Mathru School for the Differently-Abled
Thursday 12/12/2013
I can hear birds chirping here. When I mentioned that to Andy, he thought for a few seconds and then commented, "Now that you mention it, no, we didn't hear any birds while we were in Singapore. I saw some flying around in Chinatown, but I never heard any." He thinks they were pigeons.
The weather here is lovely: cooler and only about 70 percent humidity instead of 95 or higher like it was every day were in Singapore. We're enjoying the cool breeze, and still wearing short sleeves and sandals. Andy notices that the locals here almost all go barefoot.
While Andy wrote up our last day in Singspore and our arrival in Bangalore, I've been busy getting settled. Andy's already described our accommodations. It's much more than I expected. I thought I was going to get a small dormitory room with a private bath, and instead I find myself in a three-room suite with two bathrooms. By local standards, this is quite a nice set-up.
I already knew everyone here has to filter or otherwise purify their water before drinking it, and I came prepared with water purification pills and a squeeze-filter bottle. But they've provided a five-gallon container of safe drinking water in my suite for my use, and they routinely replenish it, so safe water is as easy as it can get for me here..
I haven't tried the two-bucket shower system yet, but I'm OK with an occasional sponge bath, and it was no trouble at all getting used to brushing my teeth using a half-glass of filtered water. And my gratitude for the Western-style toilets in my suite increased ten-fold when I saw that the toilets for the resident students here are set into and level with the floor. (However I do not think that learning how the kids sleep on mats has made our camp-cot hard beds any more comfortable for Andy. He's really having a hard time getting good sleep.)
The staff are all graciously welcoming. While I was unpacking early this morning a woman greeted me through the open window, and a few minutes later came around to our front door with two china tea cups filled with hot coffee with milk, spices and sugar. It was good enough to get Andy to consider drinking coffee once in a while. Later she came over with tea cups full of masala tea, also made with milk, spices and sugar. Andy liked that even better.
Breakfast was a thick pancake sort of thing, sprinkled with something like a sugared curry spice mix. I loved it. Andy liked lunch a lot more, which was an Indian flat bread called chappathas (sp?). The flat bread is torn apart and filled with a spicy lentil-cabbage mix and dipped into a savory curry sauce. We also had rice with a broth that was so hearty and tasty Andy assumed it was chicken broth until I reminded him Mathru is a vegetarian establishment. I am making a point of eating several spoonfuls of yogurt whenever they serve it, to be kind to my digestive system. Andy's fondness for Indian food does not extend to yogurt in any form (that he is aware of anyway).
Around 4 p.m., apparently concerned we might perish for lack of sufficient sustenance to suffice until dinner time, the cook came by with bowls of lentil soup with finely chopped peas, onions, cabbage, carrots, and lots of black pepper. My sinuses are completely cleared out and we're both so full we're not sure we're going to be able to manage dinner at all.
Srini came by to greet us and give us a tour. I am impressed with what Muktha and Srini have done here. Muktha actually runs two schools; one is the Mathru School for the Blind and this newer one for children will multiple disabilities (the differently-abled, smile). We visited a class of deaf-blind kids who taught me how to sign "good morning" -- a two-handed sign, both fists raised with thumbs up, then opening up with palms up and fingers spread wide (like the rising sun). I'm totally oral and not a signer at all, but I expect to pick up at least some signs while I am here.
There was another class we visited of kids with cognitive and other disabilities in addition to deafness and/or blindness. We were shown a large, very clean and pleasant room, where the kids sleep at night on mats on the floor. They are also served their meals there, and the kids each have a locker where they keep their sleeping mats and personal belongings. The showers and bathrooms all have the swamp gas odor but were very clean. I could smell air fresheners in use.
When Srini told us he was going to show us where they make the "leaf plates" I thought I heard wrong. But no, they really do make plates, bowls and serving platters out of palm leaves. The leaves are heated and pressed into a mold, and then trimmed. Andy said there were stacks and stacks of bowls and plates in the room. They feel like they are made of a lightweight wood, and seem quite sturdy. Srini said the leaf plates are usually used once and then thrown away. I think that if they were finished off with a long-lasting and non-toxic resin or polyurethane they could last a long time. They sell these leaf dishes to raise money for the school.
The leaf plates are so sturdy that Andy and I think this substance could be used as a base for small mosaics. We'll see. Srini said we'd be able to visit some hardware stores and other businesses in a couple days to get mosaic supplies.
I brought three sets of tools (wheeled glass nippers, regular tile nippers, and diagonal pliers), and one set of all the other miscellaneous little tools I find useful that we should be able to get almost anywhere. Also some wood craft sticks (popsicle sticks) and two different brands of the adhesive tile caulk I use. And a bag of rubber gloves for grouting. I did not bring any tesserae materials, not just because they're heavy to pack but also because I want to focus on using supplies that are readily and affordably available here in India for the school.
