The ring I titled this post is not for the ring that a person wears on
their finger but the ring a bell makes. I'll explain in a bit.
To continue with the last post, Sunday July 14th, we attended church as
normal. Hubby was actually on worship team; too bad kids didn't get to see him
play. After church we had lunch with FIL and BIL, and his kids. After we ate
and relaxed for a bit, the men, BIL and hubby went over to our house to move
all the big items from our living room. It only took them about an hour to do
so. While they were doing that, BIL's girlfriend and I had a nice talk, and the
kids played. So now we had no dining room as well as living room. Remember
everyone this is supposed just to be a painting job, nothing more.
Let the fun begin… Monday July 15th,
I woke up at the crack of dawn to get on a 721am train. Why would I go into the
city other for school, because this was the first day of the BELL program. The
Bell program stands for Braille Enrichment literacy and Learning. It’s a
program that was started in Baltimore Maryland the same summer I met hubby. It’s
meant to enrich the educational opportunities of children who are blind and
visually impaired. These children some times already read braille, other times
they only know a bit of braille, or other they know no braille. But it’s more
of a program for braille, we teach the children about non-visual skills, how to
use their cane properly, of course braille and just how to get along with other
students who are blind. There were 4 main teachers, myself and 3 others. All of
us were blind, two of us used guide dogs, and 2 were teachers, 1 retired, and
me a student. The program ran for 2weeks, from 9 to 2pm Monday through Friday.
I can't give specific information about the children here, but I will talk
about them without giving names or details.
Our first day was a bit hectic and crazy. The children ranged in age from 5
to 15. We actually had two 5 year olds, an 8 and 9 year old, an 11 year and a
15 year old. We did activities like braille twister, braille musical chairs,
field trips to the library, making cheerio treats, journal writing, pour and
scooping activities and more. Each day the children were required to make their
own lunch. Don't worry here, we showed the children how to do this first, and
then helped when needed after wards.
At this point, this far out, I can't actually remember every single thing
we did each day, but there were things that stuck out in my head more than
other things.
By the time I got home on the first and even second day, I was exhausted.
Not to mention that Philadelphia experienced one of its hottest waves all
summer during this week. Walking to and from the train station presented its
own challenges as well. I met up with other of the main teachers, and we walked
together. City traffic is horrible during the morning, especially when you’re
trying to cross streets like Market and 10th. The program took place in the
Philadelphia Library for the Blind.
The other difficulty of this particular week and the heat was that our A/C
stopped working. So here I was hot, from walking being outside and then got
home to an extremely hot house. I think during the hottest part of the heat
wave the temp got up to 87 degrees in the house. Let’s just say it was not fun
to sleep in, nor was I pleasant person to live with.
The man we had used to originally install the unit, came and looked at it,
fixed a fuse, charged $150, and said it was good to go. It worked for 24 hours,
and then stopped again. After that we were never able to get ahold of that
particular person again, even with multiple calls, voice mail messages left,
and a few text messages too.
Tuesday July 16th
We took the Bell kids to the library, the library near Independence Square.
We walked and were paired up with kids. I walked with a little boy who had
quite a bit of vision left. It was only a 5 or 6 block walk, but it didn't help
that it was so hot even at 10 am in the morning. It was an eventful trip to the
library as the fire alarm went off, and there was another camp there with us.
The other camp had about 50 kids in it, and the counselors did not do a very
good job of controlling the kids. The librarian read a few stories, and then
gave the children a snack to eat. The really awesome thing was that no children
got hurt or lost, we all made it there and back, and the children loved the
adventure. Many of the children were in awe that blind teachers could take a
group of 6 children to the library. We did have 1 sighted person, but they
didn't do much other than walk with a child who had good cane skills, they did
not help us in any other way.
Again, by the time I got home, I was hot and tired. Working with the kids
was hard work, but was enjoyable too. Once we all got into a routine, we
learned how to work with each child, and then things got better.
On this night hubby had his first official elder meeting. These meeting go
forever, they typically begin at 7pm, but then aren't over until at least 11pm
maybe later. It sort of depends on whatever the topics are. I was tired, so I
am sure I didn't really care, because I could relax, and go to bed early.
By this point I can’t exactly remember what day this happened, the ladies
who I walked with started allowing me to hold on to their elbows as we crossed
the streets, and this incident was what made it clear that is what we needed to
do. We had come up to Market and 10th, were trying to cross Market.
The traffic changed so that our parallel traffic was going. So the other two
ladies go, I am not sure why my pup didn’t follow. The other two ladies get
across, and then when I am out in the middle of the street, a car runs the
light in front of me, pup stops. I didn’t know why. But then another car stops
behind me, so I am stuck between two cars in the middle of the street. Another pedestrian
pulled me out of the street. Again I could not hear what was going on, it
frankly scared the crap out of me. I think it was that same pedestrian who
helped me cross the street and find the other ladies. It wasn’t pups fault, but
I just could not hear, it happened so fast. Thank goodness I was not hurt.
Thursday July 18th
I stayed home because we thought an A/C person was going to come fixed the
unit. Well, when I thought he was going to come that day, he came the night
before. It all worked out because I needed a break from the heat. I was getting
up super early, and then going to bed late, super busy all day, and working
with kids, this combination could have meant a nice cold for me. But because i
took the day off, I think I was able to relax and not get sick.
Later that night we had another sign lesson. By this time the living room
paint was all dry.
Friday was back with the kids at the Bell program.
If you think the week was busy wait until you read about the weekend...more
to come!
No comments:
Post a Comment