Turkies, Turkies and more Turkies!

Hello again,
Gee, Thanks Giving is certainly a big holiday in the states. My school
and Rhys's school have a week off. I wasn't really ready for a vacation,
as I was just getting into the swing of things at the centre. Oh, well,
guess I shouldn't complain about a holiday!
I had a great third week at the centre. We had a big Thanks Giving Dinner
on Tuesday and every student at LCB made something for the meal. I made
banana pudding. I cooked the banana gelatin on the gas stove. Had a few
panic attacks, as gas stoves make me nervous. But I got through it all
right. Not as bad as the stove in our trailer, which is propane, and
which you have to light, and which I won't touch!
It was a busy week in the kitchen everyone making different dishes: at
least three turkeys, a ham, a pig, countless bowls of stuffing, casseroles
and many desserts.
Because everyone is blind, we always say out loud when we are opening the
oven, or when we are carrying hot water or a hot pan through the kitchen.
The boys and Jeff came o the big Thanks Giving meal. I don't remember the
last time I ate so much food. The food was set up on the counter and we
all served ourselves.

Funny because the next day, we went to Rhys's school for his special
Thanks Giving dinner. Parents were invited to eat in the cafeteria and
visit with the children in their class room. Rhys was very proud to show
us his school an introduce us to his friend Nicolas.

Enjoyed travel class this week. I made great strides. Pardon the pun! I
walked in shades to the apartments and back and only veered onto the road
a few times, but each time I knew what I had done and managed to correct
myself.
Another trick I learned is when I cross a road and get to the other side
of the road and am trying to find the sidewalk. I learned to always turn
towards the parallel road and shore line the side of the road I jut
crossed until I find the sidewalk. It works almost every time.
I am also learning to tell when I am close to something like a building by
the sound. It has to do with the air being cut off by the building, and
then when I ass the building, I can hear the air around me open up and I
can hear the space around me. I am sure there is a more technical way of
describing this.
I am also learning to line myself in the direction I want to go jut by
listening to the traffic sounds.
The model of travel we are learning here is called "structured discovery,
which differs from the traditional rout method of travel, where the blind
person memorizes specific routes and doesn't deviate from these.
Structured Discovery allows the blind person to learn to travel anywhere
through problem solving and figuring things out as you go.

I am nearly ready to try independent routes on my own. I will go to the
apartments on my own next week, and then eventually my instructor will
give me address, which I will have to find on my own. I will go there and
bring back something to show I was there, like a business card etc.

I am working my way through he grade two contractions in Braille class. I
learned them in high school , but have forgotten them. They are slowly
coming up from my subconscious to the surface. I am reading and slating
Braille everyday. I am determined to be able to read and read at least 80
words a minute by the time I leave here.

We had apartment instruction this week; this is when the staff come to the
apartments to check on the apartments and make sure students are keeping
them clean. If there is a problem, staff will teach the students
techniques to improve. Staff will work more intensely on these skills for
those students who might need this help.

On Friday, one of the students at LCB graduated from her nine-month
training program. It was neat to see someone finishing what I am just
beginning.
Her ceremony was an hour or so in the centre library. Students, friends
and family attended either by conference call or in person to talk about
her accomplishments and to watch her get the freedom bell. The
freedom bell is rung here anytime a blind person does something
independently. All graduating students receive a freedom bell to keep
always as a symbol of their time here.

Love to all.

My second week at LCB

Hello everyone.  I meant to post this last Friday.  Sorry for the delay.  Will also have another one up soon.

 

Friday, November 13

Another week over, my second week at LCB, the training centre.

 

This week started off slow as I had a cold.  Unfortunately I missed one day of school because I couldn’t stop sneezing.  Of course the boys got it too.  I’m all for families sharing, but it’s too bad the sharing has to include germs.

 

My travel classes were much better this week.  I am starting to orientate myself  using audio and tactile cues.  I didn’t realize how much I used my limited vision to navigate and avoid, or not avoid obstacles!

Wearing a blind fold all day is allowing me to focus on the audio and tactile senses and learn to use them to their potential.  If you pay attention, these senses can tell you so much.  My instructor, Roland, and I walked down a few blocks from the centre.  I practiced finding the street crossings and keeping on the sidewalks.  I am gaining a reputation for veering into the street.  The street we are walking along is a quiet road, so it isn’t dangerous.  Roland says to me,” “so where do you think you are?”  I laugh and say “in the middle of the road?”

 

Funny how you can think you are walking straight when you are actually walking in a diagonal.  Walking at an angle is fine as long as you know how to recognize you are doing this and learn how to correct it.  I am learning to listen to the sounds of traffic on the parallel and perpendicular streets and feel the direction of the sun or feel the incline of a drive way to judge if I am walking straight.  If the cars suddenly sound like they are in front of me instead of to my left, then I am beginning to realize it isn’t the road that has magically changed position, but me.  I simply move my body back so the traffic sounds are again on my left, and then I continue on.  To experienced blind travelers, this probably sounds elementary, but when you aren’t used to using this kind of cue, it is liberating to become aware of it.  What a powerful feeling to be able to make travel decisions based on sound and touch rather than sight.  That is what the centre calls learning alternative techniques. 

 

Today I travelled with Arlene Hill, a travel teacher who has written several excellent articles about traveling as a blind person.  It is wonderful to work with blind people who are travel instructors.  It feels motivating to know that I can eventually become as competent as they are at getting around.

 

Another thing I am working on is called the “open palm technique;”  this is a technique of holding your cane.  It is tricky to do at first.  When I was little, I was taught to hold my cane with my index finger down the cane.  The open palm technique involves a loose rolling motion in the palm of your hand.  And you are not supposed to move your wrist.  The movement is all in the hand / fingers.  The thumb hovers over top.  At first it feels like the cane will fall out of your hand, but I am gradually getting used to it.

