Normally I don't feel like I have anything exciting to blog about, but whether KSL and deaf kids is an interesting topic or not, I want to write about it. My life here revolves around my kids, hopefully for obvious reasons. My daily routine is planned around the first knock on my door in the morning, and the last knock at night. I enjoy every single second I spend with them and I wouldn't have it any other way. Many times I find it hard to actually teach because I have too much fun just chatting with them. Luckily, they are so fantastic that they keep me on track and tell me stop getting distracted and keep teaching.
I was nervous about leaving Kilifi for a month in April - thought maybe being gone for so long I'd forget how to sign or something. Fortunately that wasn't the case, and in fact, I feel like I understand them better than I did before. Obviously the only sure-fire way to learn a language is to immerse yourself in it, and thankfully, I love doing that here. I knew throughout my training that there would be a lot of signs at my site that I wouldn't know, because they're specific to just the coast, or just Kilifi, or even just my school. Signs are extremely different depending on where you are in Kenya and there was A LOT that I had to pick up when I first got here. In fact, I'm still picking up new stuff, and probably will till the day I leave. In America if you're deaf and you want to talk to someone, you send them an email, or shoot them a text, or drive to their house, or even fly to them if need be. Communication is easy and affordable (most of the time) and makes it much simpler to develop a standardized, nation-wide sign language. However in the third world (which I think Kenya is definitely on the more developed end of third world) communication is much harder. You can't just hop in your car and head to the next town. It takes a lot of money and effort to get around, and though most Kenyans I've met have cell phones, the deaf schools here have such an issue with language that phones wouldn't do much good for them anyways. So the deaf will find each other, and then stay where they are, completely isolated from the other deaf communities around the country. This means that they develop their own signs for different concepts, but because the English is so poor, have no way of explaining it other than with that sign. Signs are even different from Kilifi to a special school in Mtwapa, which is about a 20 minute drive south. At the primary level, this means too that many kids will come to school with what's called "home signs" meaning they and only they know what that sign means. This is why I'm thankful to be teaching secondary. At least there is some sort of streamline with my kids.
Another thing is that ASL is much more connected to English, an actual spoken language. KSL, at least at my school, is so far removed from any spoken language it can make that language barrier all the more difficult to break down. A lot of signs have an English word that will go along with them, and a lot don't. And the chances of the kids even knowing that English word that they're signing are very slim. Luckily my kids have learned enough that sometimes they can explain to me the concepts behind their signs. So many times though they will be chatting with me and I won't know a sign so I'll ask "that means what?" They have NO idea what it would translate to in English, and are so used to just knowing that that sign means this concept, that they can't explain it to me. They'll just repeat it over and over again. Most of them are learning though that straight repetition doesn't help me understand the sign so they're figuring out examples to use and I can pick up on context clues too. Many times too they'll spell a word that when put with the sign, doesn't seem quite right. So I inquire more and try to give them the right word when I finally understand their concept. For example what was originally spelled "mercy" to me actually means something more like patience and tolerance and chilling out. What was first spelled as "doubt" or "between" I understand now as complete indecision. What's funny though is that as my sign vocabulary is expanding, so too are the signs I completely and totally understand in context, but still can't figure out how to accurately express in English. When people come to visit me I obviously act as interpreter for my kids, and when visitors ask "What did he just say?" it's sometimes really hard for me to verbalize, even though I understood exactly what was signed. That still blows my mind.
On the same token, half my time spent with them is basically charades for me. They ask me so many different English words that I would have no idea in hell what they're signs are so I just act it out. Many times too they'll ask me a word and the first meaning I think of is what I explain. But then I think, wait what's the context? So I ask them where they saw it. If they can show me the book or explain it a little then I get a better idea of the context. Today Baraka asked me what "tipping" meant. The first thing that popped into my head was the physical tipping, so I slowly knocked over a water bottle. But then when I read it in the book he had, it was actually talking about tipping at a restaurant or something. This happens ALL the time. They're still figuring out the concept of "context" itself, but they're definitely getting better. Also, I had an inkling of this before, but they just informed me today that when I first started teaching in January they only understood a fraction of what I was signing. Thus it's totally a two-way street to that whole "mutual understanding" stuff.
Another thing I think I'm getting better at, on the receptive end of sign language, is actually understanding their stories as a whole. When I initially got to site and was first getting to know them, I was constantly thinking about the fact that they were signing to me, and like I've mentioned before, I would just get caught up in the beauty of it. But now that I mostly know how each and every one of them signs, it's much easier for me to focus on their story, rather than the physical act of sign language. I've also found that it's way easier to not try and translate their signing into English in my head. If I try to put a word with every sign, nothing will make sense. So if I just focus on the story itself rather than the individual signs, my understanding goes through the roof.
Like I said, I enjoy every moment I'm with them and want more than anything to see them not get HIV and not become matatu drivers and not feel like they are any lesser just because they are deaf. Some of them are so bright and so motivated, some are just fun to talk to, and every single one of them is goofy beyond measure. Solomon loves pretending I understand his Kiswahili when he mumbles to me. Sabastian has a different noise with every sign he does. Sofia and Rehema loooove math and are super smart, and Boni wants to trades me 10 cows for my computer. Emmanuel teaches me Kiswahili and Giriama, Jumaa giggles at everything, and Amir tells me he definitely wants to marry a mzungu like me. Amina has the most infectious laugh, Paul has one incredibly beautiful blue eye and a ridiculous amount of patience, and Catherine just thinks I'm nuts and tells me all the time. Gona and Osman are two peas in a pod and love letting me in on their stories. Stephen has the biggest brightest smile you'll ever see, Shukurani is just gorgeous all around, and Francis does a fantastic Mr. Bean impression. Can you tell I could go on? Truly they are the best part of Peace Corps. How will I ever leave?
I guess that's all I had in my head for now. Hopefully my and my kids' understandings of each other will only continue to improve and hopefully when I do actually HAVE to leave I'll be able to tear myself from their side. Or maybe I'll just stay :) I send my love to the States and everyone there and my kids send their love as well. They would all give their left arm to go to America if they had the chance.
Cheers and ninakukosa!
~ Shub :)
P.S. my new baby paka has been climbing my curtains like in cartoons and is getting much better at catching mosquitoes. She loves sitting on the computer when I'm trying to type and sitting on the cutting board when I'm trying to cook. Oh well.
Happy Weekend!
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