Look who came to my class today! She's just 6 months old and has cerebral palsy. She came to Joel's clinic at the hospital last night and he invited them to come to school to see him for physio and for a chat with me today. She's called Blessie! He asked me where I thought she was intellectually and I'm afraid I replied that really at her age I could only really comment on her developmental level which actually seems not bad, she's smiling, turning to both sound and light stimulation, appears to be visually tracking objects and is able to fix visually too. She's gorgeous and came with a nurse from the hospital who wanted to see what we were doing too from a professional point of view. All in all, our name seems to be becoming known along with the service we are providing, and people are taking the chance to come along. I enrolled one pupil last week, one two weeks before and have assessed two others recently.
Today we had a photographer come in at my request to take a whole school photo and a staff picture so I could have them to take home, I've attached my copies of these which I got the photographer to take on my camera. He's also made me up an album of all the pics and functions I've been at in the past six months and put all his pics on cd for me too. most obliging. he was due to turn up at noon, and all the staff (women) had worn their best saris for the pic. The weather was gorgeous at noon and it was before the female staff help the children with their school lunches, finger feeding while sitting on the floor remember! He didn't make it till 2.30 at which point the heavens opened. However we managed eventually and here is the result, you can see one chap with his hankie on his head still! I'm also putting up a pic of one of the teachers who has a cold and was trying to keep her head dry!
It's been a day for photos, This is Jasmine , Nirosha and Ida. Nirosha has been desperate for weeks for me to take a picture of her in her Chudi Das. All female staff have to wear saris when on duty with the kids which is 6.00am - 9.00pm, so she only gets to wear her chudi when on her weekends off. She hates wearing saris, but it is uniform and regulation for women, likewise their hair must be in a bun and not down in a plait. Men on the other hand seem to have to wear shirt and trousers! Any type of shirt, long or short sleeved, open necked, trousers - any colour and design will do.
After school I went with Lydia to the Press to Edit..........! Guess what, it wasn't ready and they needed a pic of Lydia, it just so happened I had 6 prints in my bag I was going to give her anyway, so she got them early and trimmed one to fit. It's her birthday tomorrow and part of her present was the pictures and a photo frame. She then ran me home and came in for a coffee only to find my power had gone completely in the front of the house! That not only meant no lights, but more to the point no fan in the bedroom. I had to go out, with Raja, (auto driver not landlord) but Raja (landlord not auto driver) has a key and said he would contact an electrician. When I got back tonight, not only my house but the entire neighbourhood was in darkness. When the power came on eventually, mine did too to my relief... It turns out that the fault was in the main power supply in the street and they were unable to work on it in the dark so have done an emergency repair to my mains supply... see pic...the yellow wire is the repair. They have taken out two of my main fuses, so I hope nothing overloads!
I can only describe it and I'm sure he will understand having been slated for a similar comment himself!... as having been done by a bunch of Prince Phillips. May I say I have every sympathy with him for his original comment which caused all the controversy about racist remarks when he commented on the apparent nationality of a group of electricians. Having said that I'm very grateful to them, they got a special team out from the electricity board HQ, it is now the weekend and there is a public holiday Sunday and Monday which means that otherwise nothing would have been done till Tuesday and I would have been a very hot cross bunny! I think I must be preparing to come home by the way, I dreamt about polar bears... and swimming pools last night, don't ask what the link is!
I'm going to lunch with Joshua's parents tomorrow and then to Lydia's in the afternoon where the final version/draft should have been delivered as well as to wish her a Happy Birthday..
