My Favorite Day So Far

Today was an absolutely amazing day! I got to see some wonderful  with some even more wonderful kids, got some fruit at a local fruit stand, went back to Stephen Nursing Home, and saw a surgery!

This morning we got to visit the Balalaya School which is a general school that believes strongly in the inclusion of children with special needs. The sector of the school that we saw had children from lower kg (lower kindergarten - ages 3.5) to 3rd standard (8 years old). The school was started in 1996 by six women, of which three are still running the school despite their old age! The school also wanted to children to feel as if the teachers and staff were people they could trust and relate to, so instead of calling them "Mrs. So and So" they would call them Auntie. The school's name (Balalaya) is a mix between the words "bal" meaning child and "alaya" meaning school. They aim to get all children up to a specific level and then include them in the standard classroom regardless of their diagnosed developmental ability. The school was really great and it always makes me so happy to see children so happy to learn! As most of you know, I also have a very strong passion for the special needs community and I was so excited to be able to spend just a few minutes with those kids!

One thing that's really great about the Balalaya school is they offer specific therapies and vocational trainings for their students with special needs. They do not consider themselves a "special school" since they believe so strongly in inclusion and have mostly non-special needs students, but they do try to give those students the extra attention that they deserve. In the classes, these students have caregivers (what we call one-on-ones in the US) that are available to assist them if needed, in addition to therapies done by trained assistants. I did notice that none of the therapists I met actually had their degrees in the specific therapy, but had just learned some of the training. It would be great to see if the school could grow one day to include such degree-trained therapists. 

The schedule for the day

They are singing a song in this one! 

Math class

Drawing class

Recess Time

One difference that I have noticed in India is the use of the r-word. If you don't know what word I'm referring to, you should go visit this website: http://www.r-word.org/r-word-why-pledge.aspx#.U6Rfgn8ayK0. It's a great campaign that educates people on the need to eliminate the r-word. However, here in India, the use of the r-word is still very excepted and they actually have a diagnoses of MR, or mentally r-word. I'm not entirely sure what this diagnosis consists of, but I think it is just a general term for developmentally delayed. I think that was the hardest part of today's visit since I cringe every time says that word, but it is so normal here that I know it is just part of the culture. 

In the afternoon, we visited the Dolphin School, and my oh my, that school has my heart. It is specifically for children with special needs and does everything it can to help those children learn in the best way possible. Just as we do in the US, they teach the children how to use computers to effectively communicate with others in that manner since they often have trouble effectively speaking. The Dolphin School was started in 2006 as a therapy program which then transformed into a special school in 2008. The school has 90 children from 4 months of age to twenty years which 45 full-time staff. So their student to staff ratio in 2:1, which is quite amazing! In addition they have 17 part-time staff that includes occupational therapists (6!) and physiotherapists. Occupational therapy is not common at all in India (only 2 of the 6 have OT degrees, while the others have diplomas) so the fact that they have this many people with OT training is amazing. The school day runs from 9:30-3:30 and therapy follows until 6:30. In the morning from 9:30-10:00, the children do yoga as well as some other activities like gymnastics and karate to help with muscle strengthening and coordination. 

We got to spend some time in each of the rooms in the school and interact with some of the kids. We got to see some of the kids do yoga and karate for us, a visual stimulation room, the activities of daily living room, and the computer lab. We also spent some time with some of the youngest kids and met some of the cutest little ones ever. Two of the sweetest little ones we met had Down Syndrome. The little boy was perpetually tired, while the little girl was very active and smiley. It was wonderful to spend some time with them! We also got to spend half an hour up in the therapy room, which is the terrace of he building (with a cover on it so you don't completely die of heat). In the therapy room the children participate in both OT and PT. We got to play with some of the learning tools and those were way harder than they looked! Though we had been at the school for only a couple hours, it was hard for me to leave. I love spending time in the schools and with the kids, so it is always hard for me to leave at the end of a great visit. I often visit the classroom that I worked with in high school and, like today, it is always a tough goodbye at the end of the day. 

I liked this poster a lot :)

A small bath for water therapy

Visual stimulation room!

The children stay in this room with a one-on-one for 7-12 minutes at a time

This balance/coordination task was NOT EASY

So both Maddie and Morgan were better at it than I was, but this face was priceless!

Different textures for sensory stimulation

A glimpse at part of the therapy room

The hamster wheel!

The woman is the principal of the school and her husband is the coordinator. Great people!

When I did get back home, Maddie and I only had an hour before we headed back out to Stephen Nursing Home. Since I had taken the day off of Janet, I wanted to continue to make the most of my time and learn some more from Dr. Ravi. In addition, he had a special surgery scheduled at 7 that he had invited me to come watch. The surgery I got to watch was an umbilical hernia removal. The surgery was not done by Dr. Ravi but by a visiting surgeon. The surgeon also invited us to come see a kidney transplant on Wednesday at his hospital, so hopefully we can go see that! It will be an amazing experience and something we would never be able to see in the US, so I'm very excited for that potential opportunity. Anyways, the surgery that I saw today was very interesting. Because there are fewer people at Stephen Nursing home than Janet, Maddie and I were both able to stand closer to the actual surgery and were better able to see what was going on. The hernia was about the size of my fist and after it was removed, the area was replaced by a mesh film to drastically lower the chances of recurrence (from 80% to <1%). Dr. Ravi said he had also had this surgery done by the same surgeon and he hadn't had a recurrence yet, so that's good news!

Anesthetist, Surgeon, Myself, and Maddie - a glimpse at future Maddie and I!

Anesthetist, Dr. Ravi, Myself, and Maddie

Tomorrow we are headed up to a nearby hill station called Kodaikanal. The hill stations are popular tourist destinations as well as vacation spots for locals since it is so much cooler up on the hills. There are also waterfalls, lakes, and forests with animals at Kodaikanal so I will be sure to take lots of photos. We will be heading up around 5 am and getting back around 11 pm, so my next blog post will most likely be on Sunday! 

Until then,

Rissa Ree

*Note: We got permission from each school to take and post photographs of the children*

P.S. These are a few other random photos!

There are lots of bananas here, many of which are miniature sized!

These are some precious puppies that Morgan got to see at one of her clinic visits! I thought it might be nice for you all to see some super cute babies. :)

So, this is why India has black outs. Black outs happen multiple times per day and nobody really even takes a second glance. It is just part of life here, and I blame it on the bad wiring!