Cooking with Mrs. Deborah

Post for June 19, 2018

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Today was a great experience for all of us. We went to Ms. Deborah’s house in Mukono. She offered to teach us how to make some of the traditional Ugandan dishes we’ve been eating. I have to say, her home cooking is way, way better.

Mrs. Deborah runs a craft shop from her home that employs hearing impaired women. They make sweaters, scarves, rugs, and much more. When we arrived at her house, there were many people hard at work to finish the sweaters we ordered. One woman had told us that she had moved from Jinja and was very happy to have this work. She told us this by using sign language.

Mrs. Deborah had also invited two children and their mothers for us to meet with. One was a young boy who developing normally until a stroke on the left hemisphere and malaria a few months ago. The mother said he still tries to speak but it sounds like grunting or a “uh-uh-uh”. Dr. Brady then asked if he seems frustrated when he can’t communicate and if he will imitate an action like sticking out his tongue, but the mother answered no to both of these. This implied no understanding. At the end the mother was reassured that it is still early in the recovery period and there may be some improvement as his physical health progresses.

The other child was a young girl with down syndrome who understood quite a lot. For example, when the girl struggled to open a candy, she recognized the hand-sign for help and gave the candy over to be opened. The advice given to her mother was to speak slowly in short sentences. The simpler, the better to help her understand verbal language. The mother seemed pleased and then we started with lunch.

Lunch preparations started with grinding the nuts for peanut sauce and mixing the flour for chapati. I primarily observed due to being convinced I only ruin food. We then moved to the outdoor kitchen to cook our food. Chapatis were rolled out and fried. Peanuts were boiled with mushrooms. Sweet potatoes and greens were also prepared for us. It was a great lunch and hopefully, I can continue to make it at home.

After eating, we watched one man try to describe to the deaf woman at the loom that he wanted to order a sweater. He didn’t know any sign language and the whole conversation was difficult for both sides. Although, it’s interesting to note that he was using some gestures to signal long sleeves. This demonstration was a great help to us because we could more clearly see what was needed to facilitate communication with potential customers.

Each of us got to work to create communication boards for them to use. There was one for prices, one for sweater styles, one for sweater colors, and so on. They had expressed that it would be very useful for them and I hope we can find out sometime in the future if it was indeed a good system for them.

We put on our custom-made sweaters and posed for a picture with everyone who had a part in their creation.