with Brenda while I am in the United States knockin' down doors for contributions.
Until then, the plan is to continue with the tutoring sessions which Vumi and I initiated this past week. Per the instructions of one Godfrey Mbowe, a social worker at KCMC, we started these classes with drawing in order to discern some of the children's "inner worlds." Very interesting stuff we uncovered. Check it....
The work of our most "troubled" student; when we asked her what she was drawing, she told us "a picture." A picture of what? "A white picture." But what is it? "A person."
This little girl is so sweet, so trusting, so loving, but she needs SOOOO much help. I am TERRIFIED for her safety. All it would take is one jack*ss to lure her into the shamba and have his way with her.
And this is from a kid we pulled from Standard Two, so he's a bit older than the others. According to his mama, he is very aggressive at home and fights a lot with his siblings. He does not enunciate well when speaking and was late to meet his milestones (crying, walking, talking, etc.) Now, he's doing poorly in school as you an see from the "captions" next to his drawings, though he appears to know how to write at least a few of the syllables. I think we can work with him though Vumi and I joke that maybe he is Maasai because whatever he's trying to spell looks like something out of their language!
Here are three heads bent, each concentrating hard on the task at hand, occasionally reaching for a new color from Vumi's lap.
This little girl is another student pulled from Standard Two. Without revealing too much about her personal history, I can say that she was abandoned by her birth mother and taken in by a babu and bibi who, as far as I can tell, are not related to her in any way. She is impossibly thin though by all accounts, she is well-fed and well-cared-for. We went ahead and had her checked out by a physician, and there is nothing medically wrong with her so now we just have to try to draw her out of her shell.
Thanks to Angi, we were able to practice fine motor skills with these
laminated sheets and dry-erase markers. All the kids save one had
great motor skills and enjoyed the exercise.
And don't go thinking Toa Nafasi is all work and no play. There is a
bromance a-bloomin' betwixt these two formerly silent and sullen young
gentlemen. I don't think they even knew each other prior to last week
and now look at them! Just fantastic to see and hugely uplifting as the
social aspect of this work is just as important as the
cognitive/critical thinking stuff. The better they feel about
themselves, the more open they'll be to trying new things in the
classroom and the higher their chances of success in the future.
I love this picture.
Vumi's smile is like warm milk chocolate dripping onto three fluffy kittens underneath a rainbow made of shooting stars.
And this boy is one of the bros above, who usually hides his face and slouches so much that I took him to a doctor at KCMC to inquire about scoliosis. Turns out he just really needed to color....
More - SO MUCH MORE - to come next week!
Our last week together was a busy one. Angi and I accomplished a ton of stuff, both professional and recreational and, while we pretty much exhausted ourselves, we were also extremely satisfied.
We started our countdown by taking six Standard One students from Msaranga Primary School (along with their parents and Vumi) to Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center or KCMC where we inaugurated the referral phase of The Toa Nafasi Project with visits to the vision, pediatric, and neurology departments. These were kids who we knew were under-performing due to my observations, our assessment, and the quarterly school test. We were able to further delve into each of their backgrounds by questioning the parents and teachers and talking with the students one-on-one. We then determined that some of these children might not under-performing due to learning difficulties, but possibly some other kind of medical issue.
We had four children whose vision was questionable so we took them to the eye clinic for full testing. Two more children had health issues that required a personal pediatric examination. One of these, a girl we held back from Standard Two, is very tall and thin and I had thought she might have Marfan syndrome, but at the very least we wanted to get her checked for malnutrition and anemia. The other, a boy also removed from Standard Two, is not talkative and exhibits flu-like symptoms more often than is typical, so he needed a check-up as well. Two other kids, both boys whose vision we tested in addition, we took to the neurology department where a Dutch neurologist conducts a weekly clinic. One of them we checked for microcephaly as his head and neck are unusually underdeveloped and the other had a history of headaches according to his parents, so we wanted to follow up on that information.
