Mathru School for the Differently-Abled 
Saturday 1/25/14

Another long day, eleven hours on the Muktha's Children mosaic.  I have two-thirds of the background in, and should be able to finish it up in another eight hours or so. I've logged 43 hours  in the last five days on this mosaic so far, and one of those days (yesterday) I didn't put in any time at all on the mosaic.  My eyes are burning from the glue fumes, my back hurts like hell, and I'm covered in crumbled tile grit and little tiny shards of ceramic tile glaze and glass.  But the mosaic is really looking good and I'm proud of it.  

 I had one class today, and some of the students finished up a couple more projects.  Monday will be a marathon grouting day.  I don't think I'll be grouting the Muktha's Children mosaic until Tuesday or Wednesday, because Muktha has asked me to attend some function tomorrow morning as a guest of honor.  Apparently January 26th is India's day of independence from Britain.  Muktha calls it "the day we declared sovereignty."   It will last the morning and end with a lunch, and afterwards Muktha will take me to get the shirts and other items for gifts for the teachers and staff here.  

So I'm not counting on getting more than a few hours tomorrow night to work on the mosaic.  And to think I thought I might have time to make two mosaics.  Har har har.   

And for now I'm headed for my two-bucket shower and bed.

Mathru School for the Differently-Abled
Friday 1/24/14

The kids got to go to an amusement park today, so I was free to focus on the new mosaic, and worked twelve hours on it.  It's looking good but going slow.  I've decided to call it "Muktha's Chidlren."  I found out yesterday that she found her son, Ragavo, abandoned as a little baby,,and adopted him.  She really and truly is an angel to India's disabled and discarded children.

Yesterday, instead of mosaics, I spent the day boosting the economy of Bangalore.  Muktha helped me pick out ten sets of  fabric for outfits for my friends, and then I bought  eight sari materials to give as gifts to all the teachers and staff here.  

I must have been the single biggest sale the two fabric stores have made in a while, but  the prices are so cheap by US standards that I almost feel guilty not paying more.   The salwar kameez ou materials were less than $10 USD each.  My friends will spend a lot more than that getting the materials sewn up at home, but even so they'll have a great outfit at a really reasonable price.  And these materials are high quality, from one of the best stores in Bangalore.

It was Muktha's idea to get saris as gifts for the staff and teachers here.  When I told her I wanted to get them something, she told me I could get good sari material for 200 rupees. That's less than $4 USD (yes, four, single digit).  So after we bought all the salwar kameez fabrics,  we went into three other fabric shops before Muktha decided the quality was good enough for me to buy.  The fabric is not as high quality as the two saris I bought for myself, but it is still good, and all the staff will be very happy.  

I still need to get something for Harish, Firojsh and the other security guy whose name I disremember at the  moment.  Divya suggested  shirts, and said she'd find out sizes for me next week.  

And Magda's bag of goodies is coming in handy.   I have just enough little stuffed toys for each of my students, and I'll give them each a little bag of candy from the stash Andy is sending with Linda.  The big hit so far are is the little temporary tattoo kit.  Akshatha loved them, and said the kids will too.  She insisted on putting two butterflies on my arm. It says hey are "temporary" tattoos on the label, but it took me two days to get them completely off. 

Muktha  is determined to make me an outfit herself before I leave.  She wanted to get me a silk sari but I talked  her out of it, reminding her that I don't know how to fold and drape a sari on myself, and that I'm sorry I got myself two of them.  So she settled on a salwar kameez instead, and insisted I choose fabric from the silks counter. I chose a deep fuchsia pink with a gold and silver border for the top, black silk pants, and a sheer black scarf with  gold and silver threads running through it.  

She wanted to get me some gold and silver bangles to go with it but I managed to talk her out of that, too.  My hands are just too big for the bangles they make here.   But she got me a pair of anklets, and a necklace of black glass beads with a silver clasp/pendant that will look great with the outfit she's making me.

