The Original Cano (Busy Bee)

11 July

Today is my cousin’s birthday, Sarita (Sara) who is 22. Feliz Cumpleanos!! I was journaling while the kids were writing on their slates. The classroom is filled with posters that has numbers, colors, animals, parts of the body, birds, flowers and articles of clothing in Guajarati. This is so they can copy off of it instead of being told what to write. It seems pretty efficient. They learn like that. I don’t know about other classes. Suzana told me that the teacher actually writes on the board and tells them to write down what to do for the day and they have to do it. This reminds me of elementary school when a teacher was out for the day and we would have the entire day to do the class work and whatever we didn’t finish would be homework.

12:56- was the time that I asked the deaf teacher when time it was; she looked at her mobile (cell phone) and that was the time. It takes about a half hour to forty five minutes to eat. It’s a good school schedule. 11:30- School starts. Break. Another break at 2:30 and then another at 4 and then leave at 5.

After snack, we were told that we are supposed to get measured for our blouses for our sarees. The arms didn’t fit me but the bust was a bit small and needed tightening. We tried on sample blouses which is how I can say that we needed to fix things. Suzana needed the bust to be bigger and Vittoria’s sample was fine for her.

After snack, we decided that we wanted to go to the computer (office) and research some things to do for the weekend. Vittoria doesn’t want to go on the heritage walk this Sunday since we already explored the city with the other project interns while we were in conference. We were thinking Palitana, Udaipur or other places. We tried to do this and kept talking to the Secretary about the school. We learned a couple of things which I wrote down.

For the deaf and mute kids, after 5^th Standard, the kids are allowed to start repeating the grade if they fail. They need to take and entrance exam in order to get into 8^th standard. The reason for this is because there are 4 classes of 7^th standard and the government will only allow one class of 8^th standard so only the best students are allowed into 8^th standard. If you are not selected to go to 8^th standard, students can go to the tailor, press or embroidery department. After the students pass 10^th standard, they have the option to now go to computer class or the other departments. They do not study anymore; they have to choose a department. The Secretary is planning to open up a fashion design department in a few years. It would be open only for students who have passed the 10^th standard like the computer department. It would be the first fashion design institute in India and it would be only open to deaf and mute students.

For the blind students, the same rule applies regarding the 5^th standard. They do not have an entrance exam into 8^th standard. Once they finish the 12^th standard, they can choose to do several things such as: physiotherapy, music, or computer. The department where the students do the chair with nylon and choir is part of the regular class.

The Secretary wants the students to be independent by allowing them to choose a skill instead of what he says it is like in the USA, which is teach them Sign Language and if they get a job, they get a job. If they do not, then they will be supported by the government. He said that when he went to the USA, teachers were stunned that the classes aren’t in full sign language but in the local language. He uses hearing aids so that they can learn to lip read and allow them to use their hearing and be able to use their skills that they have learned.

The conversation was so interesting because I want to learn more about the system in the USA when I get. While that conversation was going on, I wanted to use the internet when two teachers, just started to read my e-mails and felt very exposed. I was reading an e-mail from my parents and like most parents, they were worried that they hadn’t heard from me in a while and were checking up on me. I instantly got offline and allowed them to use the internet. During dinner, I started to feel homesick and am still feeling the effects of being homesick. I started to cry. It’s the first time I cried and I didn’t think that it would have hit me like it did. It’s not easy to read, “We started crying while reading your e-mail,” or “I miss you” so many times. It starts to get to you. It was frustrating because we were trying to get rickshaw to go to the flat and they kept overcharging us. We finally got to the flat but later than expected. It was nice to finally send an e-mail and let my parents know that I am alive. For those who don’t know, there was a train accident in the north and my parents knew I was traveling but I knew to be specific enough to say by bus. They were just worried about me, which is understandable. I went on Facebook and started looking and photos and realizing that I am missing a lot. I saw Ashley’s new hair color, Ana’s status about everyone being mad at her (which I don’t get? Haha).

Yes, I’m going through culture shock and I’m homesick but that doesn’t mean I want to go home. I miss everyone back at home and I feel like I’m distancing myself from the girls because of that. I have to remember that I have a job to do and my feelings aren’t about the girls and I have to distinguish those feelings. Until tomorrow!