Mathru School for the Differently-Abled
Wednesday 2/12/14
Mayu's back in Mumbai, and I'm all packed (except for the very last-minute things like the computer, of course). I have a few blessedly quiet hours for this very last post from Bangalore.
The little good-bye party yesterday was nice. I think Muktha and Divya gave me good advice about what gifts to give everyone because they all seem very happy with them. Chris's mom Magda's creations and gifts are the real stars. There isn't much knitting or needlepoint here in southern India, and the staff are fascinated with the keychains and knitted eyeglass/sunglass cases she made. And the kids are thrilled with their little stuffed toys.
Mayu, bless her heart, brought nice little toys for all the kids, craft items and other useful and welcome gifts too. It was such a delight connecting with her again. We just picked up right where we left off thirty-five years ago, and filled each other in on our lives while enjoying all the great meals and desserts (we were gluttons in college, grin), pool and beach sessions, early morning and late night chat sessions, and everything else during the last six days.
She told me she'd recently been to a craft fair in Mumbai, where the Mumbai Helen Keller organization had a booth. They were very interested in the idea of having a deafblind mosaic artist teach their deafblind clents when she told them about me. So my next visit to India may include a teaching gig in Mumbai as well as a visit with Mayu there.
Because I will be back. It's been an incredibly rich experience here. Not all of it was easy or comfortable -- in fact, there was little that was easy or comfortable until the last few weeks -- but it's all been worth it. I'm grateful to Srini for inviting me here.
Indeed, Lisa Lloyd gets some of the credit for that, because she is the one who sent Srini the news article about my solo art show at SMUD last spring.
Well, then you have to give credit to my mosaics too.
And then to the brain tumor, because it's the main reason I stopped practicing law and started practicing mosaics.
Which brings me back to the fact that if I were fully hearing and sighted I wouldn't even be on this adventure. Some other adventure, maybe, but not this one. I can't say that I'm glad I have to deal with lousy vision, hearing and balance, and chronically acute and acutely chronic dry eye pain, and all the rest of it. I get frustrated and stressed out and pissed off just like anyone else would. But I can say that I am glad that the good things in my life are very good indeed, and probably wouldn't be so good if it were not for the way I have learned to deal with my Life difficulties. I am thinking of my relationships here, particularly Andy and my friends. I still have a hard time with the fact that I need so much help, but I don't resent Andy and my friends or anyone else for the fact that I need their help.
So, like the song says, I get by with a little help from my friends (even if I can't sing worth beans). And tonight -- or more accurately, tomorrow morning -- I'll get by in Hong Kong with a little help from my wonderful Lions friends.
In addition to personally contacting the Hong Kong Lions for me, Sri Lankan Lion Amarasuriya helped me connect with the Sri Lanka Council for the Blind. In fact, I think the director there, who is 80 years old, may have been embarrassed that he dropped the ball. But thanks to Mr. Amarasuriya -- and Mayu -- we had a good meeting and they seem interested in learning my mosaic technique as a marketable craft skill. I'll send them more information when I get home.
I need to get more information to the Tamahar organization where Chandriks works, too. I really enjoyed visiting Tamahar with her the day before Mayu and I went to Sri Lanka. It's in a different part of Bangalore, and a smaller facility than Mathru. Most of the children at Tamahar have some kind of cognitive impairment along with a physical disability While many of them would not be able to handle the tools, the teachers want to learn my technique so they can then work with their students. This is what I did here at Mathru, because most of the children were too small and not strong enough to handle the tools. The teachers are breaking up the tiles and mirrors for the kids, and the kids are putting together the mosaics.
I was hoping to take some of my students' finished mosaics back to the tile and mirror shops we bought our supplies from. I think if the shop owners could see what the students are making with their products, they might be more willing to give Mathru their broken tiles and mirrors, and a price break on the good ones. They might even be willing to help Mathru sell the mosaics.
Well, I guess right now it's a case of "today the mosaics, tomorrow the markets."
And now it's time for me to wrap up and get ready to head on out. Divya and Askshatha have taken several photos of me with the mosaics and the students today, some in the gorgeous white and turquoise silk salwar outfit the staff had made for me as a going-away present, so maybe I'll actually get to post some pictures. Mayu even got photos of me in my bathing suit but I am not sure I want those floating around cyberspace.
Next: Hong Kong (if I can get interet access there.)
