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.
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.
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