Our opening ceremony was on Tuesday June 19th. This served as the official kick off for the camp, and I was surprised at the number of people in attendance. Speeches were given on the importance of this empowerment and leadership development camp, and GRO's mission. All of the delegates were given red roses in an arrangement of baby breath flowers, as well as a book of Indian fairy tales, we were touched by that.
We were all finally able to meet our Indian delegates at last! They are the peers that we will be working with for the next week or so.
Communication proved to be challenging right off the bat, with some of the delegates knowing little English, and us knowing no Kannada at all. The different modes of sign language used was a challenge as well, Indian Sign Language (ISL), and American Sign Language (ASL), as well as bits and pieces of British Sign Language (BSL) thrown in for good measure. We were able to overcome that and learn each other's names as well as engage in a few ice breaker activities to get to know one another better. I'm excited about this group of people and I look forward to seeing what we accomplish by the end of this delegation.
Day two started with an ambitious goal to visit six deaf schools. However, Bangalore traffic and Deaf Indian Standard Time, as we now call it, threw a wrench in our plans.
Neverless, we were able to visit a college that has deaf students and only one interpreter. She is a CODA, a child of a deaf adult. However, she was only willing to sign for the students, she refuses to voice for them. For, in her own form of empowerment, she believes that they can communicate and speak for themselves. I never thought of it in that way before. During our question and answer session, the students expressed frustration at only having one interpreter amongst about a dozen students. Additionally, they are frustrated with a lack of tutoring support, as well as access issues. They all expressed a desire to eliminate the interpreter, to have total access to communication via a deaf teacher or a teacher that could sign.
I kept thinking all day about how lucky we are in America.
After leaving, we went to the RV institute, which is an oral school. Allow me comment on something interesting that I have observed: even though India is an oral country at large, I have yet to meet anyone against sign language. I think that this attitude is quite different from America. The common statement is that they are not against sign language, they just don't know how to sign, nor do they have the resources to implement a sign-language based approach to education.
Another thing that I have noticed is that the schools really push parental involvement and they really view parents as partners in the education of deaf children.
When we first arrived at this particular school, we were mobbed. I kid you not, the kids were like paparazzi! They all clamored for their pictures to be taken, to see the videocamera, and they kept grabbing at us and our equipment. I had to keep taking baby steps as to not step on or hurt any of the kids, and I basically moved with a gaggle of kids surrounding me at all times. The hearing kids were in yellow shirts and navy blue pants, while the deaf kids were smartly dressed in white smocks with blue accents. The hearing kids mobbed us too and overcrowded the deaf kids.
Everyone kept coming up to shake our hands, I started feeling embarrassed and self conscious after awhile because it was pretty overwhelming. Even when summoned to go back inside the building at the end of lunch, they crowded the balconies of the classrooms and continued to wave at us. Some of the girls swooned over the boys, and the few stragglers that stayed behind to talk to us were treated to an angry schoolmarm that chased after them smacking them and telling them to get to class.
We, the not-so-famous-anymore members of the Monsoon Riders, made our way inside the building to be greeted by an assembly of students and staff. The principal explained a little bit about the history of the school and the philosophy as well. Some shoving matches broke out in the crowd because most of the kids were craning to see Smitha, who was interpreting for the delegates. That was hard to see and I do wonder how much things would change once ISL is fully established and implemented.
We broke tò go back to the APD (Association for People with Disabilities) for lunch. It was honestly the best meal that I've had in India and I don't even know what we ate but I will find out! We visited our final school of the day, the Sunaad Kannada School for Hearing Impaired. We observed a few classes, and played with some of the kids. We also got together on the top floor to get a crash course in ISL from the school's sign language teacher. We also had a lot of fun sharing ABC stories, comparing ISL and ASL signs, doing skits, etc.
We headed back to the APD, and planned to do more workshops, but DIST rides again and that didn't happen. We did get to share our highs and lows of the day, as well as sneak in a session of mediation. None of the Indian delegates could name a low to the day. We were all naming the rain, the traffic, the time issue, and they all said there were no lows for them.
Sorry for another long entry, but you guys are caught up now and I will try to get better about blogging in a more timely manner!
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