 

At LCB we are taught to tap the cane from side to side and not to do constant contact.  Apparently constant contact is for people who have neuropathy and may have a limited sense of touch.  Apparently the constant contact method can slow you down.  Interesting.

 

In shop this week I made another grid block.  I used a drill for the first time in my life and learned to use a drill bit.  I had heard the term “drill bit” before, but never knew what it was or what it did.

 

The drill is heavy and it takes all my strength to hold it in place.  I need to build some muscle!  I am looking forward to learning to use other tools like the table saw!

 

I made coffee yesterday in Home Ec., and today I made bacon and eggs.  Cooking in a frying pan is another thing I normally use my sight to accomplish.  It was neat to cook the whole meal under sleep shades.  I used tongs to turn the bacon, and listened to the sizzle of the bacon grow quieter, which told me it was time to flip it over.  I used round, metal devices, called egg rings, to fry the eggs.  These egg rings keep the egg in place, so you can locate it on the pan.  For once I didn’t burn the bacon and I ate my concoction for lunch!

 

After cooking anything at the centre, we do our dishes and put everything away. 

 

The Centre is putting on a Christmas play about Santa Clause losing his sight.  Santa is depressed about going blind.  He learns about the training centre in Ruston Louisiana and goes for training to become a competent and confident blind Santa.  I am in the quire.  Mr. Whittle the play writer says I can have a part in the big play at convention this summer.  It will be about a blind doctor.  Can’t wait.  I’ve been wanting to do some acting for a long time.

 

We have “seminar” twice a week.  Seminar is an opportunity for all students and staff to gather to discuss blindness issues and how to handle blindness in a positive way.  This week we watched a movie called “Blind Sight.”  This movie is about the blind man who climbed Mt. Everest  and how he worked with blind teenagers from Tibet to go on a climbing expedition.  It is an excellent movie.  In Tibet blindness is seen as evil and as a punishment for sin in a past life.  Certainly much negativity for these young people to overcome. 

The movie features, Sabrea, a blind woman from Germany, who travelled with a cane to Tibet and travelled on horseback into village to find blind children.  She started a school in Tibet called Braille Without Borders.  What an amazing person, not because she is blind, but because of what she is doing to empower blind people around the world.  Sabrea is a symbol that blindness has no boarders, and we all must unite to change what it means to be blind in this world.

 

Well, tomorrow a group of us are going to a flee market in Arcadia, 20 minutes from Ruston.  We are going in a bus and I am taking Rhys.  Will be good to spend some momma son time.

Lots of love to everyone.

My first week at the Louisiana Center for the Blind (LCB)

November 6
Well, I did it. I finished my first week at the training centre. Wow, what an incredible experience.

In one week, I learned to thread a needle, slate the alphabet in Braille, travel independently around the building in sleep shades (blind fold), measure wood with a click ruler in shop, practice on a Braille note taker and more.

My day goes from 8 AM to 5 PM, with two ten-minute breaks and a one-hour lunch. My schedule is as follows: (morning) announcements in the library with all the staff and students; one hour of Braille; one hour of computers; two hours of cooking / sewing/ other life skills; (afternoon) two hours of cane travel followed by two hours of shop.

I am learning so much and thinking in ways I haven't before. I am calling on all my powers of concentration and skill, even my long-dormant math skills, to get through the days.

Today was my first travel lesson outside. My instructor and I walked back and forth in front of the centre and practice finding the street crossings. I worked on finding curbs. Usually I overstepped them or didn't go far enough and found myself standing ten feet away from the crossing. Two times, my instructor called me back from the road, and once I fell almost gracefully against a parked car.

By the end of the lesson, I did walk successfully to each curb.

Today was also the day I learned to thread a needle- something I've never done before. I faced this challenge with absolutely know knowledge of how to do the task. I used a needle threader and after 20 painstaking minutes, hooked the needle onto the threader, caught the thread on the hook and pulled the thread through the eye of the needle. For me this is an incredible accomplishment, as my high school excluded me from sewing class and no-one ever taught me to sew.

Today in shop, I measured 24 three-quarter-inch segments on a block of wood with the click ruler. (note: a click ruler is the only blindness-specific tool students use. It is a metal 12-inch ruler divided into inches, half inches and one-sixteenth inches. Each click represents one-sixteenth of an inch).
All the other tools, including saws, drills an routers have not been adapted in any way.

I am invigorated, exhausted and overwhelmed. I remind myself to forget my ego and start fresh, and to realize I am on a journey and will not know everything all at once. That is why I am here: to learn and to grow.

I moved into the LCB apartments this week. The apartments are like townhouses and are all ground level. Each unit has two bedrooms and one bathroom and a kitchen an living area. The complex also has an activity centre with tables and couches and laundry facilities.
I have a lovely roommate, who is 20 years old. She has been at LCB for three months. She is a great support and mentor. We walk together each morning to the centre.
PS. Our house purchased has been finalized and we move tomorrow. Will be nice to be closer to Jeff and the boys.
Lots of love to everyone.

Tigger and Spider Man

Went trick or treating with kids last night. Drove for an hour and couldn't find any little kids. Finally I stopped at McDonalds and asked someone where kids went on Halloween in Ruston.
We discovered everyone goes to one central location and goes from house to house. We made it just as dark fell.
My little Tigger and Spider Man had a great time at last! Also went to fire hall during the day, games and rode in a 100 feet bucket.
I start at the centre tomorrow. Yes I am nervous. Can't believe the big day is actually here.
Rhys knows that momma is going to school just like him!
We are going to send each other good thoughts each day! Note: there are pics up on Facebook.