Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Apoyo, apoyo, y más apoyo (support, support, and more support)
Thanks District #186 for supporting the trip and by spreading the news about the IT article by putting it on the district´s website. I look forward to seeing you all this August!
Monday, July 18, 2011
Is someone at the door?
Today Katrina and I started working with students and helping to organize the classrooms of the profes. We are known there as Profe Molly and Profe Katrina, which is really exciting. We helped hang posters and create a poster containing all of the qualities that students graduating from MGCB should gain in order to be successful. During this time, we met Daniela, Adriana, and Alejandra, three of the silliest, sweetest girls in the world. Two are totally blind and one has low vision and all were working diligently on their homework to prepare for their integration into the public school later in the afternoon. Each day works the same: they go to the blind center for instruction in the morning and then they join their same age peers in the public school for academics. I was assigned to help Andrea draw a picture of the creation of the Earth and the baptism between John the Baptist and Jesus. As a true 12 year old, she asked me what I would like to draw for HER assignment. Profe Mari had to continually remind her that she was not going to fool me, that I was a teacher in the States. This behavior quickly subsided. After helping her draw her picture, she thought it would be funny to knock on the table and say that there was someone at the door. Apparently trouble makers are not limited to adolescent American boys, haha. Today was one of the best days we´ve had. All of them have been great with something different to witness and experience but it´s when I´m able to connect with the kids and work with them that I feel most comfortable and like I´m fulfilling a purpose.
This experience has not gone without its challenges but we continue to take it all in stride. I miss taking long, hot showers and no longer take for granted that bathrooms may not have an actual toilet to sit on or toilet paper and that sometimes, you have to pay to stand and pee into a hole in the ground. I definitely appreciate more the luxuries that we experience in the US and am building great friendships with the people who live here and the travelers volunteering with Sustainable Bolivia who come from all over the world.
Saludos y abrazos,
Molly
This experience has not gone without its challenges but we continue to take it all in stride. I miss taking long, hot showers and no longer take for granted that bathrooms may not have an actual toilet to sit on or toilet paper and that sometimes, you have to pay to stand and pee into a hole in the ground. I definitely appreciate more the luxuries that we experience in the US and am building great friendships with the people who live here and the travelers volunteering with Sustainable Bolivia who come from all over the world.
Saludos y abrazos,
Molly
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Divine Appointments and Purple Monkeys
¡Hola Ladies and Germs!
It´s been a fun and exciting weekend. Friday started with a morning of Goal Ball with the staff, where I was injured by the director after I tried to block the goal ball from passing and ended up with a gash on my shin. He thought it was HILARIOUS to ask where someone was and then throw the ball at her. Great guy :) Anyway, in the afternoon, we went home and then went to see Harry Potter 7 Part 2. AMAZING. The next morning, we went met up for Chapare to go to Villa Tunari, a quiet tourist town in the jungle. The drive there was so picturesque, it literally looked like something out of Jurassic Park. The trees were beautiful and the clouds as we decended out of the valley into the lower elevation. Upon arrival, we found a hostal and decided to go to a park to hike and look for a place to swim. We jumped over rocks containing jumping man-eating spiders in order to enter the river. It was cold but some of the clearest, cleanest water I´ve seen in awhile. We hung out at the hotel, which was more like a nature preserve, until the evening and returned to our very inexpensive ($3.50 per night) hostal. The next morning, we woke up and went to Parque Machia, which is a tried and true nature preserve. We had to pay for entrance and to carry cameras, but the money goes to caring for the wildlife that live there. This was one of the neatest experiences I´ve ever had. It was extremely hot and lacking a cool breeze, but we trekked up and down the paths in the jungle and took in the sights of monkeys and army ants carrying pieces of leaves to their nests. Sadly, one of our friends from Sustainable Bolivia had been bitten by a monkey during a previous trip so we were very cautious about how close we got to the wildlife. It was amazing that so many parents and kids kept picking up the monkeys and walking down the trails with them, without fear. Only in Bolivia I think...haha.
