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Post for June 12, 2018
Started the day by visiting a woman who has some hearing loss. She was developing normally until 2½ years old. She is twenty-four now with two children and works as a tailor. We asked about interactions with the community and were told that she is usually understood since people are patient with her. The woman’s mother was asked about her biggest worry for her. She had said that people placing orders for clothing may cheat her daughter. Since bargaining is usually a part of the ordering process, clear communication is necessary, and people may exploit her.
Dr. Brady then asked to have the woman repeat numbers one to ten after Mrs. Deborah as a way of discerning if there are any speech production problems even though we could not speak Luganda.
We were later asked by Dr. Brady to try to find a good answer to the problem of bargaining. My initial thought was a calculator, probably solar-powered to help type numbers being used with cards that read too high/too low. If a more complex order is being placed, such as some of one item and some of another, I had thought of number cards of different colors. For example, red for one item, green for a second item, and blue for the price.
The second family we visited had a seven-year-old who used sign language to communicate. She is attending a school for the deaf and seemed to be very comfortable using signs. However, her mother didn’t know sign language very well and was learning from her daughter. The mother had been taking classes to learn but failed due to the long distance to travel every day. For now, they are using signs they have developed on their own to speak to each other.
The last household for the day belonged to another young girl who was completely deaf, but the family circumstances led to a very different type of education. All of us loaded up in the van again, her mother included, to go visit her at her school. This girl did not attend a school for the deaf and presently goes to the Good Samaritan School. She learns only by what the teacher writes on the board and some gestures. The teacher seemed to be very patient with her and it is extraordinary the girl has to grapple with for her education. Happily, the teacher gave the class some time to go play and we watched them play well together.
Two things stood out to me today. One, we were again made aware of community efforts to accommodate most impairments. This is so radically different from our own culture. Secondly, I noticed Dr. Brady had changed her question from “What do you need to be successful?” to “What’s your biggest concern?” It impressed on me the importance of word choice when getting an assessment from a client. Their background is going to influence their answers and questions need to be formed carefully to get the correct information.
After lunch, we were given a tour of Mrs. Deborah’s farm. My first farm visit! Lovely views, dogs, corn… and chickens!