...I Had A Lesson In Trust

  Hello everybody J

Have a couple of posts in the pipeline, and here´s your first:

  The part of working in the school that is getting me out of bed and into a usually cold shower every morning is working with Francisca.  Franci is only 3 and was born with no right eye.  Her left eye used to have some vision, but now she can just about recognise a light if you shine it in her eye, and I get the impression that even that smidgen of vision won't last too much longer.  Of course, that level of disability would be difficult enough for any 3 year old child to try and deal with.  But this is a school for children with profound learning difficulties, and Franci is no different.  So this little chica has quite a lot of obstacles standing between her and a remotely independent life.

  During my time working with children with learning difficulties at home, I have worked with people who have quite a range of physical and mental disabilities.  But I have never worked with anyone with as little vision as our Franci.  So it has been a bit of a learning curve, but I do like me a challenge!

  I think the main thing that I enjoy about working with Francisca is the visible difference it makes to her.  With the others, they're so young that we are just teaching them skills that you would teach any other toddler- how to walk and talk and feed themselves, it just might take a little longer than with your average toddler.  And we are trying to teach her the same skills, only she has to learn them differently, because she can't see.  So she has to walk with one hand on a Tia and one hand on a wall, or behind us with her hands on our hips and it needs to be the same route to the same place every time.  You have to show her where things are in relation to each other so that she can navigate her way around them.  You have to have a personal sign that she can recognise you by.  And you have to talk to her more than anyone else, which is obviously helping my Spanish!

  Another factor that struck me about working with Franci is the level of trust she has to have in those around her.  She doesn't really have a choice but to take what you tell her as the truth, as she can't see for herself.  So if you tell her that it's safe to sit down somewhere, she has to trust your judgement, or make it known to you that she doesn't, which she is very good at!  It's also very easy for that trust to be shattered.  If she trips or stumbles, or there's a step you haven't told her about, she gets all panicky and upset and it takes a lot of reassuring to calm her down.

  Anyone who really knows me will know that I have serious issues trusting other people.  I keep my secrets to myself, because I can't trust other people not to share them.  I like my dentist/orthodontist/doctor to tell me exactly what they're doing because I don't trust people poking around in my mouth where I can't see what they're doing.  I hate climbing walls because it involves putting all your trust in the person on the other end of the rope.  There are more examples, but I'm not going to share them right now, as I don't want to appear completely paranoid!

  The point that I'm trying to make is that I find it hard to trust people and I can't even imagine living my life having to take other people´s word for everything.  I think that's why working with Franci has made such an impression on me.

  And just to top it all off, I went into the classroom the other day and said my usual hola's to all the kids.  Normally Francisca listens but doesn't really respond.  But that particular morning, I bent down to where she was sitting, said “Hola Franci.” and gave her my particular sign and her little face lit up and she started rocking back and forth and saying “Hola!  Hola Tia!  Hola!”.  And since then whenever I'm working with her she keeps demonstrating ridiculous levels of trust in my judgement and it's honestly humbling. 

Cliché number one complete.  :)      

      

P.S.  Sorry about the lack of photos, I´m going to search for a new card reader this weekend and then hopefully I´ll be able to start sharing piccies with you again!