After Christina met Ephrasia on the street and they figured out that they both understood American Sign Language(Ephrasia is deaf, Christina is hearing), they became quick friends and started getting together every Monday to chat. The invited me to their last get together at Milan's. A lot of Kiswahili Sign Language is similar to American Sign Language, but there's also a lot of differences. As Ephrasia tried to explain the signs to Christina, she finger spelled in Kiswahili so I was totally lost! In the end, we communicated pretty well and it is actually a lot easier for me to interact with Ephrasia than most hearing Tanzanians!
Ephrasia visited Amani last week and the kids really enjoyed meeting her. People with disabilities are often shunned in Tanzania. Many people believe that being deaf means being stupid--that it means you are not capable of contributing to the community or even taking care of yourself. The kids were absolutely amazed that Ephrasia could read their lips and that she understood English. She made a real impact on the kids.
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