Thursday,
May 31, 2012
Today there was an all staff
meeting at school at 8:20. I was a
little nervous if I would make it there in time with my normal schedule so I decided
to change it up to make sure I would be on time. I took a bus to central station where I took
a train out to the junction and then a bus to school. It sounds like a lot more than the regular
two buses but it’s so much nicer. Being on
a train, it’s smooth and quiet. I definitely
plan on doing it more often. There was a
7:30am train and I managed to make the 7:15am so I ended up getting to school
super early. I decided to take a walk through the surrounding
neighborhood. Property and houses here
are so different. I’ll have to take
pictures of all the different flats and apartments and make a post to talk
about that as a whole. So the staff
meeting starts at 8:20am, well it started at 8:35am. It’s not that they’re slow or lazy, they are just oh I’ll
get there no worries. And it wasn’t like
people were running in at 8:35, most had been there already and were in their
rooms working on things. Those who were
actually late strolled in like oh hello I’m doing great thanks. It’s definitely different. Wairoa has a large number of generous
friends. The principle, Ian, met with a
lot of their donors on Wednesday night and they got 25,000 dollars that
night. Which is a whole lot of money but
then I realize a lot of the equipment and supplies are expensive because they’re
made for children with disabilities. But
still that’s great that they have a good support outside in the city.
I know I shouldn’t have
favorites in my classroom, but I do. I
found out this boy i enjoy very much hadn’t been in class on Wednesday because he fell getting
out of bed in the morning and hit his head on the door and had to go to the
hospital. He ended up losing a tooth,
which pretty soon he won’t have any left because his front tooth are chipped from
having a drop seizure. He looked like he
hadn’t recovered and he probably shouldn’t have even come to school on Thursday, but during morning playground he fell. No one saw the fall but two men heard it and
when they saw him he was on his back and he was wearing his seizure
helmet. But he looked fine, teachers
checked the back of his head and didn’t feel anything. He just seemed sad and not as cheeky as he
normally is. I was giving him his
morning tea watching him eat his biscuits and watching him eat in pain since he
just lost one of his front teeth. I think
he got upset with eating and started biting his hand and then was hitting his
other hand against his head. I tried to
stop him but that just irritated him so I let him be. I’m helping him eat his pudding and sandwiches
when he starts doing it again then I realize his hand is full of blood. At first I thought it was from his mouth with
the whole tooth thing but it wasn’t the hand he was biting on. Finally I realize he had been hitting his
head and on top of his head was blood caked into his hair. Poor boy had blood running down his
forehead. Maybe his way of communication
was saying look here this hurts where I’m hitting, but wouldn’t that make it
hurt more? Either way we called an ambulance
and a paramedic came and did some tests that took forever and saw the inch gash
on top of his head. Probably an hour
later he finally was taken to the hospital.
No one really knows how he got. I
don’t think he could’ve gotten it in the morning when he fell since he was on
his back and there was no sign of damage or blood on his seizure helmet. I’m guessing he got it on Wednesday when he
hit the door and maybe the hospital just didn’t see it? Either way I felt so bad for him, having to
go with people he doesn’t know and not being able to communicate to them how he
feels.
The rest of the day was
quiet. I learned that on Thursdays, some
of the older boys who are more functional come around with a cart of candies
and pops to each class room and you can buy items from it. So next Thursday I need to remember to bring
some coins and get something from them for fun. With one of the boys gone the
rest of the day it was pretty quiet.
Until the last half an hour I got kicked and my hair pulled.
One boy right before he has a seizure he grabs on to whatever is around him,
which happened to be another boys hair. That boy then is freaking out and
starts kicking and kicks a third boy. I tried
to get in between the kicking which upset the third boy and he kicks me and
grabs my hair and pulls me down.
I’m sitting here trying to think
what I did in the evening and was about to write nothing. That’s because my
mind has already told me to forget about what happened last night. It wasn’t a good night that’s for sure. CAPA, the company that places us in our
internships, was having a gathering at the light show again so I went out there
again with some girls. We had seen a lot
of it the night before so we decided to take a ferry out into the harbour to
see the lights from far away. So we get
on a ferry and we’re sitting outside on a bench on one side of the boat. I ask a woman to take a picture of us on the
boat and she does. In the seconds of her
handing me back my camera, she dropped it.
And right where I was sitting there was a hole in the side of the boat. And
my camera just bounced right through it into the harbour. Oh goodness was I not happy. I hadn’t even had my hand out to grab
it. She had the thing around her wrist
so she let go of the camera and I’m assuming she thought the wristlet would
keep it on her wrist but it didn’t, it slipped right off. So my camera was dropped in the water. It took her a good two minutes to tell me she
was sorry too, I wasn’t happy. All to
say I stayed on the ferry until it took me to darling harbour and then I left
and went home right away. I wasn’t in
the mood to stay out and look at things that I couldn’t take pictures of.
Friday, June
01, 2012
It’s the weekend, I’m so happy
to have nothing planned that will take up my whole weekend. I’m sure I’ll do something but I have time to
finally sleep. I got up this morning and
took my new route to school. I had so
much fun in my morning session at school.
Today is Emy’s last day so she was gonna come to Coles to get food to
cook on Monday in class. So all four
boys gathered in the van and Emy was under the impression we were going to
Coles but instead we went to Watson’s Bay and got hot chips! It was by far the
most fun I’ve had with the kids and just seeing the city. Waston’s Bay is right next to the gap, so the
east coast of the country and you’re right across from the city and the bridge
so you see all of Sydney from afar. My
teacher bought 20 dollars worth of hot chips and they were so good. The kids love them and gobble them down. They don’t have ketchup they use what they call tomato
sauce to drip their fries, but it’s actually a lot better. It has a sort of kick to it, not so spicy but
something’s in it that’s for sure. We sat
in the park and enjoyed them, it was really great just to get out of school with
them, sing and dance in the van, and just be out in the sun. Whenever they say hot chips I always think of
McDonalds French fries, but we got these from some restaurant/café on the
bay. They were delish. Also this was kind of sad, as we were driving
there we saw the gap, and I had previously explained that it’s the most common
place people go to commit suicide and as we drove past it there was an
ambulance and a bunch of people were standing around. My teachers said someone probably jumped, that the ambulance is a good sign that’s what happened. It also was disturbing that people were
standing around watching. Maybe they
just wanted to watch them repel down to get the person? Or maybe that wasn’t
even the case. It’s also a lot of fun
driving through those neighborhoods.
Middle and afternoon session
went fine. We had assembly like we do
every Friday with all the kids in one room, which never goes well. We sing the Australian anthem, don’t know
those words yet. We also had dance, so
we danced like polar beds, reindeer, seals, and wolves.
I’m not sure at all what I’m
doing this weekend. There’s a CAPA mixer
at a pub down the street with everyone whose here, which is over a 100
now. Who knows what I’ll end up
doing. It’s my birthday
month though. Although it doesn’t feel
like my birthday I think it’s the whole being in a different country kind of
thing.
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