Greetings from Open Doors Special Education Centre, Jos

It’s true what they say about Jos. I can’t believe I can sit here at night without the fan on, and not only not be sweating profusely like in most other places in Nigeria, but also to be contemplating the possible need for another layer if I go outside. It’s still red hot during the day though, despite you needing a sleeping bag at night. But that’s enough about the weather!… I am downloading some more photos to go with this post to show you all some pictures of life at the school. I have only been there for one full day but I already feel quite busy! The plan is to screen the 80 children and young adults in the Special Education Unit over the next few weeks , most of whom have been diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy, Autism, Down’s Syndrome and /or Moderate – Severe Learning Disabilities ( still referred to as mental retardation over here).
I have a “counterpart”, Ogbonna, who will take over when I leave and he’s highly trained in Special Education. He will also be an invaluable interpreter when I try to do language assessments in a few of the different Nigerian languages!! Even though they use English in the school as the main language, I think it’s still important to assess the children in their first language even though it makes life more difficult …
I was also pleased to hear that Ogbonna’s keen to try the Picture Exchange Communication System with the non-verbal children, and that he’d heard of it. It can sometimes be hard to sell it to people, as they think that teaching children to use pictures to communicate will stop them learning to talk when actually the opposite is true…
The teachers I have met so far also seem keen for me to work alongside them in the classrooms which is encouraging.
Well that’s enough about the Speech and Language Therapy side of it for now!!
To explain the first picture; It's the Baptist Mission guesthouse and I am staying in a small little annex which is round the back . This feels like luxury compared to Marilyn’s house in Lafia. For a start, I have running water, although admittedly I can’t drink it and need to remember to boil and filter it. And although there are the inevitable NEPA stoppages the owner of the guesthouse has a generator which is switched on until 9pm. After that, it’s just pot luck whether the electricity lasts. So far so good tonight, probably because it was off all day! I even have my own sofa and armchairs, and a spare room with 2 bunks, as it’s meant to be a family annex. There are no rules here and I can come and go as I please, and it feels quite safe as it’s a small enclosed compound with a guard at the gate. The down side is that I can only stay for 6 weeks so my boss is trying to arrange something else for after that. I might be able to get a place with another VSO volunteer who’s supposed to be arriving in May or June…but who knows what will happen! I might have more of an idea where would be good to live by then.
All in all though, I have been impressed with Jos so far. It’s much smaller than I thought it would be, and more countrified. The landscape around the school is almost Mediterranean , with the rocky hills , Cacti and flowering shrubs…will have to ask experts what they are…all I know is that there are lots of purple and pink trees/ shrubs/bushes…Okay so I’m not a great horticulturalist...but you get the picture! There are also a few expats around , and bizarrely I actually ran into someone I met at a VSO course back in June before either of us knew where we would be going! She had made the “pilgrammage” to Jos from the heat of Kano further north, in search of ice cream, chocolate and fresh salad that you can only get in Jos!