I brought along five of my small mosaics, too, to use as teaching pieces and gifts. One of them is my Gecko Mirror. I think I will start the kids off on mirror projects, because mirrors will be easy to get here and -- at least in my experience -- the mosaic mirrors are popular. We might be able to get a good market going for Mathru Mosaic Mirrors.
We saw some little clay dishes and figurines made by the students here and I am thinking I might be able to show them my bread dough ornament technique. I can't see to paint them anymore like i used to but I can still roll them and shape them, and the kids with vision can paint them. The ornaments I make do not necessarily have to be painted, either. Some of the clay objects we saw were a deep golden yellow, dyed with ground turmeric added to the dough.
Oh, and they make sanitary pads here too. Apparently they are expensive here in India, and the pads they make here are donated to women's charities and causes. I like that the school is involved in efforts to support others.
Andy took me out for another walk around the grounds this afternoon. There are three buildings on this site, which is fenced and gated and about half an acre total. There is a large field nearby that Andy could see from the driveway, which was being used at that time for a playing field (soccer, probably) and there are residential condos nearby. We are about 7 kilometers from the airport -- less than five miles -- and we're not sure yet how far we are from other Mathru facility.
I'm sure glad Andy is here to help me get settled and oriented. I knew I was going to feel very blind in a totally new and unfamiliar place, and yep, I do. I'm struggling with the language barrier, too, but given time I WILL get used to the accents and I WILL be able to communicate at least competently. Right now it seems like almost everything is total gibberish to me, and I have to keep reminding myself to give it some time, the comprehension WILL come.
We are pretty much on our own today, as Srini and Muktha both have functions and commitments elsewhere. Muktha is an attorney and a member of a local commission that advocates for children. We will probably see Srini again over the weekend, and Muktha will drop by tomorrow. Apparently today she will be busy at the other school, where she has some sort of government inspection going on.
Internet service here is spotty; we're in a part of Bangalore that is being redeveloped and modernized, and wireless internet service is not yet reliable here. Maybe we will be able to get better access at an internet cafe near here, if there is one; but right now, we're dealing with frustratingly slow internet service.
In the meantime, we need to figure out laundry service, grin.
More when we can connect!!
Thursday 12/12/2013
I can hear birds chirping here. When I mentioned that to Andy, he thought for a few seconds and then commented, "Now that you mention it, no, we didn't hear any birds while we were in Singapore. I saw some flying around in Chinatown, but I never heard any." He thinks they were pigeons.
The weather here is lovely: cooler and only about 70 percent humidity instead of 95 or higher like it was every day were in Singapore. We're enjoying the cool breeze, and still wearing short sleeves and sandals. Andy notices that the locals here almost all go barefoot.
While Andy wrote up our last day in Singspore and our arrival in Bangalore, I've been busy getting settled. Andy's already described our accommodations. It's much more than I expected. I thought I was going to get a small dormitory room with a private bath, and instead I find myself in a three-room suite with two bathrooms. By local standards, this is quite a nice set-up.
I already knew everyone here has to filter or otherwise purify their water before drinking it, and I came prepared with water purification pills and a squeeze-filter bottle. But they've provided a five-gallon container of safe drinking water in my suite for my use, and they routinely replenish it, so safe water is as easy as it can get for me here..
I haven't tried the two-bucket shower system yet, but I'm OK with an occasional sponge bath, and it was no trouble at all getting used to brushing my teeth using a half-glass of filtered water. And my gratitude for the Western-style toilets in my suite increased ten-fold when I saw that the toilets for the resident students here are set into and level with the floor. (However I do not think that learning how the kids sleep on mats has made our camp-cot hard beds any more comfortable for Andy. He's really having a hard time getting good sleep.)
The staff are all graciously welcoming. While I was unpacking early this morning a woman greeted me through the open window, and a few minutes later came around to our front door with two china tea cups filled with hot coffee with milk, spices and sugar. It was good enough to get Andy to consider drinking coffee once in a while. Later she came over with tea cups full of masala tea, also made with milk, spices and sugar. Andy liked that even better.
Breakfast was a thick pancake sort of thing, sprinkled with something like a sugared curry spice mix. I loved it. Andy liked lunch a lot more, which was an Indian flat bread called chappathas (sp?). The flat bread is torn apart and filled with a spicy lentil-cabbage mix and dipped into a savory curry sauce. We also had rice with a broth that was so hearty and tasty Andy assumed it was chicken broth until I reminded him Mathru is a vegetarian establishment. I am making a point of eating several spoonfuls of yogurt whenever they serve it, to be kind to my digestive system. Andy's fondness for Indian food does not extend to yogurt in any form (that he is aware of anyway).
