Today was a day of waiting and waiting. We took several children to the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center for various checkups, including vision examinations, blood work, and seeing pediatricians and neurologists. We were generally pleased with the results of the day and with the quality of the care. Several of the children are returning in two weeks for additional appointments.

On one hand, we were happy that none of the children had serious vision issues nor do they need glasses. On the other hand, that means that in several cases, we have ruled out hearing and vision issues as a cause of their difficulties in school, but now we have consider that several of the children were are most concerned about may indeed have intellectual disabilities. Given the diagnostic tools at our disposal or lack there of in Kiswahili, particularly for psychological assessment we cannot diagnose some children definitively as having an intellectual disability as opposed to having a learning disability. As I have mentioned in a previous blog entry, we are working from an RTI (response to intervention) perspective where we will try various interventions with children who are remaining in an inclusive setting. If that does not make a difference in the six few months, we will search for an more intensive setting that is still inclusive, such as the Gabriella Centre for additional children. Our goal is to keep children in inclusive settings and neighborhood schools as much as possible because this model is more sustainable and could be better replicated across the country.

Tomorrow we do our trek up Kilimanjaro. I will take tons of pictures and am SUPER EXCITED!!!!! I can’t wait.

Happy Fourth of July!