Both fortunately and unfortunately, we found out that all of the kids we brought to KCMC were fine and without issues in the areas that we were concerned with. It's obvious why this information is good, but the bad thing is that we are now back to that gray area of learning difficulties where the solution is something much more abstract and amorphous than, say, a pair of glasses or a vitamin supplement. But that's what Toa Nafasi is here for and I am already working on creating lesson plans and practicing teaching methods for working with this group of young students.
In order to offset the intensity of the Project, I tried to show Angi a good time while she was here in Moshi. Unfortunately, she came at a period where I've been laying low and keeping to myself plus it's "winter" here in TZ so nights are pretty cold to go out and about. So, the bar/club scene was basically ruled out, and instead, we kept to some, good clean fun, first by going on a loooong day hike up Kilimanjaro via the Machame Route with my dear friend Methley and then by lunching at Melinda's farm, also located in Machame.
When I wanted to climb Kili back in 2008, there was no one else I could ask to take me except one Methley Emanuel Swai, mountain climber extraordinaire. At that time he was working for his brother's company, but now he has branched out and created his own company called Just-Kilimanjaro which offers a boutique mountain-climbing experience in that Methley basically does everything himself, from the marketing and publicity to the bookings to the hiring of assistant guides and porters, to lead-guiding every single group himself to cooking, cleaning and general TCB'ing.
Professionally, he is knowledgeable, reliable, and pretty much just amazeballs; personally, he is the yin to my yang, the calm to my crazy, and also fairly amazeballs. He has met all the members of my family and many of the friends who have to come visit me here, arranging safaris and birthday cakes, playing golf with my dad and setting my sister up with his brother. So, suffice it to say that when it comes to spending an inordinate amount of time with someone in likely uncomfortable circumstances and doing strenuous exercise for days on end without a shower nor a glass of wine, this is the guy you want to be with. Ain't he cute?
The plan for the day was to hike to the first camp on the Machame Route, appropriately named Machame Camp. (I had climbed the Rongai Route back in 2008, a longer and more meandering course which we had decided upon because I was with my parents who are obviously older folks. They made it to Mawenzi Tarn Hut before Carla decided a glass of red wine, hot shower, and pool time at the Impala Hotel was an infinitely more appealing way to spend her vacation, and David reluctantly followed her down the mountain. I made it to Gilman's Point before I decided that keeping all ten fingers and ten toes was an infinitely more appealing option of the future than breaking off a couple due to hypothermia.) Machame is known to be challenging but beautiful and it is the preferred route of Methley and his family. Our day was to consist of 11kms up and 11 down, with a gain of 1200 meters in altitude.
We started fairly flat but the ascent crept up on us in a hurry. This route was definitely more difficult than I remember Rongai being! And all the time as we were going up, I was thinking that "what goes up must come down," and how hard it was going to be to get back. I'd much rather exert myself and feel the burn in my bum climbing than grip my toes and slip and slide on the gravel descending!!
Methley tends to be a bit more adventurous than I am (or than I would want him to be when we are together!) plus I think he wanted to show Angi the undiscovered beauty of the mountain, so at one point we veered off the path to see if there was a ravine or a gorge or some damn thing. I could have done without the side excursion, but of course I blindly followed Mkuu (Chief) and then complained bitterly when I caught up to him....
About three quarters of the way to camp, we could see Kibo (the snowy peak) from the path and Angi took this beautiful shot (and I gotta give her props here for several other of the shots for this entry - thanks Angi!!). We also got to see Mt. Meru in Arusha from this vantage point. We also got to pee.
When we finally reached Machame Camp, the path really opened up and we got a great view of Kibo, where we all posed for photos, Methley doing his Usain Bolt impression for the camera. We had lunch which, as I said before, Methley takes pride in preparing personally. He whipped up a fabulous tilapia salad complete with olive oil, ground pepper, and fresh chili: natural, healthy, carb-and-sugar-free; does this guy know me or what?
People are always riding me about not making it to the summit last time I climbed, to which I generally protest and say that I did indeed make it to the summit, or a part of the summit anyway, just not the *true* summit, Uhuru Peak. Well, that situation is soon to be rectified as Angi and I plan to climb together with her husband next year (won't that be fun for Keith?!). In the meantime, here is proof that I can at least make it to the first camp.
