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

Everyone is bustling about getting ready for this afternoon, and I'm helping by staying out of the way.   It's hard work, but somebody's gottta do it.

Had a nice Skype visit  this morning with Andy, Linda and Bill, who'd just gotten in from dinner at Pooja, our fave Indian restaurant in West Sacramento.  Here in Bangalore I'm thirteen and a half hours ahead of California time, and it's weird talking to Andy at his dinner time on Friday night when it's my breakfast time on Saturday morning. 

Linda leaves in just eleven more days for Singapore, and then she's here in Bangalore two weeks from tomorrow.  And Mayu will be here in thirteen days.  

Not much teaching time left here, but we'll be able to finish up all the projects.   I hope to finish my bees mosaic tomorrow, and I think I can get one and maybe two more major mosaics done for the school before the end of the month.  Andy will send some more mosaic tools and supplies with Linda so both Mathru schools will have tools to work with after I leave.

I also asked Linda to bring me one of my audiobooks.  I'm on my second listening since I've been here of Stephen King's 11-22-63, a nice 30-CD monster of an audiobook, and I'm not interested in doing a third listening anytime soon.   I told Andy to look in my bookcase for George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones -- that one is about 30 CDs long, too, and should be long enough to get me through the last two weeks of this big adventure.  At home I usually listen to three to five hours of audiobooks every day.  I'm not doing that here of course, but I always listen to at least one CD at night before I drop off to sleep, and I'll go through several CDs on the long flights home. 

If there is one thing I miss more than anything, apart from being able to see faces and colors, it's reading,  Visually, that is.  It was a long hard grieving when I got rid of all my print books.  But audiobooks are great, and just as I had my own library of hard print novels, I now have my own library of audiobooks.  

It is a different experience to listen to a book, rather than to read it visually, but it's still an excellent experience.  I especially love the way I can plug into an audiobook and do my mosaics at the same time -- or the dishes or the laundry for that matter.  

Mom's friend Ann Chandler asked me to write  about how I read my computer.  I can still visually access some things on my computer, by changing the colors and fonts.  I use a black background and enlarged and bolded sans serif fonts in white or yellow for the text.    My Apple MacBook also has a screen reader built into it, called VoiceOver, which reads the screen to me.  (I use VoiceOver on my Apple iPhone, too; I would not be able to use the iPhone at all without it.)  Finally, I have a hand-held CCTV (closed circuit television) that I use not only for magnification but for changing the colors so I can see better.  I use a combination of all of these techniques and technologies, but am relying more and more on VoiceOver because I'm losing more vision all the time.

And there are lots of websites I just can't access, because they are so low-vision and no-vision unfriendly.  Websites are based on -- and designed on -- visual access, and it's a totally different process navigating the internet aurally instead of visually.  I am competent with VoiceOver for reading my email and documents, but I'm still learning how to use it effectively for internet surfing and website access.

So, I'm still reading.  Just differently.  And a lot slower.  

Late Saturday night:
Wow, what a show.  The students and teachers obviously spent months preparing for this. and I can see why they needed my classroom for all the costumes.  They were many, and many were elaborate with sparkly trim and lots of sequins.  They had music, singing and dancing, a few acting skits and poetry readings, and even special effects lighting that made some of the dancing numbers in sequined costumes look like fireworks.   

Other than giving my  little speech, handing out awards to some of the students, and lighting a ritual candle (I didn't know about that until it was time to do it, and it's a good thing Muktha guided my hand because otherwise I would have set the place on fire).  my job was to sit there and look nice and happy to be there.

I did look nice, and I was happy to be there for the first two hours.  But four hours is a very long time to watch a show in a language you don't know.  The announcements and speeches were in heavily accented English (except for mine), but all the singing, skits and readings were in Hindu.  People were laughing during the skits, but I was clueless.  

I liked most of the music -- it was loud but it had a good beat -- and I was impressed by what I could see of the dancing.  The kids were adorable and some of the teachers were good enough to go pro.   

