Mathru School for the Differently-Abled
New Year's Eve, Tuesday 12/31/2013

I've confirmed that New Year's is no big deal here, and tomorrow is a regular work day just like any else.   I would think they'd make a holiday out of the New Year rather than Christmas.  Divya seemed surprised when I told her it's widely commemorated in America.

I'm hoping to celebrate the new year by getting well.  Divya took me to the doctor this morning. Actually she said she was taking me to the  hospital, but it was the most un-hospital-like setting I've ever encountered.  It was more like the doctor's office we went to last week.  This time the doctor was a man, and gave me same kind of examination the other doctor did.  He didn't take my temperature, just took my pulse and listened to my breathing, and  sent me home with enough medicine for five days. 

I am not happy about this.    I told the doctor that I am concerned that I do not have the local immunities here, and I wanted ten to twelve days of meds, not just three.  But Divya said she told the doctor this, too, and he said, no, five days was enough, and if I am not well by then, I should come back and they'll change the meds.  

This relapse I'm going through now doesn't give me much confidence in his assurances or in the quality of medical care here in general.  But I don't see that there is much I can do about it.   If I don't get better, though, I am going to get in touch with Srini and insist with all efficacious vehemence that he and Muktha arrange for me to get better care.

As soon as I got back I went to bed.  I've slept about seven hours straight,  and while I'm nowhere near back up to par, I do feel better than I did this morning.  I'm up for a cup of tea and some pineapple, then my "after dinner" medicines, and then back to bed.  I wanted bananas, but Divys said, "No, no, bananas are cold food, you should not eat with your cold."  

I don't think I have "just" a cold, but I let that pass.  "Fine, give me any fruit that works then."   I'm really not the lest bit hungry, and  all I want is tea and fruit.

She brought me a pineapple and said she'd get me some papaya tomorrow.   The pineapple was good but I had to force it down.

Ragavo the Vick's VapoRub kid came to visit while I was eating, made me smear some more Vick's on my throat, and swiped some of my pineapple   He really is a cute kid.  Muktha came in too and insisted I put cotton in my ears.  "That's why you got sick again, you didn't keep the cotton in your ears and the Vick's on your throat."

Right.

OK, back to bed

Mathru School for the Differently-Abled 
Late Monday12/30/2013

I got back to a nice welcome, a nice meal (although I really didn't feel like eating much), and  -- finally -- internet access, so I didn't melt down after all.   I felt so lousy and tired at the end of my day at the other school that I was at the end of my tether.  It's good to be sane again, even if I am sick again.

From the perspective of sanity, today was actually a good day.  I only had three students today, ranging in age from 9 to 12, so they were better able to handle the tools, and I had them in the morning and  then again after lunch, so they made good progress on their projects.    And once again they wanted more time when I announced clean-up time, and asked if I couldn't leave some tools and glue so they could work on their projects between now and Wednesday.  l really wished I could.

The stressful part of the day, apart from feeling lousy, was the completely different environment and people.  But give me a couple weeks and I'll know the people there and my way around the place better just like I do here.

I wasn't very hungry so didn't eat much lunch today, which seemed to make the staff think I was in danger of perishing from starvation.  Muktha brought around a plate of cookies and when I took a small one to be polite she ordered me to take two more.  (I took only one more, stuck it in my pocket and later surreptitiously tossed it into the trash can.)   The cook came out and asked me what I like to eat, and I told her anything she wanted to make, "but please very very little rice or chappati or xhosas or other breads."

Then she asked me, "I breengpeezsah?" 

"I'm sorry, I don't understand," I said apologetically.  "Breengpeezah?"

"PEEza."

"Oh, pizza.  Oh, no thank you,  no need bring pizza,"

"Burrgalar?"

I couldn't help laughing this time, and I understood that she thought I was hungry for American fast food.  She was actually prepared to go to the local Domino's Pizza (yes, Domino's has invaded Bangalore) or McDonald's to feed me.  "No, no,"  I said, "I like your food better!"

"No??"  I could tell she didn't believe me.  

"Really," I said, "your food way better.  I not eat today because I don't feel good."  I explained that it is true that most Americans do like Domino's and McDonald's, but "it's junk food, not good for you."   I have no idea how much of that she understood.

They all speak English here, but the accents are so strong, and the vocabulary is so limited, that for the most part it might as well be a totally foreign language.  It really is a struggle for me.

Anyway, after that they asked me if I like fruit, and when I said yes, they brought me a banana.  I told them their bananas are way better than the bananas we get in America.  They also plied me with  hot tea every few minutes, it seemed … they could hear me coughing and sneezing, and  could tell my throat was sore,  One of the staff even brought me some throat lozenges.

