Fevi/ Muñequitos de Lumbísí
This week was quite interesting. Since the other girl volunteers haven´t been showing up recently I´ve been able to stay with the Ositos. So Monday was quite enjoyable being able to once again run around with the little kids that are a tiny bit more manageable than the Leonsitos. For some reason Leiver was balling for his mommy which is super-rare since I imagined him to be one of those little boys too cool to even miss mom. But obviously they are still little children (hes 4-5) and apparently that one day he terribly missed his mom and was literally crying for hours and hours. But next time I came he was the happy Leiver that I had always known. Except this time he was super hyper and running into me and telling me to take his arms and spin around and randomly calling me Chinita (the one thing I hate about this place).
Anyways, wednesday was a bit special because I spent the whole morning not in class helping the children but helping Profe Jaime make a new tree house looking thing next to the new soccer field. I am not sure if he gets all those wood and materials from some store and buys them or just gets them for free from some dumpster but everytime I am amazed with the amount of resources this place has to work with.
At the same time, I am also always amazed at how much Jaime cares about the kids. Now this is a pretty old guy but he runs around chasing kids more than I do and goes on making a new tree house with his old man body.
I really need to find the opportunity to talk to him more.
CENVIDA
Another interesting week.This whole week I was with the little kids but Monday I went to go help out a little bit with the math (multiplications) for the big kids.
This is one thing I really admire as well as struggle with when it comes with math.
I remember learning my multiplications with a song in Japanese that went through all numbers.
When the kids can´t hear nor speak, what is the best way for them to learn and memorize things like multiplications?
Paul, the oldest kid at Cenvida (17 years old) struggles with the simplest multiplications. I think he just simply does not understand what multiplying is or perhaps just a lack of reviewing materials.
There are definitely kids that do get the simple multiplications, so I'm assuming they either practice more or just a little bit more math-minded.
This same day, a boy from the middle-age class (about 10 years old) came up to me trying to communicate something. He kept saying something but I had no idea what he wanted to say so I kept shrugging and trying to understand using gestures. But there was no way I could understand what he was saying and finally he got super mad and slapped the table and walked away. That moment was (i admit) quite depressing for me.
Also, a girl from the older kids class was feeling sick and asking me something. Again, I did not understand what she was saying and struggled communicating and I would ask her what I thought she was asking me so I could double check that that is what she wanted. But she kept saying no and I felt so bad not being able to understand. Finally another girl helped me do what the girl wanted (get toilet paper)...which was actually what I understood and was asking the girl to make sure that was what she was saying but she did not understand what I was saying either. So it made it worse having her say something and actually understanding but not realizing that either.
Additionally, the highlight of this week of CENVIDA for me was being able to ask Rosita (the teacher for the little kids class) some questions about CENVIDA and about the kids. Since it's quite a bunch, I'll be listing them:
-at CENVIDA, the kids pay $60 per month for teachers pay and basic service like water
-only kids tha can pay pay. The majority of the students cannot pay all the $60 and some of them do not pay at all because they simply cannot afford it (like yamileth and christian)
-the kids bring their own books and notebooks
-the government doesn't pay for the education for the deaf kids (some places yes, pay a little but not a CENVIDA)
-the hearing aids are generally free - paid for by the government but people can pay more for better quality ones as well (like jorge and alejo)
-the karate teacher is paid $7 per month by each student, but only those that can pay (same ones cannot pay)
-there is a saturday school for the parents, for them to learn sign-language so they can communicate better with their kids - kids generally learn little by little at school
-some info about the kids: Yamileth's family is poor, she has 3 siblings, oldest one got married and had kids at 14 years, the youngest 2 years old and cannot hear either, very small and struggles walking. Jorge and Alejo's family are generally able to afford the fees. As Y, Christian does not pay either. Samirs mom has cancer so he pays a portion.
-theres a school for solo kids (what ever that means?) where most of them get married and have kids from around 12 years old
-there's a deaf-mute children's school in Rio Coca right by my house also but there the kids pay a portion to teachers and another to the government so they get some other service in return.
Some interesting info, I hope I can use some of this for the final creative journal project :)
No comments:
Post a Comment