But, like I said, four hours is a long time, and I was glad when it was over.

Now that I have had experience wearing a sari, I am sorry I bought two of them.  A sari is one of the loveliest garments a woman can wear,  but I am not sure I'll ever get the hang of folding and draping ten yards of material around myself so it looks right.  And getting the thing off was almost a claustrophobic experience.  I struggled for several minutes puzzling  out where the pins were in all the folds of material, and the hooks and snaps in my fitted top were not cooperative.  When I finally got out of the thing, folding it back up neatly to put away was harder than folding a king-size bed sheet.

Well, if I decide the saris are a bust, I have some great material for salwar kameez outfits.

Mathru School for the Differently-Abled 
Friday 1/17/14

My classroom has been usurped and all the mosaics and supplies have been taken I know not where.  I rescued tools, adhesive, and enough of the cream background tile to finish  my bees mosaic in my rooms, but so much for finishing it tonight and grouting it first thing tomorrow.  If I'm lucky I'll have my classroom back on Monday.  

In he meantime, it's costume central for the big harvest festival celebration here tomorrow.  Apparenty both teachers and students are going to be dressed up in costumes and  putting on quite a show.   The show oesn't start until late afternoon tomorrow, but they've been getting ready for it for  weeks, planning all the costumes and activities.  Today was a flurry and scurry of cleaning and getting things ready, and Kamakshi's been so busy cooking up treats for tomorrow that I've hardly seen her all day.  Usually she checks in on me every couple of hours and brings me a fresh cup of tea.

And yes, my sari is ready to wear tomorrow.   When I first tried on the fitted top, it needed so much adjusting l wasn't surel I would be wearing a sari tomorrow after all.  But Kavitha pulled off some real magic  and the top is lovely, with red trim and lacing in the back and special hooks and taping to secure it to my bra straps so it stays properly put.  No wardrobe malfunctions for me, thank you very much.

 My rooms were so full of spectators when Kavitha and Akshatha got the sari on me that I couldn't leave my bedroom.  I wish I had a full-length mirror, but then I wouldn't see much in it anyway.  Judging from everyone's reaction, they all think I look great in it.  The fabric is a good quality cotton that feels like silk, and the color is deep ruby red with a black print border.  Kavitha said she'd take pictures tomorrow and email them to me so I can post them.  

Oh yes, the bangles.   When I got back from the School for the Blind  Wednesday,  I was a bit startled when everyone noticed and heartily approved of them.  I get the impression bangles are sort of like the bindi -- no outfit is complete without them.  There's no way I'm ever getting these off without cutting them off, but I'm already used to them.  They're lightweight and fit so closely to my arm that they don't get in the way.  We'll see how I do with them over the long run.

Mathru School for the Differently-Abled 
Thursday 1/16/14

I was happily working away on my bees mosaic this afternoon when Divya told me I needed to be measured and fitted for my sari.  I thought she meant I needed to meet Kavitha for a fitting, but it turned out she meant I had to go meet with Muktha's seamstress, and a taxi was coming in a few minutes to pick me up.

I told her Kavitha took my measurements last night and had all the sari materials.  Divya said no, that was for the other salwar kameez.  I said no, it was for the black top and the two saris.

Divya asked to see the materials I have.  All I have with me now are  three sets of materials for salwar kameez outfits that I'd planned to give to some of my friends.   "See??  All salwar kemeez.  No sari.  Kavitha has the material for the black top and both of my saris."  

She told me to take the materials I had over  to the seamstress  anyway.   Communication glitch aside, the saris are being made, and now I might as well get the outfits for Chris and Patty made up.    I took their measurements with me, but all my plans went awry once I got to the seamstress.  Theeju (Muktha's niece who helps run the Mathru schools) went with me.  

The seamstress was about a block down the street from the School for the Blind, abd we stood at a counter less than two feet from her front doorstep.  She took so many measurements that I hadn't thought to ask Chris and Patty for that I realized that giving her what measurements I did have would not be very useful.  She took different measurements for each differently-styled outfit, too.  I couldn't keep track of them all.