As predicted, the trek down was long and arduous even after fueling up on tilapia salad. I was constantly lagging behind prompting Methley to berate me ("Mowgli, keep up!" For whatever reason, something about my appearance prompts him to equate me with Disney's Jungle Boy) though I will point out here that of the three of us, the only one who didn't fall on the downward trek was none other than the Jungle Boy herself, so while slow-and-steady may not win the race, it does keep you upright.
Aside from the slowgoing of the walk itself, we had also dillydallied sufficiently looking for gorges and grinding pepper that we were pretty late to get back to the gate. It was nearly 8pm by the time we made it to my car and, while the memory of my feelings at that particular time has faded, I am pretty sure I had some choice thoughts going through my head for old Mkuu there....especially with all the "Mowgli, keep up!" blather.
At any rate, the hike was a tremendous success and Angi and I had an amazing time. We will definitely be hiking next year with Methley and Just-Kilimanjaro and if anyone out there is thinking about climbing Kili, I can guarantee you that THIS is THE guy to go with. He will make sure your trek is perfect in every possible way and he will do it all himself. I like to say that he is to Just-Kili as I am to Toa Nafasi. So, feel free to contact me if you're thinking about a climb and I'll give you the hook-up!
The following day, feeling the burn from our 22km "walk in the park," Angi and I decided some R&R was called for so we went back out to Machame where a Dutch woman named Melinda lives with her husband who manages a flower farm. Melinda is an amazing cook and opens up her home and grounds to the public on the weekends and serves things like "beetroot, feta and spinach quiche" and "char-grilled red paprika and carrot soup served with toasted seed bread." Do I have to say it? .... AMAZEBALLS! Definitely in order after busting our butts on the mountain. I had the soup and a feta salad and Angi and our friend Shay had chicken and tzatziki sandwiches. I'm not much of a dessert person but since Melinda is known for her sweets, Angi and Shay partook in this chocolate monstrosity and we all enjoyed a beautiful, if slightly cloudy, day in the country.
Last but not least, THIS also happened last week, but far as I can tell, not too much came out of it except a bunch more traffic jams in Dar.
And now, everyone is safe and sound at home - me, Angi, Methley, President Obama - and all is well with the world.
Tomorrow, the gears start grinding again as I return to school to conduct a few last-minute parent and teacher hojajis and prepare for this week's visit to the Gabriella Center, a rehabilitation clinic where we hope to place a couple of our children who we do not think will fare well in a regular school even with Vumi's and my support. My notes on that to come, as well as a report of how our new lessons are going, next week!
Angi left last night and I am back to my solitary routine. In some ways it's nice to have the "me" time and be alone again but in other ways, it's quite a shock and I miss her a lot!! The camaraderie of having a work colleague and roommate was actually really nice and it will be a little while before I am totally re-adjusted to the single life.
But I have a busy schedule ahead and can rely on work and social occasions to keep me busy until I go back to New York at the end of August. I am working on a blog entry about the last few things Angi and I did while she was here, but it's slow-going, so wait for that, hopefully sometime this weekend.
In the meantime, check out this photo of Angi just being gifted a kitenge by Mama T. Look familiar??
Me and Mama T circa three months ago!!
With one week of vacay left to go, I am both savoring my last few days of freedom and gearing up for an exciting return to Msaranga. This month off from school has not been entirely work-free as you can see from my previous entries; I've had meetings galore and tons of computer work to catch up on. But I have always enjoyed my grassroots efforts the best, interacting with the kids in the class and the community at large.
So, while ruminating over my time at Msaranga Primary School since starting in February, I've been combing my camera for great photos that I've not yet posted. Check out a few of the best below.
I know I've remarked on it before but I just can't get enough of Mama T in all her cloaked glory.
Prosper is only three years old, but he comes to school with Vumi because his family are her next-door neighbors and she watches him during the day when they are working. I taught Prosper's sister Sia for two years in nursery school (she's now in Standard Four), so Prosper says my name is not "Sarah," but rather "Sia's Teacher."