The adventure continued with a 2 hour wait to catch a trufi (public taxi) back to Cochabamba. The return was beautiful until we experienced torrential downpours and saw cars parked on the side of the road. People flagged down our vehicle and a woman opened our trunk and screamed, "Our friend is dying, our friend is dying! Can you please take him and my son with you to the nearest hospital?" Not sure what the expect, some people helped move the man into the front seat of the car and we crammed four adults and a very scared 8 year old into the back seat of our van. I was really afraid at the start that the man was gushing blood or had severed a limb. It turned out that he was okay, they suspected that he might have had a concussion. Jay, a friend from Sustainable Bolivia, who came with us to Chapare, happened to be an EMT and kept close watch over the man in the front seat while Katrina and I tried to calm the little boy. We asked him all types of questions to try to take his mind off of what was happening and in doing so, I accidentally asked him if he saw purple monkeys at Parque Machia. It ended up being pretty good comic relief because amidst his wailing, he paused briefly to ask me if I had seriously seen purple monkeys. I had meant to say "brown", but for some reason, I confuse the two words, haha. We arrived at the hospital in Colomi and the man was rushed to the big hospital by ambulance in Cochabamba. We continued to remainder of our very long trip and arrived at about 9pm Sunday night.
It´s been a fun and exciting weekend. Friday started with a morning of Goal Ball with the staff, where I was injured by the director after I tried to block the goal ball from passing and ended up with a gash on my shin. He thought it was HILARIOUS to ask where someone was and then throw the ball at her. Great guy :) Anyway, in the afternoon, we went home and then went to see Harry Potter 7 Part 2. AMAZING. The next morning, we went met up for Chapare to go to Villa Tunari, a quiet tourist town in the jungle. The drive there was so picturesque, it literally looked like something out of Jurassic Park. The trees were beautiful and the clouds as we decended out of the valley into the lower elevation. Upon arrival, we found a hostal and decided to go to a park to hike and look for a place to swim. We jumped over rocks containing jumping man-eating spiders in order to enter the river. It was cold but some of the clearest, cleanest water I´ve seen in awhile. We hung out at the hotel, which was more like a nature preserve, until the evening and returned to our very inexpensive ($3.50 per night) hostal. The next morning, we woke up and went to Parque Machia, which is a tried and true nature preserve. We had to pay for entrance and to carry cameras, but the money goes to caring for the wildlife that live there. This was one of the neatest experiences I´ve ever had. It was extremely hot and lacking a cool breeze, but we trekked up and down the paths in the jungle and took in the sights of monkeys and army ants carrying pieces of leaves to their nests. Sadly, one of our friends from Sustainable Bolivia had been bitten by a monkey during a previous trip so we were very cautious about how close we got to the wildlife. It was amazing that so many parents and kids kept picking up the monkeys and walking down the trails with them, without fear. Only in Bolivia I think...haha.
The adventure continued with a 2 hour wait to catch a trufi (public taxi) back to Cochabamba. The return was beautiful until we experienced torrential downpours and saw cars parked on the side of the road. People flagged down our vehicle and a woman opened our trunk and screamed, "Our friend is dying, our friend is dying! Can you please take him and my son with you to the nearest hospital?" Not sure what the expect, some people helped move the man into the front seat of the car and we crammed four adults and a very scared 8 year old into the back seat of our van. I was really afraid at the start that the man was gushing blood or had severed a limb. It turned out that he was okay, they suspected that he might have had a concussion. Jay, a friend from Sustainable Bolivia, who came with us to Chapare, happened to be an EMT and kept close watch over the man in the front seat while Katrina and I tried to calm the little boy. We asked him all types of questions to try to take his mind off of what was happening and in doing so, I accidentally asked him if he saw purple monkeys at Parque Machia. It ended up being pretty good comic relief because amidst his wailing, he paused briefly to ask me if I had seriously seen purple monkeys. I had meant to say "brown", but for some reason, I confuse the two words, haha. We arrived at the hospital in Colomi and the man was rushed to the big hospital by ambulance in Cochabamba. We continued to remainder of our very long trip and arrived at about 9pm Sunday night.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Los cerros
Hola gente!
Greetings from Cochabamba. So life has been pretty interesting since we have spoken last. We have officially worked at MG for over 1 week and still awaiting the arrival of the students after their "winter" vacation. I am the tannest I have ever been in the winter time here in bolivia. Haha. Katrina and I have thrown ourselves into our work and after our day of work on the guide, we spoke with Armando and Mari about how we can implement this guide and make it appropriate for Manuela Gandarillas. This was very difficult because we tried to understand and express our ideas in Spanish but this did not always work as effectively as we would have liked. The other thing is that we are the ONLY Spanish speaking vision professionals to work with the MGCB from the US, or so we were told. We have gotten to share a lot about our experiences and learned a lot about the system of education here as well. It is very interesting that students who ONLY have a visual impairment or who are blind are served in the public schools. If they have multiple impairments, they are served at separate schools. Sadly, I was out sick because of something I ate, serves me right for becoming complacent, so I didn not go to work. Yesterday after work, Katrina and I visited FAPIZ, a semi-private center that serves people with multiple impairments and teaches teachers Braille, orientation and mobility, and activities of daily living.
