A Very Nice Day

Yesterday: Class in the morning, then I went straight from school to visit a new special education center that has been set up in Granada by a retired couple from Seattle. A really nice woman at my language school set up a visit so I could see what´s happening. I´m so glad she did!

Just walking around the city I have seen several apparently homeless adults with developmental disabilites and one home where a child is secured to a rocking chair with belts every time I walk by. I have been asking about special education services in Nicaragua and from what I´ve been told they are virtually nonexistent in Granada especially for economically struggling families - which unfortunately means most familes.

The new center is serving around thirty adults with developmental disabilities who come from struggling families or even from living on the street. They are currently working on creating handicrafts that will be sold with the profits going directly to the individual. The opportunity to become a valued wage earner is a huge change of perspective for these adults, and they are rightfully very proud of their work. One student, Octavio, gave me a very detailed tour of the center and of the candle making process and also talked about the plans to add kitchen facilities to the school. A retired special ed teacher from Alaska was there volunteering and we had a great talk about developing a sustainable life skills curriculum. The director of the center was really excited about the prospect. I wish I´d have known earlier about the center, but I´m still pretty excited to go home and have a project to work on! Heads up sped teacher friends - I´ll be bugging you to borrow materials!

After the tour, I went straight to Carita Feliz to help with the art class and as usual had a great time with the awesome kiddos. I´m pretty sure my Spanish is getting better because even the five year olds can understand me now - well at least half the time :-)

From Carita Feliz I headed home via a quick walk through the central park to check out the goings on at the poetry fesitval. Then home for a very late lunch. Homework, then off to the language school director´s house for dinner. He and his wife are two of the most fantastic people I´ve ever met. They have been working with the boys´ program for eleven years and even have two of the boys living with them and their two kids. Not to mention the whole family is absolutely hilarious! They are also really patient with my slow Spanish which makes me much less self-concious about speaking. I think that was my first night where I hung out speaking just Spanish and felt like I could express myself similar to how I would in English. It was a really nice night, and I even got more dancing lessons from the seven year old daughter and her neighbor friend.