I'm not sure who this little girl is, but just like me, she "hearts" New York!
This is Mary Stephano. I was playing around with the special effects on my camera and made the background black-and-white and kept her in color. Isn't it pretty?
Another special effects pic of the kids praying before eating makande. In the forefront, really giving the blessing his all, is Ian Brendan. (With a name like that, you'd think I was working in a school in Northern Ireland or something....)
The duara: schoolyard games played in a circle with songs and dances.
Tanzanians are crazy for soccer. If you're not a Man U super-fan, then you've got to be all about the Blues or crazy for the Gunners (big "whatever" from this American sports fan; think Yankees baseball or death) and even the kids love it. Anyhoo, we're thinking both the duara and "football" can be used Toa Nafasi-style to teach kids principles of cooperation and communication, and to get them active and engaged in non-scholastic activities.
Just two kids under a tree....
Just four kids in the bushes....
Mama T has started an after-school tutoring program for the kids in her class who either need extra help or whose parents want them to attend in lieu of hanging around the house the rest of the day. Predictably, it's a bit chaotic, but it's a step in the right direction.
Just wanted to give you a close-up on part of the frame above. Notice anything....amiss? Yes, that would be a homemade mini-machete that one of the kids brought to school and had sheathed in his waistband. The public school system in the South Bronx ain't got nuthin' on us!!
Graham Nash had it right when he sang of the ways in which grown people can influence the youth and the effects those stimuli can have, both positive and negative. It is clearly up to the watu wazima of Tanzania to teach their wadogo well....and Toa Nafasi is here to help.
This week's blog entry is dedicated to Angi whose summer fling in TZ is slowly winding down. She has about two more weeks in-country and then it's back to Boston with her and I'll remain here for another six weeks, then off to New York for the most dreaded part of running my own show: fundraising. (My most faithful readers are guaranteed to be on the receiving end of some whinging blog entries during the months of September, October, and November!!)
But though we'll be separated, Angi and I will still be doing the same work: figuring out how to introduce simple yet effective teaching interventions into the Tanzanian public school system so as to support the most vulnerable learners in the classroom. In this way, they will be able to better grasp the concepts presented in the standard Tanzanian syllabi and sit the same national examinations as their stronger cohorts. We also hope that for those students who present the most difficulties with academic work, we can find non-scholastic aptitudes within them to nurture and foster. Even basic life skills and vocational proficiencies have value in this community and showing others that people with disability can pull their own weight and take care of themselves is hugely important.
Similarly to me, Angi has been keeping a blog based on her professional work. You can find it here: http://blogs.umb.edu/angelastone/. Though we have different tones and writing styles, I think a lot of the subject matter overlaps and you might find it interesting to compare our two viewpoints of the same event.
In this case, rather than writing my own synopses of the events of the last couple of weeks since we have been on school vacation, I am going to shamelessly bite off Angi's. Here are her notes on (1) our meetings with Dr. Derrick Matthews, an American pediatrician working at Seliani Hospital in Arusha and Dr. Robin Peterson, a clinical psychologist, also working in Arusha, and (2) our sessions with Vumi where Angi introduced to us some new teaching methodologies we can use with the most troubled students we identified from the assessment; there are just under twenty who we will separate from the rest of the class for an hour or so each day and team-teach in cohorts of three.
####
(1) "This
week we went to several meetings with pediatricians and a clinical
psychologist. One of the interesting things that was discussed at the meetings
was the question, "Why do we need to know the cause or severity of the
disability?"
In the US, we want to know the cause of the disability and
to test using CAT scans and MRIs to look at neurological damage. I think wanting to know is important in many
cultures, but then after we know that a child will have an intellectual
disability, what do we gain from it?
Using medical and
psychological tests coupled with adaptive behavior scales and ruling out other
causes, we can somewhat determine that a child has an intellectual
disability. But then that information is used to label the child and develop
the Individualized Education Plan.
In Tanzania, it is expensive and unrealistic to do CAT scans
or MRIs, and we have already determined that the children we
are talking about are significantly behind their peers in the classroom, and that
the educational system they are experiencing is not working for them. Does
knowing or communicating a specific cause and term help these kids?
