Today is St. Patrick’s Day, which means that those of us who have at least 1/32 Irish in us (the rest being predominantly German and Indian – feather, not dot) celebrate with a pint of…I don’t even know what comes in pints; I drink what I’m handed. I didn’t think I had brought any green clothing with me, so I was excited when I realized I’d brought my green capris. (On a related note, the only downside to losing 100 pounds – it was much easier to shave my knees before.) Wearing green was important because I get pinched by the little brats around here enough as it is.
Another thing that made me happy – this Facebook post from my car’s babysitter in northern Virginia. My car loves snow almost as much as I do.
One more Facebook post. This is why you don’t remind people who are smarter than you what their memory verse challenge is:
[I just realized tomorrow’s Tuesday and I’m still on verse four…actually I’ve forgotten verse four now that I (don’t) think of it.]
Today was also the day I discovered that the huge tree in the yard has giant avocados growing on it. More incentive to make friends with the monkeys, cuz they’re way up high. I will figure out a way.
Speaking of yumminess, I’m planning a garden. Probably just in some buckets and other containers I can scrounge up, but I’m tempted to see if I can get away with digging up a small patch to plant some pumpkins and squashes. Squash. Squish…es. So far on my list is basil, onions, jalapeños (which is pronounced like this here: “juh LAP inos” – every time I say it I’m afraid someone’s finally going to tell me they’ve all been joking just so they can listen to the dumb American say it funny), tomatoes (I say tomAto, they say tomAHto), snow peas, spinach, and the squishes and pumpkins if I can figure out where. Ooh, watermelon would be nice too. My mom asked what can grow here and I said anything. Her follow-up question was if I can grow okra. Now I’m curious. She’d probably have to send me the seeds cuz it’s such a southern US thing, but I do love okra and have always had great luck with it.
Tomorrow is the day I might finally get to experiment on some kids with autism. Last Tuesday I went to check out the room at Happy’s that supposedly houses them. It’s amazing how things work here. You show up at the school, you walk in a classroom and introduce yourself, and then you ask if they want you to come every week. “Yes, please,” was the immediate response. No background check to make sure you’re not a bad-child-hurter-person or nothin’. I guess they figure if you’re willing to set foot on the property you must be okay. The only problem was…I’m not convinced a single child in that room had autism. I wanted to ask if they had formal diagnosesises, but I figured I’ll just see how it goes and evaluate for myself. They clearly have cognitive issues, but I didn’t see a single exclusively autistic behavior in the whole time I was there. I was told they have an approximately 1:3 ratio of teacher (or aide) to student, which is excellent for any school in any country, and that they do a lot of 1:1 work. Although there was only one teacher when I was there, so I don’t know how often they actually meet their intended ratio.
I observed for a few minutes but there wasn’t a lot going on. The teacher was just talking to a couple of kids. It was the calmest bunch of kids with autism I’ve ever seen. Three (out of nine or ten) were sound asleep because of medication issues, but even those who were conscious were quite tame. No one tried to bite me or pull my hair or anything exciting! One teenage boy sat by me and looked at me adoringly, at one point putting his hand on my leg. I left it for a few seconds cuz, you know, he probably doesn’t know what he’s doing and he’s just expressing affection. But it got a little awkward so I moved him along.
I’m hoping some of the older kids speak English. If any of them were really severe there would be a lot I could do without a common language (as long as I had a few treats to reinforce with), but they all seem fairly high-functioning, so increasing language will probably be a priority. I would kill for one actual case of autism out of this bunch. That sounds weird…but it’s something I know what to do with and feel entirely competent at – and competence is a good thing to feel once in a while in this crazy, upside-down country.
Now I shall slumber. Because it’s night here.
Next Comes Africa 