I am feeling very warm and fuzzy today. Not because today was unlike any other Tuesday during term-time but because I love my work and I am so proud and happy to be doing it.
I go each Tuesday morning to Rukoki Model Primary Boarding and Day School (henceforth known as simply 'Rukoki') and run music therapy sessions (also referred to as Creative Teaching sessions as we do more curriculum teaching than a therapist would usually do). I go with a wonderful and inspiring lady called Moreen as I am training her up in the work of special needs music therapy and teaching assistant work. True, a year ago I was not overwhelmed by Moreen's ability to seem as if she hasn't understood a word I have said in the last half hour and to reply with a very blank and questioning 'yes?' (local meaning: 'what on earth have you just said?') but now Moreen has blossomed beyond recognition and she plans groups, writes up sessions and leads the children so well whilst also being a third of the Jambo café co-operative working 2-3 days a week there from 8am til 7pm and looking after her 4 month baby (with the help of her cousin-sister, another fantastic young lady starting her own salon and looking after Raymond to help Moreen!)
Moreen is great, but so are the children I work with. Let's see: There is A who may have global delay and spends most of the session trying to wheel the large wheelbarrow and ride the oversized adult bike around the classroom (why is there a wheel barrow and large bike in the classroom? I do not know but I have lost the need to ask!) We keep bringing him back 'on task' during which time he sings with gusto and beats the drum like there's no tomorrow! He can come for cuddles or leave them whenever and is a lovely boy and somehow his attention lapses are so sweet and innocent that they don't make me mad. Then there is H who has Down syndrome, but I don't think any of his teachers know what that is. I couldn't stand him to begin with, truth be told, because he just came over to me and repeated the word "mzungu" to my face about a hundred times and yelled it through the window as we were doing other sessions! However, once I had told him my name was Muhindo (local name far easier to work with than Bethan!) he began to relent a bit on the mzungu name-calling and comes over to help me with my bags as I arrive at school. He dances with such gusto in the dress that I bring for a dressing-up/dancing/passing/turn-taking game and always tries to do the work we set him, sucking the end of his pencil as he tries to form his wiggly line into something resembling a letter s! Our little star, F, is a girl who is actually quite bright and begs for homework each week from us! She works hard at her sums and can write and read a little in English. She speaks very slowly in Lukonzo as she seems to have cerebral palsy (no one is diagnosed officially here so she is 'labelled' by the school as "mentally impaired" and that's that) but she is so friendly and welcoming, picking up all the English songs singing with great difficulty songs such as "five little monkeys jumping on the bed"!
Then there's the group for the deaf students. Oh my word, a greater bunch of students you could not hope to find! There are up to 12 in the group, ranging in age from about 7 to 23 but they gel together in a way that I think hearing people wouldn't. There are a few children who have just joined the school and are learning sign language quickly because the older ones are determined that they need to learn in order to get on in life. They patiently (but not always with good grace!) repeat signs over and over until the youngest and newest boy has got it and they gives him a good old clip round the ear when he isn't paying attention!
I love it and I thank God for bringing me into the lives of these children. And if you all think I'm being over the top and twee, remember, I do this once per week and the rest of the time I'm with my two little horrors! Work is a break! ;)
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