Unexpected Experience - Day 2 in Guatemala

Hola!

We got up early this morning. Today, we went to Guatemala city to visit three different deaf schools to get an idea of what kind of education they provide to the deaf children. Each one has it own character.

First school we went to was called, "kipling school," which focuses on children with special disabilities. Only four deaf students attended there. It is a mainstreamed environment. Martin's son attended to this school. It is a private school where parents have to pay about $300 to $500 per student per month. This school promotes creativity and experimented different curriculum to meet the students' needs. We have seen the classrooms from grade 1-6. This school offers only up to grade 6. Students are being placed based on their skills and knowledge. Some are 16 and are in 6th grade. Their learning development are much later than usual.
We have asked the students to tell us their favorite animals to get an idea of their responses plus it does sometimes reflect the personality. Some mentioned griffafe, dolphins, monkeys, dogs, cats, spider, etc. All of these students do not speak english. They learned spanish and their native language at home.

The headmaster had invited the parents of deaf kids to meet us. It was a good experience for us to see what the parents are thinking about their deaf kids and what kind of expectations they have for their child.

One of the deaf kids have deaf parents who is fluent in Guatemala sign language. The mother of that child and the grandma (the mother's mom) came to meet us. The grandma was sharing her experience when she had her deaf daughter. She decided to teach her sign language back then and yet never met any other deaf kids who uses sign language. She did felt maybe It was unfortunate for her to teach her signs instead of oral. after meeting the gro delegates today, the grandma felt at peace knowing that her grandson will be living in a different lifestyle than her daughter. She is happy that there are opportunities for her grandson that her daughter didn't have. the deaf boy, daniel, is a bright kid. We saw how he socialized with other kids and the teachers has been praising him. The kid knows how to speak and sign. Daniel uses sign language to communicate with his parents and uses oral to his other family members such as his grandma. It was obvious that Daniel have gotten the love and attention from his family. I did ask her what did her son want to be when he grows up. She said she didn't ask that qq to her kid but knew that he will get higher education and become something in life.

the other deaf kid, brandon's mom came as well. She had ask us a lot of questions. I am amused by her experience raising a deaf child with more than one disability. According to her, her child has deafness, learning disability, and mental retarded. To my observation, I do not think her deaf kid is mental retarded. Another interesting question she asked us was related to sexual awareness. She doesn't know how to express emotionally to her kid about the birds and bees. Especially the fact that her son is going through puberty. She took sign language courses so she could communicate with her child. She is going through challenges of raising her son. She was relieved to see the deaf people being successful. However, we had told her that she and her son could hang out more with deaf people in GUA so her son won't feel alone and know that there is someone out there just like him. She had express to become an interpreter so she can help out the deaf community. She wants us to help her by providing support to guide her son to a successful path in life. I was in awe of her son when we met him. While we asked what was our favorite animal, he started looking for pictures that match what we have said. Brandon was thirst for knowledge and depend on visual aid in order to understand what's going on. We had tons of questions to ask but we had to go visit the other school.

Once we got to the other school- which is an oral school for the deaf. They have 100 deaf students. This is the school where sofia went to when she was young. Nurika, a deaf guatemala woman who is the first person to ever graduate from a hearing university in Gua. Her dream is to open a school where deaf students would learn to sign first and then learn how to speak if needed. She happened to show up and wanted to join us to visit this 2nd school. She had warn us that this school forbidden sign language. So we asked if we are allow to sign. Nuirka said that we should be able to as long we respect them. So we were anxious to see what it would be like.

However, when we entered, we met the principal who been working there for 45 years. Sofia was interpreting what the principal was saying. After 3 minutes, the principal had ask her to stop signing and ask all of us not to sign and talk instead. All of us reacted as if our faces were about to fall off to the ground. We were stunned by the fact that sofia had to turn on her voice and speak even if we did not understand. Most of us did try our best to understand. We all were filled with anger but we kept it cool. At one point, the principal said, "talk is beautiful and it is the reality out there." Stephen, one of the delegates said, "both is beautiful!"

Finally I asked if we could see the classrooms. She took us to all of the classrooms. This school only offers education up to 2nd grade. After that, it is up to the parents to either put them to hearing schools or staying at home. Most of the parents cannot read or write. However, this school requires school fees which is $1.25 per student per month. Sometimes parents cannot afford it- the administration of the school do have access to checking their accounts or where they are working and how much they make a month.

Once we saw the kids, they were adorable. They all had to stand up when the principal comes in the room. Their eyes were wide open when the found out that we are deaf. I found it strange when I saw a kid using hand signs to another kid and the other kid told him not to use it and pray to god for forgiveness. So the kid folded his hands together to pray to forgive his sins of using hand signs. Wow. These kids are 3-5 years old. Imagine.

Delegates were astounded to see what's happening in the school. The delegates noticed that some of the kids were clueless of what's going on in the classroom. Especially when we asked what is your favorite animal. Poor sofia that she had to use voice all the time. She wanted to show the kids that it is okay to sign and not to put up with this kind of restrictions. She was getting emotional with how the principal treated the students and wanted to express her feelings out but she had to hold it until we get out of the school ground.

One of the classrooms, I noticed one teacher who is already an amazing teacher and loves to teach. She used to be sofia's teacher. They both embraced each other and understood the frustrations that the principal are doing to the kids. She allows the students to use hands for language when principal are not around. She believes in sign language as a proper way for them to learn more rather than focusing on speech all the time. She believes in total communication strategy. We saw how the teacher was praising to her kids of how successful we become and the kids could be the same as us if they work hard. The kids' expressions showed that they have hope to become big some day! I asked what they wanted to become in the future, some said doctor, teacher, banker, business owner, etc. I could feel the warmth of the teacher and thanked her for believing in her students.

Finally, we left the ground and were able to breathe and immediately jump-start our hands back to using it to communicate. We shared our thoughts on what we witnessed. It was a good thing that we experienced the negative side of teaching method for the dhh.

Nuirka who shared us her dream of opening a school for deaf children to give them bilingual education, she already found a school. She wanted us to see her future school. So we went there and we were definitely more than impressed with what the future holds for the deaf students. This school already has 150 students with various type of disability. The headmaster will want Nurika to bring in about 50 deaf students to start with because he believes in her dreams and also agreed with it. The classroom were high-tech with new computers and plenty of supplies. One of the classrooms, we saw artwork of the students and it was impressive. Nurika expressed her need of support and help from us to make this happen. We asked if there are already a waiting list for admitting students to this school. She said nothing yet because the other schools are not thrilled with the fact that she is opening a school that supports signing so the administrations of those other schools are spreading wrong messages about Nurika and her vision.

We all were mentally exhausted with the overwhelming experience we had in each of the school. we headed to the mall for lunch. We chatted about our views on each of the schools. Finally, we met our Gua delegates. Not only that, we met Ricardo who is the only deaf black belt in Gua and we all were fascinated by his stories and how aggressive his signs were. He would be a great actor or a news reporter.

We all went back to Antigua and had dinner. With the lack of sleep we had, we all went to bed digesting our deep thoughts.

-Alim S Chandani, Director