So really … being miffed about lack of internet access does seem rather churlish, doesn't it????

OK, this is all I have energy for, I'm off to bed

Mathru School for the Blind
Monday 12/30/2013

Well I am one distressed puppy.   I woke up last night with my throat on fire, and it's been hurting like hell all day.   I've been sneezing, hacking and blowing my nose every couple of minutes.  I can't believe I'm going through this all over again.  My eyes are on fire too and I've been going through the drops at an alarming rate.

I'm over at the School for the Blind today, and the language barrier is even worse over here than it is at the School for the Differently-Abled.

To top it all off,  contrary to my understanding from Srini and Muktha, there is no wireless internet access available  to me here.  This feels like the final straw and I'm close to a melt-down.  I just want the taxi to come so I can back to my room. 

And here it is.  I'll be back later.  

Mathru School for the Differently-Abled 
Sunday 12/29/2013

I'm bummed.  There is something wrong with  either the phone line here or the internet flash drive Divya left with me Fridayafternoon before she went home for the weekend.  I haven't been able to get online at all.  I hope the problem will be resolvedtomorrow when Divya gets back. 

Andy left Hong Kong yesterday for San Francisco, hopefully slept well at the airport hotel last night, and by now is back home in Sacramento.  I bet Patches and Bella are really glad to see him, and maybe even Mom's cat Millie is too.   I was hoping to chat with him on Skype before he left Hong Kong, and I'd sure love to chat with him right  now and hear all about his homecoming.  

Ah well.   I'll catch up with him -- and everyone else -- eventually.  It feels like it's been a very long weekend, but I've kept busy and  had time to write.  Also time to give everything a good proofing before sending it off. 

I'm doing OK on my own so far.  It was depressing when Andy left because I was so sick, but I'm feeling lots better and have been busy teaching and getting ready for next week, so things are looking good.   Necessity breeds competence, and now that I don't have Andy to hear and interpret for me, I'm working harder and catching more on my own.  And now that the staff don't have him to talk to and interpret for them, they're better about speaking slowly and more clearly for me.   We're making progress.  In fact,  I'm back into my old mantra from my law school days, focusing on "patiently making great progress."  

This morning Akshatha -- one of the teachers -- and I had a good time going over all the names.  I had her spell them out for me and wrote them into my computer on the cheat sheet Andy and I started shortly after we arrived.  Akshatha was such a good sport, patiently repeating letters over and over until I got them.  We both cheered when I did.   With the strong accents in the way, it's almost impossible for me to tell  "t" from "d" or "e" or "p" and "b" and "v."   I can't read lips anymore so I don't have any visual clues.  The accent makes even  "a" and "h" and "k" hard to tell apart.  With the cochlear implant  I can usually hear the aspirated "h" sound and the kick in the "k" sound, and once I'm more used to the voices and accents here  I should start picking up those precision speech sounds again.  

Andy and I got some  of the names right on our cheat sheet.  We had Muktha, of course, and now I know her son-the-Vick's-VapoRub-kid is named Ragavo.   And we had Harish and his wife Jyoti.  And Divya, who  manages the school here.  (Muktha spends most of her time over at the other facility.)   We were wrong on all the other names.

The cook's name is Kamakshi,  not Koochina or Kamashia  or any of the other permutations Andy kept coming up with.  I was pretty close with "Kamashi" after all.  And the security guy's name is Firojsh.  I told Akshatha about the word "ferocious" in English, and we agree that Firojsh is a great name for a security guard.  His wife's name is Indira.  

Besides Akshatha, the other teachers  here are Deepa, Kavitha, Shobha, and Smitha -- all women.  I met a man yesterday and again this morning, Mumurthy, who also teaches here.

It's amazing how much more comfortable I feel, now that I've got a  handle on the names.  I am going to get all the teachers to give me their students' names too.

My two classes from Friday were happy to get back to their projects yesterday.  In fact, both the teachers and the kids wanted "five more minutes, ma'am, five more minutes???" when I announced clean-up time fifteen minute before quitting time.  We have quite a few projects ready to grout, so we'll have at least one grouting session next week.  

I'm glad the teachers are really getting into the mosaics.  They're essential to me for communicating with the students, and It will be up to them to carry on with the mosaic classes after I leave.  Even if I am not able to teach the students all the little tricks and techniques I use, I will make sure I teach Akshatha and the rest of the teachers everything I can so they can pass it on.

