In this Episode, Abilities are Found Beyond Horizons at a School for the Blind

See what I did with that title, working in our organization's name and such? Clever huh? :-) I think its good to start any endeavor with a smile, so figured I'd at least entertain myself with this blog post.

So, since we last spoke, a lot has happened. I could write every day and have so much to say, because Lauren, Susan and I are literally working nearly all day. Its so great though, I have to remember to let Lauren and Susan work with blind kids, I get so involved, and its like I have laser focus on. I told them tonight that they need to advocate for themselves and say when they want to get in there and get dirty. Don't get me wrong, they're definitely all in the action, but I'm afraid that sometimes my enthusiasm might make me a bit of a "ball hog". Here's my public admission of guilt, and request for forgiveness :-)

Ok, to the action! We met with Abbyshake on Monday and went on more adventures. First we reviewed some of the work we did the previous week, which he struggled with. Some of the enthusiasm and bullet-proofness he was feeling when he left us on Wednesday had diminished a bit, so we worked to build that back up. We explored out of the Enable India center and went about half a kilometer or so down the street with the intention of buying a flower for his mother. I don't like to just send kids walking, I like travel to have a purpose, so the flower was just a means to an end, and set the necessary stage for other teaching to happen. So along the way we were able to explore different jobs in the world, like the Autorickshaw driver, a critical part of the working of India. Autos, as they are more commonly called, are essentially the taxi cab in India and there are literally thousands in Bangalore.

Abbyshake exploring the auto

So, after we explored the outside of the auto, which to my understanding, he's never done, and with the smiles and universal body language of "I like this, that kid is cute" of Latif the driver, I asked if Abbyshake could get into the driver's seat. He did this pretty eagerly and seemed to enjoy seeing the auto from the drivers perspective. He even got to honk the horn, a very common sound here in Bangalore, and one that Abbyshake has now learned the origin of with first hand experience.

We then moved on to the flower vendor and worked on money skills. Abbyshake, as is common with children with visual impairments, could verbally tell me exactly what needed to happen, and how much change he would get with a 20 rupee note when the flower costs 10 rupees, but when it came to the actual transaction, he had to be prompted through the whole exercise. He put the money back into his pocket after showing it to the vendor, and when the vendor asked for money he said, indignantly, "I've already paid you!" to which I had to tell him, "No, you haven't." So after he paid and received his change, he asked if he could buy another flower for his teacher Shanthala, and of course, that's fine. He did this second exchange much more appropriately. Do you see how critical it is to get the hands involved when working with a kid with a visual impairment? Just talking to them, doesn't work, they're great at parroting back, even if they don't really understand, as was clear with Abbyshake and the money.

Abbyshake with flowers

We began our walk home, and were pretty soon accosted by a street kid dressed in a funny costume begging for money. This in itself isn't too unusual here, but what was really cool about it was to watch Abbyshake in action as he told the kid, "No, go away." and other types of phrases. It was really cool to see his advocacy for himself here, he was very firm with this other kid.

Street kid begging from Abbyshake, Abbyshakes head is turned back as he tells the kid to "Go!"

We headed back to the school, and along the way he learned about postal workers, and talked with a software engineer when the man came to check his mail. Once we returned to the center, Abbyshake tried to give his mother the flower, and she tried to have him give it to me. Grumble, parents sometimes just don't get it! Its like last Friday when the kids made sandwiches and a couple of the parents refused to eat them, it crushed the kids. They were so excited to finally participate, and here they were being shot down. You may as well tell a kid who draws you a picture in crayon that his art sucks, and that he should pursue a career elsewhere. Its no different here. Yikes.

The school for the blind

Yesterday we visited a school for the blind that two of my students are working at. They will leave our class and work as mobility instructors for this school. There is currently a guy teaching mobility there, but he only teaches "theory" whatever that means, and not until they are 12-14 years old, and even then he doesn't teach them actual cane skills, they just learn about them. Oh, and he refuses to teach girls. So, Latha and VjLakshmi are going to be real assets to the school. When we went out yesterday to visit we sat for the first 45 minutes and watched promotional videos about the school, and all the things they do there. I'm getting copies of these videos. They have their own dairy, packing plant where they make cardboard boxes, silk worm production area, and coconut harvesting, and horticulture business. All of these things are staffed with blind kids, and its really quite impressive. Independent living skills at this school are not so much a concern as workplace injury is!