Knowing doesn’t
provide them access to a special classroom when that classroom doesn’t exist in
their school. It doesn’t change their situation.
Instead, it seems that trying
to find ways to support them with extra tutoring, giving them books to look at during the lesson, or making sure that they develop their adaptive
and vocational skills as well as academic is a better solution."
(2) "This week I have been working with Sarah and Vumi, teaching them
more about disability, behavior management, and intervention strategies for
teaching children with disabilities in the classroom.
When school starts again
in July, Vumi is going to work with various children who we
believe need extra help in a resource room model using various techniques and
materials/manipulatives we have discussed.
Today, we talked about functional
behavior assessment and various intervention techniques such as chaining, task
analysis, prompting, use of authentic activities, shaping and using models. We
are focusing on strategies to support reading, writing, and math instruction
first.
We also discussed the importance of adaptive skills and vocational
skills, but most of the children we are working with have learning disabilities,
so their adaptive skills are good, but they need support with academics.
After
some instruction yesterday, Vumi used a picture book as the basis to create
a lesson and I was very impressed. She did a great job. We brainstormed some
other days to add to her ideas and general concepts for improving the classroom
for all children."
And so I'll sing along with CSNY and we'll "feed them on our dreams." Polepole, The Toa Nafasi Project is getting there....
We are officially on holiday from school and Angi and I have been biding our time doing computer work at the Moshi version of Starbucks, camping out from morning til night, slurping Americanos like there's no more tomorrow. Aside from going through the data we collected from assessment and planning our curriculum modifications, I have been busy scouting fundraising possibilities, working on business banking, and getting back into web development - I cannot even BELIEVE the Toa Nafasi site is STILL not up, African time at its worst!! I hope to rectify that situation tout de suite!!
At any rate, I came across this article from The Gleaner out of Jamaica, West Indies, and being the "Jewmaican" that I am, it caught my eye. Check out the post below regarding a special education center in St. Andrew's parish, just north of Kingston.
####
The McCam Child Development Center, which provides for
children up to eight years old from gifted to slow learners, is now
planning some fund-raising activities to ensure that its doors remain
open. According to a member of the team at the center, Juliene
Campbell-Donaldson, the operational cost of the facility has been a
burden over the years.
"We have spent countless hours trying to
keep afloat," she noted, adding that its partnership with the government
and other entities has helped. Campbell-Donaldson
is hoping these partnerships will continue to facilitate the work of the
center which has been operating for almost 30 years.
The McCam
Child Development Center opened its doors in 1986 in response to the
demand for educational programming for children with a range of special
needs at the early-childhood level. The center has as its motto: 'It is no small thing to influence a child so fresh from the hands of God.'
The uniqueness of this institution for children is in the integration of the student population. Children with special needs work alongside gifted children without special needs. This allows for the acquisition of skills, as these children work and play together. Another
advantage of this system is the increased awareness and sensitivity it
brings to each other, particularly those with disabilities.
The
inclusive education program runs from nursery education to a preschool
program, which takes care of the requirements of the student
population, including those with special needs between the ages of six
months and six years.
In September 1987, under the umbrella of the center, a unit for the Total Development of Special Needs Children was established. It is a not-for-profit organization which focuses attention on those children with special needs in the program. The
unit is governed by a board of directors, and the center works in
collaboration with other agencies and government institutions to develop
and effectively implement early intervention services, and facilitates
the operation of and understanding of the various needs of these
children.
Children with disabilities now make up 40 percent of the population of the center's nursery and school program. Educational
and early childhood institutions and medical practitioners refer
children to the center for assessment and therapeutic interventions.
The
McCam Center serves the entire island, and has established itself as an
essential arm for both the disability sector (in special education) and
in early childhood education. Through therapeutic intervention,
the children are served by a team consisting of an occupational
therapist, a school psychologist, a clinical psychologist, a behavioral
specialist, and a special educator.
The center also conducts
workshops and seminars for teachers and parents, and provides practical
experience for students from various institutions. It also serves as a resource center for the dissemination of information on children with special needs.