Wednesday 2/12/14
Mayu's back in Mumbai, and I'm all packed (except for the very last-minute things like the computer, of course). I have a few blessedly quiet hours for this very last post from Bangalore.
The little good-bye party yesterday was nice. I think Muktha and Divya gave me good advice about what gifts to give everyone because they all seem very happy with them. Chris's mom Magda's creations and gifts are the real stars. There isn't much knitting or needlepoint here in southern India, and the staff are fascinated with the keychains and knitted eyeglass/sunglass cases she made. And the kids are thrilled with their little stuffed toys.
Mayu, bless her heart, brought nice little toys for all the kids, craft items and other useful and welcome gifts too. It was such a delight connecting with her again. We just picked up right where we left off thirty-five years ago, and filled each other in on our lives while enjoying all the great meals and desserts (we were gluttons in college, grin), pool and beach sessions, early morning and late night chat sessions, and everything else during the last six days.
She told me she'd recently been to a craft fair in Mumbai, where the Mumbai Helen Keller organization had a booth. They were very interested in the idea of having a deafblind mosaic artist teach their deafblind clents when she told them about me. So my next visit to India may include a teaching gig in Mumbai as well as a visit with Mayu there.
Because I will be back. It's been an incredibly rich experience here. Not all of it was easy or comfortable -- in fact, there was little that was easy or comfortable until the last few weeks -- but it's all been worth it. I'm grateful to Srini for inviting me here.
Indeed, Lisa Lloyd gets some of the credit for that, because she is the one who sent Srini the news article about my solo art show at SMUD last spring.
Well, then you have to give credit to my mosaics too.
And then to the brain tumor, because it's the main reason I stopped practicing law and started practicing mosaics.
Which brings me back to the fact that if I were fully hearing and sighted I wouldn't even be on this adventure. Some other adventure, maybe, but not this one. I can't say that I'm glad I have to deal with lousy vision, hearing and balance, and chronically acute and acutely chronic dry eye pain, and all the rest of it. I get frustrated and stressed out and pissed off just like anyone else would. But I can say that I am glad that the good things in my life are very good indeed, and probably wouldn't be so good if it were not for the way I have learned to deal with my Life difficulties. I am thinking of my relationships here, particularly Andy and my friends. I still have a hard time with the fact that I need so much help, but I don't resent Andy and my friends or anyone else for the fact that I need their help.
So, like the song says, I get by with a little help from my friends (even if I can't sing worth beans). And tonight -- or more accurately, tomorrow morning -- I'll get by in Hong Kong with a little help from my wonderful Lions friends.
In addition to personally contacting the Hong Kong Lions for me, Sri Lankan Lion Amarasuriya helped me connect with the Sri Lanka Council for the Blind. In fact, I think the director there, who is 80 years old, may have been embarrassed that he dropped the ball. But thanks to Mr. Amarasuriya -- and Mayu -- we had a good meeting and they seem interested in learning my mosaic technique as a marketable craft skill. I'll send them more information when I get home.
I need to get more information to the Tamahar organization where Chandriks works, too. I really enjoyed visiting Tamahar with her the day before Mayu and I went to Sri Lanka. It's in a different part of Bangalore, and a smaller facility than Mathru. Most of the children at Tamahar have some kind of cognitive impairment along with a physical disability While many of them would not be able to handle the tools, the teachers want to learn my technique so they can then work with their students. This is what I did here at Mathru, because most of the children were too small and not strong enough to handle the tools. The teachers are breaking up the tiles and mirrors for the kids, and the kids are putting together the mosaics.
I was hoping to take some of my students' finished mosaics back to the tile and mirror shops we bought our supplies from. I think if the shop owners could see what the students are making with their products, they might be more willing to give Mathru their broken tiles and mirrors, and a price break on the good ones. They might even be willing to help Mathru sell the mosaics.
Well, I guess right now it's a case of "today the mosaics, tomorrow the markets."
And now it's time for me to wrap up and get ready to head on out. Divya and Askshatha have taken several photos of me with the mosaics and the students today, some in the gorgeous white and turquoise silk salwar outfit the staff had made for me as a going-away present, so maybe I'll actually get to post some pictures. Mayu even got photos of me in my bathing suit but I am not sure I want those floating around cyberspace.
Next: Hong Kong (if I can get interet access there.)
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