It was fun shopping yesterday, but the taxi ride back to the school took two hours.  I thought of the way John Steinbeck described the "noise and stink" of Cannery Row.  He'd have way more grist for his mill here.   India is an assault on the senses.  it's a barrage of smoke, sewer, sweat and traffic exhaust fumes, all mixed in with wonderful cooking smells;  it's horns beeping and blatting, diesel engines rumbling and motorcycles roaring, raucous shouting and laughter, goats bleating, drums beating, and in the oh-dark-thirty hours the dogs are barking and howling and the mosque is blaring out its droning prayer chants over the loudspeakers.

I'm overloaded.

Mathru School for the Differently-Abled 
Wednesday 1/22/14

The last two days have been some of my busiest,  teaching both days, and putting in ten-hour marathon working sessions on my new mosaic.  It's coming together.  The design features four child silhouettes reaching up to a sky full of stars.  At first I had the children standing amid a garden of flowers, but when I finished the bases for them and put them on the board, the kids didn't want to stay on the ground.  So now they're levitating -- flying -- and actually reaching the stars.     The silhouettes are to be mosaiced in mirrors; the flowers are all cream tile with glass glob centers surrounded by light green tile leaves and green glass globs; the stars are lighter glass globs and mirror rounds, and the background will be cobalt blue.   

It's really a nice piece.

I have another 20 to 30 hours of work on it before it's ready to grout.    I'll get  it done by Monday or Tuesday and grout it next Wednesday or Thursday.

I am glad Linda is bringing her camera.  I'd like to have photos of the mosaics I've made here, and the murals of all the pieces the students have made.  

Speaking of photos, I guess we'll have to rely on Linda to take pictures of my new wardrobe, too, because no one here has given me any of the photos taken so far of me in my sari or other new outfits.

My students from the  School for the Blind came over here today, and finished their projects that they started weeks ago.  I wish I'd had more time with them.  Their mosaics are excellent first projects and I would have liked to see them improve  with their next efforts..   But at least they finished the first ones, and we'll get them grouted later this week.  They'll go into a mural along with the other mosaics.

We'll be making four wall murals of four 12x12 mosaics each, and one coffee table top of six 10x10 mosaics on paver tiles.  Divya and I took measurements yesterday and have  the plywood on order  to arrive here Monday.   We also have more than a dozen mirrors  to make ready to hang. 

While I was cleaning up after class today, Divya brought in a group of visitors who are school supporters.  One of them works at a therapy center for disabled children in north Bangalore, and asked if I'd be willing to work with children at her facility.   I could actually understand her, too (I found out later she spent thirty years in the US before moving back to India), and  it was such a joy to chat with someone and understand every word.  We exchanged business cards, and I told her I'd love to work at her facility.   I don't have time  before I leave, but we talked as though it is a given that I'll be back next year.

It's not an unrealistic given, either.   Andy and I made a point of making connections in Singapore, and I will do so in Sri Lanka and Manila, too.  

Mathru School for the Differently-Abled 
Monday 1/20/14

I finished my bees mosaic yesterday and grouted it today, along with the blue spirals mirror, and six other mosaics that the students made.   I'm wiped out!

I'm pleased with both of my mirrors.  They are two of my best.  The bees mosaic mirror seems to be everyone's favorite.  I'm even more pleased with the mosaics that the teachers and students made.   They're all on their second and third pieces, and Akshatha's made four and is working on her fifth.   They're getting good,  Even though the kids are too small to handle the tools well,  they're  learning how to use the different thicknesses of tile to good effect in their designs, and their color choices are just delightful.  

I hoped to make two more mosaics by the end of next week but today realized I only have time  for one.  Still, that will be ten mosaics in seven weeks.  That's a lot of eight- to ten-hour mosaic work sessions I've put in since I arrived.  I often work on my project through four hours of teaching (with interruptions of course),  take a short lunch break, and then keep working until dinner and after dinner too.  Yesterday was an intense twelve-hour marathon.   I was determined to finish the bees mosaic so I could grout it this morning.

This new piece I'll start tomorrow will be a small one, and I'll use the glass globs Muktha brought.  Because the glue we're using dries clear, the transparent globs need to be backed with white paper, so it's time-consuming to use them;  The students are all eager to start using them anyway.  We only have enough for a few projects, but I expect both teachers and students to set up enough of a clamor for more that they'll get more. 