The McCam curriculum was the first published early childhood curriculum in Jamaica and the Caribbean.
Aside from raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, I've discovered a few more of my favorite things as we've wrapped up this assessment phase of The Toa Nafasi Project. My very favorite thing is just how much we've accomplished in the short time Angi has been in Moshi and a close second is just how much of that has actually been gratifying and enjoyable.
We have examined 152 kids and ascertained that 19 of them need some sort of help outside of simple tuition after school. The potential problems we're seeing range the gamut from eyesight and hearing issues to turbulent home situations to intellectual impairment.
In order to confirm our hypotheses about these kids, we have undertaken the process of hojaji, a questionnaire for each of the 19 children we have concerns about, to be filled out by the teachers. That is now also pretty much done. Mama T looooved the whole thing by the way; she was completely in her element, filling the forms out aloud and with authoritative aplomb, licking the tip of her pen and stroking her beard.
Our next step is to interview the parents of these 19 kids with the same hojaji as we gave the teachers so we can compare the answers. We have basically finished this step as well with just a couple stragglers remaining for both sets of hojaji.
My third favorite thing has been how much we have been able to learn about these children from talking to the parents! We found that one child has had hearing issues since birth, something we would never have known without talking to her baba. We discovered that another child had yellow fever as an infant and may have some possible lingering maladies due to it. And in addition to the wealth of information we've been able to glean about the children's backgrounds is the fact that the parents have been utterly open and honest with us - it's amazing how quickly they responded to our calls to come to school, their willingness to be interviewed about their kids (a pretty personal subject, I should think) and even to have their talks recorded. Really, really gratifying work. Supa-fave.
Now, we are on holiday (also a favorite, btw) from school until the second week of July, so Angi and I are taking meetings with possible partners for the next phase: referral. Last week, it was Ruth Mlay at Comprehensive Community Based Rehabilitation Tanzania (CCBRT) and Sally Mohamedali and the team in the Special Education Needs Unit at The Jaffery Academy in Arusha. This week, it's Dr. Derrick Matthews, an American pediatrician at Arusha Lutheran Medical Centre (ALMC) and Robin Peterson at Arusha Mental Health Trust. We are hoping to be able to form some partnerships with other organizations in Kilimanjaro and Arusha in order to gain access to services for those children with medical/psychosocial problems outside of what Toa Nafasi can provide for.
In non-work-related-but-still-my-favorite-things news, we went to the house of my former student, Ema, a couple weeks ago to sit with his bibi and enjoy some of her delicious home cooking. Ever the gracious host, Ema had prepared the menu a good month and a half in advance based on, what else? My favorite things! So, we had rice, beans, avocado, and spinach. Bibi Ema, his younger sister Jesca (who I also taught), and several other rugrats showed up for the fiesta as well.
And in not-so-favorite-things news, here is one instance of when it is not-so-fun to be a mzungu in Africa as you have no clue as to what's going on, acts of "patriotism" seem mildly sinister, and fire is involved. The "mwenge torch" came to Msaranga the last week of May and shut down school for the morning as well as casting an uneasy cloud over me and Angi until we figured out WTH was going on. Apparently, it is an annual ritual that this blaze of fire gets carried around the country as a reminder of the original freedom torch lit up in the early years of Independence, a blaze that would, in Nyerere's words, "shine out beyond our borders, giving
hope where there was once despair, love where there was hate, and dignity
where, before, there was only humiliation." Unfortunately, all it really did this year, far as I can tell, is scare the bejeezus out of us two wazungu gals at Msaranga Primary School.
Finally, a small passing interchange that took place at school has stuck with me for the last couple weeks. It went a little something like this:
Sarah (somewhat pitiably): Everyone brings something to the table except me. Angi is the special education and early childhood development expert. Vumi is Tanzanian, a native Swahili speaker, and a teacher by profession. I can only do a little of both.
Angi (picking up the pieces): But without you, neither of us would be here doing this work.
Mama T (oblivious but spirited): IT IS REAL! GOD IS GOOD!!
