Today was our first day at the blind school. Also all the other groups left for their sites. When we got to the school, no one greeted us. It turns out the principal wasn’t there, but the teachers could of at least said ‘hello’. Danielle got really frustrated. Rachel showed signs of being anxious. I couldn’t tell how Adriel felt. I was just confused about where to go and what to do; yet I was so excited to be there, in a school with children. It turns out that half the school is blind students while the other half are in Regular Ed.
I got to sit in on three classes, after we were assigned. First I was in class 4. There were 4 students, 1 boy and 3 girls. I was there to help with English lessons. I read them a poem and they were to recite it by reading it and then after memorized it. They looked to young compared to the 4th graders I know. I then wrote out English answers to workbook questions the students would be doing later, because the teacher did not have a teachers manual and she said her English is not that good. Then the bell rang and I went to the KG class (kindergarten) to help out with English. These kids are so bright! They can spell so many English words and English is not their first language. I don’t even know many kindergarteners who can spell half as many words. For instance, they spelled giraffe and hippopotamus. They can write it and verbally spell it. I was WOWed. From there, that teacher who was so sweet and amazing took me downstairs to a class 9 for blind students. They were learning about science. In order to prepare for their exams, the teacher would read a multiple-choice question and the choices and they would write them (in Braille) the questions and the answer. These girls have such great memories and were working so fast. How can anyone say that they are disabled? They are more capable than me in so many ways. Then the bell rang for break (play time).
Both Adriel and Rachel thought that this meant lunch and thus meaning time for us to leave but we had only been there for two and a half hours. I got to watch the kids run and play. I also got to attempt to teach them Simon says (didn’t work), but the song “head, shoulders, knees, and toes” was a hit. However before we could finish they ushered us away from everyone into the principles office for tea. No one was there. We had to drink tea alone. I thought that this was totally not like the Bangladeshi culture.
We decided to leave early, Danielle was not happy, Adriel was sick, and Rachel was worn out. No one really seemed to care that we left. We got back and really talked about our experience and talked about our expectations. We then went to lunch, which was followed by napping. Later that night Danielle’s group had a meeting. We were told that we would be moving sites to work with HEED and that Caleb ad Zach would be joining our group. I was ok with this but I knew I would miss the kids and our time as just girls. We talked about this and discusses that this is possibly the end of a season.
After dinner we met as two groups, who both stayed at Grace House. We met on the roof to debrief, give praise, and lift up prayers. This was good. We also prayed over Ray and Danielle who were exhausted and in need of wisdom. I can’t remember what we did after that but it was wither play cards or go to bed (As I am writing this I cam currently a little behind in my journal).
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