Anyway, on to the cerros (tops of mountains)...today we went to the country with our coworkers for a day of relaxation. This included taking 2 different trufis (public taxis) to the complete other side of the valley and up into the hills. We rode on the scariest road I have ever been on in my entire life. There was a bridge of wood that I thought we were going to fall through and with the crazy roads, I felt like I was on an episode of IRT Most Dangerous Roads. Upon arrival, I had a serious need to use the baño. To my dismay not only did it cost 1 Boliviano to use it, but there was no place to sit. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we I had to pay to STAND while going to the restroom. So instead, I decided to go to the woods with my partner in crime and squat againt a tree. I ended up with bark in my underroos and a scratchy derrierre. After our game of spin the bottle (asked questions when the bottle pointed to you in order to get to know the staff), we walked from the top of the mountain down to the closest city with paved roads. I think it ended up being about 7 kilometers or more. Next time they ask me if I want to wait for the bus (which I thought we were going to catch later) I am going to give a resounding YES! So tomorrow we will continuing our work and enjoying api and buñuelos and then after, a quick teeth cleaning from the dentist on staff at the blind center. Just a regular day in Bolivia...
Greetings from Cochabamba. So life has been pretty interesting since we have spoken last. We have officially worked at MG for over 1 week and still awaiting the arrival of the students after their "winter" vacation. I am the tannest I have ever been in the winter time here in bolivia. Haha. Katrina and I have thrown ourselves into our work and after our day of work on the guide, we spoke with Armando and Mari about how we can implement this guide and make it appropriate for Manuela Gandarillas. This was very difficult because we tried to understand and express our ideas in Spanish but this did not always work as effectively as we would have liked. The other thing is that we are the ONLY Spanish speaking vision professionals to work with the MGCB from the US, or so we were told. We have gotten to share a lot about our experiences and learned a lot about the system of education here as well. It is very interesting that students who ONLY have a visual impairment or who are blind are served in the public schools. If they have multiple impairments, they are served at separate schools. Sadly, I was out sick because of something I ate, serves me right for becoming complacent, so I didn not go to work. Yesterday after work, Katrina and I visited FAPIZ, a semi-private center that serves people with multiple impairments and teaches teachers Braille, orientation and mobility, and activities of daily living.
Anyway, on to the cerros (tops of mountains)...today we went to the country with our coworkers for a day of relaxation. This included taking 2 different trufis (public taxis) to the complete other side of the valley and up into the hills. We rode on the scariest road I have ever been on in my entire life. There was a bridge of wood that I thought we were going to fall through and with the crazy roads, I felt like I was on an episode of IRT Most Dangerous Roads. Upon arrival, I had a serious need to use the baño. To my dismay not only did it cost 1 Boliviano to use it, but there was no place to sit. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we I had to pay to STAND while going to the restroom. So instead, I decided to go to the woods with my partner in crime and squat againt a tree. I ended up with bark in my underroos and a scratchy derrierre. After our game of spin the bottle (asked questions when the bottle pointed to you in order to get to know the staff), we walked from the top of the mountain down to the closest city with paved roads. I think it ended up being about 7 kilometers or more. Next time they ask me if I want to wait for the bus (which I thought we were going to catch later) I am going to give a resounding YES! So tomorrow we will continuing our work and enjoying api and buñuelos and then after, a quick teeth cleaning from the dentist on staff at the blind center. Just a regular day in Bolivia...
Friday, July 8, 2011
Mucho Trabajo!
Hello!
So we successfully shared in very broken Spanish everything we could about the education system in the US for people with visual impairments. There was a lot of great information shared between the US teachers and Bolivia and it has been very interesting to learn about the way things work here. After two very tiring days of sharing, we went to the blind center today and were given our next project. The director has requested that Katrina and I create a "how to guide" for school integration to be used at the Manuela Gandarillas Center for the Blind. We´re going to begin by making a table of contents and then flesh out the remaining part with two of the teachers who specialize in school integration. It´s going to be a lot of work, but we have the time because apparently it´s too cold for kids to go to school here, even though it´s usually about 70-80 degrees each day. It´s freezing in the morning and at night but it´s usually nice and sunny during the day. Since we have the break, we´ll be going to the campo in order to "relax" with the other teachers. It sounds like we´ll be having a lot of fun and playing games and things before the students return next week. Anyway, I will be posting pictures and a letter about what we´re doing soon. Unfortunately, we are not supposed to upload pictures during work hours because it really slows down the internet connection. This weekend we´re going to try and relax because it seems that we spend a lot of time hurrying from one place to another and enjoying time with the other volunteers from other countries. Well I´ll update you all soon!