So now I'm getting three more salwar kameez outfits made up for myself.  She is charging me 680 rupees, or a little over $10 USD, to make all three outfits, all different styles.  

I was dismayed but not really surprised when I learned that the red and purple materials I thought I'd bought are really red and green.  Oh well.  Theeju assured me the combination really looks lovely, and I figure now I'll have a nice Christmas outfit anyway.  The other two outfits are black and cream, and deep blue and magenta.

So now I go to Plan B on getting outfits made for my friends.  Afterm today, and thinking about how many times Kavitha had me try on the first outfit she made for me, I'm thinking it's probably not a good ides to try to have the outfits made here.  But I can get more materials, and there's a large enough Indian community in Sacramento that I should be able to find an Indian tailor who could make the outfits.   Actually, any good tailor could copy any of the outfits I bring home.  Of course, they'll charge a lot more than four bucks an outfit.  

If I could still see to sew, I could easily make the outfits myself.  Well, we'll figure something out.

Meanwhile … tomorrow Kavitha brings me the saris.

Mathru School for the Blind 
Wednesday 1/15/14

Now that I've been wearing my new salwar kameez for a few hours I can tell I need to have the pants adjusted.  The waist is too high and big, even with the drawstring.  But it should be easy to fix, and in the meantime,  it's completely wearable.  Shortly after we arrived here at the School for the Blind, one of Muktha's staff anointed my forehead with the red dot, and everyone approves.

The red dot … here, women wear the red dot like we wear lipstick at home.  No outfit is complete without the red dot, also called a "bindi."  Almost all indian women and girls wear them -- not just married women.   It has religious and spiritual significance but I get the impression that it's a tradition mostly followed not for religious reasons but for cosmetic reasons.  It's considered a beauty mark.

Everyone is all dressed up. The salwar kameez outfits are all particularly colorful and sparkly, some of the staff are in saris instead, and Muktha is wearing an especially gorgeous sari iof deep red and pink with black and gold.  She said she is having her own seamstress meet me tomorrow to sew up one of my saris for Saturday.  

I gather this harvest festival is sort of like our Thanskgiving holiday.  I am not sure if January is really their harvest season,  or if they celebrate this time of the year because the weather is so nice.  This might really be their harvest season. judging by the delicious ripeness of the pineapples. papayas and other fresh fruits I've had here.  Their monsoon begins in July and runs through September, with the heaviest rain in August.   I don't think much harvesting goes on during that time.

As for the weather right now, it's delightful.  Andy and I found it so refreshing after sticky steamy Singapore.   The mornings are cool enough to wear my light flannel shirt-jacket, but otherwise it's shirt-sleeve weather with a nice breeze and low humidity.  Well, humidity in the 60s and 70s here is low compared to the high 90s of Singapore.

 Muktha just came in with some bangles for me to wear. They're nice, and match the coppery thread running through my sheer scarf that goes with this outfit. 

But.

Once again, I'm an elephant here.  These bangles are made for the smaller-boned women of India.  I could just barely get one over my left hand, but my right hand is bigger and those bangles just weren't going on.  For some reason, you have to wear them on the right arm.  Anyway, Muktha dragged me into the bathroom, smeared soap all over my right hand, and forced the bangles over.  It was not a painless operation.

I seriously doubt I'll ever get these off without cutting them off.  Nevertheless I now have some bangles on my right arm to finish off my outfit, complete with the red dot and all, and Muktha is happy.
 
She also brought  me a length of nice black cloth to make the fitted bra-top for my red sari tomorrow.  She's enjoying getting me outfitted in traditional garb almost more than I am. 

Late Wednesday night, back at the School for the Diufferently-Abled:

Well, apart from a chance to wear my new outfit and get a change of scenery, I'd just as soon have stayed here and worked on my new mosaic.    There wasn't much to the festivities today.  It was mainly a special lunch feast for the students.  Lots of singing, and special treats before, during and after the lunch meal. 