Blind students working with large industrial staple machine

Blind students making cardboard

We introduced a total of 7 children to canes yesterday. It was magic for them, you would think these kids had used canes for years, they learned so quickly! They buzzed around the school, which they already knew, with such confidence and speed the teachers were really surprised. Before, even though the kids knew the school, they would still walk with shuffling feet so as not to stumble over the upcoming drop off, or hit the wall. When we put a cane in their hand, and they now had 3 feet of advance notice in front of them, they couldn't be stopped. It was wonderful. The saddest part was having to take the cane back from them to give to another child. They wanted to keep them! They don't make canes that are kid sized in India, so I think we're going to make them out of mop handles instead that we've cut down to size. 

Seriously, how cute are those kids?!? Here are some other random photos.

The only deaf girl in a school for the blind, not sure what will happen with her

Kids teaching each other dance moves and finger positioning

The dairy cows

The Prayer Hall

This cool thing they do math with, that I get to bring home to the states for show and tell

Kids working on math

Preschool class, looks like fun huh?

Seriously, how adorable is she?

Susan talking with her bff, this girl was a speed demon once she had her cane

The one that can see the best leads the others in a train

Kids being guided around the school, with O&M this lady wouldn't need to hold their hands

Unfortunately, we don't see much of Lauren in these photos, and that's because she's responsible for taking all these great pics. We'll try to get some of her in front of the camera soon. That's enough for now, I'm off to work with Abbyshake again. Today we're going to buy a jackfruit, cut it up and eat it. I hope your lives are going along wonderfully. I look forward to hearing from you all.

~Mickey

What its like to KNOW you've made a difference

Training has been going well, the students are making real progress in their ability to teach each other and not "enable" each other. I use the term enable here in the more negative way. To enable someone means to support them in such a way that allows their continued dependence on you, or someone else. Its a subtle skill of working with a student when they ask for assistance, you can give them the answer, which is the simpler thing to do. Or, you can ask them questions that cause them to solve their own problems. One way creates reliance on the instructor, the other fosters independence, I'm sure you can figure out which is which.

This is my classroom

Because we're not here for 2 years we can't go into the immense level of detail in instruction that we do at Florida State University. Instead, I'm teaching the students to think for themselves and to attempt to solve their own problems rather than be reliant on some fancy thing, or some not so fancy instructor from the US to come and tell them how to do it. In essence, just like I'm teaching the individual instructors to not be enablers of their students, I'm also teaching the whole group not to be reliant on me, or some other foreign source to answer their own questions.

So, making a difference: Part of what I wanted to do when visiting here was to pull the parents together of the kids that are worked through Enable India, the group that is hosting me. The term Enable, in Enable India is sort of a bit of irony, after I've explained my definition of what "enable" means, but its not what they mean. So, yesterday at 3pm about 20 or so parents, with their 10 children aged 2 and a half to 15 came to the centre for the differently-abled,

Centre for the Differently-Abled where we had the training for the parents

and for the next 3 hours Susan, Lauren, Melissa and Quin worked with the kids and made an American meal of grilled cheese, bananas, and Oreos, while I worked with the parents talking about visual impairment, the way a child with a visual impairment learns, the power of high expectations, etc. The parents were SO engaged, asking lots of questions of me and each other, and were exchanging contact information. At one point, I asked them to raise their hand if it was the first time they had been around another parent of a child with a visual impairment and every parent in the room raised their hand!

Can you imagine?? You have a child with a visual impairment. You are the only person that you know in your situation. Your friends don't understand what you are dealing with, they simply have pity. You don't want pity, you love your child and you want what's best for him just like every other parent in the world. Now imagine you've raised this child for 9 years with no one to really bounce ideas off of, you have a "professional" to talk to with Enable India, but its not like being able to sit over coffee or tea and just chat with someone who really understands. Now, you come into a room with 18 other people that are going, or have gone through many of the exact same trials and successes you've gone through. It was a REAL experience for everyone, and there were a few cases of misty eyes and goose bumps, at least for me.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Lauren, Susan, and Melissa were herding children around with a 13 year age span trying to introduce them to what we call "independent living skills" the skills one needs to be successful alone in the world, like cooking. For most of the kids they worked with, this was the first time they had really ever been asked to take responsibility for their own food and its preparation. If you could have seen the looks on their faces as they brought their "American food" to their parents, it was truly beautiful. You could see the feeling of accomplishment in their faces, and the pride in their steps.

Kids peeling bananas with Susan

Older students making sandwiches

A pile of grilled cheese

One person enjoying it :-)

One of the things that continues to impress me is how much the parents do for their children here in India. We often struggle to get parents to learn braille so they can read with their children, and here in India, many of the parents not only know braille, they also put their children in schools and transcribe all the work for the child into braille, struggling for the career of their child in school to get them access and a school that will allow them in and not treat them like monsters. 