Around 4 p.m., apparently concerned we might perish for lack of sufficient sustenance to suffice until dinner time, the cook came by with bowls of lentil soup with finely chopped peas, onions, cabbage, carrots, and lots of black pepper. My sinuses are completely cleared out and we're both so full we're not sure we're going to be able to manage dinner at all.
Srini came by to greet us and give us a tour. I am impressed with what Muktha and Srini have done here. Muktha actually runs two schools; one is the Mathru School for the Blind and this newer one for children will multiple disabilities (the differently-abled, smile). We visited a class of deaf-blind kids who taught me how to sign "good morning" -- a two-handed sign, both fists raised with thumbs up, then opening up with palms up and fingers spread wide (like the rising sun). I'm totally oral and not a signer at all, but I expect to pick up at least some signs while I am here.
There was another class we visited of kids with cognitive and other disabilities in addition to deafness and/or blindness. We were shown a large, very clean and pleasant room, where the kids sleep at night on mats on the floor. They are also served their meals there, and the kids each have a locker where they keep their sleeping mats and personal belongings. The showers and bathrooms all have the swamp gas odor but were very clean. I could smell air fresheners in use.
When Srini told us he was going to show us where they make the "leaf plates" I thought I heard wrong. But no, they really do make plates, bowls and serving platters out of palm leaves. The leaves are heated and pressed into a mold, and then trimmed. Andy said there were stacks and stacks of bowls and plates in the room. They feel like they are made of a lightweight wood, and seem quite sturdy. Srini said the leaf plates are usually used once and then thrown away. I think that if they were finished off with a long-lasting and non-toxic resin or polyurethane they could last a long time. They sell these leaf dishes to raise money for the school.
The leaf plates are so sturdy that Andy and I think this substance could be used as a base for small mosaics. We'll see. Srini said we'd be able to visit some hardware stores and other businesses in a couple days to get mosaic supplies.
I brought three sets of tools (wheeled glass nippers, regular tile nippers, and diagonal pliers), and one set of all the other miscellaneous little tools I find useful that we should be able to get almost anywhere. Also some wood craft sticks (popsicle sticks) and two different brands of the adhesive tile caulk I use. And a bag of rubber gloves for grouting. I did not bring any tesserae materials, not just because they're heavy to pack but also because I want to focus on using supplies that are readily and affordably available here in India for the school.
I brought along five of my small mosaics, too, to use as teaching pieces and gifts. One of them is my Gecko Mirror. I think I will start the kids off on mirror projects, because mirrors will be easy to get here and -- at least in my experience -- the mosaic mirrors are popular. We might be able to get a good market going for Mathru Mosaic Mirrors.
We saw some little clay dishes and figurines made by the students here and I am thinking I might be able to show them my bread dough ornament technique. I can't see to paint them anymore like i used to but I can still roll them and shape them, and the kids with vision can paint them. The ornaments I make do not necessarily have to be painted, either. Some of the clay objects we saw were a deep golden yellow, dyed with ground turmeric added to the dough.
Oh, and they make sanitary pads here too. Apparently they are expensive here in India, and the pads they make here are donated to women's charities and causes. I like that the school is involved in efforts to support others.
Andy took me out for another walk around the grounds this afternoon. There are three buildings on this site, which is fenced and gated and about half an acre total. There is a large field nearby that Andy could see from the driveway, which was being used at that time for a playing field (soccer, probably) and there are residential condos nearby. We are about 7 kilometers from the airport -- less than five miles -- and we're not sure yet how far we are from other Mathru facility.
I'm sure glad Andy is here to help me get settled and oriented. I knew I was going to feel very blind in a totally new and unfamiliar place, and yep, I do. I'm struggling with the language barrier, too, but given time I WILL get used to the accents and I WILL be able to communicate at least competently. Right now it seems like almost everything is total gibberish to me, and I have to keep reminding myself to give it some time, the comprehension WILL come.
We are pretty much on our own today, as Srini and Muktha both have functions and commitments elsewhere. Muktha is an attorney and a member of a local commission that advocates for children. We will probably see Srini again over the weekend, and Muktha will drop by tomorrow. Apparently today she will be busy at the other school, where she has some sort of government inspection going on.
Internet service here is spotty; we're in a part of Bangalore that is being redeveloped and modernized, and wireless internet service is not yet reliable here. Maybe we will be able to get better access at an internet cafe near here, if there is one; but right now, we're dealing with frustratingly slow internet service.
In the meantime, we need to figure out laundry service, grin.
More when we can connect!!
RSS Feed