The special treat I liked best was a savory cracker-shortbread that I think is made with a blend of ground lentils and wheat flour.  It was buttery, spicy, crunchy and absolutely delicious.  Another one I liked was a blend of chopped peanuts and almonds with bits of fennel seed and other spices, and little tiny rocks of brown sugar.  

Other than listening to the kids sing and enjoying some new foods, there wasn't much for me to do at the other school except be gracious when Muktha introduced me to some of the school's supporters who were on hand.  She had a couple of my mosaics (the ones I brought from home to give to the school) hanging  in the main entrance, and pointed them out to visitors.

I am starting to understand Muktha a lot better now, but understanding all the people she introduces me to is another thing.  It's amazing how much energy it takes to act gracious when struggling with the accents, feeling anxious and embarrassed, and trying to go with the flow with no idea where the hell the flow is going or even what is flowing. 

I was glad  to get back and spend the rest of the day decompressing while working on the new bees mosaic.  I must not have been fully decompressed when Kamakshi brought me dinner,  because she irritated me when she reached into my tray, picked up my spoon, and started spooning  rice  and curry onto the tray.  She's trying to teach me to eat the Indian way, I know, and usually I'm tolerant when she takes liberties like that.  Her heart's in the right place and we can't communicate well because she knows very little English and her accent is so strong I can't understand much of what she does know.

But tonight I have no energy for tolerance.  I growled out an "Ah!"  at her.  She had no trouble clearly and accurately understanding me to mean "You're overstepping your boundaries and I'm getting really pissed at you." 

"OK, OK," she muttered.

"That's right," I said, and added firmly, "bye-bye now."   
She was on her way out the door as I spoke.

My mood improved when Kavitha and Akshatha came in to take my measurements for the fitted bra-top that goes with my red and black sari.  Muktha  must have changed her mind about having her own seamstress meet with me tomorrow.  I guess she decided it would be easier to have Kavitha do it here rather than have me go back across town.  Either way is fine with me, I'm just happy to have them made for me.  

Kavitha took both sari materials, and said she'd be back Friday with the new top and saris ready for me to wear.  She'll also fix the waist on the pants to my emerald green and indigo-purple outfit that I wore today.

On another note, it was a nice surprise to hear from the computer guy at the Singapore Association for the Visually Handicapped.  Apparently he met with some representatives of the Friends of the Disabled Society there, and they are interested in providing training in certain handcrafts -- including mosaics.  

So we'll see what happens.  I'd enjoy a teaching gig in Singapore.  As long as my classroom is air-conditioned, grin.

Mathru School for the Differently-Abled 
Tuesday 1/14/14

Well, the plan changed and I'm going over to the School for the Blind tomorrow.  So today I taught here, and  I welcomed both my classes with the new General Dragon Lady rules.  At the end of the day we had a couple more finished mosaics to grout later this week,  the cut tiles were sorted back into their proper bins, and no glue was wasted.  Woo hoo!!

I made good progress on my bees mirror, too.  Muktha came by tonight and was impressed with my bees.  She was delighted with the story about bees symbolizing the achievement of the impossible.  

She told me that tomorrow there will be a special harvest festival event at the School for the Blind, and I won't be teaching but will be involved in the festivities.   There is a bigger event happening Saturday at which I'm supposed to make a little speech.   Muktha was disappointed that I only have one of my new outfits sewn up, and we both agreed I should wear it Saturday.  I told her I'll wear a nice pair of long black pants with a dressier top tomorrow instead of my usual crew-neck tee shirt and capris.

She wanted to see my new salwar kameez, so I tried it on for her.  She loved it so much that she told me to wear it tomorrow anyway, "and I guarantee I'll have someone  sew up another outfit for you to wear on Saturday."  

"Sounds like a win-win to me," I told her.  I think we'll go for one of the saris.  I got one in a deep red with a black print border, and the other is deep purple with a gold border.

And Muktha said she will get me some red dots to wear on my  forehead with my new outfits.  I'm  going native!