Durban School for the Hearing Impaired

Sonibonani!

Tuesday I traveled to the Durban School for the Hearing Impaired. It was a wonderful, eye-opening experience. There is both a primary school and a senior school. The schools were great in that there were at max 10 students in a classroom (7 on average in the senior school, 5 on average in the primary school). All but two of the teachers both spoke and signed when they taught. The children in the school have varying degrees of their hearing impairment, and some of them have full hearing but are slow learners. The principle shared with us that absenteeism is a major problem within the school. The children may experience problems  with transportation (although there is a school bus, it cannot afford to go within all of the neighborhoods, only to the outskirts) or coming to school on an empty stomach. The senior school only has a social worker/counselor who comes to school once a week. This has been financially arranged through their national Blind and Deaf Society. Although this school faces many challenges, they have a 100% matriculation (graduation test) pass rate. This is AMAZING compared to the national averages. There is major social shame associated with not passing your matrics (the names are posted in the newspaper). The stigma one experiences frequently causes preventable suicide attempts.


We are learning a lot about class and race tensions still very much apart of South Africa. One thing many of us noticed was a certain attitude towards Cato Manor. When telling people that we were staying with families in Cato Manor, we were often met with shocks and laughter of disbelief. Among other things, people make assumptions about our family's diets, the safety of the neighborhood, and where we should be staying as Americans. It is frequently surprising to people when we say that the neighborhood is very welcoming and that, although we are cautious about safety, we all feel safe with our families.

This weekend we will be staying closer to downtown Durban. We will be close to the beach and may even have the chance to go to Gateway Mall (which is apparently larger than MOA)! We also have our first Zulu test tomorrow, so wish me luck! Hamabani Kahle!