traveling day six - in which we talk all day about talking

After waking up to a cool morning in Karakol (maybe 2 degrees) Deanne and I did some last minute planning for the conference.  We were talking to local teachers and NGOs about communication development and how to support children who are not talking yet.  We had no idea what to expect really – only that we had six hours to spend with the locals.  Minus translation time.  Minus introduction time. Minus chai time.  Minus lunch time.  Minus break time.  So maybe three hours of actual information.

We caught a taxi to the building where we would be presenting.  It was close enough to walk, but we had too much stuff.  I had over prepared as usual.  The room where we would be spending the next three days was tiny, the lightswitch was not working, and one wall was full of boxes stacked up from Samaritan’s Purse – so this is one of the places they end up! They boxes had not been distributed yet – I was told that they do not come in time before Christmas and the kids mostly get their presents in March or April.  We smooshed fifteen people into this room – once you were in a seat at the back there was no getting out.  Amazingly our computer, speakers and data projector worked so we could show a video, and the power only went out once during the whole day.

Samaritan's purse boxes make handy data projector tables.

Our translator Bigyma did a wonderful job all day translating from English to Russian to Krygyz to English.  Some of the women participants gave her long stories to translate, and it would have been rude for her to interrupt them, so she had to remember the whole story in order to translate it for us.  The stories of the participants were amazing.  We asked why they were there at the training, and they gave us amazing stories of how they had ended up at centres for children with disabilities through hard personal circumstances.  One lady said she had no intention of working in this area, but in her village some people from Denmark came and set up a centre and she was the only teacher who wanted the job and stuck with it.  Once she started with the children she began to see what it possible, and now she feels it is her calling.  Granny was very moved by another 65 year old lady who had decided that helping children with disabilities would be her life after suffering severe medical difficulties.   I think the time spent in sharing our own stories of how we came to be together in the room was an amazing time of relationship building, and I wrote their stories down which respected them.  Sometimes we don’t take the time to do this sort of thing in Australia.

Our lovely translator.  She thinks I am hilarious.  She may be being polite to an older women.

There were some definite ‘aha’ moments in the training yesterday as we talked about how kids can start talking.  They really liked the videos I showed of kids using symbols and signs to communicate.  Alternative communication has never really been seen in this part of the world – although some of the teachers had been doing it eg drawing pictures and using signs – through sheer persistence.

We hope tomorrow to keep talking them through how to set up communication systems for children and teach them how to use the Boardmaker software that I have bought for them.

So from being nervous about it in the morning I fell enriched and blessed in the afternoon to have met such strong women, and to support them in their task helping the children to talk. 

We went for a walk around Karakol in the afternoon and admired all the houses and got some fresh air.  The desire for a long walk and fresh air after a day at a conference is the same the world over I think. 

Bilinies for lunch and dinner to day – little dumplings parcels of lamb in soup.  Pretty tasty.  Although after being completely stressed about my family not eating enough vegetables while I was away, I have hardly had any fruit or vegetables while I have been here.  That’s what you get when you come at the end of winter and all the veges have been eaten, and there are only frozen and preserved fruit.  I will try and not get scurvy.

Onwards.