Today was our first day at the
school with the kids. Being there felt
like your first day of kindergarten when you walk around asking people to be
your best friend. If you accept you leave all your previous thoughts and
everything else behind and you are with them fully for the time that you have
you will be amazed by what you can do. These kids are so special that not even
5 days is enough time. The kids have no worries while they are at the school
because they don’t get teased for what they look like or called stupid.
Soon after arriving I was given
hugs by many of the kids, and a hand shake from and adorable little boy who was
about 6. The kids were so excited to see new people and show us how much they
knew.
I was ushered off to the classroom in which I
would be helping at. There were about 8 kids they were all deaf and in either 5th
or 6th grade. In that class I talked to 3 of the kids and got to
know them. The first was the oldest. He was 14 years old and we had the same
birthday!!!! Second was this really shy
boy. He sat in the corner of the room and barely said thing. After trying to
communicate with him many times he finally started to warm up to me. He showed
me every sign in the signing dictionary then he started to look through my
drawings in my notebook and sign them also.
So I gave him all my drawings because I know he will take better care of
them than I willJ.
The last was this tiny girl who was 14 also; she had her hair up perfectly with
many rubber bands, and an adorable head band. She reminded me of my best friend
Rychelle because everything that little girl did ended up perfect even if it
took an extra 20 minutes just like Shelly.
Her name was sander.
In that first class I realized how
different teaching is when you can’t verbally explain things, and even harder
when you don’t know much else then the alphabet in Nicaraguan sign language. I was trying to explain how to add addition problems
from right to left wit out talking, or understanding what anyone was telling me
unless they spelled it out really slowly. That didn’t go to well so I just wrote the
numbers 1-100 and pointing to the answer.
When the bell went off at 10am for
lunch/recess people were everywhere. During
this short period of time I braded a girls hair, she had a huge smile on her
face for the rest of the day I made me so happy to think that one braid could
make a child so happy. She was such a
sweetheart and has an amazing since of humor. Then after that went and saw what
the kids had for lunch. The kids were eating lots of pasta with butter and
rice. There was no nutritional value it made me really sad, but the worst part
was that lunch was the only meal that some of the children got all day because
their parents couldn’t afford dinner or breakfast. When lunch was over Meaghan and
I were pulled over to the swings to push the boys. The only thing the boys would say is “más alto”
which means higher.
In the last class I was with the 3rd
and 4th graders they had science. They didn’t need much of my help
so I wrote in my journal. The funniest part was when I brought my Gatorade into
that classroom and all the kids were signing about me and how weird I was to be
drinking blue water. So I tried to say its Gatorade but they can’t there me so I
tried to sign and tell them that id made it so I didn’t get dehydrated. But that
was a mess so I ended up giving them each some, but they really liked it so
they wouldn’t give it back. That’s ok
though because I have more!
The best part of the day was when
the kids were leaving and we gave them bags full of food and hygiene stuff. They
were so happy to get home and show their parents. The bus was a crazy mess
there were probably 25 people in a bus for 12 people. The kids were just piled
in there waving good bye.
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