The parents all told Shantala that they wanted to do this again. I encouraged them to keep meeting and supporting each other, as this really is one of the best ways to make growth. I also promised the young lady with albinism that I would ship her a magnifier. She can't get one here that is working for her. So, someone remind me to buy one when I get home. Next time I might see about getting some magnifiers donated, or take donations to buy them to bring with me next time I go to a country, the students would really value them like gold here.

The whole group

So last night, as I was going to sleep I was incredibly exhausted, but also immensely satisfied, knowing that yesterday, even if I get nothing else accomplished on the rest of this trip in India, we made a difference in the lives of children and parents. There is not a single doubt in my mind that we altered the trajectory of lives for the better. Thanks for coming along with me on this journey.

~Mickey

The first week isn't over, but its been awesome!

Its been a great week so far, it's Thursday now my time, and most everyone I know in the world is snuggled into their beds, but here in India, the birds are tweet tweeting, the cows are waking up wandering the streets looking for fruit scraps to gobble up, while the random vendor is walking down the street yelling at the top of his very well equipped lungs offering some ware or another. You have to be very tired to sleep in here.

The three of us, Lauren, Susan and I have been quite busy. We start our day anywhere between 9 and 2 depending on the activities. Yesterday we worked with a little guy who's name is not spelled correctly here but sounds like Abbeyshake. He's 8 years old, is blind from being born too prematurely and has never in his life that I can tell been allowed much independence. That changed for him yesterday and you could see him blossoming like a flower from it. He's such a funny guy, his language is positively hilarious. At one point yesterday I had him on the street listening for the different sounds, he identified the cars, the auto's (version of a taxi cab here) and the motorcycles, but couldn't figure out what the soft pat pat of people's feet was. I gave him some clues, saying it walks on two feet, etc, I'm not kidding here, he says "Shall I brandish my cane and scare it away sir?" Seriously, those were his exact words. This is what makes working with children so FUN! We discovered that it was people walking on the street, and then joined them.

In addition to having his first piggy-back ride, see below, its blurry because we are running:

He also got to climb a wall and probably for the first time in his life, touch a roof:

One of the aspects of working with children with visual impairments that I'm trying to drive home to the people here, as well as many folks in the US, is that just like sighted children have all these crazy adventures growing up, its critical to proper development that blind children also have them. Climbing this wall was a way for him to use his body in new and creative ways, solving problems, and better learning to drive the "machine" he'll have with him the rest of his life. 

At the end of the lesson he kept talking about needing get these "Facts published" and wanting to write his adventures down. We are meeting again on Monday and Wednesday next week to have more adventures, where Abbeyshake for the first time in his life will buy something with money, probably a mango, and cut it up by himself after walking down the street to get it. 

The training is going well, the teachers are eager to learn and very interested in all that we do. I'm already seeing a change in their expectations, and its a real thrill to see them critically observe the blind people as they walk by them at the center now. They're O&M's already :-) 

This Saturday I'm meeting with the parents of many kids around here, I'm hoping to change a few opinions of the ability of blind people. Abbeyshake's family, for example, doesn't think he should walk independently, he works on his cane once a week at the center, and then in "2-3 years time, perhaps he can use it during the day when he's completely independent." This will never happen that way, and this guy is too able to be stifled like that, hopefully we can make a change while we're here.

I'm really loving the time here, the city, and the people. Quin is a celebrity, everywhere we go people want to pinch his cheeks and look at him. A blonde haired, blue eyed, baby is not something people have seen, and they can't get enough of him.

Well, that's all for now, can't wait to tell you more!

~Mickey

Its 12:02am, hello Jet Lag :-)

One thing about jet lag, every time I've had it, its made me significantly more productive. I'm so awake when the world is not, and I can focus much better :-) Today was the first day here, I spent some time with Shanthala at Enable India. First impressions are good! I met a number of clients of the center, many of them have decent mobility skills and use a cane, though most of the canes were just aluminum tubing, that's similar to what we have in the states, just without white tape. Enable India has done some great work with getting people into jobs around Bangalore. I can't speak to the quality of the employment because I've not seen it, but they are working, and not always in stereotypical "blind" jobs, and that's great.