I think we'll use the heavy paver tile mosaics to make a table-top; the weight of them will make for a sturdy coffee table.   We have enough pieces to make a few wall murals.  And we have several nice mirrors.   Tomorrow we'll take some measurements and order plywood to be cut for the mural and table bases. and Divya said she'd get the wire and eye screws for making the mirrors ready to hang.

Andy and I discovered soon after we arrived here that things move slow in India, so I won't be surprised if the plywood and hanging hardware don't show up before I leave.   I really would like to see everything through to the installed finish, but installation-ready finish will be okay too.    Divya was startled today when I told her that my last teaching day will be a week from Thursday, so we'll see what happens.

I am not sure what will happen with the three students at the School for the Blind.  They need at least two more class sessions to finish their projects.   I told Muktha and Divya that it would be best for the students to come here, rather than have me pack up all the tools and materials and schlepp over there.  At this point  that would not be a good use of my time. 

Time definitely moves faster on the home stretch.   In a month I'll be back in Sacramento. 

Mathru School for the Differently-Abled
Saturday 1/18/14

This is the speech I wrote for the harvest festival celebration earlier today:

We have a harvest holiday in America called Thanksgiving.  But I think your harvest festival is a lot more fun.  I also think your food is way better than McDonald's hamburgers, and I love your clothes.  I hope you like my new sari.
Ms. Muktha has asked me to tell you about myself and my mosaics. I was born deaf, but my deafness was not diagnosed until I was almost five years old.  Before they figured out I was deaf, doctors told my parents that I was mentally retarded.  My parents didn't believe I was retarded, and got me hearing aids instead.

With the hearing aids I could hear, and learned to talk.  I went to regular public schools, graduated from high school with good grades, and went to college.   When I was in college, I had a routine eye exam for reading glasses, and found out that I was going blind from a disease called retinitis pigmentosa, or RP for short.  The combination of RP with deafness that I have is called Usher Syndrome.

After I graduated from college, I worked as a newspaper reporter, a legislative aide for the US Congress in Washington, DC, and also for the California State Legislature in Sacramento, California.   I also worked for a large water management agency, and had my own consulting business in agriculture, water and environmental issues.  I went to law school, graduated with honors, and passed the California State Bar exam on my first try.  I practiced water and environmental law, and some disability law.  

Seventeen years ago, when I was practicing law, I discovered I had a brain tumor.  The surgery to remove it also removed the hearing nerve to my right ear, damaged my facial nerve on the right side of my face, and damaged my salivary glands and tear glands, so that I now have a severe dry eye problem, which is why you see me putting drops in my eyes all the time.  The brain tumor made my hearing and vision problems a lot worse, and I had to stop practicing law.

Now I have s lot more fun practicing mosaic art instead. I am a lot blinder now,  but I can hear better because of my cochlear implant.  Even though my life is very difficult in many ways, I am happy.  I don't think I'd be any happier if I still had good vision and I was still practicing law.

Before I tell you about my mosaics, I need to tell you about the bees.   For three nights in a row, my room was invaded by a bee.  I didn't think much of it the first time i happened, but by the third night, I had to find out what is so special about bees.

I found that bees symbolize a lot of things, including love, fertility and productivity, royalty, and the sun.  But most significantly, bees are known for being aerodynamically impossible.  Their bodies are  too big for their wings.  They fly anyway because they beat their wings harder and faster. 

In other words, by working harder and beating their wings faster, they achieve the impossible and they fly.

And this is what Mathru is all about.  India has a long impossible way to go before it is a good place for disabled people, but by working harder today,  Mathru and its supporters are already making life better for disabled children in India.   More important, Mathru is teaching its disabled students to work harder and smarter, so they can learn to make better lives for themselves. 

Which brings me back to mosaics.  A mosaic is a magic single piece  made up of many little pieces, just as life is made of many days and experiences.  The mosaic process is magic, too.  The materials are hard, and the pieces have to be broken in order to be put together.  

I love teaching my mosaic technique to students with disabilities like me, because we know what it is to be broken.  Our LIfe challenge is to pull ourselves together and be whole, to make good lives for ourselves anyway.   It's a special joy to watch someone  make  their first mosaic,  and realize that if they can do that mosaic, they can do just about anything they're willing to work on.

Thank you for listening to my story, and for letting me be a part of your story.