I have spoken of Joeli in MANY previous posts. If I could get away with smuggling anyone out of Tanzania to come back home with me... it would 700% without a doubt, be this little boy. He is my baby.
I have been wanting to take Joeli to get his hearing tested for a while now. He has been at the school for about as long as I have now and I don’t know why but we had a special bond right from the start. We were told he was deaf and that he would have to find a different school by the end of the semester because St. Dymphna’s is not equipped to teach signing and such. I have been working with him on signing and writing and this boy is brilliant. Out of no where one day he grabbed a pencil and wrote his name for me. Even spelling it correctly, and not the way we had been spelling it! Some of our 22 year olds do not even know how to write their names. He is fast to learn anything and everything and I want so much for him to get the education he needs because this boy could be something.
There are certain reasons why I know Joeli cannot possibly be completely deaf. I wrote about the day at the swimming pool when he copied one of the words I said, but other than that, when he is playing with animals he will make the correct sounds.. or when he is pushing a car around he will make a car sound. Sometimes you can get him to turn around to a sound but other times you could honk a car horn inches from his ears and he would not flinch. It is frustrating.
I planned with Mary two weeks ago to take him to Mt. Meru school and get his hearing tested. That week Mary came and got me out of class and brought me to the office where Joeli’s mom was waiting for me. Mary had explained to her that I wanted approval from her to take Joeli with me to get his hearing screening. I have a hard time with feeling humble and accepting thanks, it makes me feel awkward and I never quite know what to say. The two women talked in Kiswahili for a few minutes and then his mother stood up, came over and grabbed my hands and said “Asante sana, asante sana” at least 20 times. All I could say was “Karibu sana” (you are very welcome) each time. But mostly I wanted to thank her for letting me take Joeli. Many parents do not care about the growth and education of their special needs children, but Joeli’s mom loves him, you can tell. He always comes to school dressed nicely and clean, even if it is the same outfit. His teeth are nice and he is well mannered. I love this boy. He misses a lot of school and now that I am only at the school on Thursdays and Fridays it is a gamble whether I will see him or not but it brightens my whole week when I do. I hug him and hug him and kiss him and never want to let go. Don’t get me wrong, I love ALL of my children. Very much so. <3
Last Tuesday and Wednesday was a Muslim holiday so St. Dymphna cancelled for the rest of the week. I am Ashlee and I am a huge dork. I don’t remember writing this, because my subconscious (which knows best) made my fingers move. I was worried that by not being there on Thursday to prepare for the trip on Friday to Mt. Meru School that it would not end up happening. But we made it! :)
Two volunteers that are at St. Dymphna now wanted to go with me so we all woke up early on Friday and left the house to be at the school by 8:30. We got there and Joeli and his mom were not yet there. We sat in Mary’s living room while she looked for the report that a previous volunteer who was a speech pathologist wrote up about Joeli. It took her almost an hour to find it and I was worried that it was lost, but it was found!
Mt. Meru school was amazing. We went with one of out trusty house taxi drivers and he was nice enough to stay and translate for us. We got out of the taxi and hundreds of children were staring and waving at us yelling “mzungu!.” Our driver, Valence, asked a child where the office was and they pointed to a small building in the middle of the compound.
We walked to the office and were greeted by the principal. He seemed slightly confused that we had just showed up to get a hearing test done, but after some translating and having Valence call a number that Joeli’s mother gave us... everyone was in the loop. We were met by a man named Michael and he showed us to a small room with a smaller office inside of it. He talked with Joeli’s mother and got his background information. This is just one of the thousands of times I wished I spoke better Swahili! I am very curious about his life and if he has always been deaf, etc.
In Africa, it is always a gamble on whether the power will be on or not. This day it was not. The school was only able to take a background history on Joeli and then assess him with a few tools, but the actual auditory test will have to be done at a later time. This was disappointing, but nothing I did not expect. If I would have been smart, I would have had Mary call the school first before we went to check and see if the power was on.
Anyway, Michael looked into Joeli’s ears and said that he had a small amount of wax buildup and that the amount was normal, but in someone who has hearing damage, a little means a lot. He said that when we come back to do the test he will first clean out his ears. He is unable to know for sure as of now, but his first observation is that Joeli is not completely deaf but has hearing loss in both ears. THIS IS WHAT I WANTED TO HEAR! Although it is not 100% sure as of now, when we go back and do the test, if he does just have hearing loss, I can see about getting him fitted and tested for hearing aids!
I have less than three weeks to get his screening finished and for myself, I need to get Joeli settled in some sort of situation before I feel satisfied with myself to leave. I am praying everything lines up perfectly and that he will be at school this Thursday for Friday, that I will call the school and the power will be on and we can go right then. Worst case scenario... Joeli is completely deaf and will have to leave St. Dymphna’s at the end of the term... and possible not attend any school. I have been looking into different options if this were to happen. Best case scenario: he will benefit from hearing aids and then can either stay at St. Dymphna’s or since he is so bright.. attend a “normal" school.
When I dropped Joeli and his mother off at their home, she invited me in to her home but I had to say no because Valence was waiting for me. I felt so bad saying no, but I hope she understood. I would have loved to see the inside of where they live. It was just a small square mud hut like everyone else lives in, but it looked like while the mud was drying they had carved designs into the outside walls and then it dried. It was very pretty!
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