I've spent some time this evening formulating some discussion topics for our classroom lectures that will start Monday. In typical "me" fashion, I'm leaving them very soft so that we can better capture those "teachable moments" that come up in discussion. I've not lectured here before, but I get the sense that it'll be less formal than it was in Vietnam, and I can hope for some questions and real discussion with the students. In Vietnam if you all remember, they think its disrespectful to question the teacher, which is really counter to my style of teaching. So we had to do some work on both ends to work better, so here's hoping this is a questioning group of people!

Teaching indoors first, which is how we do it in the states is not going to happen, they just don't have the indoor needs that we have in the US. There are large buildings, but most the need is moving outside, and in small 600-1000 square foot spaces. I think I'll begin the actual skills teaching outside in a park with some nice long sidewalks and no traffic which should simulate the long halls we get inside to get that cane technique working.

First impressions of India: Its very similar to Vietnam and Costa Rica in terms of city "feeling". There are tons of vehicles on the road, little to know adherence to traffic controls, and "chaos" everywhere. This is at first glance, the people on the roads make it work though, and I've yet to see even a rear end collision, though I'm certain they happen. Like in Vietnam I will teach people to walk along side the road rather than on the sidewalks, for the same reason, the sidewalks are poorly maintained and often disgusting with garbage, animal excrement, and random holes and pitfalls. The streets are much better maintained, and the people are very aware of what's going on around them, so the safety is higher than one would initially think.

Many tools I use for traffic at home may not be as useful here. The intersections do not have predictable patterns for the most part, so orientation by them is probably going to be hard. Because its overcast permanently here due to monsoon season, using the sun for orientation will also be difficult, though that only lasts a couple months of the year, its also the time I happen to be teaching here :-) We'll work around these obstacles though, I'm just not completely sure how yet, but that's much of what this style of teaching is all about, and one of the reasons I love doing it.

India itself is great, the people are very kind, hard working, and wonderful. One major difference so far from Vietnam though is the prevalence of cows. I had heard about cows being in India, and their holy nature and such. I kind of "got" that idea. I had even heard that you see them in the street, but I assumed it was like in Costa Rica where you would see them grazing on the side of the road, often picketed. Yeah, no. The cows here are like stray dogs, but as big as, well, as big as cows. They are often seen ripping into garbage bags of vegetable scraps laid out on the sidewalks. They are completely indifferent to people, you can walk right up to them and they don't even so much as glance my way. Smug bovine for sure. They know they have it good. There is also a bunch of them. I'm sure I've seen 50 or more already, and I've only been here a day. Come to think of it, no bulls though... I'll keep looking.

So picture this, the traffic of New York City, but 3-4 times more motorcycles, car exhaust, broken sidewalks, garbage in the street, and cattle roaming around, and you have the roads of Bangalore. I know it doesn't sound great, but its home to a lot of people, and I can see why, its neat!

I'm going to try to get some sleep now. Oh before that, the cars are different, the passenger seat is on the driver's side, and one drives on the left. That means the stick shift is operated with your left hand. Anubhav says I can drive tomorrow, I can't wait!

~Mickey

We arrived

Hello friends, we're in Bangalore. Quin, my son is bouncing off the walls and its 3:30am, lets hope he calms soon. No significant issues to report except that I'm having troubles accessing money right now, the bank is going through some update and can't give me any information. Here's hoping this resolves by tomorrow. I'm going to bed. :-) Happier, more awake posts to follow.

~Mickey

Preparing for Bangalore

Its Sunday morning, June 26th. In just a few days I'll be boarding a plane that after a series of layovers will result in my landing at midnight July 2nd at 12:15am. Melissa and Quin, my wife and 18 month old son, will be coming along. The two interns, Susan and Lauren will be joining us on the 5th of July. I have to be honest, I'm not looking forward to 25 hours of travel with an 18 month old, but maybe he'll surprise us. The original plan was for me to go alone, but Melissa has been so supportive throughout this whole process, it seemed unfair to not have her come on this trip. So, she'll be doing the tourist thing, and hanging out with Nandini and her new little guy Arnav.

I hope to get some great photos and video to bring home with me. I'll be posting to the blog as much as possible, and hopefully, like in Vietnam, Melissa will stay on me to keep updating. Its really hard to do sometimes because at the end of the day I'm completely wiped out. If its anything like India, whenever I'm not in my room, I'll be "on", the people are full of questions and hunger to learn more. Already we are meeting with parents in the community, other people that work with blind people around Bangalore. Though I love it, it is also very tiring.