Molly
So we successfully shared in very broken Spanish everything we could about the education system in the US for people with visual impairments. There was a lot of great information shared between the US teachers and Bolivia and it has been very interesting to learn about the way things work here. After two very tiring days of sharing, we went to the blind center today and were given our next project. The director has requested that Katrina and I create a "how to guide" for school integration to be used at the Manuela Gandarillas Center for the Blind. We´re going to begin by making a table of contents and then flesh out the remaining part with two of the teachers who specialize in school integration. It´s going to be a lot of work, but we have the time because apparently it´s too cold for kids to go to school here, even though it´s usually about 70-80 degrees each day. It´s freezing in the morning and at night but it´s usually nice and sunny during the day. Since we have the break, we´ll be going to the campo in order to "relax" with the other teachers. It sounds like we´ll be having a lot of fun and playing games and things before the students return next week. Anyway, I will be posting pictures and a letter about what we´re doing soon. Unfortunately, we are not supposed to upload pictures during work hours because it really slows down the internet connection. This weekend we´re going to try and relax because it seems that we spend a lot of time hurrying from one place to another and enjoying time with the other volunteers from other countries. Well I´ll update you all soon!
Molly
Illinois Times Article
Here's the website for the news article in the IT.
http://www.illinoistimes.com/Springfield/article-8850-summer-with-the-blind-in-bolivia.html
http://www.illinoistimes.com/Springfield/article-8850-summer-with-the-blind-in-bolivia.html
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
The 4th of July and other adventures...
Hey!
Since I wrote last, Katrina and I have met the director of the Manuela Gandarillas Center for the Blind, gotten lost, almost set the host family´s house on fire, and played walleyball with some Bolivians. Needless to say, the last 4 days have been eventful. On July 2, Katrina and I decided to make dinner for our host family to celebrate the 4th of July. In true American fashion, we figured we would make burgers, fries, and apple pie. Well, while making the burgers and fries, I picked up the pan and accidentally spilled some oil into the flame of the GAS stove. Huge flames rose and Boliviama (our host mom, Nancy) came to the rescue. We had a nice laugh about it for the next few days. Sunday was a fantastic day also. We had a huge meal of chorizo and carrot salad. We sat around outside drinking wine and playing music with Ruben and Pablo (the friends of Lenny, the youngest daughter). Shortly after that, Katrina and I went to play walleyball at a gymnasium and then we returned home to eat and go to mass. Yesterday, we literally worked all day on a presentation that the director, Nicodemes, asked us to complete and share with the teachers at the blind center about the system of education of the visually impaired in the US. It has been an amazing experience in communicating in Spanish and also a great opportunity to build connections between the program here and the one in the US. We present tomorrow and both Katrina and I are a bit nervous, but I´m sure all will go well. I mean what´s the worst that could happen? They kick us out of the country? Anyway, Saludos y Abrazos, I miss you all very much!
Molly
Since I wrote last, Katrina and I have met the director of the Manuela Gandarillas Center for the Blind, gotten lost, almost set the host family´s house on fire, and played walleyball with some Bolivians. Needless to say, the last 4 days have been eventful. On July 2, Katrina and I decided to make dinner for our host family to celebrate the 4th of July. In true American fashion, we figured we would make burgers, fries, and apple pie. Well, while making the burgers and fries, I picked up the pan and accidentally spilled some oil into the flame of the GAS stove. Huge flames rose and Boliviama (our host mom, Nancy) came to the rescue. We had a nice laugh about it for the next few days. Sunday was a fantastic day also. We had a huge meal of chorizo and carrot salad. We sat around outside drinking wine and playing music with Ruben and Pablo (the friends of Lenny, the youngest daughter). Shortly after that, Katrina and I went to play walleyball at a gymnasium and then we returned home to eat and go to mass. Yesterday, we literally worked all day on a presentation that the director, Nicodemes, asked us to complete and share with the teachers at the blind center about the system of education of the visually impaired in the US. It has been an amazing experience in communicating in Spanish and also a great opportunity to build connections between the program here and the one in the US. We present tomorrow and both Katrina and I are a bit nervous, but I´m sure all will go well. I mean what´s the worst that could happen? They kick us out of the country? Anyway, Saludos y Abrazos, I miss you all very much!
Molly
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