When I went over to my classroom after lunch today to get materials ready  and select some mosaics to take over to the other school tomorrow, I was mobbed by some visitors who turned out to be parents of some of the students here.  Most of the teachers showed up, too.  The parents examined all the mosaics and commented on how nice they were, and were impressed by the ones the students had finished.   Indeed, they were so fascinated with the mosaics that I had to gently pull them out of their hands and put them back in my pile. And the teachers grabbed the  tools to work on their mosaics.  I had to announce that today is NOT a mosaic day and that everyone had to leave the classroom so we could lock it up. 

 I felt bad chasing them all out, especially the teachers, but I'm running low on the glue and I have to make sure I have enough for  tomorrow's classes.  Harish  told me Friday he'll bring me more glue and also some glass globs Monday  afternoon or Tuesdaymorning.

Akshatha caught up with me on my way back to my suite,  and introduced me to the mother of one my  (and her) students -- the littlest one who made the absolutely excellent dragonfly.  Even I could see he was delighted and proud when  Akshatha signed to him that I told his mother he'd made a "really super" dragonfly mosaic.   He has an older brother, who is also totally deaf, but not a student here.  I got the impression he is enrolled in another school.  Their mother was very interested in my cochlear implant, but the language barrier made it hard to talk.   Maybe later sometime we'll get a chance  to talk more in a more relaxed setting with a good interpreter. 

I'm wiped out and headed to bed early.  It's amazing how much energy it takes being a stranger in a strange land.

Mathru School for the Differently-Abled
Friday 12/27/2013

I'm back in business.  Not 100 percent yet, but close.  Amazing, considering that two days ago I felt so awful I thought it'd be at least another week before I'd be well enough to teach.   But I was fine to teach today.  
My 9 to 11 kids are deaf and non-oral, but can see well.  My 11 to 1 kids all have some physical or cognitive impairment along with some vision impairment, but can still see better than I can.  I'll be working with them again tomorrow.  

Next week I'll be on our originally-planned schedule:  Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays here at the Mathru School for the Differently-Abled, and Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays over at the other school (Mathru School for the Blind).  My students there will be older, and will have at least as much vision as I do (which isn't much).

Today's students were so engrossed in their projects I felt almost superfluous.  One student wanted to incorporate a mirror into his project, and asked me to cut one into a rough round shape to fit his design.  When I showed him how he could use the mirror shards too in his design, if he wanted, he very happily indicated he did.  Even accounting for the fact that most of them have good vision,  their projects are impressive, considering how young they are and how they're not strong enough yet to cut the tiles and mirrors without help.  

Today was a public relations day.  Muktha arranged for photos to be taken during one class, and brought one of Mathru's major supporters around during the other class.   He seemed delighted with  the mosaic projects, and said he might be able to find  wheeled glass nippers and tile nippers for us.  He'll look for the tubed adhesive tile caulk, too.  The furniture glue we're using is working just fine, but the tubes  are easier and less messy.

Another thing I'm teaching around here is mobility.  It's odd,  but O&M is not one of the skills Mathru teaches. (I still think "operation and maintenance"  from my water business days, but in the blind world it's "orientation and mobility," and includes white cane training.)  We'll see what I find when I start spending more time at the other facility, but so far I have yet to see another white cane  anywhere, and none of the staff here, including Muktha,  seem to have had any training in safe sighted guiding methods.    

My classroom was changed to the building across the driveway, mainly so we can lock the room when it's not in use.  Anyway, Andy and I made sure to do a few trial runs so that I can navigate there on my own with my cane.  It's not difficult, but involves getting myself situated from my front doorstep so that I'm headed in the right direction, and once I'm across the driveway I shoreline to the steps, go up three of them, turn left, pass one set of windows and turn in to the first set of doors on my right.  I'm familiar enough with the grounds now that if I veer off course, I can figure it out and get myself back on track.

The staff's inclination, however, is to rush up, grab my elbow and try to propel me forward, or even lift me up the steps.  They'll also  grab my cane and try to point it (and me) in the right direction.  It's a real effort sometimes to refrain from giving them a hard whack in the patooties.  Instead, I stop and gently shake them off, saying, "I'm fine, the cane tells me where to go."  Or "Don't worry, with the cane I'll find the right place, just let me find it."  Or, "No, I need YOUR elbow, and YOU go first."

They are starting to get the message.   I am sure they all got a chance to watch Andy guiding me around, and that was probably an education in itself.  He really did a great job, and we got to the point where it was automatic and smooth, even over the most complex mazes of curbs, steps, ramps and potholes that is typical here.  The cane helped, too, because I was often able to find curbs and steps before Andy had time to tell me about them.  It made his guiding job easier.

Anyway, I'm on the lookout for the appropriate opportunities for impromptu sighted guiding lessons, and maybe even a few cane lessons.  I doubt I'll have to frog-march anyone, but we'll see.