In addition to working in Bangalore I'll be making a weekend trip to Hyderabad. I've spoken with Santhosh Kumar, a former resident of Hyderabad who is now here in the states getting a degree in orientation and mobility. He's already a teacher of students with visual impairments. He has raised money and organized for me to make a trip to Hyderabad to talk with the staff at the school for the blind there. I'll be doing a one day workshop on the importance of independent movement for people with visual impairments, touring the school and meeting the teachers. In addition to this, I'll be hopefully setting up operations for next summer to spend a month training new instructors.

According to Santhosh there are 300 students at this school. There are 30 totally blind students in 10th grade alone. From the way I understand things, these students are academic, but not independent. They do not leave the center, and they don't have the skills to travel independently in a new environment, or very well in a known environment. Santhosh says that sighted guide, one person leading another in a specific way is not even done. As you can imagine, if you can't move around on your own, it makes it very difficult to have a job. It doesn't matter how good someone is academically, independence is what other people subconsciously want to see before they can imagine someone working and being successful.

Many people have asked me how prepared I am for India. This is a tricky question, using wisdom gained in Vietnam, as well as experience from traveling in other countries, even developed countries like Austria, every place is different. I can't come up with a detailed plan for teaching until I'm standing in the location I'll be teaching in. When I got to Vietnam, I naively assumed I'd start just like I'd start here, working on basic skills and progressing forward. In Vietnam though, I had to convince the people I was working with that blind people could be independent. They are working from a completely different set of expectations. I expect that it may be similar in India, though I'm approaching it with an open mind.

Then of course there are the completely different ways of handling traffic, both pedestrian and vehicular. Its easy to forget how powerful our white cane laws are in the US. People actually know what a white cane is. When I was in Vietnam, just because someone had a cane did not mean that the people recognized they were visually impaired. So we'll have to see how India is in this regard. Here we have ADA or the "Americans with Disabilities Act" which is a set of rules and standards that must be adhered to when designing both indoor and outdoor spaces. Things like the truncated domes at the end of sidewalks, or curb cuts for wheelchairs. This is not taking into account all the other "code" and standards that must be in place for everyone like exit signs, specific ways stairs are set up, or traffic controls and cross walks. We are very controlled here, which is a good thing for someone that can't see, because much of the environment can be depended on to behave a certain way.

This is one of the only concerns I have about the scalability of Ability Beyond the Horizon. I worry because I talk with other O&M instructors in the US and many of them are very dependent on the set up of our environment here in the states. A fundamental requirement of this work is the ability to walk into any environment and work with it. We can't prevent people from being independent because of a lack of standards. In Vietnam it required having people cross in the middle of the street rather than at cross walks, as well as not using the sidewalks at all since they were so unsafe, a completely ridiculous idea here in the United States. Everyone that we have volunteering for us will have to have an ability to think on their feet and problem solve to be successful. Orientation and mobility specialists do this to some degree all of the time, but I've noticed that many get very dependent on the way it is here in the US, and I worry that this will be difficult for them to let go of when traveling abroad. We'll see, I have faith that this is a small hurdle to overcome, and maybe won't even be an issue, but I can't say I haven't worried about it.

I'll be writing as much as possible detailed notes as to the pacing and organization of training while I'm in India, so that future volunteers will have a guide to work with while they are in another country. Don't worry, I won't put them here, that will quickly lose many readers. :-)

My next update will be from India, while you wait, have a look at some traffic in India that was sent to me recently. What you see is a man lying back on a motorcycle texting while going down what appears to be a highway. Lets hope I don't see this guy while teaching street crossings in Bangalore!!




~Mickey

Heading to India June 30th, thanks to you!

Well, our goal has been reached, $6,000 is in the bank, or was until I spent nearly $2,000 on a plane ticket to India. I'm patiently awaiting the visa to come in, and off we go June 30th, returning August 2nd. Coming with me are Lauren Barr and Susan Yarbrough two FSU orientation and mobility students. They are going to assist with teaching as well as helping to coordinate in-services that we are organizing while in Bangalore for both the parents and the local staff working with people with visual impairments in India. What's also great is that I met someone at a conference that is from Hyderabad, India and he is flying me to his community while I'm in Bangalore to begin setting up operations for next summer, so 2012 is planned already. We'll be looking for two other locations as well, so if you have ideas, please let me know.

While in India I'll be updating much more frequently, with pictures and experiences that I've had. I want you all to know how much impact your support is having. Thank you so much for your support, I can't wait to put it into great use in just a few short weeks. Now I have to get all this stuff wrapped up at FSU before I can go! Please email me or comment here if you like, mickey@abilitybeyondthehorizon.org or find us on Facebook at Ability Beyond the Horizon. See you in India!!

~Mickey